Tag Archives: Tips and tricks
Tips and Tricks: How to Use Lavender for a Restful Sleep
Post by Tracy Kaler.
If a good night’s sleep beckons and insomnia becomes your worst nightmare, it may be time to shake things up with your nighttime routine. Aside from maintaining a comfortable temperature and leaving your troubles at the bedroom door, trying using lavender, the ancient herb known to relax, calm, and promote restful sleep. Here are four ways to utilize lavender before bedtime to keep you snoozing until the sun rises.
Diffuse
Purchase a diffuser and let lavender oil permeate your senses. The sweet fragrance will put you in a euphoric state until you fall fast asleep. You can order a diffuser through Amazon.com or Bed Bath & Beyond, among other retailers.
Spray your linens
Purchase a lavender spray or make your own with a spray bottle, water, and a few drops of lavender oil. Mist your sheets and pillowcases lightly before turning in. You can also spray your bath towels, which would benefit if you bathe in the evening.
Use as home fragrance
Utilize the same lavender spray in your bedroom. Spritz a generous amount around your space each evening before hitting the hay.
Use lavender oil
Apply pure lavender oil behind your ears. Rub a dot at each of your temples, or massage on the soles of your feet before hitting the lights. Personally, I love the Lavender Chamomile Moisturizing Oil from Indie Lee
Bedroom Design: 5 Ways to Make your Bedroom Feel Luxurious
Post by Tracy Kaler.
Want luxury in your bedroom? Creating extravagance in your sleep space isn’t as hard as you might think. Try these five things and you’ll feel like a star in your boudoir in no time.
Make your bed a focal point
No matter how plain or ornate, the bed itself can be the focal point in a space and add to the luxury. Place the bed on the most inviting wall for the layout of your room (walking into the foot of the bed is best). Always make your bed and fluff the pillows, no matter what time you rise.
Use down
Unless you’re allergic, down is the ultimate luxurious item in any bedroom. Start with a feather bed (on top of your mattress and under your sheets) for the ultimate comfort. And no bed is complete with down pillows, so you get that cushy feeling every time you turn in.
Buy high thread count sheets
Purchase the highest thread count you can afford. Always go for 100 percent cotton and never synthetics. Your will thank yourself when you hit the hay and when you awake.
Arrange fresh flowers
Fresh flowers or greenery is a nice added touch and inexpensive. A small bedside arrangement of roses or wildflowers adds color and will make you feel like a king or queen.
Add fragrance or fresh air
If your home is in the country, fresh air is a must and will awaken your senses every morning, If you’re a city dweller and need to keep windows closed to block noise, add soothing lavender for scent. Use a diffuser, place lavender sachets in your pillowcases, or spray lavender on your bedclothes and bedding. Lavender treats insomnia and will relax you, even after the most stressful day.
Bedroom Design: Living Big in a Small Bedroom
Post by Tracy Kaler.
“Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind; large ones weaken it.”—Leonardo da Vinci
Don’t fret if you lack square footage in your bedroom. Small spaces are no less significant than their larger siblings and still manage to be stylish and chic. Compact rooms are often loaded with personality and give you the opportunity to get creative and explore your inner decorator, so take advantage and don’t feel deprived.
Moreover, a bedroom tends to be especially romantic and peaceful, no matter its size. Whether you prefer traditional or eclectic décor, antiques or modern furnishings (think an Eames lounge chair in your singular empty corner), neutral or bold color accents, bear in mind that an uncluttered design will probably suit any small space best.
Here are four tiny yet delightful bedrooms. Rooms like these make it easy to catch a restful sleep, relax with a favorite read, or just sit back and take it all in.
You’ll be in the mood to snuggle in this simple yet elegant, cottage-inspired bedroom. The all-white paneling lends a casual feel, while the poofy duvet makes the bed inviting. Looking at this photo, don’t you want to curl up with a good book?
Chinese red textiles and a Persian rug add a boost of color to an otherwise neutral room. A black chinoiserie screen makes for a lovely backdrop behind the leather headboard while crisp linens give this bed a luxury hotel feel.
This practical twin bedroom with built-in storage is functional and sleek. The convenient swing-arm sconce allows reading in bed, while the Louis Ghost chair from Philippe Starck breathes a touch of whimsy into the room.
Neatly carved out of a pocket-sized room, this space-saving design works beautifully. Patchwork bedding and knotty pine floors give the room a rustic cabin-like feel. The nautical artwork and ceiling fan enhance the miniature sleeping quarters. This nook could be the ideal child’s room or guest quarters.
Things We Like: Floor Plans Made Easy
Post by Kyle St. Romain.
Whether you’re redecorating your bedroom or are considering more extensive home improvement projects, a floor plan is an essential tool to help get you started. An accurate floor plan can help you arrange furniture (the easy way: on paper), estimate costs by calculating square footage, and better understand what’s possible should you decide to expand or enlarge your room. The only downside of using a floor plan is that you have to make one. That is, until now.
Roomscan is a new app for the iPhone that allows you to draw a floor plan by simply walking around the perimeter of your room and tap your phone against each wall. The app automatically draws the floor plan based on your taps and is accurate with measurements to one-half foot! Once you have the floor plan drawn out, which you can edit the measurements of the walls to correct for any inaccuracies, you can export the image via email. You can also visit their website here to learn more about the app and how it works.
I was skeptical about how well it would work, so I gave it a try for myself and have to say that I am impressed. The one drawback, however, is that the app is pretty sensitive to the speed in which you tap each wall. I noticed that in certain rooms of my apartment, it was difficult to tap across sofas, and over the bed and tables as quickly as the app would like. Then again, running a tape measure across the bed isn’t exactly the easiest thing either.
While I won’t be using this app to measure cuts on my baseboard trim project, I can see it coming in handy for several other projects that don’t require as much precision. Best of all, it’s free!
On a final note, this is my last post here on the Charles Rogers Blog. It’s been a great past couple years writing here, and I hope that everyone reading my articles has enjoyed them or at least learned something new/useful. Thank you all!
Things We Like: Sleeping In Total Darkness
Post by Kyle St. Romain
In previous articles, we’ve discussed the three basic ingredients for a good night’s sleep: (1) a dark room; (2) a cold room; and (3) a luxurious bed. There are some other things you can do that will help you sleep more restfully, like: getting enough exercise, eating the right foods, and even wearing a pair of socks to bed, but a comfortable bed in a cold, dark room are the pillars of good sleep.
Unfortunately in today’s world, many people sleep in relatively light rooms. Some people even sleep with the television set on — something I do not understand. But even if you’re able to fall asleep in a lit room or actually prefer it, chances are you’re not getting the best night’s sleep you could. So today we’re going to discuss exactly why total darkness is a must-have for your mind and body to rest properly.
Darkness was probably something our ancestors took for granted (read: feared). With no electricity or artificial lights, early humans lived by the natural cycles of day and night — the key word being natural. With the advent of fire we started to become masters over our domain. Fast forward to present time and it’s all but impossible to find total darkness outside unless you’re camping somewhere remote. This is especially true for those of us who live in urban environments where almost every street is laden with artificial lights — lights that are considerably brighter than what we would otherwise be exposed to at night (the moon and stars).
In darkness, our brains are wired to produce melatonin, a hormone that helps lower blood pressure, glucose, and body temperature. The production of melatonin is one of the most important physiological responses that helps us sleep better. When melatonin production is suppressed, we start to go into sleep debt, which can cause fat gain, insulin resistance, and inflammation.
When we are exposed to light before going to sleep, however dim, our bodies’ natural rhythm gets thrown out of whack. Making matters worse is that many light bulbs, computer screens, and smartphones emit blue light, one of the most stimulating colors of light. Exposure to blue light from a computer screen is why it’s harder to fall asleep quickly after responding to those late night emails.
If you’re struggling with overexposure before bed, here are some helpful tips for eliminating light before sleep:
- Blackout curtains are an easy way to keep unwanted light from coming through your windows.
- Get rid of electronics in the bedroom. All those little power indicators can create quite a bit of light in an otherwise dark room. Clock radios, televisions, computer screens, and other gadgets are common sources of light in the bedroom. Even if these devices are not emitting light, their electrical currents can still disrupt your sleep pattern, so get them out of the bedroom.
- Color shift your computer screen. Working late is a fact of life for many of us, but if you have to be on the computer after sundown, you should at least try to minimize the damage. Having used the program f.lux for a number of years, it now hurts my eyes to look at a “regular” screen at night. This is something I cannot recommend enough.
So next time you’re having trouble going to sleep, think about how much light you were exposed to right before bed. You may find that a little less light is just what your body needs to get out of sleep debt.
