$25 off $150+ coupon > MORE OFFICE DEPOT AND OFFICEMAX COUPONS 10% off $50+ home purchase > MORE SEARS COUPONS 40% off select regularly-priced writing supplies > MORE STAPLES COUPONS 50% off select fitness trackers & sunglasses > MORE FINISH LINE COUPONS $20 off $175+ coupon > MORE QUILL COUPONS $10 off each w/ 3+ dress shirts > MORE LANDS' END COUPONS 15% off Toblerone, Green & Black, Art Naturals, & InstaNaturals items Baby Sale: 20% off select baby & kids' clothing > MORE MACY'S COUPONS Everything You Need to Know About Online Coupon Codes 15 Retailers That Offer the Most Coupons How to Save Money at Newegg How to Save Money at Lowe'sAfter going back and forth many times on how to decorate Adriana’s nursery (check out the variety of styles on my Pinterest board!), I finally settled on this soft pink and gray theme. It’s whimsical, airy, and feminine which is exactly how I hoped it would turn out.
Well, that’s after I changed my mind on my original bright purple, yellow, and pink colour scheme. This is the first room I’ve ever designed on my own, and I’ll be the first to admit that colour schemes and décor do not come to me naturally. I’m pretty sure I drove Eric crazy with my major preggo indecision. But if a preggo girl can’t drive her hubby cray cray what can she do?? This nursery is a mix of DIY creations and new pieces. The crystal mobile is the DIY project I’m most proud of. I also bought a lot of used picture frames, removed the glass, and painted them for the collage above her crib. The dresser was purchased from Goodwill, sanded, and painted. Lots of small and large projects went down. We have still yet to use the nursery because Adriana sleeps in our bedroom. If this nursery was currently used, it would probably look like a tornado went through it (much like our master bedroom has since we brought her home!). We also moved the glider chair into the family room where it gets used all the time.
The change pad, her current clothing sizes, and the baby monitor are all in our bedroom now too. As we all know, the reality is often much different from the original plan/vision! But what’s more important than the design is what this room means to me. For months during my pregnancy, I dreamed of the day I would bring our baby girl home for the first time. It was an emotional experience to finally hold Adriana in her nursery after months of eager (and nervous) anticipation. I may have even teared up a little in all of my hormonal glory. As you’ll see, the paint on the wall looks different based on the time of day the photo was taken (it’s warmer in the morning and cooler as the day goes on), so keep that in mind as I shot these pictures at random times of the day. I always recommend testing paint colours on the wall and then looking at it different times of the day to be sure it will be a good fit. While I do enjoy this paint colour (Benjamin Moore Natura in “Barren Plain”), I think next time for a nursery I would go with a warmer undertone because I find it a bit on the cool side.
I also listed retailers for everything I could remember at the bottom of this post. This photo below was taken after we ripped out old carpet, put in hardwood, and primed the walls. Unfortunately, I can’t find the original before picture for the life of me. Just picture peach walls and really dingy, old carpet! As you’ll see our cat Sketchie, oversaw the entire project! There wasn’t a day when he wasn’t in here with me. Our original idea was for Eric to build a bookcase for the nursery, but we ran out of time. So I loved this idea for a bookshelf that I saw on Pinterest. These are picture frame ledges from Ikea! The small size was too small and the large size too big, so Eric ended up trimming some off so it was a perfect fit. Then I touched up the ends with white paint. I also hung some of my favourite maternity photos next to the book shelf thingy. I’ll probably end up replacing some these photos with photos of Adriana as she grows, but it works right now!
When I received Adriana’s newborn photos (taken at 1 week old) I decided to swap out the peony photos for her newborn shots (at least until I get some more frames hung). Call me crazy, but I’m already looking forward to designing the room again when Adriana gets a bit bigger and wants something different. If she’s anything like I was as a kid, she’ll want neon pink, orange, green, and yellow. Paint – Benjamin Moore Natura in Barren Plain Wallpaper – Graham and Brown, “flourish” Dresser – Goodwill (sanded and painted) Chevron lampshade – DIY project Mobile – DIY project (I bought faux crystals from Ebay and other supplies from Michaels) Crib – Natart (thanks mom!) Glider chair – Dutailier White dress on wall – Ebay Wooden letter A on wall – Michaels (I painted it pink) Curtains – Linen Closet Frames above crib – Goodwill Other frames – Michaels and Ikea Book Shelves – Ikea (picture frame ledges)
Pink change pad cover – Babies R Us Umbra Wallflower Wall Decor – Kitchen Stuff Plus Mirror – Ikea UNG mirror in black (Eric spray painted it white) Pull down blind – Home Depot Maternity and newborn photography – Sarah Martin Photography “Tulip Shag” Rug – Home Depot White nightstand – Walmart Faux crystal dresser knobs – Home Depot White Tulle Crib Skirt – Pottery Barn Crib Quilt – Pottery Barn “Veronica” White and pink pouf balls – Etsy Pink Peonies photography – Etsy Boppy pillow cover – Etsy “Dream” accent – Winners (I painted it pink)Follow Angela on Instagram (@ohsheglows + @theglowspot), Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Google+ Leave a Comment | |Hello, and welcome back to What Are You Doing With That Computer In Your Living Room (working title). Last week we talked about setting up a living room PC with XBMC and Steam and controlling it with an Xbox 360 controller, smartphone app, or universal remote.
I really believe that a full keyboard and mouse are both unnecessary and undesirable in the living room.Unless, of course, you want to play some types of PC games.The Xbox controller (or any similar gamepad) is perfect for many games, including those that you're most likely to play in the living room--platformers, action-adventure games, RPGs, and casual shooters. Anything that can be easily ported to or from a console, essentially (insert booing, hissing noises). But there are some types of games that are awful without a keyboard and mouse: MMOs, real-time and turn-based strategy games (like Starcraft II and Civ V), and MOBAs (like League of Legends and DOTA 2). And, of course, twitchy shooters. There are plenty of shooters developed for controllers, of course, but if you're playing on the PC you're playing against PC players, and all the auto-aim and thumbstick sensitivity in the world won't save you from a good player with a keyboard and mouse.So you want a keyboard and mouse in the living room.
But there are problems with this, and rather more problems than solutions.As it turns out, the couch is not a good place to use a keyboard and mouse. Let’s dive into why that is.The first thing you need to figure out is what kind of keyboard and mouse to use. Obviously, a wireless keyboard and mouse will be the most flexible option for the living room, and fewer cables means fewer tripping hazards.Wireless keyboards and mice have their own problems, though. Range is not a huge issue, unless you've got an enormous living room. but if you're playing games that are twitchy enough to require a mouse rather than a controller, input lag can be a killer. Not a literal killer, though. Just in video games.Logitech makes many fine wireless keyboards and mice that use its Unifying receiver, including the K800 keyboard and the K750 solar keyboard (which also, thankfully, works with regular house lights). Logitech has some good mice that work with the Unifying sensor, like the Performance Mouse MX, although their wireless gaming mice don't work with the Unifying receiver.
If your computer has a Bluetooth receiver, you can also consider a Bluetooth mouse; Razer's Orochi gets pretty good reviews, although it's not a full-sized mouse.If you're serious about input lag, though, you probably don't want to use Bluetooth or Logitech Unifying. Both Bluetooth and the Logitech Unifying dongle have a polling rate of about 125Hz, or once every 8ms, so there will be input lag. Whether or not it's perceptible to you will depend on your screen refresh rate, your play style, and the types of games you're playing, but it'll always be there.Razer, Mad Catz, Logitech and others have 2.4GHz wireless mice with ~1ms response times, rather than the 8ms response times of Bluetooth and Unifying, so they're the best bet for proper wireless gaming. Our own Matt Braga wrote a guide back in 2010 that can help you minimize OS-caused lag.Don't plug your USB mouse dongle into a USB 3.0 port, by the way. USB 3.0 ports can interfere with 2.4GHz devices (including Bluetooth) in a big way.
If you have a USB dongle for your wireless keyboard or mouse, plug it into a USB 2.0 port, as far as possible from your USB 3.0 ports. One more argument favor of wired peripherals.There are other arguments for wired, too. Any mouse that runs on battery power will run out of batteries while you're playing. It's inevitable, so you'd better have a backup battery you can quickly swap in. Some wireless mice can charge via MicroUSB while you're using them, but then you're back to using ten feet of USB cable.Most gaming keyboards, and many gaming mice, don't come in wireless flavors at all. If you're dead set on using a particular keyboard and/or mouse, a USB extension cable is your best bet. You'll get lightning-fast performance without the danger that your mouse or keyboard will stop working mid-match. Unless someone trips on the ten-foot USB extension cable stretching across your living room, of course.For most of my testing the past few weeks, I've been using a Corsair Vengeance K60 with a USB 2.0 extension cable, and a Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T. 9 wireless gaming mouse, which has worked just fine with a couch-to-PC distance of 10 feet.
Once you have a keyboard and mouse, the next step is figuring out where to put them. Some people insist that they do just fine with the keyboard on their lap and the mouse on the arm of the couch, but that's not really an ideal solution for a number of reasons.For one thing, it does nothing to prevent couch slouch--no good for your neck and back--and it keeps your arms at different heights and different angles.Yes, you need to care about ergonomics. The standard lean-back posture for TV watching is not conducive to playing games via keyboard and mouse. At the very least, you need a board to rest the keyboard on, and enough room to use a mouse.If you just put your mouse and keyboard on the coffee table and perch on the edge of your couch, you're gonna hurt your neck and back, craning your neck to see the TV.The most basic improvement is a board that you can put on your lap. At least that way you can get rid of some of the neck strain, and your keyboard and mouse will be closer to the ideal position.
There are several lapboards and lapdesks on the market for gamers, including the somehow-not-vaporware Phantom Lapboard. You probably shouldn't get the Phantom Lapboard, unless you want no control over which keyboard and mouse you use.There are actual "gaming lapdesks" available, but any flat surface will do as long as it's comfortable enough to go on your lap and has room enough for your keyboard and mouse. I've been using a $6 Ikea Ekby Viktor shelf because I have it around for a future project. This is better than no platform, but it still puts the keyboard and mouse too low.The next step up is having a height-adjustable platform that you can put the mouse and keyboard on while you're on the couch. Ikea's DAVE is a popular choice because you can adjust both the height and the pitch, and it's $20. It's only two feet wide, though. You can always get a rolling laptop stand, though that particular one doesn't tilt like DAVE does.You know the scenes in movies where kids serve their moms some horribly burnt breakfast in bed on a special tray?
You can use trays like that for your keyboard and mouse, too--the legs on the side mean you don't have to have anything actually on your lap. Just make sure you can find one without lips on the edges.Europeans and crazy people can get the Couchmaster for just $200! (Correction: Steiger Dynamics reached out to let us know that the Couchmaster is indeed sold in the US.)Unfortunately, I haven't found a really good ergonomic way to use a mouse and keyboard long-term from the couch if you don't live in Germany. If you have, please let us know in the comments.The ideal ergonomic posture for using a keyboard and mouse is, frankly, not something you're going to find on the couch. The Ergotron diagram above shows good standing and sitting computing postures. In each case, your body is very close to its natural resting position--not slumped over like a marionette with the strings cut, but the ideal neutral posture, biomechanically speaking, for the human body.Your keyboard and mouse should be at elbow height, such that your elbows are bent 90 degrees and your forearms are parallel to the ground.
This prevents strain on your shoulders, upper back and arms over long periods.The top of the TV should be no higher than eye level, and the TV itself should be at a slight 10 to 20 degree angle. Your neck should be in a neutral position, neither tilted up nor down. This prevents neck and upper back strain cause by tilting your head to see the TV.If you're sitting, you should have your thighs parallel to the ground and your feet flat on the floor. This helps keep your hips and spine aligned in their natural resting position, which keeps your back from hurting and your muscles from weakening. You also need lumbar support to keep your lower spine from slouching outward. Good chairs provide lumbar support, but you won't find that very easily on the couch, so you should put a pillow or a cushion behind your lower back so your spine doesn't go into a C shape while you're leaning back.Why is good posture important even while gaming? We sit too much as it is, and spending hours slumped in front of the TV, especially with our necks and backs in unnatural positions, can lead to weaker, more injury-prone muscles.
"I hurt my back playing video games" is not something you want to have to say in conversation.Ideally you'd have a smaller TV, closer to you and higher up, with the keyboard and mouse at elbow height, and some sort of seat that's the right height and offers proper lumbar support.I'm thinking of a desk.Short of putting a desk and desk chair in front of your TV--not unheard of for gamers--you may be able to come up with a good long-term gaming setup using your coffee table. Set up your keyboard and mouse on the coffee table as if gaming, then lower yourself towards the floor until your forearms are parallel to the ground. Note how far your butt is off the floor when in that position, then try to find a pillow or cushion to sit on to raise your butt to that level. You'll need to have good posture to game in this position without slouching, though. You might try putting your back against the front of the couch for some back support.Don't forget to take a break to stretch and move around every couple of hours.