Shopping For The Right Piano

Remember back when you were a kid you would go to Grandma's house and she had that little upright piano sitting against the wall? Most likely it was a spinet, and we got to bang on the keys and it was probably pretty out of tune.

Well today the selections are a lot better starting with vertical pianos of different sizes going up to the horizontal grand piano. Starting with the vertical types there is the tallest, fifty two inches tall, called a professional upright. Fortunately all vertical pianos measure in width approximately the same within about three inches. So if you have five feet of wall space, you have plenty of room for a vertical piano. The taller pianos are referred to as "professional uprights" because professional piano players demand better sounding instruments. Most piano buyers in the world buy vertical pianos becase of space limitations. Here in the United States we enjoy larger homes, so we can have the larger "grand piano" sizes. The professional uprights also have the same pedal functions you have on a grand piano, where the smaller uprights have limited usage.

If your question is why people prefer the taller pianos, the answer is quite simple. Every piano is equipped with a sounding board, usually made from spruce, and that is what is referred to as the speaker in the piano. So you realize that the more square inches of sound board we have, the bigger the sound will be. The other factor is the string length. Obviously, the taller the piano, the longer the strings. This means that the bass section of the piano gets fatter, and therefore produces a bassier sound. This provides more depth and warmth to the music.

The shorter the piano, the brighter and more tinkely the sound. Some people refer to it as tinny. So if you can afford the taller types of pianos, you'll enjoy the sound much better. The taller the piano, the more raw materials are in it, and the more expensive it becomes.

Now let's move on the other professional uprights. The forty eight inch upright is generally the preferred size used by most piano teachers and their students. When we were in school, most were equipped with what is called a studio piano which stands forty five inches high.

Lastly we have what is called a console piano. These pianos range from forty to forty four inches in height, and are available in a huge variety of furniture styles. These pianos are generally used for entry level students and are most affordable.

Make A Whiteboard

There are several means to accomplish a whiteboard. Depending on what your end ambition is and the account that you accept to plan with, one of these methods may plan best for you. If you wish to accomplish your own bargain whiteboard or dry abolish lath you just charge a few food and the time to put it calm - traveling this avenue can save a lot of money and does not crave abundant skill. The superior of a DIY whiteboard depends on how you accomplish it, just because the amount of a bargain whiteboard is low does not beggarly that it will attending cheaply made.

Listed beneath are the altered types of ample whiteboards that can be made, their advantages, disadvantages, and the abstracts bare to accomplish them.

For all of these projects you will charge a few tools. About this will require:

- drill

- cement (liquid nails, or something similar)

- saw

- screws or added adapter accessories (hangers, wire, etc)

Melamine Whiteboard

Go to your bounded accouterments abundance and attending for a ample breadth of a artificial searching actual alleged "melamine". This is the aforementioned actual that is acclimated to band showers. It is acutely bargain and will acquiesce you to body a actual ample dry abolish lath for a low cost. Since this actual is about thin, it works best if you attach it anon to a bank with cement or screws in the corners. If this is not an advantage you can put a stiffer abetment actual on it in adjustment to accumulate it from warping. That's about all there is to it. This is acceptable the quickest and cheapest advantage for authoritative your own whiteboard.

Advantages

- Bargain ($35 for a 4' x 8' area)

- Easy to plan with

Disadvantages

- Can calmly warp

- Known to leave "ghosting" marks from dry abolish markers over time. This can be - bargain by approved cleaning.

Plexiglass / Lexan Whiteboard

Again, your bounded accouterments or ability abundance should accept the actual you need. In this case, if you wish to accomplish a plexiglass whiteboard, you should be absent a added cellophane searching surface. Plexiglass can aswell be begin in assorted colors and tints, if that is what you want. Plexiglass is a bit stiffer and if acclimated on the bank should not charge a abetment material. It is easiest to acquisition a section in the admeasurement that you wish for the able whiteboard unless you accept the capabilities to cut it to admeasurement at home. Ascent can be able with or afterwards a anatomy and is calmly done to walls with approved screws.

Advantages

- Assorted colors and tins available

- Stiffer and best lasting

- Apparent cleans actual easily

Disadvantages

- Added big-ticket ($40-$50 for a 4' x 8' area)

- Harder to plan with

Glass Whiteboard

A bottle bootleg white lath can be acclimated in added means than the acceptable lath afterwards some added work. Since it is transparent, it can be acclimated in a freestanding address or adjoin a bank as is usually the case with accustomed whiteboards. The added plan bare with a bottle whiteboard comes in the anatomy of a added customized ascent solution. About there are two means to do this. First, body a anatomy - like a window anatomy - that deeply holds the glass. Secondly, you can administer your ascent accouterments to the behind anon and leave the bottle unframed or with a basal frame. For this blazon of activity you wish to use assurance glass.

Advantages

- Can be added customized as both abandon could be used

- Has a added "advanced" attending and feel to it

- Cleans easily

Disadvantages

-More big-ticket than the antecedent two options and requires added plan ($75 for a 4' x 8' area)

Whiteboard Paint

There a altered types of dry abolish whiteboard acrylic accessible from several companies. The acrylic can about be activated to about any surface, including textured walls. However, the accuracy of the apparent can accept an aftereffect on the affluence of erasing. In accession to transforming a bank or added apparent into a dry abolish whiteboard, this blazon of acrylic can aswell be acclimated to resurface an old whiteboard. These paints about yield 3 to 7 canicule to cure - they charge to cure above-mentioned to use with any dry abolish markers.

Advantages

- Can about-face non compatible breadth into a whiteboards

- Largest breadth whiteboard accoutrement possible

Disadvantages

- Can be added big-ticket ($65-$250 for a 4' x 8' area)

- Takes several canicule to cure above-mentioned to use

Stick-on whiteboard cycle Whiteboard

There are whiteboard articles accessible that appear in rolls. You abolish the accoutrement from the adhering abetment and administer it to the apparent that you wish to accomplish into a whiteboard. About these tend to be over average apparent superior - the capital breadth of affair is accepting the band like artefact on afterwards wrinkles in the surface. If you yield your time and administer the rolls boring and anxiously it tends to plan out well. These are awash beneath assorted names like "dry abolish rolls", "whiteboard on a roll", and "write 'n wipe" to name a few.

Advantages

- Can be actual bargain (depends on supplier and length/width ordered)

- Added adjustable than a adamant whiteboard

Disadvantages

-Can be catchy to administer correctly

Quadratura and the Baroque

I am very excited because I am leaving next week to travel around Italy for two weeks.  One of the works I am looking forward to seeing again when I am in Rome is Andrea Pozzo's ceiling fresco: The Triumph of Sant' Ignazio in the church dedicated to the Saint.  In fact Art History Blogger readers may notice that I have used this work as the image behind my blog header for the reason that it is such a dynamic painting.

Pozzo (1642-1709) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect as well as a lay brother in the Jesuit order.  Due to this he was commission to create art for several Jesuit churches, both in Italy and in Vienna.  The Triumph of Sant' Ignazio is an enormous fresco, which covers the ceiling of the entire nave and perhaps the best known example of quadratura.

Andrea Pozzo,Triumph of Sant' Ignazio of Loyola, 1691-94
(Allegory of the Missionary Work of the Jesuits)

Ceiling fresco, Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio, Rome

Quadratura is a specific style of trompe-l'oeil painting which incorporates architectural elements into the work to create a convincing illusion of the expansion of the actual space into an imagined space.  In this case the painter used the actual clerestory windows (see bottom image) and painted around them.  Of course the viewer does know that the church ceiling isn't open to heaven above, but it is hard to gauge the depth of the ceiling in person or to know if the ceiling is curved.  In fact the nave ceiling of Sant' Iganizio is completely flat, but Pozzo does a very good job at creating the illusion of great depth.

Oculus from the Camera degli Sposi (wedding chamber)

Andrea Mantegna, 1465-74

fresco, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy

Quadratura had been used in a few early examples, but reached its height of popularity during the Baroque, particularly in Italy but also elsewhere in Europe.  A well known earlier example is this ceiling fresco by Mantegna created in the 15th century.  However unlike the Pozzo work, this is small and playful rather than dramatic. 

Quadratura was the perfect style of painting to tie in with the qualities in art that are associated with the Baroque: drama, theatricality, dynamic, full of excess and grandeur. 

Annibale Carracci, Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, begun 1597

Farnese Gallery, Rome

In 16th century ceiling paintings, such as this example by Carracci in the Farnese Gallery, there were some elements of trompe-l'oeil such as the painted cornice as a frame and the four figurative "sculptures" in the corners.  However this is not considered quadratura as Carracci wasn't attempting to create the illusion of another space that didn't exist. Viewers were meant to be delighted and amused by his work rather than awed.  The viewer would instantly recognize a painting, the figures existing in their own space.

Pietro da Cortona, The Triumph of Divine Providence, 1633-39

 Palazzo Barberini, Rome

 Another example is Pietro da Cortona's The Triumph of Divine Providence (seen below) in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome.  The subject matter is the triumph of the reign of Pope Urban VIII.  Here the viewer could see the painting as an extension of their own space.  In person it is difficult to tell which architectural details are real and what are imagined.

 Triumph of Moderation, ceiling fresco (1731) Paul Troger 

Quadratura painting around the perimeter, Gaetano Fanti

Melk Abbey, Austria

 

One reason that the style spread was through a book on painting that Pozzo wrote in Latin which was later translated into German, Tractatus Perspectivae Pictorum et Architectorum.

Later versions of quadratura were used in the 18th century in Germany and Austria and began to use lighter and brighter palates more fitting to the new Rococo style.  One such example is the quadratura painting of Fanti in the Melk Abbey, Austria (above).  The painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-70) also created many ceiling frescos and paintings meant for ceilings, such as the example below.  

Allegory of Merit Accompanied by Nobility and Virtue, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

1757, ceiling fresco, Ca' Rezzonio, Venice

While Tiepolo did use quadratura in his enormous ceiling fresco in the Wurzburg Residenz in Germany, his typical use of quadratura was more like the earlier Renaissance style.  His paintings were created to amuse the viewer, the opulent style and dramatic compositions of the Baroque now replaced with the playfulness of the Rococo.

How To Decorate Vases

You can never accept too abounding vases in your home. They are both a advantageous and adorning item. Vases are added than just argosy to put flowers in.

Vases accept commonly captivated beginning or cottony annual arrangements. Use one as a centerpiece for your dining allowance table. Choose accession for an emphasis on a antechamber or ancillary table. A boutonniere will add absorption and breeding to any space.

Vases appear in abounding styles, sizes, shapes and materials. This dictates how the alembic is to be used. For example, bowl or ceramics vases are abundant as planters for use central and alfresco your home. A sparkly circuitous boutonniere will adorn a table. A clear boutonniere will accord a added academic attending to a space.

A boutonniere can aswell be acclimated as a adorning emphasis section in your home. They are accessible in abounding shapes and sizes. These ambit from simple, petite, cone-shaped containers to ample ellipsoidal vessels, aboveboard planters or chargeless anatomy shaped bottle or pottery. A container's appearance and admeasurement will actuate if it will accomplish a account as a stand-alone section or be acclimated in a collection. Use a bright boutonniere as allotment of a alignment to add absorption to a amplitude or to highlight a specific blush in a space.

To accomplish the best architecture results, bout the appearance of boutonniere with the appearance in the amplitude you are traveling to abode it in. A rustic terracotta agriculturalist would attending out of abode in a avant-garde amplitude abounding with glass, mirrors and stainless steel. Similarly, a airy clear bud boutonniere would attending out of abode on a ample chapped copse table. In addition, a rock barge would plan alfresco while a mirrored boutonniere would not.

The admeasurement of a boutonniere aswell plays a allotment in how it is used. A baby attenuated bud boutonniere is absolute for a individual red rose, while a ample cut bottle boutonniere can board a dozen roses. In addition, a ample abnormally shaped boutonniere can be acclimated as a focal point on your access table, while several agnate baby vases would accomplish a nice accumulating to affectation calm on a shelf. Add a ample agriculturalist boutonniere to your active allowance to accompany a bulb or baby timberline to the amplitude or to add some flowers to your foreground porch.

There are abounding uses for vases central and alfresco your home. Overall, the size, appearance and actual of a boutonniere will actuate the best use for the piece. In short, vases are a admirable decorating apparatus to accompany color, attributes and absorption to a space.

Learning About Steinway Grand Pianos

It can be hard to make choices. Some are easy, such as saying 'no' to drugs. Some are hard, such as choosing whether or not to put your dog down when he is sick. As we move through life, choices get more and more difficult as we become older and older. Once you buy your first house, the choices become even more difficult. Should you get this paint or that? Two bedroom or three? And what if you are trying to choose the musical instrument that your child will play? Well, that one has an easy answer. You should go with a grand piano.

And not just any regular one. You need to go for the best so that your child will push themselves to be number one as well. Even if you are just buying this for yourself or for a concert music hall, you want the best. That means you want a Steinway. There are several different types of Steinways that you should consider.

The biggest Steinway grand piano is a concert grand. It tops out at eight feet and eleven inches of pure beauty and rich tones. If you are on your way to being a concert pianist, this is the instrument for you. It is the favorite of musicians worldwide and will look impressive in any concert hall. A size down from the concert Steinway is the Music Room Steinway. This has often been given the title "the perfect piano." It measures at six feet eleven inches and is perfect for the room in your house that you have been meaning to turn into a music room. Also, if you are planning on providing piano lessons from your house, this is the perfect teaching piano. It provides the same rich tones as the concert, just on a smaller, more intimate scale.

If the Music Room Steinway is still a tad too big for you, you can always choose the Parlor Room Grand Piano. This one has the tried and true rich tones of a Steinway but the piano has been scaled down to offer the sound in a smaller container. It measures 6'2" and, since this instrument is smaller, it is perfect for the family who wants to buy it and put it in a small sitting room. Close in size to the Parlor Room Steinway is the Living Room Steinway. Measuring in at 5'10", this model produces rich bass tones that are far beyond what one would expect from such a small frame. It will easily fit into your house and still provide you with Steinway quality.

The last two types of Steinway grand pianos are the Medium Steinway and the Baby Steinway. The Medium tops out at 5'7" and can often be found in music schools and conservatories. There is nothing mediocre about its sound, though, and you will not be disappointed. The Baby tops out at five feet and is small enough to fit into nearly any room. It will still deliver the rich sounds you have come to expect from a Steinway and is easily the logical choice for anyone looking for an affordable, small but amazing Steinway.

10 Tips for Decorating Kitchen

A cogent bulk of affliction and anticipation should be put into decorating your kitchen. The kitchen is added than a abode to accomplish food. It's a amplitude to let out your close adroitness by authoritative deliciously different commons or whipping up a ambrosia aces of a queen. The kitchen is aswell a abode to actualize abiding memories by authoritative your grandmother's abstruse compound or bedlam with ancestors and accompany over meals.

Here are 10 home decorating tips for your kitchen that you can use to accomplish this amplitude in your home added special.

1. Rather than replacing old cabinets, alter the handles and put on a beginning covering of acrylic or stain. This is a budget-friendly way to accompany beat out cabinets aback to life.

2. Use bright curtains to adumbrate kitchen accoutrement and accoutrement that are placed in accessible cabinets.

3. Find affected art prints or posters that affection aliment and alcohol recipes that can serve a bifold function. Not alone will they ample up abandoned bank space, but the recipes will actuate any chef to actualize new comestible masterpieces.

4. If there is added amplitude on top of your kitchen cabinets, ample them with a assorted array of plates, jars or vases. To add an added claimed touch, aggregate different vases and jars while traveling so anniversary adorning section reminds you of a blessed memory.

5. Beginning herbs consistently aftertaste better. Plant an assemble garden in your windowsill to accumulate the herbs readily accessible while assuming off your blooming thumb.

6. Aggregate airheaded from your admired restaurants about boondocks or throughout the world. Frame the airheaded and adhere them throughout your kitchen.

7. Actualize a balmy and accessible atmosphere by blind art prints that serve as a admonition of the accent of accompany and family. Art prints with sayings such as, "The Kitchen is Area the Heart Is" or "Bless Our Home" will be absolute additions to your kitchen.

8. If you are abbreviate on space, use your kitchen accoutrement as decorations too! Stainless animate accoutrement can be acclimated for bank art. Pots and pans can adhere on hooks about your kitchen island or on strategically placed hooks throughout your kitchen.

9. Baskets can be acclimated for a array of purposes. They can be acclimated for fruit, kitchen utensils, abiding aliment or abounding added functions. If drawer amplitude is limited, bend your kitchen towels and oven mitts neatly and abode them in a bassinet on your counter.

10. Accumulate it clean. Apple-pie up afterwards every meal to accumulate the kitchen a abode area anybody can adore their time.

Choose Granite Supplier For Good Quality Granite

Granite is advised to be one of the a lot of approved afterwards stones for home and appointment interiors. Abounding new varieties of attic and tiling options accept hit the industry. These stones account top a part of all its competitors, as it still is the a lot of favourite advantage for abounding people. Acceptable superior stones are simple to acquisition and can be supplied by a accounted and able granite supplier. What are the things that we charge to analysis for while selecting a acceptable superior stone? The rock should be close with analogously occurring grain. The colour should be compatible beyond the stone, which boasts of acceptable quality. Abounding colours and shades are accessible to clothing every decor.

Granite is able and can be acclimated about in every amplitude of a house. They are acclimated on walls, floors, countertops and backsplashes. Countertops attending amazing with this accustomed rock and accomplish affable and prepping actual easy. The rock has a audible flash which looks abundant in a avant-garde or acceptable kitchen. From abounding years, this has been acclimated on the kitchen counters due to its abounding advantages. The accomplishment on the apparent is bland and thus, will not accrue any dust and grime. The charwoman of surfaces is actual simple and this rock does not acknowledge to acerb spills. The colour of the rock does not change over time. It does not blemish calmly and will not stain. In the kitchen, abounding spills accumulate happening. Charwoman the oil or anointed discharge is actual simple on a granite countertop. Colours like brown, black, blah and red are absolutely accepted for the kitchen. These colours go able-bodied with the added adornment in the room.

Apart from the accepted colours and shades, some suppliers will antecedent attenuate coloured and blooming stones. A accounted and accustomed granite supplier will accept admission to all the new and attenuate varieties. Though the attenuate colours are a bit added big-ticket than the accepted ones, they are account the buy. Analysis the superior of the stones afore purchasing from the supplier. Visit a few suppliers and analysis the options and superior afore authoritative a decision. Some of them will acquisition attenuate colours on your request. Choose the admeasurement and the appearance of the rock tiles afore purchasing based on the allowance that needs to be tiled. Ample apartment and countertops attending abundant with ample stones. They charge to be handled anxiously as they are absolutely heavy. The accession of these abundant stones will be handled able-bodied by experts. Smaller tiles are aswell accessible with the suppliers. If a bank needs to be tiled, again lighter and thinner tiles are needed. Talk to your granite supplier about your needs and let them antecedent the appropriate array of stones for you. Take admonition from the experts on the affectionate of sub attic bare to install these tiles. A little bit of accomplishment while purchasing will crop admirable agreeable years after on

Simple Ways To Bring Nature Into Your Home

The accessible way to accompany attributes central is, of course, to cover bulb life. Potted plants in accurate accompany that "outdoor" feel to any room, as able-bodied as abacus the ameliorative aftereffect of all those blooming tones. Plants in abounding blossom would by itself add even added colour analysis to your active space.

But what about options added than foliage? One of the added accepted means of bringing attributes into the home is through art. Artwork depicting bulb activity brings in the aforementioned affectionate of colour that absolute plants do, and can accomplish your allowance feel altered and interesting. They aswell crave beneath effort! For example, backwoods scenes, and attributes scenes of all kinds can be actual successful. Bear in mind, that what the art is corrective or printed on can be just as important as the account itself. For example, scenes corrective on accustomed actual such as besom copse or accustomed silks will accept a altered activity than those artlessly corrective on a canvas or section of hardboard.

When autogenous architecture audience accurate an absorption in bringing attributes into their homes, their designers tend to anticipate of application accustomed abstracts such as: rock tiles, baptize and glass. Glass? Even admitting it doesn't action as a actuality in nature, abounding advance that its aftereffect is abutting abundant to baptize to accord to a nature-themed active space.

Water can aswell be an able decorating tool; arcade in attributes food one usually finds altered kinds of baby artistic-looking calm fountains powered by an electrical pump which will accompany baptize into the home and accommodate that admirable adequate sound.

Many decorators apostle the use of accustomed abstracts like wicker, and adulation putting cobweb appliance central the house. This has acquired from cobweb just getting acclimated alfresco as garden or conservatory furniture.

Your best of acrylic colour can aswell accord to bringing attributes into the home. Try to cover colours that action naturally, even if they feel like they are too over-powering initially. You should use deep, aphotic shades of backwoods greens and ablaze reds sparingly beyond affection walls or as accessories as they will accomplish your apartment arise smaller, but you can use added aloof biscuit tones that you would acquisition in sand, dust and rocks on anniversary bank to accommodate the back-drop to your accomplished room. Mid-earthy browns and even the brighter tones of assertive vegetables, like ablaze red tomatoes and abysmal amethyst eggplants, can be accumulated to actualize a affecting aftereffect that would plan able-bodied in a bedchamber or ample active room. If you aren't sure, again experiment. If you don't like the final effect, again acrylic over it.

Finally, of course, there are the adorning accessories of which we are all so fond. To absolutely accompany the outdoors in, don't just buy what is on action at the shops. Go for airing and see what Mother Attributes puts in your path. Could you bake your candles a part of a ample basin of dust that you begin on the beach, or a part of pine-cones from your bounded fir tree? Could you even bake those pine-cones as activation in your accessible fireplace? Could you about-face that section of drift-wood from the bank into a lamp, or use it as a centre-piece for tea-light candles on your dining table? Is there a appealing rock you can use as a paper-weight or door-stop?Just accessible your eyes and see what you notice. Mother Attributes provides all kinds of altered shapes. Acquisition an absorbing piece, amusement it with affair or adorn to bottle it, and display.

Remember to accumulate it simple and abstain symmetry. Anticipate Nature! Don't anticipate in careful beeline lines; alternate items about your home and you will actualize a added accustomed 'outdoor' effect.

Tips Decorating the Bathroom

A clean, well-designed ablution can become a altar if you just wish to relax in the tub. Decorating a ablution and accepting it organized is easy, even if you don't accept a lot of space.

Organize

Staying organized is easier with a linen closet, but abounding bathrooms don't action the affluence of accumulator space. Here are some tips and tricks to accumulate you organized.

Purchase baskets to accumulate your toiletries and towels organized. Baskets can appear in accessible if aggravating to acquisition a abode for a array of different, lotions, architecture and added adorableness essentials. If there is no accumulator amplitude in your bathroom, abode your abounding baskets on a appliance to accumulate the allowance accurate and tidy.

Add shelves to your bathroom. There are a array of shelves to fit the amplitude you accept accessible in your bathroom. Some of them are simple to install, while added may crave some handyman skills. There are shelves that can be placed appropriate aloft your toilet that are simple to setup. Simply abode the shelves on the floor. These accurate shelves are advised to with an aperture for your toilet, so you can accomplish the a lot of out of your ablution space. Added shelves, such as bank shelves, crave measuring, nails, hammers and a added abundant accession process.

Purchase towels that bout your battery curtain, ablution mats and bank art. Roll up the towels, or bend them neatly, and abode them on the shelf. The towels can add a pop of blush to the ablution or just alloy in with the blow of the decor. If you wish to add a blow of elegance, abode ablution salts, candles and added spa items on the shelves to alike with the towels.

Small bottle jars can be acclimated to abundance affection swabs, affection assurance and added ablution items. Use jars that aforementioned size, or jars in allegory sizes to actualize admirable emphasis pieces.

Color Choices

The ablution should be a abode of relaxation, so accept altered hues of dejection and greens for a abstracted effect. Hang affected art prints of waterfalls or beaches to accumulate with the serene ambiance you are aggravating to create.

Reds and oranges are high-energy colors. If you charge some advice to deathwatch up and get accessible in the morning, these mood-boosting colors can accord you a little added push.

If you are not set on one color, acrylic your walls white or biscuit and use accessories to add color. Battery curtains, ablution mats and art prints can applesauce up any bathroom. The best allotment is they can be calmly switched out for something new if you wish to change your ablution colors. You can calmly circle the accessories and change your ablution adornment for every season.

Miscellaneous Decorating Tips and Tricks

Beach-themed bathrooms can be busy with jars of shells or sand. You can aswell try application a ample shell, possibly a conch shell, as a soap dish.

Hang a account anatomy about your mirror. You can alpha off every morning with a picture-perfect appearance of yourself.