As stupid as this may sound – everyone needs to have a name plate on their door. Many things can go wrong if you don’t…Your Pizza, courier and post may not reach you promptly. This article is because of a real life situation where our food was not delivered promptly because there was no name plate on the door !

Image Courtesy : kingdombuildersonline.com

The plate could be made of plastic, wood or metal. You can be creative and choose what you want. Make sure that it goes in good contrast with the door’s color/material.

[source : http://interiorspaces.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/tv-room-study-furniture/]

Some comments from me as this is from another blog…

• I simply love the color match between the sofa, the wall and the carpet. Blue really seems to be setting a good tone here.
• The lazy couch with the subtle light behind is really awesome. The light is well places to avoid glare on the TV screen. Good placement by the home owners.
• The couch/chair itself is very inviting. Although I doubt how useful the furniture would be for viewing the television.
• I am not a big fan of the flat TV being placed on a table. It belongs the wall. But this is my opinion. Also the wire hanging down the wall seems to be out of place. Would have been good if the wire had been concealed.
• The two mini cushions by the side of the TV also seem impractical. More of a decorative/fluff piece.

Whats your opinion? Let us hear them.

Image Courtesy : crobike.de

These inexpensive instruments can really create a serene atmosphere at your home. Wind Chimes, also known as Aeolian chimes are a decorative/purposeful devices for home use.

Typically, the chimes are a group of tubes of different lengths made of wood, steel or other metals. Sometimes even glass is used. These tubes along with a strike piece are suspended by a chord. The varying length of the tubes produces different tones when struck by a rubber or wooden hammer. Usually there is a flat surface just below the hammer (suspended by the same chord) which serves to deflect the “wind”.

On arrival of wind, the flat surface and the attached chord/hammer move around striking the various tubes producing random music!

These can really lighten the mood of the room when there is silence and it can be quite entertaining. The most common place to suspend a wind chime is the spare fan hook that may be available on your roof. Try one if do not have one already at home.

You can read more about wind chimes from the Wiki article here.

When someone knocks on your front door or rings the calling bell, one normally has to guess who the person could be. But if we analyze this from a security aspect, there are lot more risks associated with this “guessing game”.

Image Courtesy : rbs.ru

Enter – Door Eye / Magic Eye, a simple and practical solution to the problem. Most homes are probably already installed with one. Just in case yours is not, then this article is just the one for you.

A door eye is a device which only permits the occupant of the home to have a clear view of the outside world, while it restricts the person at the door (outside) from viewing into the home.

This is an upgrade to a simple peep hole where the stranger present outside is also able to see the interior of the home. The door eye also has in most cases what is called a “wide angle” lens arrangement. This makes it possible to actually get a good panoramic view of the outside and give a sound judgement to the home owner before opening the door.

Installation involves drilling a hole on your main door (as shown below) and mounting the magic eye within it. The second portion of the device is inserted from the inside of the door and screwed on till they fit tightly.

Image Courtesy : rd.com

The door eye is normally mounted at a height which is the country average for a man/woman. In India usually is mounted at a height of about five and a half feet from the ground level.

Sometimes children cannot be seen through the door eye and also ambient light is needed for good visibility. So having a corridor light is a good idea so that you can view your guests even in dark conditions.

It should be available in most hardware stores. We shall update what it would cost in the comments section. You are welcome to leave your comment or query too!

Today we just show you a couple of pictures to illustrate the importance of choosing the right lights for your home. The following pictures are from our reader – Ms. Kathy Ludwig from Luxembourg. Thank you for the same !

Click on the images to enlarge

Do let us know your comments for these pictures and also feel free to ask some questions about them. We are sure Kathy can answer some of your questions !

Readers are invited to send their home pictures. We would be more than glad to put them up on “aavaas”.

We see them in all shapes, textures, colors and conditions! Floor mats are a common find in every home. But there is more to them then just the name and this article intends to explore further on this topic.

Mats tend to do serve more than one purpose. They protect the floor, keeps a check on slipperiness, cushions the feet and so on. Choosing the right mat involves picking the right color to match the interiors, texture to suit your needs and mood and also from many varieties such as woven mats, rubber mats, coir mats, vinyl mats and foam mats.

Types of floor mats

Depending on the application we have the following types of mats

• Welcome mat (entrance mat)
• Shower mat
• Bathroom mat
• Bedroom mat
• Kitchen mat

Welcome Mats

These are typical for most homes. They are built from rugged material and tend to clean the mud and sand which is found on the sole of shoes. You can see them made from substances like coir, or rubber which has bristles to create that cleaning effect. Welcome mats need to be cleaned often as they collect not only the grime from footwear but also tend to collect dust and debris from the atmosphere.

Image Courtesy : floormatdirectory.com

One common problem that can exist if the door mat is placed very close to the door, is that it can prevent the door from being open/closed easily. To avoid this, one can choose to have a small cut out on the floor where the mat rests in-line with the floor level. However you need to ensure that the size of this cut-out is optimum as it would then be tough to get the right mat to fit into it !

Shower Mats

These are used just outside the shower cubicle or a bath area. They have small vacuum pads which lock the mat firmly on the floor (the floor should be smooth enough to let the vacuum work) and on the top surface has an anti-slippery texture to do the obvious – prevent slipping just after shower!

Image Courtesy : akamai.net

Bathroom Mat

These are placed just outside the bathroom and are designed to absorb the moisture is present on the feet after a shower. The bathroom mats have to be dried regularly if it gets too wet to prevent foul smell. Also they should be washed once in a fortnight or so depending on the usage. Most hotels use thick towels folded up as bathroom mats. This way it is easier to wash them in a regular washing machine.

Image Courtesy : indiamart.com

Bedroom Mat

These provide a cozy feeling to users in the bedroom. It helps people brush their feet just before getting into the bed which prevents soiling of the bed covers. also in cold conditions, these serve to make getting out of the bed a comfortable affair as placing feet on a cold floor is a chilling effect.

Kitchen Mat

Rubber and Vinyl mats are great for kitchen and utility areas where one has to stand for a considerable amount of time. Additionally, rubber and vinyl mats protects the floor from dripping water and soap, if placed under the tub/sink area.

Image Courtesy : cartwheelfactory.com

If you think some more information needs to be added here, please let us know.

Time to play with some images. We created this pseudo model of a living room which shows some very basic details. You could let us know what you would want to see in a living room if the house were yours.

Legend for the picture above

• a – > Roof
• b – > Wall complete with paint of your choice
• c - > Brick finish of the wall
• d – > Some wall painting of family photographs
• e – > Normal CRT television
• f – > Wooden stand for television and other audio visual equipment such as DVD player
• g - > Coffee table with clear glass surface
• h – > Floor composed of tiles
• i - > Carpet to accentuate the setting of the room
• j – > Sofa set for a comfortable seating experience

Due to limitation in size, we have not shown some other items which would also be a part of the living room. As we said earlier, we would like to hear your views on what you would place in your living room.

Adding style and substance to one’s home can be a daunting task. It could be an expensive affair, but if one can be creative, a lot of value can be added easily.

One of the first things that is visible in a home is the main door. What one normally places on the doors is either the home name or the occupants name(s). Some other objects that are seen on the exterior of the door include magic eye, flat/house number and the like.

One aesthetic addition which can be considered by the homemakers is a door knocker

Image Courtesy : hinges.co.uk

This exquisite piece of metal adds an extra impression and leaves the onlooker with a sense of awe.

The purpose of a door knocker is quite simple. To knock the door

It is a simple device usually with a metal ring which has a landing stub. When the ring lands on the stub, it creates a sound which alerts occupants of a visitor. It actually spares the knuckles of the visitor.

Today electric/electronic calling bells have become an in-thing. But some of them could actually get on your nerves, thanks to the choice of tunes on them.

The door knocker is actually a Green alternative to these besides enhancing the visual appeal of your home.

These are available in plenty of shapes, sizes and colors. You could choose one which matches your door color.

Most common material used for construction is brass. Though resistant to corrosion, brass needs frequent polishing. So you can consider gun metal or powder coated varieties.

Wikipedia article is available here – - > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door_knocker

We wanted to write on home aquariums for some time now. This would probably be the best time to do so. Especially after all these “not-so-relevant” announcement messages regarding our migration and the like.

Since we do not have one at home, this article is more of a thought provoker and, by writing this we hope to invite some comments from people who actually have experience installing a Fish Tank at home.

Image Courtesy : johnbokma.com

We know the following about aquariums:

• A lot of enhancements are available for aquariums ranging from pebbles, greenery – both natural and artificial, water pumps , lights and more.

A typical aquarium consists of:

• An enclosure made or glass or plastic
• Sediment layer at the bottom comprising of sand and/0r pebbles with some vegetation
•  Water – fresh or saline, depending on the type of fish
• A filtration system – Although in India, most home owners manually clean or recycle the water once in a while
• Temperature control – Again this is something which we are not certain of being used in India. The philosophy behind this is that, most fish are sensitive to temperature just like humans and it is essential to regulate the temperature especially in too hot or too cold regions.
• Top cover – Optional , preventing fish from jumping out and foreign objects from entering in your aquarium. These could include lizards which often end up eating fish!
• Dedicated stand – The aquarium is usually very heavy and needs to be placed on a firm stand which can take its weight while being horizontal to the surface as well.

Calculating the size of the aquarium

Too large a tank with a few fish within is not a good sight and not good for the inhabitants as well. Similarly putting too many fishes in a small tank can lead to crowding effect which may lead to death or your beloved fish.

There are some thumb rules governing the size of the aquarium based on the number of fishes, but we recommend you also talk to your aquarium provider and learn from his experiences.

You can read more about Aquarium from Wikipedia – - > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarium

Tell us somethings about:

- How do you maintain your aquarium?

- How do you purchase the fish? Are you aware of the actual names of the fish?

- Do you buy the fish based on their aesthetic appeal only?

- Do fish often die in your aquarium? If so what have you done to keep this in check?

If you have any other tips and suggestions from your own experience, please share it with us by commenting here.  Photographs or short video clips are also welcome for publishing on Aavaas.

Living room

Originally uploaded by vivek sivaram

Very pleasing living room. Complete with sofa set, entertainment center , home theatre and lights.

For the complete set of pictures from this home, please visit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13860646@N07/sets/72157602345258410/