Audrey Long Interior Design

Easy Holiday Fresh Green Arrangement

2011-12-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

It’s holiday time, and here’s a simple fresh green decoration you can place anywhere, and, it is sooooooooo easy to make…

A four or five-inch plain flowerpot with saucer (if there’s a drainage hole) would work well. If using terra-cotta pots, they may be spray painted any color you like, but be sure to use non-porous protection under any terra-cotta pot with matching saucer, as it will hold moisture unless glazed. Purchase oasis bricks (green floral foam that holds water) at a crafts store or even many dollar stores. Use a sharp knife to cut brick to fit inside pot. (It doesn’t need to fit exactly, but tight is better than too loose – you can push it in if a little big.) You’ll need one brick for two four-inch pots. Soak the oasis-filled pots in a bucket of water or your sink until well soaked. Cut your greens. You’ll need a lot of small pieces varying in length from about two times the height of your empty pot (for the center piece) graduating down to 5”- 6” for the lowest branches. What kind of greens? Red cedar is soft and mixes beautifully with yew and boxwood, but other short-needle evergreens can work well also. (I suggest staying away from white pine for smaller arrangements like these.) Place newspapers on your work surface, spread your greens out according to length, have a small hand-pruner or heavy scissors available to adjust branch length, and set your pot in front of you. Insert your tallest green in the center of the pot and fill in tightly around your center with slightly shorter branches, angling slightly away from center as you go, and ending with the shortest ones around the bottom. You should not be able to see the oasis through the greens. Now, stand back and admire your masterpiece! When finished, just roll up all the leftover debris in the newspaper for a quick clean up. Use one or several on a deep sill, mantle or table, and remember to keep the oasis moist and your arrangement will last weeks.

Your friends will be green with envy!!

Holiday product update tip: For those of you who like the look of candles in your windows, but hate the hanging cords going to receptacles (or battery costs) and turning the candles on and off every day, there is a great product available for renovation or new construction. A plug receptacle can be hardwired into your windowsills and connected to a convenient switch with a timer, so you set it up once, and the lights go on and off automatically as you desire. If you only want to use them for the holidays, you simply remove the plug-in candles and insert the flush, paintable cover caps.

Hiring an interior designer in this economy…

2011-11-28T08:17:00.001-08:00

Hiring an interior designer in this economy…

Need to do some home renovation, but watching your budget alittle more closely in this uncertain economic environment?

You’re not alone, and, like many other people, you may besearching for areas to scale back or cut out completely. Some may think a quick way to save cash is toeliminate an interior designer and “just do it on their own.” This could end up being the most expensivecost cutting decision you could end up making. Why? For the same reason you hirea lawyer to draw up a contract, a plumber when a pipe breaks or a mechanic whenyour engine starts pinging. They havetraining, experience and are professionals in their areas, i.e., they know howto do what needs to be done in an expedient manner. Too often, when people decide they can managein fields they aren’t trained in, the consequences cost them time, money,frustration and unhappiness with the results.

An interior designer is trained and experienced in spaceplanning, color coordination, design, etc. and often has the ability to buyfurniture, accessories, and fabrics at trade prices. Instead of spending hours searching forfurniture and purchasing a sofa that looked gorgeous in the showroom, butturned out to be way out of proportion and slightly “off-color” in your livingroom, an interior designer can show you the optimal size sofa on a furnitureplan and knows where to purchase it in the exact shade desired for a reasonableprice. She will know the correct type ofrecessed lighting and lamping to “wash” a stone wall to increase itsarchitectural significance, how to create mood in a room, how to seamlesslyintegrate Grandmom’s Sheraton chairs with your art deco table, etc. Ever “redecorate” a room and just know it isnot quite right when you think you’re done? The money you spend when hiring an interior designer is money spent toassure yourself that you will obtain the professional look you have in mind ina timely, cost-efficient process without the expense and heartache of mistakesmade through inexperience.

Most interior designers are very willing to work with you atyour desired pace – whether in one area or your whole house. To ensure the “right fit,” check with severalinterior designers to see if they offer complimentary interviews to help youfeel comfortable with their work ethics, check their education and training,review their websites or portfolios, and ask for references.

Then, sit back and enjoy the results.

Audrey Long

Audrey Long Interior Design

Email: Audrey@alidpa.com

Web Site: www.alidpa.com

Audrey Long Interior Design

2011-09-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

What’s Happening with LED Lighting

I recently attended the International Light Fair in the Philadelphia Convention Center (nice and close for me this year). This is “the” show for every manufacturer throughout the world to showcase their products, and showcase they did. Everywhere I looked were companies presenting LED (light emitting diode) products. It quickly became obvious that this super technology is here and now – poised to be used for every lighting device you can name.

LED’s have come a long way since their first development in the 1960’s. They were used in various indicator applications, such as automobile dashboard indicators and light switching devices. They differ from traditional light sources in the way they produce light. They are comprised of layers of semi-conducting materials coating a minute chip, which produces light when an electrical current flows through it. The specific color emitted depends on the materials used to make the diode. Light color tones or hues are measured on a Kelvin temperature scale. When a warm tone white light is desired (as we are used to seeing with incandescent lighting), the color temperature might be about

2700 K (Kelvin), and is a good choice for most residential use. But if the light needs to be a bit more crisp or halogen-like, a 3000 K bulb would be more preferable.

But, is every lighting device right for LED’s? LED’s have some unique characteristics. First of all, they emit light hemispherically (straight out), whereas our traditional light sources – incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL’s) - emit light spherically (in all directions). Therefore, LED’s are generally more efficient and waste less light. Second, they are impervious to vibration and usually do not need glass enclosures; nor do they get hot, so they won’t burn your fingers either. And, traditional light sources burn out sooner when switched on and off frequently, while LED’s are unaffected by rapid cycling or dimming features. They also come on at full brightness, unlike CFL’s, which have a delay prior to attaining optimal light output and are not reliably dimmable. They consistently last between 35,000 and 50,000 hours (5 years) if they are left on full time. In comparison, this is ten times longer than a halogen bulb. And if we compared it to a life of 1000 hours for a 75-watt incandescent bulb, or a CFL, which typically lasts 8,000 to 10,000 hours, we see quite a difference in bulb life. However, LED bulb life decreases in higher operating temperatures. LED’s do not burn out, they decrease slowly in lighting efficiency. They are already versatile and efficient for small sources, such as under cabinet lighting, stair nosing, pathway and step lights, and where great focus is needed, such as spot lighting. They are not the right choice in all areas yet, such as large open spaces or where the light source is an object such as chandeliers.

LED’s are not yet at their peak of lighting efficiency and output. They are advancing quickly however. While LED bulbs are still significantly more costly to purchase and have not perfectly transitioned into all needs, like all new technology, the prices are rapidly dropping with increased research and production. And the real cost when comparing LED bulb life spans to incandescent bulbs is favorable. LED bulbs are also mercury-free, unlike CFL’s, making them a greener and safer choice for everyone.

New Legislation for 2012

Here is a “heads-up” on what will be happening for all of us starting in January 2012. Legislation was passed in 2007 requiring our general purpose bulbs to be at least 25% more efficient. (Incandescent bulbs waste nearly all their energy in heat output.) The manufacturers of these bulbs (the ones we now use in most of our table and floor lamps) must phase them out in favor of new technology, starting with the100-watt bulbs in 2012. Each year another wattage bulb will be eliminated, making incandescent bulbs obsolete and extinct by 2014! New bulbs will be marketed based on brightness, measured in lumens, rather than wattages. GE and Osram Sylvania are among companies introducing new color-coding packaging indicating lumen levels or the actual color of the light to aid us in making this transition. New CFL’s can now produce light that is as warm as incandescent, and some even employ hybrid technology that combine halogen and CFL qualities, using halogen to light up the bulb immediately and then be replaced by CFL when it reaches its capacity about 30 seconds later. These bulbs may be a bridge for use early on, but still require extra care in disposal due to their mercury content. Look for bulbs that give you the most lumens per watt to save money, even if the initial cost is higher. Overall, this transition should provide a more energy efficient, cost-saving and greener path to the future.

August 2011