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Home décor trends for 2006 continue to favor simple, natural, durable and easy to care for styles of home furnishings. Enliven your décor in 2006 and redecorate from the floor up with Natural-Fiber Area Rugs.

Natural fiber rugs are hard wearing and offer an earthy, textured look that complements so many of today’s home décor styles. You’ll want top-grade features such as wider padded canvas bindings, mitered corners for a more finished look and heavy non-skid latex backing for added durability. High quality natural fiber rugs can be researched and purchased online from retailers like Home Decorators Collection.

There are several variations of natural fiber rugs to choose from each with its own benefits. Not sure about which type is right for your home décor? Discover the features of each in the list below.

Coir - the strongest of the natural fibers with a unique coarse texture.
Sisal – offers optimum durability with a smoother pile; takes dyes well and are anti-static.
Jute – soft underfoot; its flexible texture allows for interesting woven designs. Jute rugs are reversible for twice the life.
Seagrass - the most stain-resistant natural fiber with a smooth texture.
Bamboo – strength and stability with the look and texture of wood and a felt backing.
Cotton – affordable hand-woven cotton rugs are easy to care for and reversible for extended ware.

Unless otherwise directed most natural fiber rugs can be cleaned with mild detergent and your water hose in the backyard. Once clean hang the rug to dry in the sun. Don’t forget the all important rug pad between your rug and the floor. A rug pad will extend the life of your rug while protecting your floor and your family from damage and accidents.

To learn more about the many natural fiber rugs available visit HomeDecorators.com. You’ll see full-sized images with coordinating style options.

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Howdy everybody. Just dang, I can’t believe that it’s been over a month since I’ve posted. I think I just got a bit burnt out there once I was done with the major part of the kitchen renovation. After over four months of hard work that part of the house is done well enough that it’s fine if we never returned to work on it again. I do still have designs on doing the faux-stucco plaster work over the brick on the main wall of the kitchen.

Now the master bathroom and master bedroom renovations are on the docket. I am looking forward to getting back into the routine of planning, shopping, demolishing, and rebuilding. We’ve already been planning for the bedroom and bathroom work for awhile. The ideas were there, but the kitchen really was the priority. Actually, the kids rooms were the first things on the list; the murals and lighting we did for them was to make their transition to the new house easier. Once their little fun, private spaces were complete, we moved on to the kitchen. Now that the list is clear again, we move on to the master bed and bath.

For the bedroom we’re going to keep it fairly simple to start with. We bought some Benjamin Moore paint, a nice mirrored, wrought iron wall piece to use as a head board, a new folding closet panel door, and we’ve priced out new poplar molding for the door casements and the baseboard molding. The current crop of molding in this place is like sawdust, water, and spit pressed into a mold roughly shaped like a strip of wood. It’s falling apart, it looks like crap, and it just doesn’t belong anywhere, let alone inside a house where actual people live! Eventually I’m going to attempt to make a solid wood bed platform, but that’s at the bottom of the bedroom list right now.

In the master bathroom we’re going to be plastering over a smaller, second door that goes directly into the bedroom.  It’s not very useful since the main door is right beside it and is just off of the hallway is much more convenient.  There is also some moldy, water-damaged drywall beside the shower that needs repaired.  We already purchased some awesome 6×6 natural slate tile, a custom-made maple wood 42″ vanity in nutmeg finish, and we’ve got a cool sand-texture paint that we used in the sea-themed kids room.  We’re going to get the poplar molding for the bathroom too, and the lights, mirror, and vanity top will be updated as well.  We’ll be doing the tile, drywall, installation of the vanity and top, and refinishing the walls ourselves.

So the list is full once again and I’m pretty excited about it.  I’ll make more of an effort to  post our progress on these two big projects.  Until then, take care!

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