Adding Personal Touches: Coffee Table Decorating Decoded

Your coffee table is often the center of your living room, and its decorations can often give your room new life. Toss the old stack of magazines, add some new elements and try these simple steps to give your coffee table new life and showcase your personality.

First give your coffee table dimension by adding something tall. Use a tall vase or candle to give add height and draw attention to the table.

Next, choose something unique that represents you to add to your table. If you have a collection of things, choose your favorite item. This item gives the room a splash of your individual taste. An intricately carved porcelain elephant or even a dish of seashells you've collected on beach trips can spruce up your coffee table.

Always have a fresh element laid out. An orchid or small potted plant can add life to your room. Fresh cut flowers are a great way to add color to your coffee table and they give you a chance to switch it up; from daisies to irises you can choose new colors and shapes week to week.

Lastly and most commonly used, coffee table books are essential. Stack books that represent your hobbies and interests. Try books with lots of photos and facts, you can find coffee table books at your local bookstore.

Follow these steps and remember to add your own personal touches and you will have a fancy and fun coffee table in no time!

For more helpful tips, visit: http://pinterest.com/hudsonsfurn/helpful-tips/

How to childproof your furniture

Safety is a huge issue when it comes to children, especially around the house. The last thing you want to be worrying about is your children getting hurt on necessary household items, especially your furniture. Here are a few ways to childproof your furniture:

1. Chairs- Children naturally are curious and love to explore, which leads to climbing. Chairs are very common for children to want to climb on, and that presents a huge safety issue because the chair could fall on top of the child, or the child could fall off the chair. An easy way to solve this issue is to use chair locks. That way your children can’t move chairs away from the table.

2. Coffee tables- Once your child starts walking or crawling, a coffee table is the perfect height for them to bump their head on. The sharp corners of the tables are extremely hazardous to children. To fix this, install edge shields, or any type of cushion, around the corners of the table.

3. Entertainment Centers- Entertainment centers are great for decoration; However, they tend to hold a lot of items that are potentially hazardous for a child. Items such as a large TV, speakers, or a DVD player can top over and fall on a child. To prevent this from happening, push all these electronics as far back from the edge as you can. You can also anchor your TV down so it won’t tip over.

4. Heavy Furniture- Although you might think heavy furniture would be likely to stand up to the test of climbing kids, they still present a huge safety issue. When children climb all over it, there’s a chance it could fall right on top of them. To ensure this doesn't happen, install safety straps to secure the heavy furniture to the wall.