Interior New York November/December 2010

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And Give Yourself an Extra Boost of Warmth

Natural Village CafĂŠ

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Healthy Food Your Way

Surviving the Holiday Travel Rush

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Be Your Own Security

Fireplace Heaters

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Keeping Warm in Style

First exit to Brooklyn

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Midwood One of the First Settlements in NYC

Small Apartment Kitchen Designs

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Making Use of Every Inch of Space

5 Home Insulation Tips

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That Can Save You Lots of Money

Year Round Freshness

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With Winter Gardens

Winterizing Your Home

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editors note living and more

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The holidays are just around the corner and with them comes colder weather. Now is the perfect time to take a walk around your living space and see if you need to close up some drafts and cold spots. Author Jim Wang offers up 10 tips for winterizing your home.

Midwood, the melting pot of Brooklyn, is home to a vast array of cultures and diversity. It represents all that is New York City and has some deeply embedded roots. Come take a walk though Midwood with us And while we stroll through Midwood, we’ll make at stop at the Natural Village Café, where you can eat conscience-free, having your specific dietary needs catered to in the food prep.

PUBLISHER EDITOR IN-CHIEF CONTRIBUTING EDITOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Flip though our new Home Show case section for decorating ideas.

SALES If this past summer is any indication of what the winter will be like, then now is a good time to insulate your home. We’ll give you 5 home insulation tips that can save you lots of money.

Electric fireplace heaters are new, cost efficient, stylish and in a word HOT!! We take a look at these appliances-turned-home decorations and see why so many are making the change.

Carole Delmonico

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR CONTRIBUTING WRITERS ADVERTISING OFFICE

W MEDIA CAROLE DELMONICO JULIA LISANTI EFRAIM SCHNALL W MEDIA MENASHE SCHWARTZ

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ZACHARY SCHLEE 1227 60th Street BROOKLYN NY 718.854.3773 www.interiornewyork.com

INTERIORNEWYORK CAREER OPPORTUNITIES INTERIOR NEW YORK magazine has openings in its sales and other departments. Competitive rates, highest commissioned sales percentage and a great work environment. Full or part time. Call 718 854-3773 for more details. www.interiornewyork.com

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BENEFITS to you and your home

Winterize Your Home and Give Yourself an Extra Boost of Warmth

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ntroduction

Every season has its own flavor.

Seasonal decoration adds charm to the home by giving it a new fresh look. Every season entices us to come up with some innovative decorative ideas. Seasonal decoration is nothing, but experimenting with different colors, fabrics and finishing giving your home as well as surrounding a perfect seasonal look. The mighty rage of North Wind indicates the coming of winter season. Winter is the coldest season of the year, between autumn and spring, marked by the shortest days and longest nights. Noticeably, people spend most of time at home during winter and decorations for winter should permeate into every part of the home from the living room to toilet areas,

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By: GerryBrown

reflecting the season. Sitting in a bright colored room filled with cinnamon aroma, a soothing music on, a cup of hot beverages or hot chocolate on your table, few scented candles lit around the beautiful flower vases refresh your exhausted mind and liven it up, creating a heavenly atmosphere. Let there be colors and let there be light everywhere. Get ready for the cold days esthetically and celebrate winter!

You do not need to consult a professional interior designer for enlivening your home up. Just go with your instinct and exercise what your heart says. Go through some special approaches to decorate your home during winte r days.

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Use Bright Color with Heavy Fabric:

As nature goes grey and cold, it’s wise to pick bright colors for your interior.

Color has a great impact on human mind.

It changes mood. The best way to decorate your home is to play with bright colors in heavy fabric which add warmth and

smaller and large rooms cozy. Leave the monochromic color and experiment with lots of bright rainbow colors during winter.

Add Fragrance and Colors with Flowers:

Flowers fill your home, especially living room with heavenly smells. Place

By: Jim Wang

Quick Tips To Winterize Your Home

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ith winter coming, I thought it was important to review a few simple tips to help you winterize your home and save some money in the process. Most of these tips are really simple, cost little, and can help reduce your energy bill – thus helping both your wallet and the environment!

Insulate your attic.

One of the easiest ways to save some money is to ensure that you have at least 12 inches of insulation in your attic. Hot air rises and through the attic is where it’ll go unless you sufficient insulate it. The rule of thumb is that if you can see your ceiling joists (the wooden beams), you don’t have enough because those are often shorter than 12 inches.

Turn off exterior water lines.

Chances are you won’t be using any of the water faucets outside of your home, so shut the valve that allows water to those exterior bibs. This prevents the water inside from freezing and cracking your pipes.

Wrap your water boiler.

Since it’ll be cold, it’s more important than ever to invest in a water

bring coziness. Color can make your small room appear large and large room more cozy. Light colors for summer and bright colors for winter make the place snug and comfortable, adjusting the moods and emotions, and offering a fabulous look to it. While blue, purple and green are considered as cool colors, red, yellow, and orange seem to appear as warm and intimate. Due to some characteristic, these warm colors make small rooms appear www.interiornewyork.com

bright colored flower vases at different locations in your home. Don’t forget to buy bouquets from florists to make the interior dazzling and cheerful. While purchasing flowers, make sure they could give off sweet fragrance.

Candle can be Kindled:

Burning of scented candle will give your home an instantly warm feeling and fill your home with sweet fragrance.

Cinnamon is a wonderful aroma to have in your home for winter months. You can purchase candles available in a variety of sizes and shapes made with pine, apple, cinnamon, etc. Burning these candles would make the living room and dinning space dazzling and give off a wonderful aroma, consequently making the house warm also.

And Let There be Light:

Lighting should definitely be in sync

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heater blanket and warp your water heater so it loses less heat into the ambient air.

Open the blinds in sunny rooms.

Be sure to keep the blinds open on any rooms that get a lot of sun, ever little bit of extra heat can help keep those bills down.

Get a programmable thermostat.

Programmable thermostats can help you save a ton of money by only turning on when you most need it. All HVAC systems work the same way – they are either on or off (there’s no low, medium, or high intensity setting). If you can keep your system off when you’re not home or when you’re asleep, you can save yourself a lot of money. They are easy to install and often break-even (cost vs. savings) within the first year. Here are the things I do to make the HVAC run as little as possible: We set the minimum temperature of the home to 55 degrees F. The thermostat is otherwise set to 65 degrees when “on.”It’s set to be turn on about thirty minutes before we wake up and shuts off at around 9:30.

It turns on at around 5:30, which is approximately half an hour before we get home. The system shuts down at around 11:00, about half an hour before we go to sleep.

I work from home now but I haven’t worked from home during the winter yet, so I’ll have to see how cold it gets… so far it’s been fine in the summer (which nothing changes except the temperature settings).

Consider lowering the temperature setting on your thermostat.

A lower temperature means the system is on less, so try lowering the temperature a degree at a time. You’ll either adjust or reach a point where the temperature is far too low. Either way, you’ll find your sweet spot where your wallet meets your body’s needs. There’s no sense dropping the temperature so low that you get sick,

with the seasonal decor. Winter decor doesn’t mean decorating for Holiday celebration only. Winter decoration starts before Holiday by displaying 10 INTERIOR NEW YORK I NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010

colorful lights on the front door and surrounding. Highlighting trees and bushes with ambient light or sparkling light adds an enlivening spirit to your place. To get out of winter blues and make your home warm and summery, use attractive light shades made of colored and textured glasses. Golden lighting could give you a pleasing and warm feeling perfect for winter.

Bright Carpet and Colorful Rugs:

Rolling out carpet on the floor brings warm and add new fresh look to your

living room. While rolling carpet on the floor, make sure carpet are thick and bright colored. You can blanket your furniture with heavy colorful soft rugs and throws. They add a gorgeous look to the attractiveness of furniture. Replacing plastic tablemats with jute tablemats can bring warm to your living room and add a fabulous look to it.

Hang Thick and Colorful Drapes and Curtains Up:

The best way to theme a home for winter should begin with the practical aspects of winter decoration. The www.interiornewyork.com

that just doesn’t make financial sense. And put on a sweater.

comfortable and is fun to laze in.

importance to you. This is especially wellconsidered when your floor is bare.

Replace your HVAC air filter.

I recently replaced my air filter after the fall season and noticed it was remarkably dirty despite our limited use (Maryland is fairly temperate so we don’t use our HVAC system much in the fall). During the winter, when the system will run more often, it’s good to replace it monthly so that you don’t have a dirty air filter ruining the efficiency of the system.

Winter is a time when most of people spend their time at home and feel uneasy to go outside for food. Secondly, as winter is a festive season, so there are lots of party and celebrations organized at home. A lot of food too is prepared and eaten during the winter. Kitchen and dinning space

Winter is a season of which mighty rage impacts on every aspects of our life. The coldest weather of winter makes people confined in their rooms most of time - the months of December, January and February in the Northern Hemisphere, and June, July and August in the Southern Hemisphere.

would especially become more attractive with a change in decor. Pullout and roll out attractive linen for any festive celebrations at home.

Keeping in mind, the entire effect should be driven to make home cozy, warm and belonging. Use bright colored curtains, drapes, upholsteries, bedcovers, throws, pillows and vases. There should be colors everywhere. Get a colorful painting for the living room to liven it up. Let’s decorate life with various colors and dip into the spirit of festivity. This is the best way to defeat the winter blues.

Pullout and Rollout Attractive Linen at Kitchen:

Flip the switch on your ceiling fan.

This one is really easy, just flip the rotation direction on your ceiling fans. As hot air rises in the winter, you want the fan to blow upward and slowly. This circulates the hot air back down into the room. When it becomes warmer, you want the fans to blow downward and quickly to cool you off.

Install window insulators.

Window insulators are simply plastic sheets you tape up over windows to add an extra layer of protection from the cold. This is especially effective if you have drafty windows as the head from your home can easily escape from those spaces. If you have especially drafty or old windows (especially if they’re single pane), consider replacing them. windows are a source of heat leakage.

So, heavy and colorful drapes or curtains should be hung up throughout the home in anticipation of the cold.

Furniture and Fun:

The addition of some extra comfortable furniture makes large room appear cozy while adding some extra advantages during winter. With people spending more time at home during the wintry days, it would be wonderful to have furniture which is

Making Your Home Inviting:

To make your home attractive and comfortable, you can roll out bright colored carpet over the cemented or marvel floor. Red color is always the best choice.

Put some extra slippers in a colorful basket by the front door. Let your guests to grab a pair of slippers when they take their shoes off. It would make your guests realize their

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Natural Village Café When Dining Agrees With You and Your Diet

Has dining ever come with a clear conscience? Usually, at least one golden health or dietary rule is broken in the process.

However, at Natural Village Café you can eat conscience-free, having your specific dietary needs catered to in the food prep.

Health All Over

The number one aspect that makes the Café so unique is its emphasis on natural and organic foods. This means that all foods served at the Café are free from food chemicals, pesticides and hormones. Only the finest and freshest ingredients are used in preparing the wide range of dishes.

Additionally, customers have an array of gluten free, sugar free, wheat free and spelt dishes from which they can choose to meet their specific dietary needs. Whichever of these your diet may entail; the foods will be prepared for your specific needs.

Restaurant goers can choose from a delicious selection of wraps, fish, pasta, sushi, salads and desserts. The prices are extremely reasonable and competitive, in contrast to the ordinarily prohibitive cost of organic foods in today’s market.

The Café is also in the process of opening a healing room, featuring, nutrition and health classes, under the expert guidance of Nina Shapir, who holds a degree in natural healing.

Nina is also on-hand to answer nutrition-related questions, help plan meals and explain how to cook using the special methods required when using healthful or allergy-free substitute ingredients.

Feel at Home

Natural Village Café offers a comely, spacious dining area, making one’s breakfast, lunch or dinner out a most pleasant and comfortable experience. The charming décor of natural stone and slate add to the relaxed yet elegant atmosphere.

The room can accommodate 80-100 quests comfortably for simahot and parties with enough space for strollers and other paraphernalia. Under the strict supervision of the Vaad of Flatbush and conveniently located on East 2nd and Avenue I, Natural Village Café is sure to make a great location for any event. Popular dates are filling up quickly, so be sure to reserve your special date soon.

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LIVING in new york

Surviving The Holiday Travel

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y now, I think most of us have seen the movie PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES, with Steve Martin as an ad executive doing his best to get back home in time for the holidays, who keeps getting stuck with the most obnoxious traveling companion anyone could imagine, in the person of traveling salesman John Candy. The movie is an exercise in bad luck, chronicling pretty much every travel nightmare you 28 INTERIOR NEW YORK I NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010

can imagine. It’s a very funny movie, and worth a look each Thanksgiving, but with holiday season 2010 upon us, I’m sure most of us want to do everything we can to avoid art imitating life.

If you are going to be traveling for the holidays, it is important to have your plan made ahead of time. It just makes the process so much easier. A crowded airport terminal is no place to have www.interiornewyork.com

“Be sure to confirm the status of your flight before heading to the airport. This may be easily done online and will save you the headache of rushing to get there only to discover that your flight has been delayed or worse, canceled.”

to sit down and determine your next course of action. So here are a few suggestions for this year’s holiday traveler: Pack in several layers. When packing your luggage, you should lay down a layer of clothing, then a layer of electronics, then another layer of clothing, then another layer of heavier items, and so forth. This will allow TSA security to quickly scan your luggage and keep the lines moving. www.interiornewyork.com

Be sure to confirm the status of your flight before heading to the airport. This may be easily done online and will save you the headache of rushing to get there only to discover that your flight has been delayed or worse, canceled.

Timing is important. Plan on getting to the airport at least two hours prior to your scheduled departure time. If you are like me, make it a good three hours. It is always preferable to be early than to be late, and as a result, rushed. Remember that airport parking lots will be more crowded, ticket lines will be longer, and other passengers who are less prepared will inevitably hold up the security screening process.

Avoid wearing any clothing or accessories that have metal in or on them. This will only slow you down since you are forced to account for all of it when going through the metal detector. Remove everything from your pockets and put it in your carryon. All shoes have to go through the screening as well, so make it something you can slip off and on easily.

Liquids – airports DO allow travelers to bring liquids, aerosols, and gels aboard in their carryon bags, however they must be in containers no larger than three ounces and placed in a single, clear, quart sized zip-loc bag.

When it comes to other personal effects, such as wallet, keys, or cell phones, the best thing you can do is keep them close to you, preferably on your person, but certainly no further away than your carryon bag. Thieves know what to look for and where to look for it; don’t give them an opening to rip you off.

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Be sure all of your luggage is properly tagged. Lost luggage and flying are a cliché’ in their own right; in fact, there is a whole department at the airport devoted to tracking down lost luggage. Make sure to label all of your luggage with your name, home address, and phone number.

This will prove invaluable if you and your family go to Florida and your luggage goes to Nova Scotia.

Keep your identification handy.

TSA security requires a government issued photo ID (driver’s license, passport, or military ID). If you don’t have one or have misplaced it, two forms of non-photo ID (local, state, or federal) will be required, such as a birth certificate, Medicare card, voter registration, or Social Security card.

If you are carrying your laptop, place it in a security friendly bag, one without outside pockets, flaps, etc. Make it easily

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accessible for airport security and screening devices. Anything that helps the process move forward quickly is a good thing.

If you are traveling by car: Make the process easy on yourself. Slide your seat back as far as you can to make the drive more relaxing.

Make sure everyone is securely buckled up, and that all children under 12 years of age are properly restrained in the back seat.

Don’t make yourself a target for thieves. Dress in a manner that does not identify you as a misplaced tourist.

The bad guys know what to look for.

Make sure you have a cell phone charger in your car.

Rent a vehicle to travel in. Sometimes, not having to worry about the wear, tear, and mileage on your own vehicle can be a great stress reliever. Just be sure to get the insurance coverage; it doesn’t cost that much and in the event of an accident, you’ll be grateful.

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BENEFITS to you and your home

Fireplace Heaters,

the Newest Technology in Heating

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n electric fireplace heater is an excellent combination of attractiveness and functionality. When looking to add a decorative touch to a room, choose an electric fireplace heater for warming the temperature and adding coziness to a room, opposed to an ordinary space heater. Electric fireplace heaters simulate the look of a fireplace, but clearly

do not actually burn gas or wood like a traditional fireplace. As a result, here are no added inconveniences or expenses from storing firewood or installing gas lines into your home.

You might ask yourself a few questions about fireplace heaters. How exactly does a fireplace heater work? Well, the heat generated from a fireplace heater comes

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By Alicia DeLangis

from electricity, so there is no need for a chimney to vent fumes or smoke like a traditional fireplace. Instead, the heat radiating from the electric fireplace heater is completely clean and free of all unhealthy or unclean material that comes from a fireplace such as smoke, carbon monoxide, soot, and creosote. As a heater, an electric fireplace is also very efficient; www.interiornewyork.com

This electric fire place is a wallhung unit that doubles as a piece of art.

all the heat is released directly into the room instead of escaping up a chimney.

Unlike central air or heating, which would wastefully heat an entire home, an electric fireplace only warms the immediate room where heat is needed. For pennies, one can use a fireplace heater to economically, conveniently, and efficiently warm a room.

Now think about it, why would I want a fireplace heater, how will it help me? The visual appeal of a fireplace is universally known. Traditional fireplaces are most likely limited to large homes that can accommodate additional space and the chimney necessary for installation. With an electric fireplace heater it is possible to have a fireplace where they would not normally be found. For example, places that would not be able to accommodate a www.interiornewyork.com

fireplace would be a condo, an apartment, a small house, an office, a high rise building, a boat, or an RV, and can now enjoy the warm glow of a fireplace. The look of an electric fireplace heater is surprisingly realistic. The electric fireplace heater has light bulbs to simulate the smoldering of a fire right down to the glowing embers.

The last thing that concerns the general consumer is installation. Installation of an electric fireplace heater is extremely easy.

Most electric fireplace models will run on a standard 120-volt home electrical circuit with no need of special wiring.

It is simply a matter of positioning the unit and plugging it in for fast and easy warmth. There is no need for difficult construction to install our electric fireplace heaters; just a nearby electrical outlet!

Unlike a traditional fireplace, an electric

fireplace heater is also totally portable. It would be very easy to move the electric fireplace heater from one part of the room to another if you did not like where the electric fireplace was positioned or if you wanted to focus the heat output to another part of the room. Also, once you light a fire in a traditional fireplace, you have very little control over the amount of heat coming from the fireplace. With an electric fireplace heater the heat settings are completely adjustable. You have control to adjust an electric fireplace to send out minimal or maximum heat, depending on your preference. Also you have the option of turning off the heating function and using your electric fireplace heater simply as a decorative item!

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AROUND the neighborhood

First Exit to Brooklyn

Brooklyn, New York is world-famous, but for all its fame it is not as widely known that there are actually multiple Brooklyns in a sense, or many different neighborhoods that can in their own unique ways all claim to define the borough. Consider Midwood for an example.

One of the oldest neighborhoods in all of New York City, it was founded by the

Dutch in 1652 as a rural settlement called “Midwout” that remained undeveloped until the twentieth century. Modern-day Midwood is a mixed-income neighborhood of working class tradesmen and upper middle-class professionals that hail from many parts of the world; those from Russia, China, Poland, Greece, India, and Mexico predominate.

BEFORE Most notably, there is a large contingent of

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observant Jews ranging from the “casual but not secular” to those highly religious, giving Midwood a special character found only in a few other places within Brooklyn. Most of these descend from immigrants out of Eastern Europe, most notable the former Soviet Union.

Midwood is often erroneously referred to as being a part of Flatbush, an older and more established neighborhood adjacent to it, while nearby Fiske Terrace and Midwood Gardens are often referred to as being a part of Midwood. However, such mistakes just reflect the fluid nature of municipal boundaries, which are as often affected by real estate developers’ marketing materials as any city planner’s intentions. As with most boroughs of New York, neighborhood bounders are very lucid and loosely defined, usually determined by local residents and are therefore going to be different depending on whom you ask. Unlike many neighborhoods in the city, Midwood can claim a steadier population, with deep roots, though in New York terms that means decades instead of centuries.

“Nabes” like Midwood can be taken as a whole microcosm in themselves, and www.interiornewyork.com

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therefore epitomize Brooklyn even though they form only a small fraction of it. Thus the whole is reflected in each part, or to put it another way the whole reflects each part.

It’s something of a chicken-or-egg question, comparable to arguing over the best pizza, and a dilemma that each traveler must explore on his or her own.

This kind of cultural intangibility is where Brooklyn derives its charm. It is an eclectic borough comprised of many diverse neighborhoods whose lack of consistent ethnical identity and sheer variety of people and culture has come to define the borough and has made Brooklyn a name recognized the world over. It is a place where people of every race, color and creed live harmoniously in close proximity to each other, working together, taking the train together and all around comprising the social fabric of New York City. When people speak of America as a “melting pot” of cultural diversity, Brooklyn stands among the most poignant examples.

Paul Wise - About the Author: Written by Paul Wise, who has lived in Brooklyn recommends BlogFaceOff.com for more reading on the subject and New York City in general.

Retrieved from “http://www.articlesbase.com/ travel-articles/first-exit-to-brooklyn-3037959. html”

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BENEFITS to you and your home

Small Apartment Kitchen Designs

By Richard McIntyre

When doing a small kitchen design for an apartment, either a corridor kitchen design or a line layout design will be best to optimize the workflow. The corridor design does have its limits and may not be able to be used if the kitchen is too small. The corridor style kitchen design will minimize the use of countertops in a small kitchen. It also puts the water, electrical and other services all together in a cluster. It will enable you to have access to the appliances all at once without having to walk to the other end of the room.

A corridor apartment kitchen design can have walls on both sides. This design allows you to walk down the middle with tight walls on either side of you. In the corridor design, it is best to keep the sink and dishwasher together since the water supply and drainage will need to be accessible to the dishwasher.

In a small apartment kitchen, you will definitely want to avoid putting as much stuff on the floor as possible.

Smaller appliances may fit in the kitchen but just because they are small does not mean they can be placed just anywhere.

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Minimal appliances will need to be used since a smaller apartment kitchen can not provide space to accommodate the bigger appliances like a large kitchen can.

There are tons of compact kitchen items that can be used now. The items that are not used on a regular basis should be stored away. Even smaller 2 seated table sets can be used in a small apartment kitchen design.

Stoves can be built into the counter top of a small apartment kitchen. A mirrored backlash can also create a larger visual appearance for the small www.interiornewyork.com

countertop spaces in small apartment kitchens. You can use the walls for shelves that can hold up utensils and spice racks.

The drawer spaces underneath the main kitchen cabinets can also hold utensils or pot holders. Kitchen appliances should be kept to a minimum. A lot of bulky items make a kitchen look over crowded and junky. Smaller appliances take up a lot less space and can possibly even fit in the cabinets or cupboards for storage.

When renting an apartment, you cannot make any permanent changes but you can personalize the kitchen to your style and taste while you are there. You can purchase an item like a silver trash can or accent rugs. Purchase decor items in colors and textures that you find pleasing to the eye.

You can even create a theme for your kitchen with decorative items. The right color tone will give your apartment’s kitchen a larger appearance and a more comfortable feel.

Most of the apartment kitchens now are built with an eatin area. If your kitchen is large enough to have furniture in it for meals, you will need to measure the kitchen and see what size furniture would be appropriate. Always ask your landlord before making any permanent alterations to your small apartment kitchen.

Need some help finding the best Kitchen Design Layout for you? Or are you just looking for some Kitchen Design Ideas? Visit us at http://www.kitchendesignlayout.net for more ideas.

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HOME ACCENTS

BEAUTIFUL PIECES TO DECORATE YOUR HOME

Hand Made Wrought Iron Table and Bookcase by HMH IRION DESIGN 718-851-5870 www.hmhiriondesign.com

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Beautiful Bowl Sink By MONDIAL TIALS INC. 718-232-0800 www.mondialtiles.com

From sconces to pendants to candelabras to lamps, it’s a festival of lights at DESIGNER’S CORNER (914-834-9170, www. designerscorneronline.com) in Larcmont, which boasts the Tristate area’s largest collection of vintage lightning.

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Classic 19th century design. Deep diamond tufting. Double row of nail head trim. Square tapered legs and eclectic design - Suits every decor. At LOEFFLER FUURNITURE 718-436-8989

Read all about Butterfly chairs and unique furniture on our site at www.interiornewyork.com Featured here is a French Style Curio, With exquisite Italian Workmanship and Beautiful Bronze detail. These fine woods and inlays will create an ambiance of elegance and timeless design in any home.

With its high quality it is sure to become a family Heirloom.

Available at RENAISSANCE FURNITURE- 718-851-3977

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BENEFITS to you and your home

5 Home Insulation Tips That Can Save You Lots of Money

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here’s a good chance that high heating bills are here to stay. As the prices of natural gas and heating oil go up, homeowners will find themselves paying more and more to heat their homes in the winter. Fortunately, you can offset some of the price increases by beefing up your home insulation. In fact, most homeowners can save 30 percent or more on home heating costs by making a few inexpensive home improvements!

Older homes are often most in need of an insulation upgrade. But don’t assume that, because you have a newer home, it’s as wellinsulated as possible. Many homes built after 1980 have inadequate insulation because local building codes aren’t up-to-date with US Department of Energy recommendations.

Also, occasionally home-builders do scrimp on “little” things like insulation to lower costs and increase profits.

Here are some relatively simple and inexpensive steps you can take to lower your heating bills this winter: 1. Increase attic insulation.

Your attic is a big source of home heat loss and is one of the easiest places to get in to. If your attic does not have at least 12 inches of insulation you can lay paperless rolls of insulation on top of existing insulation, including cellulose or vermiculate. These types of insulation tend to “compact” over time, reducing their effectiveness.

By the way, a well-insulated attic is always cold. If you see icicles dangling from the eaves of your home it means that warm air in the attic is melting snow and the water runoff is re-freezing (which can also cause significant damage to your roof!). Get in there and insulate until the air is very cold.

2. Use weatherstripping around windows and doors.

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Lots of heat is lost through the spaces around windows and doors. Modern weatherstripping materials are inexpensive and very effective at minimizing the loss of warm air (and money). Most do-it-yourselfers can install weatherstripping pretty easily. Just make sure to do it in temperatures above 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, always apply weatherstripping to clean, dry surfaces to maximize effectiveness and ensure that it lasts for a long time.

3. Use expansion foam for small spaces.

Expansion foam insulation works great for filling small openings that allow heat to escape. Some examples include the spaces behind electric switch plates on exterior walls, openings where plumbing pipes enter the house, and the small openings that are used to run electricity, cable, and internet lines into your home. All together these little spaces add up to a lot of heat loss and a little bit of www.interiornewyork.com

inexpensive expansion foam can save you a lot of money on your heating bill.

4. Don’t forget the basement.

Home basements and crawlspaces often have many little openings that let heat escape. This is especially true if they are unfinished. Use paper-faced insulation on exposed ceiling joists and stuff small pieces of insulation into open crevices at the juncture of basement walls and the ceiling. Also, you might want to pump some expansion foam insulation into any small openings around the foundation, which are usually no more than an inch or two wide.

5. Use window curtains and blinds.

One of the simplest ways to reduce heat loss through windows is to use curtains and blinds. They can be closed at night to trap cold air and opened during the day to allow sunlight to naturally warm the house. Remember that the thicker the curtain, the more effective it will be at insulating your house.

As you can see, none of the home insulation steps above are too difficult or too expensive to accomplish. But they will save you a ton of money over the years. Take advantage of them and you just might find this year’s heating bills to be lower than expected!

Jamie Clark - About the Author: Jamie Clark is a researcher and writer for Home-Insulation -Guide.com. For more home insulation tips and to learn how you can lower your home heating bills visit http://www. home-insulation-guide.com today!

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GARDENING

Year Round Freshness with Winter Gardens

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he gardening season is fairly consistent in most areas of the world. As the seasons change, the gardening tasks adjust accordingly.

* Spring is time to plant, while fall brings on the harvest; winter brings a period of dormancy where no plants are able to survive cold and harsh temperatures. This can leave an avid gardener with a green thumb that feels a bit itchy.

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Whitney Segura

* While you certainly can’t change nature, you can learn how to beat her at her own game.

Why Should You Even Try Growing Plants During Winter?

Winter gardening is a challenging venture, but new technology makes it easier than ever, especially if you have the www.interiornewyork.com

resources to get your hands on the latest greenhouse gardening technologies.

In order to grow a successful winter garden, you need to plan ahead. Unless you live in a sub-tropical area, you will need some protection from the elements.

Depending on how cold your winters usually get, you may be able to survive with simple tools.

However, serious winter growers generally use a more permanent setup, such as a cold frame or a greenhouse.

For winter growing, you will want to capture as much sunlight as possible, so keep your growing area on a south facing slope, if possible.

What types of plants are ideal for winter growing?

Some warm weather crops, such as tomatoes, can survive into the winter if they are planted well ahead and are already established. Other crops can be planted in the late fall for a winter harvest, maturing when the days are short and cold.

Look for plants that are already suited for handling cold temperature, such as broccoli, kale, mustard greens and lettuce.

Keep in mind that they won’t mature as fast as they would during the ideal season. * You also may need to have row covers on hand to cover the greenhouse crops on particular frigid nights.

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BENEFITS to you and your home

Run Your Tap Public Service Campaign

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nvironmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway and Health Commissioner Thomas Farley today launched the Run Your Tap campaign, a public service campaign to educate city residents about simple precautions that can reduce potential exposure to lead from internal plumbing systems. While New York City’s drinking water in reservoirs and throughout the distribution system is virtually lead-free and of the highest quality, the campaign is in response to elevated lead levels found in tap water of some older homes that are known to have lead in their household plumbing. The City monitors lead levels in these residences and provides notifications to homeowners when elevated levels are found.

“NYC Water is safe and healthy to drink,” said Commissioner Holloway.

“DEP carefully monitors water quality at the city’s 19 upstate reservoirs and at nearly 1,000 sampling stations within the distribution system to determine if any contaminants, such as lead, are present.

We conduct 500,000 tests each year, and they show that our water supply is virtually lead free. But some older buildings in the city have lead pipes, or pipes with lead fixtures, which can

impact the tap water of private homes by introducing lead into water that has been sitting in the pipes for several hours or more. Reducing the possibility of exposure to lead in drinking water is simple and inexpensive: Run your tap for at least 30 seconds, until the water is noticeably colder, before drinking, cooking or making baby formula.”

“Water is the healthiest of all beverages, and we encourage people to drink tap water,” said Commissioner Farley. “Still, the plumbing in some buildings can cause lead levels to rise when water sits in the pipes for long periods. The elevations seen in the city’s recent tests have been too small to pose clear health threats — lead-based paint is the primary source of exposure in New York City, and we will continue to focus on it. But the best level of lead exposure is zero, especially for children and pregnant women. So remember to run your tap for half a minute, until it’s cold, before drinking or cooking with water from the faucet.”

As part of the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, DEP conducts tap water testing at a sample of homes in New York City known to have lead service lines or lead solder in pipes. The results of this year’s sampling show an increase

54 INTERIOR NEW YORK I NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010

in the number of samples above 15 parts per billion (ppb), the EPA standard for lead in water. This year’s test results show that 14% (30 samples) of 222 samples were elevated. Whenever more than 10% of the samples exceed 15 ppb, EPA requires public notification by the water supplier. New York City is not unique in experiencing this. Cities such as Boston, Washington D.C., Providence, and Portland, Oregon have all exceeded the action threshold in the past decade.

DEP is investigating the cause of this increase. Drinking water is rarely the primary cause of lead poisoning, but elevated lead levels in water can increase a person’s total lead exposure. Lead in tap water has declined since 1992, when DEP began anti-pipe corrosion water treatments. In addition, as in the rest of the country, childhood lead poisoning continues to decline as lead-paint hazards and other lead sources have been reduced.

During the four-month sampling period (June – September 2010) when lead in water levels were slightly elevated, there was a 2.4% decline in the number of young children newly identified with elevated blood lead levels as compared with the same period in 2009.

The campaign highlights simple www.interiornewyork.com

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safety precautions that can significantly reduce lead exposure including: • Running tap water until it is cold or for at least 30 seconds, until the water is noticeably colder, before drinking, cooking or making baby formula any time a faucet has not been used for several hours; and • Using cold tap water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula even after the tap has been running.

Health Effects of Lead Lead is a common metal found in the environment. In the past, lead has been used in pipes, plumbing fixtures and solder, paints, gasoline and other products. Lead may be found in air, water and soil from past uses of these products. Lead poisoning is a preventable health problem and young children are at greatest risk. Lead poisoning may cause learning and behavior problems as well as delays in growth and development in children. In New York City and across the country, peeling lead paint in homes is the primary cause of lead poisoning. Landlords must inspect and safely repair peeling paint if a young child lives at a residence. If a landlord doesn’t fix peeling paint, call 311. Children may also be exposed to lead from other sources including, imported consumer products, soil, and water.

Blood lead levels in children have been dropping precipitously over the past several years. Since 1995, there has been a 93% drop in the number of children with elevated blood lead levels from 19,232 cases in 1995 to 1,387 cases in 2009.

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