When planning a remodel or updating the paint scheme in your home, it’s important to consider the relationship between select finishes and colors. Naturally, certain lighting and appliance finishes look better with some colors over others. Before splashing the walls with your most-loved hue or purchasing that gorgeous silver chandelier, led lights from china take a look at this quick color guide for our suggestions on the best paint color and fixture finish pairings.
Oil Rubbed Bronze
A naturally dark, rich metal that captures the timeless beauty of old world artisanship, Oil Rubbed Bronze fixtures breathe warmth into bold interior designs.
If you want your Bronze fixtures to pop, place them against a neutral backdrop such as an off-white with a hint of rusty red or brown. To further the relaxing and earthy quality of the finish, pair with gentle hues and cool LED panel light company, hazy-day tones found in nature. For a more bold design, try a deep charcoal to complement the metal’s glint.
Gold/Polished Brass
Polished Brass fixtures have a beautiful reflective quality that brings strikingly warm beauty to a room. Gold finishes are becoming increasingly popular in today’s interior settings.
Polished Brass offers an assertive look that contrasts well with warm 7W LED Panel Light, dark rooms adorned with deep red-orange hues. The finish also coordinates in cool rooms, bringing a burst of warm, glowing color to blue-green walls. Brass also pairs well with lavender and pink, which are near complements of its tone.
Brushed Nickel
One of our most popular fixture options, Brushed Nickel is a resilient metal that coordinates with a variety of design schemes. Offered in both modern and traditional families, Brushed Nickel is a cool metal – but the brushed quality gives it hinting warmth.
Neutrals – such as an ivory, light brown, beige or slate – blend well with Brushed Nickel fixtures and create a soft, yet modern, effect. The muted silver tone of Brushed Nickel blends well with purple, from lavender to plum. Blues and greens also make attractive pairings that lend to a calming environment. If you are feeling bold, consider a navy accent wall to offset the light color of Brushed Nickel fixtures.
What fixture and color pairings do you adore in your home?
2014年6月23日星期一
2014年6月10日星期二
Who pays the bills for the first lady's fabulous clothes?
Michelle Obama's fashionable clothing has become something of a given in her five-plus years as first lady. Yet her wardrobe still is the subject of endless public fascination and one long-simmering question: Who pays for those incredible outfits?
It's no small matter. Her high-low fashion choices mix everyday interlining, off-the-rack fare with custom creations from top designers whose gowns can run into five figures.
In recent weeks, Mrs. Obama has turned heads with a forest-green Naeem Khan dress at the opening of a new costume gallery at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art Lainiere De Picardie Interlining. She shimmered in a silver Marchesa gown at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. And her flowered shirtdress for a Mother's Day tea at the White House (recycled from an earlier event) hit just the right note for an audience of military moms.
It takes money to pull that off, month after month. Those three dresses by themselves could add up to more than $15,000 retail, not to mention accessories such as shoes and jewelry.
Is it the taxpayers who foot the bill? No. (Despite what critics say.)
Is it Mrs. Obama? Usually, but not always.
Does she pay full price? Not likely.
Does she ever borrow gowns from designers? No.
The financing of the first lady's wardrobe is something the Obama White House is loath to discuss. It's a subject that has bedeviled presidents and their wives for centuries. First ladies are expected to dress well, but the job doesn't come with a clothing allowance or a salary.
Mary Todd Lincoln racked up tens of thousands of dollars in clothing bills and considered selling manure from the White House grounds to pay them off, according to the National First Ladies' Library. Jacqueline Kennedy's father-in-law stepped in to finance her Oleg Cassini wardrobe to keep clothes from becoming a political liability for President John Kennedy. Nancy Reagan got grief for borrowing designer gowns and not always returning them or reporting them as gifts.
Laura Bush, in her memoir, said she was "amazed by the sheer number of designer clothes that I was expected to buy" as first lady.
How does Mrs. Obama, a fashion icon with far more expensive tastes than Mrs. Bush, swing it?
For starters, the Obamas reported adjusted income of $481,000 last year, and assets worth $1.8 million to $7 million.
And like most people, Mrs. Obama (mostly her personal aide, really) looks for discounts.
And, for really big events, the first lady has an option not available to every fashionista.
Here's how Joanna Rosholm, press secretary to the first lady, explains it:
"Mrs. Obama pays for her clothing. For official events of public or historic significance, such as a state visit, the first lady's clothes may be given as a gift by a designer and accepted on behalf of the U.S. government. They are then stored by the National Archives."
That saves Mrs. Obama considerable money, although the White House refused to say how often the first lady wears donated clothes and the National Archives declined to say how many such items it has in storage. The White House did say that the first lady doesn't borrow any clothing and, for the most part, buys her own clothes.
The clothing donated by designers includes Mrs. Obama's two inaugural gowns made by Jason Wu, a lesser-known designer before Mrs. Obama turned him into a star in the fashion firmament. Wu declined to discuss how he works with the first lady.
Mrs. Obama and Wu both were there when the first inaugural gown was presented to the Smithsonian in March 2010. The first lady said in her remarks: "The dress I donated today, made by Jason Wu, is a masterpiece." But the Smithsonian lists the gown as a "gift of Jason Wu in honor of first lady" Michelle Obama, making clear it came from him. The first lady's office had no comment on that.
Two other examples of gowns worn by the first lady that were donated by designers: the blue Carolina Herrera gown that Mrs. Obama wore to February's state dinner for French President Francois Hollande and the gold beaded Naeem Khan gown that Mrs. Obama wore to the 2012 governors ball, now on display at the American Museum of Natural History. Herrera and Khan declined comment.
The first lady's office had no comment on whether the couture gowns worn by Mrs. Obama for her six other White House state dinners also were donated. Nor would it say how many gowns have been donated for the array of other big events for which the first lady is expected to appear in couture finery, such as the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremonies, governors' dinners and White House correspondents' dinners.
Wearing donated gowns represents a change in practice from the Bush administration.
Anita McBride, chief of staff to Laura Bush during her time as first lady, said Mrs. Bush paid for all her clothes, including her two inaugural gowns: a red crystal-embroidered gown by Texan Michael Faircloth and a silver and blue V-neck creation of Oscar de la Renta.
McBride credits the Obama White House with finding a cost-saving way to "keep Mrs. Obama in all those incredible clothes and to have the use of them not once but multiple times."
The costs of a custom couture gown can be phenomenal, particularly if it is highly embellished with something like beading.
New Yorker Sarah Phillips, who designed Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1993 inaugural gown, puts the full cost of that violet beaded lace sheath in the range of $50,000, with the Presidential Inaugural Committee paying $10,000 and Phillips and the workshop covering the bulk of the costs. Phillips isn't sure whether Clinton herself paid anything toward the dress, but the Smithsonian's website describes the gown as a "gift of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Presidential Inaugural Committee."
Lawyers who served in the Obama and Bush White Houses describe taking care in working with the first lady's office to ensure that arrangements with designers didn't run afoul of ethics rules designed to guard against conflicts of interest and questionable quid pro quos.
Beyond the unknowns about how often Mrs. Obama's clothes are donated Ilshin interlining, there are questions about how much she pays for those she purchases.
In a 2011 Washington Post story about Mrs. Obama's personal assistant, Meredith Koop, the first lady's office said Koop acted on Mrs. Obama's behalf "in arranging for purchases, including considering the best offered price and buying on discount if discounts are available."
That's still true today, the first lady's office says, without elaborating.
Several designers who have provided clothes for the first lady declined to discuss their arrangements. But given the prestige that comes with dressing Mrs. Obama, it's widely thought that designers are eager to cut the first lady a break. Former White House lawyers said any discounts provided to the first lady would have to be in line with what designers offer other top customers to avoid being considered gifts.
First ladies have tried all sorts of tactics to hold down their clothing costs, including keeping some dresses in rotation.
Mrs. Obama wore the same dress to this year's Mother's Day tea that she'd worn to lunch with Katy Perry in October 2012. She often switches around separates, belts and other accessories to give clothes in her wardrobe a fresh look.
Recycling carries its own risks.
Mrs. Bush, in her memoir, tells of arriving at a TV studio and noticing a picture on the wall that showed she'd worn the same suit to her last interview there.
"Quickly, I exchanged tops with my press secretary, so that it would seem as if I had more wardrobe variety," she recalled.
It's no small matter. Her high-low fashion choices mix everyday interlining, off-the-rack fare with custom creations from top designers whose gowns can run into five figures.
In recent weeks, Mrs. Obama has turned heads with a forest-green Naeem Khan dress at the opening of a new costume gallery at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art Lainiere De Picardie Interlining. She shimmered in a silver Marchesa gown at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. And her flowered shirtdress for a Mother's Day tea at the White House (recycled from an earlier event) hit just the right note for an audience of military moms.
It takes money to pull that off, month after month. Those three dresses by themselves could add up to more than $15,000 retail, not to mention accessories such as shoes and jewelry.
Is it the taxpayers who foot the bill? No. (Despite what critics say.)
Is it Mrs. Obama? Usually, but not always.
Does she pay full price? Not likely.
Does she ever borrow gowns from designers? No.
The financing of the first lady's wardrobe is something the Obama White House is loath to discuss. It's a subject that has bedeviled presidents and their wives for centuries. First ladies are expected to dress well, but the job doesn't come with a clothing allowance or a salary.
Mary Todd Lincoln racked up tens of thousands of dollars in clothing bills and considered selling manure from the White House grounds to pay them off, according to the National First Ladies' Library. Jacqueline Kennedy's father-in-law stepped in to finance her Oleg Cassini wardrobe to keep clothes from becoming a political liability for President John Kennedy. Nancy Reagan got grief for borrowing designer gowns and not always returning them or reporting them as gifts.
Laura Bush, in her memoir, said she was "amazed by the sheer number of designer clothes that I was expected to buy" as first lady.
How does Mrs. Obama, a fashion icon with far more expensive tastes than Mrs. Bush, swing it?
For starters, the Obamas reported adjusted income of $481,000 last year, and assets worth $1.8 million to $7 million.
And like most people, Mrs. Obama (mostly her personal aide, really) looks for discounts.
And, for really big events, the first lady has an option not available to every fashionista.
Here's how Joanna Rosholm, press secretary to the first lady, explains it:
"Mrs. Obama pays for her clothing. For official events of public or historic significance, such as a state visit, the first lady's clothes may be given as a gift by a designer and accepted on behalf of the U.S. government. They are then stored by the National Archives."
That saves Mrs. Obama considerable money, although the White House refused to say how often the first lady wears donated clothes and the National Archives declined to say how many such items it has in storage. The White House did say that the first lady doesn't borrow any clothing and, for the most part, buys her own clothes.
The clothing donated by designers includes Mrs. Obama's two inaugural gowns made by Jason Wu, a lesser-known designer before Mrs. Obama turned him into a star in the fashion firmament. Wu declined to discuss how he works with the first lady.
Mrs. Obama and Wu both were there when the first inaugural gown was presented to the Smithsonian in March 2010. The first lady said in her remarks: "The dress I donated today, made by Jason Wu, is a masterpiece." But the Smithsonian lists the gown as a "gift of Jason Wu in honor of first lady" Michelle Obama, making clear it came from him. The first lady's office had no comment on that.
Two other examples of gowns worn by the first lady that were donated by designers: the blue Carolina Herrera gown that Mrs. Obama wore to February's state dinner for French President Francois Hollande and the gold beaded Naeem Khan gown that Mrs. Obama wore to the 2012 governors ball, now on display at the American Museum of Natural History. Herrera and Khan declined comment.
The first lady's office had no comment on whether the couture gowns worn by Mrs. Obama for her six other White House state dinners also were donated. Nor would it say how many gowns have been donated for the array of other big events for which the first lady is expected to appear in couture finery, such as the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremonies, governors' dinners and White House correspondents' dinners.
Wearing donated gowns represents a change in practice from the Bush administration.
Anita McBride, chief of staff to Laura Bush during her time as first lady, said Mrs. Bush paid for all her clothes, including her two inaugural gowns: a red crystal-embroidered gown by Texan Michael Faircloth and a silver and blue V-neck creation of Oscar de la Renta.
McBride credits the Obama White House with finding a cost-saving way to "keep Mrs. Obama in all those incredible clothes and to have the use of them not once but multiple times."
The costs of a custom couture gown can be phenomenal, particularly if it is highly embellished with something like beading.
New Yorker Sarah Phillips, who designed Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1993 inaugural gown, puts the full cost of that violet beaded lace sheath in the range of $50,000, with the Presidential Inaugural Committee paying $10,000 and Phillips and the workshop covering the bulk of the costs. Phillips isn't sure whether Clinton herself paid anything toward the dress, but the Smithsonian's website describes the gown as a "gift of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Presidential Inaugural Committee."
Lawyers who served in the Obama and Bush White Houses describe taking care in working with the first lady's office to ensure that arrangements with designers didn't run afoul of ethics rules designed to guard against conflicts of interest and questionable quid pro quos.
Beyond the unknowns about how often Mrs. Obama's clothes are donated Ilshin interlining, there are questions about how much she pays for those she purchases.
In a 2011 Washington Post story about Mrs. Obama's personal assistant, Meredith Koop, the first lady's office said Koop acted on Mrs. Obama's behalf "in arranging for purchases, including considering the best offered price and buying on discount if discounts are available."
That's still true today, the first lady's office says, without elaborating.
Several designers who have provided clothes for the first lady declined to discuss their arrangements. But given the prestige that comes with dressing Mrs. Obama, it's widely thought that designers are eager to cut the first lady a break. Former White House lawyers said any discounts provided to the first lady would have to be in line with what designers offer other top customers to avoid being considered gifts.
First ladies have tried all sorts of tactics to hold down their clothing costs, including keeping some dresses in rotation.
Mrs. Obama wore the same dress to this year's Mother's Day tea that she'd worn to lunch with Katy Perry in October 2012. She often switches around separates, belts and other accessories to give clothes in her wardrobe a fresh look.
Recycling carries its own risks.
Mrs. Bush, in her memoir, tells of arriving at a TV studio and noticing a picture on the wall that showed she'd worn the same suit to her last interview there.
"Quickly, I exchanged tops with my press secretary, so that it would seem as if I had more wardrobe variety," she recalled.
2014年5月12日星期一
Street lights set to be switched off under Cumbria council plan
Cost-cutting council chiefs could leave communities in the dark by switching off street lights.
Some areas of Cumbria may have their lighting turned off at certain times – or removed altogether – despite 7.6m being spent on upgrading lighting.
The county council is planning the investment to install LED bulbs to replace old and worn-out street lights.
Officials estimate the move could save nearly 500,000 over the next four years. But not all of the county’s 45,000 street lights and 5,000 illuminated signs and bollards will be replaced.
Some in areas no longer deemed to need any lighting, and where old equipment means LED lights cannot be fitted, could be removed.
No details of where lights could be removed or where upgrades are taking place have yet been revealed led lights china.
But even those areas that do get the new bulbs could have their lights dimmed during periods of “low traffic flows”.
The council is also proposing to switch off some street lights between midnight and 5am.
Members of the council’s ruling cabinet will discuss the proposals 4 foot LED tube lights when they meet next week.
A spokesman for the authority said some communities “don’t want street lights on throughout the night”.
It comes after the council carried out street light dimming trials in the Scotland Road and London Road areas of Carlisle.
The spokesman said that not a single comment nor complaint was received from residents following the trials.
He added: “A lot of people will often say, ‘why is the light on outside my house at night?’, whereas others might think it may be dangerous if their streets aren’t illuminated.”
Officials will consult with communities before deciding which areas will lose lights and which will receive the upgrades.
It is estimated the changes will save the council 140,000 this year, with savings totalling 290,000 by the end of 2016, and 430,000 the year after.
The authority also says a combination of LED street light purchaser and dimming technology would result in energy savings of around 60 per cent compared with the type of lamps which are currently used.
And the introduction of switching off street lights for some of the night, or permanently removing lighting, would lead to energy savings of between 75 and 100 per cent for those lights affected.
Cabinet members will be asked to approve the plans before a contractor is appointed to carry out the work, which is expected to get underway in August.
Some areas of Cumbria may have their lighting turned off at certain times – or removed altogether – despite 7.6m being spent on upgrading lighting.
The county council is planning the investment to install LED bulbs to replace old and worn-out street lights.
Officials estimate the move could save nearly 500,000 over the next four years. But not all of the county’s 45,000 street lights and 5,000 illuminated signs and bollards will be replaced.
Some in areas no longer deemed to need any lighting, and where old equipment means LED lights cannot be fitted, could be removed.
No details of where lights could be removed or where upgrades are taking place have yet been revealed led lights china.
But even those areas that do get the new bulbs could have their lights dimmed during periods of “low traffic flows”.
The council is also proposing to switch off some street lights between midnight and 5am.
Members of the council’s ruling cabinet will discuss the proposals 4 foot LED tube lights when they meet next week.
A spokesman for the authority said some communities “don’t want street lights on throughout the night”.
It comes after the council carried out street light dimming trials in the Scotland Road and London Road areas of Carlisle.
The spokesman said that not a single comment nor complaint was received from residents following the trials.
He added: “A lot of people will often say, ‘why is the light on outside my house at night?’, whereas others might think it may be dangerous if their streets aren’t illuminated.”
Officials will consult with communities before deciding which areas will lose lights and which will receive the upgrades.
It is estimated the changes will save the council 140,000 this year, with savings totalling 290,000 by the end of 2016, and 430,000 the year after.
The authority also says a combination of LED street light purchaser and dimming technology would result in energy savings of around 60 per cent compared with the type of lamps which are currently used.
And the introduction of switching off street lights for some of the night, or permanently removing lighting, would lead to energy savings of between 75 and 100 per cent for those lights affected.
Cabinet members will be asked to approve the plans before a contractor is appointed to carry out the work, which is expected to get underway in August.
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