Living Room Designs

The living room. Even in the houses with the same floor plan, the living room is always left with the indelible impression of the family who lives there. It is a place with books, television and deep, comfortable sofas. It is a space where you can spend a quick minute in the morning or a whole day. From the modern to the classic adventurous comfortable, this living room provide space to entertain and to escape space, all the while bringing surprising elements in the personality for your home.

Painted Furniture

Are you ready for a new look in your kitchen but can't afford to buy a new set of table and chairs? There is a way to achieve the look you want without having to spend a great deal of money - paint your furniture. Painted furniture is quickly becoming a cheaper option to buying new furniture. When painting your furniture the possibilities are endless and you can now achieve any look that you want in your kitchen. However, there are certain steps that you need to follow when getting ready to paint the furniture in your kitchen or any room of your home.

Before applying the paint to the furniture you must prepare the furniture first. The surface of the furniture has to be smooth in order for the paint to go on correctly. If the surface is rough then you must sand it down. It also needs to clean and dry. If the wood has knots or other sappy places, then they should be covered with a white shellac to make them suitable for painting. If the wood has large open pores, then you can fill them in using paste filler.

After you have a smooth surface that has no holes or visible knots then you can begin applying the paint or enamel. All wood surfaces must have a coat of primer applied to them before the paint is applied. The primer should be applied to the wood with a soft flat bristle brush. The size of the brush will depend on the size of the surface that you are painting. For larger surfaces, for example, you will need to use a wider brush than you would for narrow areas.

The next and final stage of the painting process is the final coat. When applying the final coat of paint, make sure that you apply the paint in the direction of the grain of the wood. You should apply the paint in light strokes. You should allow the paint to dry and then touch up any spots that you may have missed.

Interior Design Software

Interior design students will use interior design software that the professionals use in their everyday designing work. A popular program is SmartDraw. With the program you get thousands of ready-made graphics for fixtures for the kitchen, bathroom and for furniture. Other graphics include lighting fixtures, cabinets, landscape elements and office furniture.

The interior design software also includes textures for tiled floors, custom cabinetry and granite countertops. Smartdraw is easy to use software that will help you create fantastic design plans in minutes. It is quite fast and easy.

You will be able to design anything with SmartDraw interior design software such as house and garage plans, offices, kitchen and bathroom plans and even closet plans.

The software is a real time saver for the interior design student and professional. This software is downloadable and ready to use right away.

SmartDraw interior design software offers free tech support and examples from professional interior design plans.

Another interior design software is Microspot Interiors. This software is designed for the Mac and allows the user to visualize their plans in 3D. This software is simple to use for both professionals and do it yourself home designers.

Microspot Interiors is a interior design software that is very popular among Mac users because of it's simplicity and the price tag which is just a fraction of the cost of most professional design software. The power of this software allows the user to come up with unlimited design possibilities. The advanced drawing tools of the software do most of the work. You can design the shape of the room and add virtually anything you want. You can also design the rooms in any particular size you want. Lighting tools are used to add sunlight to a room as well.

Microspot Interiors includes hundreds of furniture items and accessories, many of which were requested by users in the Microspot users' forum.

Interior design software is used extensively in the interior design profession. It allows the designer to virtually look at what their design plan will look like before implementing it.

Many interior design schools will offer online learning as part of their curriculum. The online method is designed so that the student can set their own pace and style of learning according to what really works best for them.

Interior design software is very helpful and useful but it requires a computer with a monitor that has the capacity for a high resolution that works with complex graphics. You will also need a lot of space on your hard drive to save files and to run the program.

It would be a good idea to save your files to a re-writeable CD or DVD as well for backup.

Interior Design Schools

Interior design schools help to train candidates to create a quality environment around them. At interior design schools, students are taught study from material that is computer-aided to draw and design, to solve problems, to study the history of interior designing and architecture, space planning and also 3-d imaging. The help of the visual media enables these institutes to teach the art interior deigning and the related problems.

Interior designing is subject to government rules and regulations, unlike any other professional course. Interior design schools prepare the students to appear for National Council for Interior Design Qualification or NCIDQ exam. It provides recognized credentials and equips the interior designer for better job opportunities. To be eligible to appear for the NCIDQ exam, the candidate must have a total experience of 6 years, comprising of the interior design based education. This must include 2 years of post secondary education. There are also diploma courses like the BTECH HND, which are the Diploma in Interior Designing and Decoration and the Higher National Diploma.

Students with degrees from reputed interior design schools are recruited for jobs in the business sector, restaurants, hotels, homes and theatres. While designing the area allotted, it is necessary to utilize the space with a lot of planning. The interior designer must have a vision and should be able to put it on paper.