Knowledge is power » Style

Time to buy a new couch

Alpha — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:57:21 +0000

I am not a decor freak and I keep the furniture situation at home to the minimum. I can’t imagine spending thousands of dollars on expensive furniture that I will hardly use. Let’s face it. I spent the better part of my days Monday to Friday at work. I am at home only in the evenings and that is only if I don’t have something else to do after work such as go out with friends for a few drinks, dinner, exercise at the gym, go to soccer practice etc.

But after having my current couch for several years, I think it is time to replace it with something better. When I am at home, I like to read. I find it difficult to enjoy reading a book if I am not seated comfortably. Unfortunately, I bought my current couch when I was still in graduate school and I had little money to spent. In fact, I bought this one from another student who was graduating at the time. So, the couch is very old and the very cheap kind. Needless to say, it is not very comfortable.

So, this coming weekend, I will he heading to the local IKEA store to select a new couch for myself. I won’t be looking for something very expensive but I will be looking for a very comfortable one. I expect that my new couch will last me at least another 10 years.

Hide your TV

Alpha — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:07:08 +0000

TV sets have definitely improved their looks since the early days of the device becoming a necessity in homes. I haven’t had a TV myself for more than 5 years. I don’t need to waste my time watching the garbage that is shown on TV today under the umbrella of entertainment.

At any rate, if you do have a TV and want to keep it then I suggest that you find a way to make it part of the décor. Better yet, hide it when not watching it. You can try a pop up tv setup which hides the television away when you are not watching it. This way when you are hosting a party, you can decorate your house in a way that makes sense without this ugly box around.

Common Fashion Mistakes

Alpha — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:42:24 +0000

As a man, you may not be aware of some of the more common fashion mistake that you can make. But of course, ignorance is no excuse. You need to make sure that you are on top of your game at all times. After all, the clothes that you wear will say a lot about you. If you make a big mistake in this area, it could cost you big time at work or in your social life.

One of the most common fashion mistakes is not paying attention to the shoes that you are wearing. Even though you may not think that people notice your shoes, they do. For instance, your work shoes should not only match your suit, but they should also be shined at all times.

Moving on, wearing a short sleeve shirt with a tie is a big no-no. This is a huge fashion mistake, and unfortunately, one that many men make time after time. While there is nothing wrong with this if it the uniform that your company requires, you should never voluntarily give into this fashion faux pas.

If wearing a tie, there are several details to keep in mind. First off, you need to make sure that you are not going overboard. In other words, wearing a tie with clowns on it to a big business meeting is not a good thing. To go along with this, you must also make sure that your tie is the appropriate length. In today’s day and age, your tie should extend to your beltline; there is no two ways about this.

These are just a few common fashion mistakes. The best way to avoid any mistake is to think twice about everything you are wearing!

Assembling IKEA furniture

Alpha — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:03:41 +0000

I had to make an important decision recently. Where should I buy my new furniture? I have often trusted IKEA as my main source. For a while I did contemplate the possibility of buying my furniture from a local vendor in order to support a local business. But then I realized that my best choice was to go with what I know works. And IKEA has always worked well for me.

What I really like about them is that they have a large range of furniture from very cheap and just plain functional to very expensive and stylish. You can always mix and much from this large range of quality products and always decorate your house or apartment in so many different ways. Best of all, IKEA furniture are easy to assemble. You need just simple tools ( a screw driver and maybe a hummer will do, no need for anything excessive such as power or air tools) often included in the package. In addition, the instructions given are easy to follow even for a high school drop out. Once I heard that some scientists at Stanford University were actually working on a new robot that would assemble IKEA furniture for you. I can’t say that that is a bad idea but these furniture are so easy to put together that you have to be truly lazy to want a robot to do it for you.

At any rate, for these many reasons and my past and positive experiences with IKEA, I bought all my new furniture from them. So far, I am a happy customer.

Teak indoor and outdoor furniture

Alpha — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:39:31 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I like my furniture made of wood and not metal or plastic. Somehow, wood furniture have a certain quality to them even if you decide to buy the cheapest ones in the store. There are many different types of wood that is used for furniture each having its pros and cons. I recently purchased some teak furniture for my new apartment and so far I have been very pleased with them.

For the record, teak is a kind of tree that grows in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Teak is a hardwood that is suitable for stylish and durable outdoor (garden) furniture but not only. Indoor teak furniture can be found at many stores. Teak will last you a long time even in harsh weather so look for it when buying new garden furniture.

Buying furniture tips (or how to do it the easy way)

Alpha — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:36:21 +0000

Moving is always more trouble than anything but often you have little choice but to do it. Sometimes, you have to move because of a new job, a growing family, studies, and not as often for the fun of it. At any rate, if you can’t use your old furniture, buying a new set is always the most difficult part. Having become an expert in moving all around the world, here are a couple of tips on making buying furniture for your new place a more pleasurable experience than it looks.

First of all, my policy is to only buy the amount of furniture that I need. I hate a cluttered apartment so purchasing only what I need without sacrificing style is my number one priority. Having to buy fewer pieces of furniture implies that I don’t have to spend as much money or that I can spend the same amount of money but get better quality pieces. Another advantage is that if you have to move again some time soon, then you have less stuff to move.

Once you decide on the quantity of furniture you will need and a budget for it, you are ready to start looking for a store for making your purchases. This is where the Internet is truly your friend. Go online and find a few stores that are close to your neighborhood. Then, spend a good amount of time browsing the furniture catalog for each store. Mark the furniture that you like and keep notes. Put together a budget. Being organized will make the trips to the stores much more pleasurable.

These are my two main tips for buying new furniture after a move. Remember that planning ahead and taking advantage of the resources available to you (mainly the Internet) can help make a stressful experience into a fun activity.

Live like the Romans with a custom home design

Alpha — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:04:15 +0000

The average house today has little character. In fact, most homes look more or less the same. They are designed to be put up quickly and to be functional as in providing a roof over our heads and nothing more. But, if you are willing and can afford it, paying for a custom architectural design can go a long way in making you feel better about your property but also increase it long term value.

The good news are old elements of architectural design, i.e., columns, capitals, medallions, etc., can now be installed in your new home easily. Best of all, these are constructed by modern material (fiberglass columns for example) which are of high quality, easy to install, and of high endurance.

At the end of the day, you can live in a house that looks like a carbon copy of every other house in the neighborhood, or you can invest a small amount of money for a custom architectural design and make you feel like you live in royalty. It’s your call!

Curtains or window blinds?

Alpha — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:50:22 +0000

I’m not very big on home decor but since it seems that I move once every couple of years to a new rental apartment, I always faced the choice between apartments with curtains or window blinds (usually these are of the slat variety but recently I even came across one room with roller shades.) At any rate, I have always chosen apartments with curtains over window blinds. I guess the main reason is that curtains make the place look a little bit more classy and, in my opinion, are much easier to clean. Curtains also don’t break and are easy to replace with a design that better fits the rest of the apartment’s decor if need to redecorate arises.

GQ and the Fashion they regret

Bigsky — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:35:56 +0000

Okay, GQ the fashion magazine for men is over 50, actually 51 years old and over the years they have acknowledged that they have made mistakes in telling us how to dress. Here is there worst mistakes that they are big enough admit, and say sorry this one was our fault. The top 10- In no particular order… brace yourselves

1) rainbow ties, with flower shirts (this fashion mistake is from the 70’s)
2) The Vanilla Ice jacket that he wore in the Ice, Ice Baby video-yes GQ actually endorsed the jacket
3) Male scarfs with suits or blazers instead of a tie. Yikes!
4) leopard skin smoking jackets-many, many animals were harmed in the making of this thing
5) Capes, yes you heard me, capes-not exactly superman capes but lion skin capes, probably a follow-up to the leopard skin thing
6) Back to the seventies for the classic male jumpsuits-for those of you that remeber Steve Austin (six million dollar man) we mean these jump suits. especially the valor jump suits with no buttons-I could go on, but I will stop here with this fashion mistake.
7) Rainbow jackets-this includes jackets with rainbows, moons, suns or stars anything in the sky that appears on a jacket-saddly every once in a while it seems that someone tries to make this thing come back into style. Say it with me “Never Again!”
Flair jackets-okay so picture Jennifer Aniston in the movie Office Space working in that restaurant-remember the buttons all over here waitress uniform-okay now imagine that on a suit vest on a guy. Terrible.
9) Multi colored suit vests-enough said
10) Speedos-Damn!

The value of a wrist watch

Alpha — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 02:24:53 +0000

I was talking with my father the other day and he happened to mention that he had an old watch from the 60s. He said that last summer when he showed the watch to someone familiar with jewelry he thought the watch was worth a couple of thousand of dollars. Apparently, my father’s wrist watch is now considered an antique. Considering that it continues to work perfectly, it is very valuable and chances are that its value will continue to increase over the years.

This got me thinking about the wrist watches that I have owned over the years. These would not qualify as luxury watches and most were of the cheap, digital kind that I picked up at the local electronics store. I never thought of a watch as being more than what its function which is, of course, a piece of equipment for keeping track of time. Maybe I should reconsider and invest on a better watch. Nothing too expensive but definitely something better than I can pick up at RadioShack. Maybe one day when I am older the watch will be valuable enough to live to my children or maybe pay for a great retirement vacation in the Caribbean Islands.