Decorating

A Fresh Take on Western Style

Western style is almost always stereotyped as kitschy design with animal heads and wagon wheels.  That really isn’t the case and designers are mixing the modern and the rustic to create a cozy and chic space, a fresh take on western design if you will.  Here are some ways to incorporate western design anywhere, even a New York City penthouse.

Pops of Color

Western design tends to pull color from nature which means a lot of green, tan, orange and yellow.  This leaves you with a home full of basically neutral colors, but you can use rich reds and brilliant turquoise as accent colors or in rugs and throws.  Have a brightly colored or patterned quilt to add color to your bedroom or on the back of a couch.  Here are some ideas on how to do just that.

Soften Up the Log Cabin

If your home’s interior feature a lot of wood, particularly on the walls you can soften that look a bit with the right window treatments. Use lighter colored window treatments and bedding in the bedroom.  In the living room you can still use lighter colored drapes but avoid that heavy dark leather furniture.  Instead consider pale colored fabric sofas and chairs.

Rethink the Antlers

Deer heads and antlers on the wall are what can turn your room from classy to over the top, so rethink the antlers.  Try instead a ceramic sculpture or piece of Native American art.  You can add color while still maintaining that western feel without making your home look like a hunting cabin.  There are lots of pieces of tasteful wildlife art that can replace the antlers.

Add Some Modern Details

Living rooms and kitchens done in western design often come with big features, large wood cabinets, big stone fireplaces and big trusses.  You can add some modern details to soften up the room, you can work in some modern pieces of art or accessories that give the room modern touches.

Combine Textures

There is a lot of wood and leather in western design which can make your room feel kind of cold and impersonal.  You can soften the space with accents in different textures.  A high quality lush area rug is one way to do that, something like fleece or equally soft works great.  So do throw cushions or a blanket on the back of the leather sofa, both will make the room feel cozy and warm.

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Decorating

Common Bedroom Decorating Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Common Bedroom Decorating Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Out of all the rooms in your home your bedroom is the most personal.  Your bedroom should be the most comfortable room in your house while still reflecting your personal style and taste.  That being said people still make mistakes when it comes to decorating the bedroom, here are some of the more common bedroom decorating mistakes and how to fix them.

Color

Picking the color in your bedroom is something you should be careful with.  While bright fire engine red might be your favorite color, your bedroom is a place you unwind and relax after a long day, so color choice is crucial.  You want colors that are relaxing but not boring.  What is your favorite color?  Start with that as a primary color then work in accent colors.  Try painting one wall first to see how it looks at night and under natural light.  Take the time to make sure that this is the right color for your room.

Arranging the Furniture

Since the bed takes up most of the space in the room people end up lining up all their dressers along one wall.  The dressers are at uneven heights and this makes your bedroom look cluttered.  Arranging furniture in a smaller bedroom can be a challenge, you should measure the dimensions of the furniture and plan out where you want to put everything.  Remember to leave yourself enough room to walk around, balance the furniture with the walking space.  Here is some help arranging bedroom furniture.

Limit the Patterns

Between bedspreads, curtains and wallpaper you can end up with a lot of busy patterns that are too much.  You should have elements of design in your room but you need to figure out where to put them.  If you have a bright and colorful bedspread then use a solid color for the drapes, or vice versa.  Using patterns can create a focal point in the room, but rather than add another pattern use accent colors or try different textures rather than patterns.

Hanging at the Wrong Height

This covers both curtains and artwork, most hang curtains too low and art work too high.  Artwork should be at eye level but since people vary in height you have about 6 inches either above or below your eye level.  Window treatment can be used to make your room look taller, you can hang drapes from ceiling to floor or just below the window casing.

These are some of the more common mistakes that people make when they are decorating their bedroom.  All of them are easy to fix.

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Decorating

Western and Southwestern Rugs

I’m nine years old again. I remember before this time, I always moved from house to house. For me, no place ever felt like home until this moment. I remember walking into this huge, five-bedroom house. It was my parents, my brother, my aunt, my uncle, my cousin, and me. I felt myself getting excited, even before we moved in. I ran to the furthest room upstairs, stopping at the doorway, and peeping in. That’s when my parents came up behind me and whispered to me, “this will be your room.” I’d never forget that moment. There was this feeling of excitement inside me that was so radiant that I can still feel that moment today. I had never had my own room until then. My favorite place for western and southwestern area rugs: Southwestern Rugs | FREE Ship | Western Area Rugs, Native American, Southwest

When we finally moved in, I rolled around the floor of my bedroom. I imagined exactly what I wanted and where I wanted everything to be. It was finally happening. I made my room a very mellow yellow. I had a white desk and a wooden bed frame that I had brought from my last home. I remember putting a white mosquito net canopy over my bed. To the side of my bed, next to the door, I had a wooden bookshelf that stored all of my childhood books and VCR tapes. I felt a sense of comfort and satisfaction in this room, that I never felt before.

Decorating a room to your own liking is a privilege in its own because not many people have the opportunity to do so. Providing décor in your room allows you to express who you are as a person and what you value most in life. When I was nine years old, yellow was my favorite color, and this is why I made my room this color. It represented a part of me. On my desk, I kept pictures with my best friends and my family. They represented what was most important to me at the time. I feel like if I could decorate my room now, it would be completely different, but that’s the best part of having décor. It’s flexible and changeable to satisfy the desires of whoever the room is meant for.

Western vs Southwestern Style Home Decorating

Décor allowed me to express myself. It was a safe place that I could call my own in the darkest of times. It was the serenity during the storm, the only place that I could ever let myself go. Whether it was crying or screaming out my emotions, the décor in my room gave me a sense of peace during my parents’ constant separations. I could stare at my bookshelf and VCR tapes and remember a time when I was happier, watching those Disney films with my family. It was a place where I was proud to bring my friends because I was proud of who I was and what brought me joy. I was showing them that “this is me and I hope you accept it.” Bringing friends into your room is like bringing them to your sacred place.  It’s where you express yourself and hope that those around you can appreciate the same. What made me happy then, is not necessarily what makes me happy now.

 

The things that I used to like aren’t the same as what I like now. The best part about décor is that you can change it and modify it. You can save the things that are sentimental and move on to other things. I think that’s the most important part about décor; the ability to change who you are. Décor is a representation of yourself. There is no bad décor or good décor. There are only different interpretations and perspectives of it. Décor brings lively characteristics of the self out in materialistic things. It’s a form of self-expression and identity.

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5 Things Musicians Care About That Music Fans Don’t + New Must Hear Indie Music

 

Today, I’m going to focus on the 5 things bands obsess over that music fans do not even care about.  Over the years I’ve found that musicians and their fans are on two totally different wavelengths when it comes to what they’re looking for out of music – which is why only about 1% of the bands who pursue a career in music will reach superstar status and only 3% will be able to actually make it their full-time job for 20+ years.  The biggest problem I see from majority of the artists releasing songs is that they want to give fans what they (musicians) want fans to have, instead of actually giving fans what they want.  This never works!

So, in this episode I’m going to share 5 common areas where musicians seem to focus too much attention; all of which are areas that music fans do not care about.  My hope is that by the time I’m done you’ll be a bit more cognizant of these key issues and will consider making the necessary adjustments to give yourself a better chance at success.

  1. Sound: Musicians are sometimes a bit too technical when it comes to creating music for public consumption.  When I was a full-time record producer, I wasted a ton of time worrying about sound and not focusing on whether music fans even wanted to hear all that.  I remember playing songs for friends who weren’t in the music business and saying, “Watch this part!  BOOM!” and they’d look at me and say, “What was the ‘Boom’ for?”  Music fans don’t even hear that cool plated reverb you put on your snare drum.  All they hear is a song they either like or dislike.  A perfect example is the Robin Thicke “Blurred Lines” song.  Music fans couldn’t hear the obvious lifting of Marvin Gaye’s 70’s hit “Got To Give It Up”.  So, the next time you feel the urge to worry about that extra technical thing that only you and your band will notice in the recording…just move on and focus on the overall mix; making sure the main parts that fans will hear are actually in order — not that one cool effect that lasts for like 3 seconds that most people will never notice.
  2. Producer & Studio: Musicians spend way too much time and money in this area thinking it’s the most important area of the songs they’re planning to release. I’ve asked tons of music buying consumers over the years whether or not the producer or studio affected their buying decision, and the answer I get 99% of the time is “No!” So, why do you – musicians – care so much about this stuff?  Spend more time telling them about YOU and less time bragging about the studio you recorded in or your Grammy-nominated producer who hasn’t had a hit in over a decade.  Besides, just because he/she had a hit 10 years ago, it doesn’t mean music fans will know who this person is.  As proof that music fans do not follow the Who’s Who of music unless they’re trying to actually be an artist themselves, I’d like to reference Katy Perry‘s 2015 Superbowl performance when she brought out Missy Elliott on stage and 15 year old girls were Tweeting about how cool it was that Katy was breaking a new artist!  They had no clue that Missy had put out 6 multiplatinum and gold selling albums before Perry even released her pop music single in 2009.  So again, spend more time making fans familiar with you as opposed to trying to convince them that your producer’s credentials means your album is one of the best they’ll ever hear.  Because, they’re not going to buy that line.
  3. Selling Music: Dude stop! Random people are not going to buy your music if they don’t know who you are.  It doesn’t matter how many times you post on social media, if you haven’t done anything noteworthy then the people you’re trying to gain support from will not care about you and your new single or EP.  Spend less time trying to sell music and more time getting your name and face out there.
  4. Release Parties: Musicians spend too much time worrying about their album release party.  I get like 200 pitches a month from publicists, labels, and artists talking about album release parties.  Sure, album release parties can be a great way to introduce your new music to an audience of 70 people, most of whom already know you, but you’re not going to make a lot of progress there.  The music fans you’re trying to reach are not going to care that you did an album release party that they weren’t invited to.  The money and time you’re going to waste on an album release party will not be recouped, so find a better use for it.  Maybe use your time and resources doing a media blitz instead of making club owners more money.
  5. Streaming Audio: Musicians spend too much time trying to drive people to their Spotify, Bandcamp, Reverbnation, and Soundcloud accounts.  Music fans don’t care about you being on these sites.  Why?  Because everybody is on those  sites.  In fact, these streaming sources pay virtually nothing to artists for the traffic and streams you generate for their platforms, yet many of you are trying to convince potential fans to visit your pages on the  se sites?  Let’s look at sites like Soundcloud who don’t even pay artists for the streams you generate.  Actually, artists are paying Soundcloud and making the founders and investors very rich.  Sure, sites like Soundcloud are great marketing tools to get the word out about your music, like it has done for Ramsey (who you’ll hear on today’s playlist). But paying for the service with no real plan for how you’re going to recoup that investment or how you’re going to convert new followers into buyers is not a smart use of your resources.  Yes, these sites have become a necessary part of building an online presence, but the truth is, you’re not going to get anything out of promoting these websites over your own.  So, instead of telling people to visit your profiles on 3rd party sites, why don’t you drive them to your own website to listen? And then make sure you have a store or direct links set up on your site so people who want to buy your music can do so from your site.  This way they will see you as a viable seller for future purchases, instead of going straight to iTunes or Spotify.

 

MUSIC FEATURED INCLUDES:

  • Port of Est. – “Valentine In My Headphones” (Experimental Pop)
  • Cool Company – “Summer Daze (Soul)
  • Bitter’s Kiss – “The Rope” (Indie, Folk-Pop)
  • Jaylon Ashaun – “While You Wait” (R&B, Pop)
  • Ramsey – “PAY” (Pop, Trip-Hop)

The Miews

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