All posts by Tamas Toth

There is a style that has both the patina of time and all the advantages of modern comfort. The Shabby Chic style is the perfect solution! Find out how to transform your worn-out old furniture into unique and stylish pieces, while creating a sustainable and cost-effective way to transform the atmosphere of your home.

Are you ready to discover the secrets of the Shabby Chic world and create an authentic eclectic space with a vintage feel all your own? Read on for a peek into the art of reviving furniture!

Continue reading Shabby Chic magic: Reviving and maintaining old furniture in your home →

The image shows a modern Scandinavian-style living room and kitchen. The interior exudes a warm, welcoming, and homely atmosphere. The wooden flooring and furniture are made of natural materials, which is a fundamental element of Scandinavian design. The color scheme is subdued, working with neutral tones: light and medium wood shades, light grey, and beige tones dominate, complemented by warm lighting.

Continue reading The art of lighting in scandinavian homes: Atmosphere, functionality, and creativity →

What does stronger mean? – Stronger would mean that it can handle a higher output power.
Okay, but what parameters are we considering?
And it’s crucial whether our consumer requires current-regulated or voltage-regulated power supply.

LED strip room lighting – fantasy

Continue reading How to choose a power supply! The old one broke down – can I buy a stronger one? Then it will surely last longer – or not? →

The emergence of the contemporary minimalist style can be traced back to the 1960s, closely linked to the aesthetic and social changes that occurred in the years following World War II. Minimalism had numerous roots and influences and appeared in various art and design movements.

Contemporary minimalist style interior mix

Minimalism, as a trend within contemporary interior design, is characterized by a focus on purity, simplicity, and clean forms. In minimalist design, both arrangement and decoration are minimized, with an emphasis on simplicity, functionality, and the use of space.

Continue reading Contemporary minimalist style – interior design styles 19.1 →

The retro interior design style evokes the design of past decades, typically blending the styles of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Retro style does not have a single, strictly defined form or color scheme, as the diversity of eras and designers allows for many variations. However, there are characteristics that often appear in this style.

Characteristics of Retro Interior Design:

• Color Scheme: The retro style is characterized by cheerful, vibrant colors. Honest and bright shades, such as orange, lime green, turquoise, and yellow, are often found. Pastel colors, such as powder pink or baby blue, are also common.
• Forms: In terms of forms, the retro style favors angular, geometric shapes but also incorporates rounded and organic forms. Simple, characterful shapes can be found in both furniture and accessories.
• Patterns: Geometric patterns, such as stripes, squares, and circles, are popular. Floral patterns are also common, especially on wallpapers and textiles.
• Material Properties: The materials in the retro style can vary widely. Wood, plastic, metal, and glass are all present. Interesting textures and patterned materials are often seen on furniture.
• Nature of Furniture: Retro furniture often features simple, clean lines. They are characterized by lightness, functionality, and playful elements, and colorful, loose cushions are frequently found.

Conditions of its Formation: The retro interior design style is a nostalgic reinterpretation of the fashion and design of past decades, inspired by periods from the mid-20th century to the 1970s. People love the retro style because the design of old times is unique, playful, and timeless. Retro objects and furniture often create a nostalgic feeling and simultaneously create a unique and cheerful atmosphere in the home.

But this is not exactly the case, as there are several approaches to defining retro

Continue reading Retro style – interior design styles 20. →

The vintage style is an interior design trend that refers to older periods and exudes a nostalgic atmosphere, often incorporating elements of antique, retro, and other old styles. Below is a summary of the characteristics of vintage style:

• Color Scheme: The color palette of vintage style is rather charming, cheerful, fresh, but not gaudy. Typical colors include pastel shades such as powder pink, light blue, mint green, and yellow. Additionally, earth tones like beige, brown, and gray are often used, especially when referring to the first half of the 20th century in the interior. Matured or worn-out colors are also characteristic.
• Form Design: In vintage style, shapes and details are important. For larger furniture pieces, simpler designs with characteristic lines take precedence, while smaller pieces tend to have more intricate details and playfulness. Thus, smaller furniture and decorations can have more rounded lines and finer carvings or decorations.
• Use of Patterns: Vintage style often includes patterns such as flowers, stripes, or geometric shapes. Vibrant patterns and various textures contribute to a warm and friendly atmosphere.
• Textiles: Natural materials like cotton, linen, and silk are often used in vintage-style interior design. Delicate floral patterns are quite common. However, these are avoided if opting for a classic modernist furniture approach within the vintage framework. Smaller decorative items often feature lace and other embellished textiles to evoke a timeless atmosphere.
• Material Properties: Various materials can be used in vintage style, but they should be high-quality and durable. Wood, leather, canvas, silk, and porcelain are frequently found.
• Furniture Characteristics: Vintage style includes old, restored, and refurbished furniture, which can be made of wood, wood-metal-leather combinations, industrially processed wood (veneer, plywood), or turned wood (chair, table, cabinet legs). The forms of furniture are generally simple and can be either angular or curved, with elegance derived from the lines rather than ornamentation (which is usually avoided). They are airy, almost always standing on visible, thin legs to enhance the airy effect – almost as if floating. A true vintage piece is original, typically 40-100 years old. However, when creating a vintage-style room, it is completely secondary whether the furniture is 50 years old or manufactured last month. The main point is that it harmonizes with the room’s style and other furnishings to achieve the intended overall look. An eclectic effect with a mix of antique or retro furniture is also accepted in vintage style. Therefore, one might encounter richly carved wooden furniture as well as lighter, simpler forms typical of retro style, sometimes even in bright colors.
• Vintage interior design often uses home accessories that are older (or appear older – antique). These can include old pictures, mirror frames, crystal chandeliers, porcelain items (knick-knacks), or old books. Silver or bronze decorations, such as vases, candle holders, and clocks, can also be beautiful accessories.

The emergence of vintage style dates back to the mid-20th century when people began to take an interest in the past, and the fascination with antique furniture and items grew. In the 1970s, with the rise in popularity of retro style, vintage style also gained new momentum. In recent years, vintage style has come back into fashion, allowing for the creation of unique, personal interior design by combining old and new elements.

Continue reading Vintage style – interior design styles 21. →

Buy it in winter, dig it out and build it in spring, so you can swim every day from the beginning of summer.

A self-installed, in-ground, concrete, insulated, steel-walled, foil-lined pool will be presented, including the installation of a counter-current system and heat pump pool heating.

Background

Have you ever experienced this?

You don’t need a large dog for this. It’s enough to have a tired foil inflatable pool, from which air is slowly but steadily escaping, and a curious cat, who, preferably in the middle of the night, presses down the edge of the pool to see what’s inside. Once it does, the edge won’t come back up due to the low air pressure, and by the time you wake up from the sound of the gushing water and rush out, the garden is already ankle-deep in water.

This is when you decide you want a safer solution.

The choice fell on a steel-walled foil-lined pool, and since the manufacturer suggested that the pool should be at least 30 cm deep in the ground for side stability, we got the idea to dig it in completely. This way, it doesn’t overwhelm the relatively small garden.

Continue reading Pool Construction DIY – With Counter-Current System →

The title requires immediate explanation since the term “voltage generator” is not commonly used. However, the term “current generator power supply” is accepted, and in the comparison of the two (in this context), perhaps the term “voltage generator” is more appropriate. By “voltage generator power supply,” we mean a constant voltage or voltage-regulated stabilized power supply.

It is important to compare these two fundamentally different power supply modes because more and more LED lamps are being marketed with replaceable power supplies, meaning they operate with a current generator power supply separate from the lamp. When these fail, users who have never heard of current generator power supplies understandably have completely erroneous ideas about what kind of power supply to buy for their LED if the factory power supply is not available separately.

Continue reading The current and voltage generator power supply modes represent two different approaches to power sources. →

This article details our potential mistakes. Many users are not even aware that their light source is driven by a current generator, and if it fails, they tend to treat it as if it were a voltage-regulated power supply. Without knowing that a current-driven LED has much more limited options when it comes to replacing the power supply. Therefore, the issue is not that the user is unaware of the current-driven nature of their light source, but that in case of failure, they treat it as if it were a fixed voltage power supply.

For them, I have compiled the possible scenarios when they might want to deviate from the factory-designed drive parameters, to understand the consequences in advance.
Continue reading The impact of incorrectly selecting current-driven power supplies on LED lamps and the power supply →

The nonlinear voltage-current characteristic of LEDs has been mentioned in several articles, so it is worth learning more about what it actually entails.

LEDs are also diodes, but they are light-emitting diodes widely used in lighting and displays. The nonlinear voltage-current characteristic is a typical property of diodes, which means that for diodes, including LEDs, their current consumption does not change in direct proportion to the applied voltage. At low voltages, only a small current flows through them, and above a certain forward voltage, the current suddenly increases. With further increases in voltage, the saturation region is reached. In this region, further increases in voltage only minimally increase the current. The saturation region of an LED depends on the manufacturing technology and the type of LED, but it is generally within a few tenths of a volt above the forward voltage. In this region, the efficiency of the LED decreases, and further voltage increases do not result in a significant increase in brightness.

Continue reading How do LEDs work? What is nonlinear voltage-current characteristic, forward voltage, and saturation region? →