In some locales, mosquito netting is as important as remembering to fasten your seat belt or brushing your teeth. In other words, it's a health and safety concern. But mosquito netting can also just be pretty, adding a soft, outdoors-y touch to your home:
• 1 Hang mosquito netting over a four-post bed to accentuate the space it encloses.
• 2 Circle just the crown of the bed with a smaller round canopy, as in this airy bedroom.
• 3 Establish gauzy "walls" for an outdoor dining room.
• 4 Canopy a lounge area to stay bug-free when hanging out this summer.
• 5 Create a mystical reading nook simply by enclosing a small area with mosquito netting and placing a floor cushion inside.
(Images: Kiwinet Mosquito Nets, Good Housekeeping, Ken Gutmaker/Sunset, Bossgoo, Miki Duisterhof/Country Living)
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If you're going to actually use mosquito netting to protect you from mosquitos at night in bed, I highly recommend the square configurations as opposed to the round ones (unless you happen to have a fabulous bachelor pad round bed). On a rectangular bed, the round ones tend to creep in at night, and when mosquito netting is right up against your skin, it offers zero protection.
I speak from experience.
Here is another way to use mosquito netting... to make lamps!
5 minutes, €3, and a light bulb!
http://lapsushumanus.blogspot.com/2010/05/5-minutes-3-and-light-bulb.html
I´m surprised that more people do not use mosquito screens on their windows outside of the U.S. In California, where there were close to no mosquitoes it seemed practically standard. In Europe, instead, putting screens on your window seems like some kind of exotic, sophisticated, complicated thing.
Right now we are using the plug-in-poison along with giudicious use of shutters until we can afford to wrap the whole dang house in mosquito netting!
L
i don't think most people need mosquito nets these days...but they sure are pretty to look at. now who is going to dust that thing.
This just added an extra element of excitement for the time I'll be moving to Africa (sometime next year!) Yay!!!
http://notyourgoddess.blogspot.com/
@ MonicaK: I didn't find mine actually held that much dust when I had it up over my bed (speaking as someone who has a dust allergy). That made it a heck of a lot nicer than velvet curtains for sure!
I wrote about mosquito net's useful in my latest iPhone app. As you say, it's the most important fabric in numerous countries.
I app-solutely ♥
my ✄ Fabric U ✄
iPhone app!
http://tinyurl.com/242bua9
@MonikaK: most people in the US, no, probably not. But malaria infects hundreds of millions and kills millions every year. Most people on earth probably DO need mosquito nets! Although they would never be so fortunate as to sleep in beds such as these...
I like the look of that out door table surrounded by the net but I wonder if it would offer protection since it is open at the top?
Moikak- a lot of places in the US struggle with mosquitos, sadly it keeps me inside at night here in the south. West Nile is a real problem still and mosquitoes transmit heartworm to dogs and cats.
Nets n Screens has come up with Mosquito Net For Windows which makes your home 100% mosquito proof and at the same time enhances the look of your windows.