Wrought iron is oftentimes used to produce splendid wall decor. When seeking out appealing decor for your home's walls, there are numerous wrought iron on the market including those that can be hung inside or outside. They come in different colors, sizes, shapes and materials. Wall decor has numerous benefits that make it an ideal choice when choosing decor pieces to add to your home.

A type of iron, wrought iron is usually manufactured from refined metallic iron. It also contains one to three percent of slag (which mainly consists silicon). Slag is a substance that is created during the smelting operation.

Metal wall plaques and metal wall decor are ideally manufactured from wrought iron due to the fact that the material possesses the following features:

1. Sturdiness. Wrought iron is hard-wearing.
Iron is utilized in many of the items that we see in everyday life, such as cars, buildings, and tools, which makes it an integral metal. Iron is ample; it is the second most common element in the world, and the 4th most common element in the crust of the Earth. The human body contains about one-sixth ounce of iron.  Iron is the foundation of strong metal alloys, which are used to manufacture wrought iron wall decor and metal wall plaques.

2. Power to be Adaptable.
As equated to cast iron, wrought iron is much more idyllic for the creation of wall decor. The higher carbon content of cast iron makes it fragile and hard. Because wrought iron has a lower content of carbon, it is much easier and idyllic to work with when creating wall decor. Because this material is so flexible, it can be used to make wall decor of any shape and pattern, such as mirrors and wall grilles. Wrought iron pieces can be crafted into conventional or modern wall decorations, as well as traditional artwork.  You can find traditional fleur de lis wall art made from iron, or abstract wall art for a decor theme that is more modern.

3. Timelessness. Wrought iron has been a fundamental metal for many centuries.
History tells us that wrought iron has been utilized as a great replacement for bronze by people in Asia Minor during the 2nd century. Tools and weapons made from wrought iron were found in some areas by the third century B.C.; namely: China, Mediterranean, and India. Over time, Europe was employing cast iron to make wrought iron. In the last century, wrought iron was normally only manufactured for decorative uses, like the production of metal wall plaques.

4. Resemblance to Wood.
Due to the slag that wrought iron oftentimes holds, it has ‘grains’ that resemble actual grains of wood. When wrought iron is twisted to form a specific shape or carved object, you can distinctly see wood-like grains. Despite the fact that this is a rare characteristic, it is advantageous to lending texture to wrought iron metal wall sculptures and wall hangings.

Because wrought iron is durable and prolific, it is an ideal substance for creating metal wall art and metal wall decor. Due to its wood-like quality and texture, the metal wall plaques and metal wall sculptures made from wrought iron will always look interesting and appealing as wall art pieces.
 
Trends seem to run in cycles, and vaulted ceilings are back.  Vaulted ceilings, also known as cathedral ceilings, can make a room feel much larger than it actually because of the open vertical space.  But all of this open space can also be hard to dress.  Furnishings can get lost in a vacuous space, and while the room may feel large, it may also end up feeling impersonal.  So it is a challenge to make the room feel intimate and at the same time, larger than life.  

Tying It All Together
 
It is easy to get a room off balance when decorating a room with a vaulted ceiling.  It is important to balance what is happening in the lower half of the room with what is going on in the top half of the room.  It is all too easy to have the open ceiling space simply minimize everything in the room.  One way to tie the two halves of the room together is to use wallpaper with a coordinating border, and then repeat elements of them throughout the entire space.  By echoing elements in each half of the space you visually tie the two spaces together, and, by doing this, the space no longer feels vacuous. 

Tall Walls Need Artwork

Generally with vaulted ceilings you end up with giant wall spaces that you need to fill.  You can certainly find a huge piece of artwork to fill the space, or you can repeat smaller elements to fill the wall.  For example, by hanging a collection of mirrors or pictures with the same color frames, you create a large focal point for the room from a lot of little elements that all relate to each other.  Sometimes a large wall comes in handy, as in a family room where you want to hang a huge plasma screen television.  Just remember with tall walls, you want to use as much vertical height in your accessories and wall art as you possibly can.
 
Dress the Windows

When you are designing your window surrounds for a room with a vaulted ceiling, you want to consider the configuration of your windows.  On large walls you may want to consider many windows as one, especially if the windows relate to each other in some way.  For example, if you have three stacked square windows, it would be much more dramatic to hang curtains from ceiling to floor and treat them as a single window than it would be to hang curtains on each window opening.  Then if you need privacy or want to block bright light, you can add a shade to each window matching the wall color, and you will have functional window coverings without sacrificing the drama created by the drapes.

Large Scale
 
As you select furniture for you space remember that the open ceiling makes the room seem even larger than its dimensions would indicate.  So you want to make sure that you pay attention to the scale of the furniture that you are putting into the room.  This type of room is perfect for oversized and overstuffed.  So when you choose the scale of your room, make sure that the size of the furniture, size of the wallpaper patterns and upholstery patterns, size of the wall hangings and size of the accessories in the room are all in the same range.

 
If you find yourself needing to do some necessary home repairs and you simply do not have the money to make the repairs, you may consider applying for a home repair grant from the U.S. Government to get the job done.  While grants are not necessarily easy to get, the great thing about them is that if you are lucky enough to be awarded a grant, you do not have to pay it back.  In order to get a grant, you will have to go through the application process, but if you are eligible, it may well be worth it.

Finding a Home Repair Grant
One of the easiest places to check to see if you are eligible for a home repair grant is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which can be found online at www.grants.gov.  The grants themselves are generally awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.  For many of these grants you can apply right on the website.

Government grants are particularly useful for repairs that are necessary following a natural disaster when a house needs substantial repairs just to be habitable.  The Federal Management Agency, or FEMA, oversees these grants, and their applications can be found at www.fema.com.  You may also want to check your local housing agencies for grant programs, which are unique to your area.
You may also want to look into private grants, which are frequently offered by local businesses or individuals to help those in need.  Local service organizations or your Chamber of Commerce should be able to point you in the right direction for these grants.

Application Information
As you prepare to apply for a grant, you will need to supply some basic information regarding the necessary repairs on your home.  For this you will want to get a professional estimate in writing that you can submit with your application. 

Grant Qualifications
Usually, to be eligible to receive a grant for a home repair, you will need to need to meet the grant’s criteria.  Frequently these criteria will be income based or need based.  It may be tailored for the elderly or handicapped, and part of the application process is to prove that you meet the grant criteria.  Keep in mind too, that generally home repair grants are generally intended to restore a home to safe living conditions, not for cosmetic upgrades.

Benefits of Obtaining a Grant
Probably the biggest advantage of getting a grant for home repairs is that it does not need to be repaid.  This fact alone can lift a huge financial burden off of the shoulders of people who are already down on their luck.  Making the home repair will help maintain the value of your home, and it will ensure that your home is safe to live in.

Always be aware that where there is money, there is always a scam close by.  So when someone offers to step you through the grant process for a fee, walk the other way.  If you need help applying for a grant, go to your local HUD office, and they can give you the help that you need for free.

This article was written by Debra Haynes of Metal-Wall-Art.com who specializes in creating uniquely stylish interiors with abstract wall art and tropical wall hangings.

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If you had your own personal sauna, you can enjoy your own spa like environment right in your own home. The new sauna shower can bring this experience right into your bathroom. If you are comfortable working with plumbing and working with electricity, you can retrofit a sauna shower into your current shower, but if the idea of electricity and water is a little unnerving for you, then you may want to hire a professional to do the job for you.

Upgrade Current Shower
If you are simply upgrading your current shower to be a shower sauna, then the first thing that you will want to do is to completely waterproof and seal your shower stall. Most regular showers are not waterproof all the way up to and including the ceiling. Painted drywall is no match for the hot, steamy vapors of a sauna shower. The moisture will cause the drywall to soften and crumble in no time at all. So the first thing that you will want to do in your shower stall is to waterproof everything.

As you are covering your ceiling with tile or a prefab shower enclosure shell, you may want to consider adding some slope to the ceiling. As the steam from the sauna condenses and clings to the ceiling, a flat ceiling will allow the big drops of condensation to drip on you, which is not particularly pleasant. However, by adding a slight slope to the stall ceiling, the drips of water will slide down the walls and instead of dripping on your head offering you a much more pleasant sauna experience.

Then the next thing that you will need to do to your existing shower stall is to install a sauna shower door. These doors are sealed to keep and steam or water vapor from escaping into the rest of your bathroom. And finally you are ready to install the steam generator. This is where you may want to have a plumber or electrician help you with the project.

Install Sauna Shower Unit
If you are doing a major remodel on your home, or if you are building a new one, then you may wish to install a sauna shower unit instead of trying to update you old shower enclosure to work for steam. You can buy the complete unit, and then you can install it directly into the bathroom. The units come in all shapes, colors and sizes, so you will be able to find the perfect unit for your bathroom. You can find different accoutrements in the sauna shower units as well. For example, some units have built in stereo systems, and others have built in massage units. So depending on what features you want included in you sauna shower unit, you can find more affordable or more expensive units.

As you are planning your new sauna shower addition to your bathroom, you have to determine how you want to configure your new room. If you want to create a spa like experience, you may want your sauna and shower to be separate. However, if space is an issue, you may want to combine you sauna and shower in one combination unit.

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 andHaving a place to hang your hat is the motivation behind what most people work for throughout their lives. While many people strive to buy a house, sometimes it is not something that is possible to do right now, so you find yourself renting a place to live instead. Unfortunately when you do not own your residence, you may have some restrictions that you have to follow when you want to decorate your space. 

The types of restrictions that you run into are frequently rather limiting, so you will have to come up with some creative solutions to get around living in a barren space that looks impersonal and generic. But don’t worry – even if you cannot paint the walls in your space there are many different things that you can do to make your rented space your home.

Wall Art
A great way to bring color to your walls is simply to cover your walls with artwork. You may choose photos, wall sculptures, paintings, prints or posters, and when you are done, you will not even notice the plain white walls in your room. If you have large pieces of art or posters, hang them first to create focal points in your rooms. Then take your smaller pictures and group them together in some way that they relate to each other.  Match the frames, colors within the pieces or subject matter, and then form them into groupings so that they make a larger impact than if they are just strewn across your walls.
 
Curtains
Another way to get a lot of color into your room in an apartment is to hang ceiling to floor curtains on your wall. The beauty of this solution is that you can flank a window or sliding glass door with the curtains, or you may simply hang them on your wall to create the illusion of a window. You may even want to hang a large mirror on your wall and hang your curtains on either side of it. Use bright or bold colors to add energy to your room, or you can use a more neutral palette to simply create interest and texture on your walls.

Embrace Neutrals
If, like most apartments, your walls are painted white, then you may simply wish to embrace the white as the main component of your room. Choose a few pieces of large furniture to saturate the room with your favorite colors. For example, a couch and an area rug and a large glass bowl if rendered in the same bold color will pop out of the room at you. By creating a truly neutral backdrop keeping your walls, curtains and the balance of your furniture in pale tones, you draw the eye directly to your boldly colored pieces of furniture and accents, and you have long since forgotten about any white wall restrictions that you may have in your apartment.

Just because you are renting does not mean that you have to suffer a bland environment. Go ahead and get creative!

Debra Haynes is a staff writer and decorating specialist with Metal-Wall-Art.com and she offers stylish suggestions for decorating with abstract metal art and tropical metal art.