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Home Decorating Style Guide

What better way to incorporate color, energy and history into your home than with a particular home decorating   style?  More and more people are discovering how to liven up their environments with striking design   elements, so take a look at the following information to get you started.

Flooring

Whether you are redecorating your kitchen or living room or designing them for the first time, consider different types of flooring   that will compliment each room and leave you with a hassle-free setup.

Real Touch Elite Beech Block Laminate Flooring  

The texture and design of this laminate flooring mimics the look of real wood floors. This flooring improves slip resistance and comes with preinstalled foam underlayment for comfort and noise reduction.

Tuscan Stone Sand Laminate Flooring  

If you are looking for a darker, more versatile type of flooring, this may be the choice for you. Its interplank design allows multi-directional tiling and a style that's all your own.

Real Touch Elite Walnut Laminate Flooring  

This is a dignified flooring that mimics the depth and texture of genuine hardwood. This flooring can be installed easily and the joint guard glueless system prolongs the life of your floor.

A Taste of Africa

Embrace Regionalism

Whether you are thinking of African fabrics or African musical instruments, you will find that the differences and variations could fill an entire library, so make sure that you take a look around at the regional differences. The cloth that you find in Ghana, for instance, will be instantly distinguishable from the African fabrics that you find elsewhere.

African Fabrics  

When you are considering African fabrics, take a look around at some of the varieties. Batik ,  which uses wax to create beautifully intricate designs on bright vivid colors are a great way to add a little bit of fun to your world, and you'll find that many of these designs are influenced by tribal motifs. They are often hand-dyed ,  giving them a lively feel and offering a one of a kind piece of art no matter how you intend to use it. Similarly, you'll find that they are often created in small pieces, usually no more than two or four yards, and that they are perfect for decoration.

African Musical Instruments  

There is wonderful variety to be found in African musical instruments. Familiar to many people are the African drums ,  which can range in use from musical instruments to ceremonial objects to a form of highly sophisticated communication. You'll find that African musical instruments will differ depending on which area of the country they are from; for instance, you'll find that the slit drums   of the Yaka and the Yangere are quite different from the traditional drums of the Yoruba and the Senufro. When looking at African musical instruments, you will also see a wide variety of wind instruments like trumpets   and flutes   as well as many types of xylophone   and harps . 

African Arts and Crafts

African arts and crafts are often found in the form of statues, figures and figurines, as well as decorative cloths and musical instruments, particularly drums. Most African art is sculpture ,  with statues in human form as the most popular, as they serve to give praise or tribute to a great leader, or an honorable man or woman. Evidence of African art can be found as early as 500 BC, with carved rocks in the Sahara and sculptures from Nigeria .  The use of bronze ,  brass   and other metalwork ,  as well as the incorporation of terracotta ,  ivory   and other embellishments were attributed as far back as 10th century AD, and usually reserved for royalty.

Animals  

Animals in African art are often included with human figures to further give praise to the person being honored. For example, a horse is considered a very noble animal, and including one in a sculpture of a man or woman means that person is being held in very high regard. Most contemporary statues are made of either stone or carved of wood.

Traditional  

A large part of African arts and crafts is traditional arts, which were deeply woven into the daily life and culture of the different African peoples, and now found on display in most museums. An example of these is the African mask .  Africans use masks in ceremonial and ritual practices, usually in celebration, but also to prepare for war, to initiate a young warrior, and before a harvest.

African Baskets  

The baskets of the Etsha and Gumare tribes in Botswana   are particularly famous for their beauty. While baskets are usually carried over the head, the influence of foreign cultures have modified the way baskets are carried, allowing totes to be slung around one's shoulders.

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