Interior design

Interior design is the art or process of designing the interior, often including the exterior, of a room or building. An interior designer is someone who coordinates and manages such projects. Interior design is a multifaceted profession that includes conceptual development, communicating with the stakeholders of a project and the management and execution of the design.

Interior design is the process of shaping the experience of interior space, through the manipulation of spatial volume as well as surface treatment.

History and current terms

In the past, interiors were put together instinctively as a part of the process of building. The profession of interior design has been a consequence of the development of society and the complex architecture that has resulted from the development of industrial processes. The pursuit of effective use of space, user well-being and functional design has contributed to the development of the contemporary interior design profession. The profession of interior design is separate and distinct from the role of Interior Decorator, a term commonly used in the US. The term is less common in the UK where the profession of interior design is still unregulated and therefore, strictly speaking, not yet officially a profession.

Do it yourself

Do it yourself, also known as DIY, is the method of building, modifying, or repairing something without the direct aid of experts or professionals. Academic research describes DIY as behaviors where "individuals engage raw and semi-raw materials and component parts to produce, transform, or reconstruct material possessions, including those drawn from the natural environment (e.g. landscaping)". DIY behavior can be triggered by various motivations previously categorized as marketplace motivations (economic benefits, lack of product availability, lack of product quality, need for customization), and identity enhancement (craftsmanship, empowerment, community seeking, uniqueness)

The term "do-it-yourself" has been associated with consumers since at least 1912 primarily in the domain of home improvement and maintenance activities. The phrase "do it yourself" had come into common usage (in standard English) by the 1950s, in reference to the emergence of a trend of people undertaking home improvement and various other small craft and construction projects as both a creative-recreational and cost-saving activity.

Hobby Lobby

Hobby Lobby is a chain of retail arts and crafts stores based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, formerly called Hobby Lobby Creative Centers. The stores are managed by direct corporate hires.

History

David Green opened the first Hobby Lobby store, in a 300-square-foot (28 m²) space in northwest Oklahoma City, in 1972. Retail sales were $3,200 from August to the end of the year.He moved to a larger 1,000 square foot space in January 1973. A second store in Oklahoma City opened in 1975, and a store opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma the next year. It grew to seven stores by mid 1982, and the first store outside Oklahoma opened in 1984.

By the start of 1989, the chain had about 15 stores. By late 1992, it had grown to 50 locations in seven states, and its growth continued to accelerate. Its 100th store opened in August 1995, and its 200th in August 1999. By March 2002, that number had grown to 281 stores in 24 states, and 310 by October 2003.

As of April 2015, the chain has 600 stores nationwide with the headquarters building in a 3,400,000-square-foot (320,000 m²) manufacturing, distribution, and office complex.

Home

A home is a dwelling-place used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for an individual, family, household or several families in a tribe. It is often a house, apartment, or other building, or alternatively a mobile home, houseboat, yurt or any other portable shelter. Homes typically provide areas and facilities for sleeping, preparing food, eating and hygiene. Larger groups may live in a nursing home, children's home, convent or any similar institution. A homestead also includes agricultural land and facilities for domesticated animals. Where more secure dwellings are not available, people may live in the informal and sometimes illegal shacks found in slums and shanty towns. More generally, "home" may be considered to be a geographic area, such as a town, village, suburb, city, or country.

Transitory accommodation in a treatment facility for a few weeks is not normally considered permanent enough to replace a more stable location as 'home'. In 2005, 100 million people worldwide were estimated to be homeless.

Hot-melt adhesive

Hot melt adhesive (HMA), also known as hot glue, is a form of thermoplastic adhesive that is commonly supplied in solid cylindrical sticks of various diameters, designed to be melted in an electric hot glue gun. The gun uses a continuous-duty heating element to melt the plastic glue, which the user pushes through the gun either with a mechanical trigger mechanism on the gun, or with direct finger pressure. The glue squeezed out of the heated nozzle is initially hot enough to burn and even blister skin. The glue is tacky when hot, and solidifies in a few seconds to one minute. Hot melt adhesives can also be applied by dipping or spraying.

In industrial use, hot melt adhesives provide several advantages over solvent-based adhesives. Volatile organic compounds are reduced or eliminated, and the drying or curing step is eliminated. Hot melt adhesives have long shelf life and usually can be disposed of without special precautions. Some of the disadvantages involve thermal load of the substrate, limiting use to substrates not sensitive to higher temperatures, and loss of bond strength at higher temperatures, up to complete melting of the adhesive. This can be reduced by using a reactive adhesive that after solidifying undergoes further curing e.g., by moisture (e.g., reactive urethanes and silicones), or is cured by ultraviolet radiation. Some HMAs may not be resistant to chemical attacks and weathering. HMAs do not lose thickness during solidifying; solvent-based adhesives may lose up to 50-70% of layer thickness during drying.