Whether you own or rent, this Free Home Makeover Guide can help you make a success of your dream.

Creating a home is an expression of your life priorities, what you feel ..your home should fit you as well as a shell fits a shellfish; a perfect fit for your personality…nothing to grate on your nerves, nothing to bring your life energy down, nothing that reminds you of tiring obligations or unsolved problems, when you walk into a room and look around. If that means filing things, so that they don’t control your happiness every time you walk in through the door, then I would by all means file the upsetting materials.

Which by the way, I do; from photos to bills and other energy sucking, quandary causing stuff. You can feel their energy as you look around a room at mementos and gifts you may keep in view out of obligation or habit. Keep the ones that make you sigh with guilt or grief, but keep them in a box, somewhere you don’t have to look at them every day, and don’t feel guilty! Feel like a person freed from something causing them to not be able to give 100% to their life, because of reminders of the past or present problems making them live on the edge of emotional illness. Life will require that 100% from you, whether you’ve got it or not. We shouldn’t be obligated to feel as if we are lifting our homes onto our backs as we walk through the door. Home is your personal sanctuary. Home is your refuge. Home is the healing retreat you have for restoring your energy. Travel Vests - Uncle Milty Black Travel Vest 3XL

A truly fit home shouldn't be a place that is stressful to you but has to be tolerated. A true home is a place that gives you a feeling of freedom, of returning to your very own private world. In the article; ‘Creating a Sensually Inviting Bedroom’, the idea was not just for making it a chamber for seduction, but a place that appeals to you sensually. After all, if you’re single, you are its main inhabitant.

It should be as comforting as a soft lap to an infant, as relaxing as a slow massage, you should be able to drop off to sleep without waking up in pain, and you should be wakened up gently and gradually; not by some electronic Bronx cheer. Find a song recorder alarm clock that wakes you in a manner that does not irritate…maybe playing Louis Armstrong singing softly about ‘What a Wonderful World’.

Or that old song ‘Oh how happy you would make me, o-ho how ha-a-apy you would ma-ake me’ Or something that strikes your funny bone, like that video of the crazy frog driving like hell on his motorcycle song. What is the name of it? Anyway, you know which one I mean.

Or a piece of music from an all time favorite ‘feel good’ movie or musical.

Maybe something motivationally spiritual, whatever kind of song does that magic mood shifting trick for you. Some of the children’s movies have amazing music to inspire and set the pace for a new day.

Just try to wean yourself away from the sad victim of love gone wrong songs or resentment reinforcing songs or you will find they will set your mood and your mood is a magnet; it affects how bad a day people will subconsciously be inspired to give you, and a sad victim aura or resentful hangover from music is like asking the world, “Please drop well aimed bricks from a very great height upon my poor turtle brained noggin all day long; I have a burning need for more pain and misery in my life.” I mean what’s with that? Make your house have silly touches that make you smile when you use them. Evoke an era and a mood, take it to an art form extreme, and slip into the role by dressing in keeping with the theme, when you come though the door from work, if that turns you on, but make it your happiness project…your egocentric delight of an inhabitable work of art.. and you need offer no excuses; it’s your world. kinderfiets

If you are very studious, scientifically pragmatic, and like minimalist, no nonsense, pure practicality; clean, cleared surfaces, uniform color schemes that don’t create a jarring note, a home interior that requires little maintenance time or effort and is visually so uninteresting that it is almost not there when not in use, that works too. The comfort; the luxury, can still exist, but doesn’t have to be at odds at all with your ideal.

Anything not in use can be tucked away neatly in under counter cupboards and drawers.

If there’s any rule that I would suggest, it would be to make the home yours..your expression; but if renting.. don’t do permanent changes, unless the owner thoroughly understands and approves the particular changes you have in mind.. they might even pay you for materials if you do a professional job..[yeah, and for your labor too, if you die and go to heaven.]It might make a real rat hole of a place more rentable.. but watch out, we’ve done that, and had the rent raised on us by hundreds, so that we couldn’t afford to live there anymore.. a rotten trick for a landlord to pull but, it can happen to you. That reminds me that I have a book source on renter’s rights somewhere here that I want to link you to. Not saying every state is out of the dark ages in the way they allow tenants to be treated, but some are.

But don’t let renting hinder you too much. Carpets and rugs can be layered, wall hangings or giant prints or easy peel wallpapers can be used. Fake walls can be assembled to create nooks..

Just like a theatrical stage is empty and changeable by backdrops and props, so is your home. Windows are easily covered to look like they are etched glass, trompe l'oeils are a touch you can buy at wall covering or home improvement stores. I’ve seen some that look like windows with beautiful pastoral views, and they are a great way to open up a claustrophobic bathroom or entry way.Lighting can perform miracles if you choose the right type, it will hide all the defects in a room and be flattering to the people’s faces in the lit space, by softening shadows and balancing. The wrong kind of light and people feel like bugs under a microscope and will feel the urge to leave the room as soon as they arrive. Table lamps in Tiffany’s style are popular, because they never get boring and have graceful lines. Musts for a living room are a couch that is long enough for a six footer plus to sleep comfortably on that has slouchy overfilled arm rests that can double as sleeping pillows. Winston Cigarettes

Window privacy in some form and thoroughly light blocking drapes. Both are just plain practical.

A rocking chair that’s easy on your back and knees, one where you can easily reach the floor with your feet to rock effortlessly…while your back is comfortably relaxed and if it is also a recliner, all the better.

A relaxing focal point. This can be a living bamboo and stone miniature fountain that plugs in and recycles. There are some truly beautiful ones. Or it could be a mobile of interesting objects, but a focal point needs motion.. That’s one reason TV is so popular. It’s almost a modern fulfillment of a ritual need that allows us to retreat from the physical demands of the world; like the quilting ‘bee’ making, the passing of the hookah, the around a fire ceremonies throughout the history of the world. Water also attracts, and its sound soothes. Firelight or a fountain.Symbols of life’s facets in naturally mathematically harmonious motion.Moving so quickly, they appear to us as fluid; facet-less. It reassures the soul to contemplate nature’s well kept boundaries. Puzzles can be good; something to fiddle with, made of wooden pieces very tactile. Put a few odd shaped brainteaser wooden puzzles on a coffee table; for an instant focal point, or a long shelf of a variety of biographies and auto bio’s of public figures singers, actors, whoever has made the news, because everybody’s curious. Also the more beat up they look [to a point ] the better. New books in someone’s home are not so inviting to guests.Solid side tables that are handily placed,and that are also big enough to put food, a drink, and a book next to both the left and the right hand side of all seating, are just polite and considerate. If you can’t fit them in, buy a set of sturdy wooden folding legged trays.

A hassock or two.

Some wall points of interest.

Art or collected bits.

Plenty of cushy pillows that won’t turn into pancakes with use.

Make it a cuddly room; don’t over arrange or get hung up on making things symmetrical. It will make the room irritating and uncomfortable. Add an extra couch for comfort, if you have the space. Darken your walls if you want a room to feel intimate yet boundless. Paint can do wonders. Everything doesn’t have to match, it only needs to co-habitate comfortably; one color enhancing and picking up another color in another piece making the jewel tones of tapestried furniture covers dazzle softly as your eyes move around the room.

If you buy drapes, stick to fabrics that are a dark favorite single color with a beautiful textured pattern woven in all the same color.

Why? It will allow you to change furnishings without having to buy new drapes, and they won’t get as tiresome as a pattern using contrasting colors. They’ll also make the room appear larger, the walls taller and further away. When you hang them, hang them higher by 6 inches to a foot than the window frame top then let them gracefully touch the floor with perhaps an extra inch or two to pool at the foot of the wall.

A soft solid neutral or dark color chenille or moleskin throw or two creates a warming casual effect draped over a couch corner or arm of a chair.Do yourself a big favor and try to avoid geometric patterns on upholstery or throws or curtains. They tend to shrink space and irritate the eyes after a while. This includes plaids, unless you really know what you are doing and use muted, low contrast soft dark crimson or other jewel tones. Plaids can tend to look tired, enhancing the droops and sags of whatever furniture they upholster. They work best as draped material, not bed coverings or couch covers ever, if possible.

You don’t have to be rich if you don’t mind buying at garage sales or looking under the ‘for sale’ ads heading in your local newspaper, there’s no status in buying at a high price new, when you can buy second hand furniture from a family that’s cared for it, and save yourself hundreds of dollars. As I’ve said before, beware the furniture discount outlets that haven’t got an established high quality reputation. It is usually going to be much cheaper to buy name brand furniture from a family, than from any furniture outlet. For instance, can you imagine buying a complete bedroom suite with king size bed, highboy, dressing table, mirror, chair and bureau in excellent condition, including a top of the line 'like new' box spring and mattress set by Basset for $400? I did at a garage sale. So I know you can save serious money shopping like that.

Of course for bedding and all other soft goods,I believe in buying new. Pillows and down comforters especially; who needs other peoples dust mites? Ugh.

But I found a great place on line for buying the highest rated pillows and most luxurious comforters and beds. It took some searching. I also tracked down some other interesting online shops for furnishing touches.

Keep in mind though that an eclectic beach house mix and match furniture collection can soothe your senses with natural pastels of beach tones, sky, sea glass and worn seashells. a simple environment that welcomes bare feet on bare board flooring and tactile stones and sea wonders for white washed windowsills.

Azure wall accents and thin striped blue and white or stone washed gray, beige or natural pale eggshell sailcloth fabrics could work well.

Pickled hardwood or naturally worn painted chairs and you’ve got it made in the shade, even if you are having to live in a ‘shotgun’ apartment in NYC. Undecorated plain white Japanese rice paper and bamboo blinds can hide the view of the tenement buildings your window faces, while diffusing the light in a manner much like a salt laden misty haze would on an early morning out on the Cape.

Every object and texture and color and pattern you bring into your life and home should give you a pleasant feeling. That, ultimately, is how you’ll know that it’s the right choice for your refuge. To return from our article; Free Home MakeOver Guide to our Home Page, please click here