Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Life

Tag: Home decor

  • The Ultimate Fall Décor Guide

    You will fall in love with these autumn-inspired decor ideas that can transform any space. Below you will find tons of clever ideas to help you welcome fall and bring magic and coziness into any room.

    • Give a plain plastic pumpkin a makeover and rustic feel by wrapping it with yarn or twine.
    • Create a gourd-geous centerpiece by carving out a squash or gourd and turning it into a vase. Nothing is more beautiful than a DIY pumpkin planter filled with your favorite fall flowers. You can also cut the top off a faux pumpkin and add drainage holes in the bottom.

    • For a rustic finish, wrap a foam wreath in burlap. Use a hot glue gun to add burlap flowers to the wreath or any other autumn-inspired items you want.
    • Discover how to make gold-leaf pumpkins to bring a classy fall feel to your home.
    • Fill a tall glass vase with pinecones, acorns, or apples. Another great option would be to fill glass cloches of different sizes with your favorite fall items.

    • Nature truly is nurturing. Place colorful leaves in a glass frame with no back.
    • Create a leaf-shaped dish to hold jewelry, change, or your keys. Press a leaf that you like onto a rolled-out piece of clay. Using a knife, carefully trace the leaf. After you’ve outlined the leaf, slowly pull the leaf off and gently curl the sides up. Place newspaper under the edges so it holds its shape and takes the form of a dish. Once it’s dried, paint it any color you want and seal it with a gloss or matte sealer to protect the finish.
    • Learn how to bring instant coziness to your home with these farmhouse fall decor ideas.
    • Paint old mason jars or upcycled glass bottles gold and white and use them as vases.
    • Put the petal to the metal… door and learn how to make your very own stunning sunflower wreath.
    • Create a beautiful succulent pumpkin planter. Fill a hollowed-out pumpkin with fresh succulents and moss.

    • Here are tons of crafts with leaves you can try.
    • Treat yourself! Make fall candles using seasonal scents such as cinnamon, pumpkin, or apple. First, find a glass jar you want to use as the holder. Double the amount of wax you would use to fill the container and melt it in a double boiler while stirring frequently. Mix in the fragrance oil you choose and place the wick on the bottom of your jar before you slowly pour in the wax. Secure the wick while the wax hardens by placing it between two chopsticks that are balanced on the top. You can also glue cinnamon sticks onto the outside of an old candle to make your home smell incredible.
    • Check out fall door decor ideas that go beyond wreaths.
    • A few things to use as décor that have an autumn vibe include amber bottles, throw blankets, plaid pillows, and leaves spray-painted gold.
    • Uncover farmhouse mantel decor ideas that add cozy charm to your space.
    • Here are some fall plants and grasses you can place around your home:
      • Mariachi ‘Salsa’ Helenium
      • Chrysanthemums
      • Black-leaf millet grass
      • Bayberry
      • Fuzzy kangaroo paws
      • Gerbera daisies
      • Chinese lanterns

  • Ask A Pro – Top Bathroom Color Trends

    Question:

    I’m getting ready to repaint my bathroom.  What are the top color trends that will help me sell my home?

    Answer:

    Color can be fun to experiment with but don’t go crazy with extra bold color choices since you are planning to sell.

    There are a few things to consider when painting your bathroom:

    1. The overall color flow in the entire house. A house show’s best when a simple color palette is used throughout a house. The home feels larger and not so broken up when each room is a different color.
    2. What color is your bathroom tile, countertop, cabinets, faucets, woodwork, and flooring? What color will highlight these features?
    3. What style is the house and decorating style?
    4. What kind of lighting is in the bathroom as lighting changes the warmth and tone of the paint color?

    Today’s top color trends are going away from the cooler shades of gray (that have been trending for over 12 years). Homeowners are looking for warmth and coziness that comes from warmer colors used in a house. For gray tones, look for shades of light gray that have a warm yellow or red hue and not a cool blue hue. A nice greige is a good option as it bridges the gap between gray tones and beiges. Also in a bathroom, you can’t go wrong with a white paint as it can give that hi-end spa bath appearance. White will let the features of the bathroom shine so make sure everything else looks good. If you dislike white paint, go with a light color on the walls and then bring in fresh white towels and rugs with textures for a fresh, clean look. And to keep the trendy look going, add other textures such as a nubby wicker trash can and bring in a live green plant in a small basket or textural ceramic flowerpot. Bringing outside elements into the home is a trend that isn’t going away.

    Best of luck,
    Max Wilker
    Style Director
    Better Homes and Gardens Brand Licensing

  • Workarounds for Wood Paneling

    It doesn’t seem to matter how old or new your home is, inherited wood paneling is just sometimes a fact of life. Love it or hate it (and there is some wood paneling no one could love, especially the mid 20th Century rec room look), removing wood paneling or drywalling over it is a major renovation. It may require more time, money, and skill than you have or create mess you’re not prepared to tolerate. Even a gorgeous Douglas Fir vaulted ceiling Victorian home can make you feel dreary if it’s stained a dark color and you don’t have a constant source of natural light.

    Sometimes the best way to cope with wood panel design you wouldn’t have chosen yourself is to just accept the inevitable and embrace it.

    Here are a few things you can do that might help you learn to love the wood panel design you wish you didn’t have in your home.

    Accept the inevitable

    If you’ve decided you can’t or won’t remove the wood paneling in your home, accepting the inevitable and adding more wood might be the solution. By varying the width of wood used in a room but sticking to the same materials and color palette, you may be able to reconcile yourself to living with it.

    Part of the problem with uniform width wooden paneling and flooring is that it inevitably conjures images of a sauna. Which is great if it is a sauna, but not so great if it’s not. If you have narrow wood panels on your walls, using wide floor planking in the same wood and stain creates an elegant variation on a theme and supplies some visual interest.

    You can also frame panels to create separate wall areas and hang a series of prints or small paintings inside each panel. If your entire room is thinly paneled wood, adding a chair rail will break things up a bit.

    Add contrasting moldings

    Invest in some interesting moldings that will draw the eye upward. This is an easy way to draw the eye beyond the feature you don’t want to emphasize. It also creates a more formal feel and some architectural interest. Don’t try to match the existing panel color or even the ceiling. Use this space to inject a shot of startling or soothing color.

    Paint it

    If your main objection to your home’s wood paneling is its color and texture, the solution is paint. The possibilities are endless. You can whitewash the paneling to lighten it up with almost no prep work. You can paint it a dark color so the paneling recedes within the room. You can paint it a bold color, and, especially if the paneling extends to the ceiling, lacquer it afterwards. This kind of treatment may make you forget what’s under there and supply some interesting texture to your walls. Or you can paint it white to conjure thoughts of picket fences and long summer days.

    Cover it up

    There are two ways to do this, one literal and one figurative. The figurative treatment, especially if you have only one wood-paneled wall, is to paint the paneling and then install shelves the entire length of the room and fill them with books. The paneling will still be there, but the colorful books will make you forget it except when you have to dust.

    The literal cover-up for wood paneling that again works best for a single wall (although you can use it on an entire room) is to upholster the wall. You’ll need a tall ladder, a good staple gun, and enough polyester batting to cover the wall as well as far more fabric than you think you’ll need. Pattern matching is as important when upholstering a wall as it is when hanging wallpaper, so make sure you buy extra. You can seam each wall panel together and carefully press each seam open or use trim to cover the fabric panel edges.

    And then there’s wallpaper. For the truly egregious 1950s rec room paneling that probably isn’t really made of wood at all, this may be the quickest and most effective solution. If, however, you’ve got real wood paneling with grooves more than a quarter inch deep, you’ll have to fill the grooves with caulk, prime the paneling with a latex primer design that blocks stain, then begin the wallpaper hanging process. If you’re going to all that trouble anyway, you might want to use paintable wallpaper, available in various textures. You can paint it to match the rest of the room or use it as a feature wall. Even paintable wallpaper will need two coats, but with any luck, no one will be able to guess what lurks beneath. Unless, of course, you tell them.

    For more great design solutions, check out our Home Maintenance channel.

  • Guest bedroom makeovers

    One of the luxuries of homeownership is having a bit more space than you need so you can expand to fill it. One of the others is having a home large enough to entertain without having to leave home. Sometimes that means having people over for dinner or brunch; other times it means having out-of-town friends and family stay over.

    Guest bedrooms, like cottage furnishings, often suffer from “not good enough to get rid of, not good enough to use every day” syndrome. If your guest bedroom looks like the not-quite-final resting place for the mismatched and ready-to-be-retired, here are a few bedroom interior design ideas for a makeover.

    Create a bunk room in your attic

    Since you’re probably going to be in your house for a while and your own and your friends’ families may be expanding, rather than designate a ground or second floor bedroom as a guest room, why not create a bunk room in your attic? That way you don’t need to worry about whether your guests can share a double or need a queen or king-sized bed. Buy as many twin beds as the room will easily fit or repurpose your children’s twin beds as they graduate to doubles and queens and an entire family (or two of your old college friends) can easily share a guest room.

    This works particularly well with the sloping ceiling aesthetic of most attics. Choose similar (they don’t need to be matching) wrought iron bed frames at a flea market and paint them white (or black). Install wall-mounted lighting above each bed and the tiniest of bedside tables in between. Pick a color theme (blue and white, for instance) and use a different blue and white quilt on each bed. A bench or trunk at the end of each bed will give guests a place to store their suitcases. If the attic doesn’t have a closet, make sure you’ve got some hooks for guests to hang their clothes.

    If your attic room does indeed have sloping ceilings, consider painting the ceiling and the walls the same color. That doesn’t mean white: even small rooms look bigger if there’s no contrast between ceiling and walls. If you choose a strong or dark color though, stick to neutrals or whites for your bed linens and pick up the wall color with throw cushions.

    More than any other bedroom in your home, your guest bedroom is going to be used primarily for sleeping. Keep things bare but functional.

    Accentuate the room’s function

    If the only room you can spare for a guest bedroom is tiny, rather than try to cram too much into a small space or make it look bigger, adopt a Japanese sleeping pod/old time railway berth approach to decorating and center a four-poster bed (with or without curtains, but keep them sheer if the room is very small) in the room on the shortest wall.

    An over-the door hook, small triangular corner shelves on both sides of the bed, and either a wall-mounted lamp at the head of the bed or two small ones on each shelf and you’re done. If you’ve got room for a storage ottoman at the end of the bed, you’ll have seating for your guests and a place to store the linens for the guest bedroom (including extra blankets, pillows, and throws).

    Give your guests a powder room

    If you can make the plumbing work, consider repurposing your spare room’s existing closet to create a tiny powder room in the guest room. Just a toilet and a sink will make all the difference in giving your guests a sense of privacy and make their stay less disruptive for the rest of the family. They’ll still have to share one of the main bathrooms for baths and showers during their stay, but at least they’ll be able to brush their teeth and splash some water on their faces before they join you for breakfast in their robes.

    Repurpose a closet and add sliding barn doors with a stop as your guest powder room. Add some shelving above the sink and you’ll be able to store guest room towels and linens there. Bonus: seeing all the towels there will make them feel they’re staying in a luxury hotel suite. And if the room is big enough, consider adding a single-serve coffee machine so your guests are caffeinated by the time you see them. A little note on their pillow with the WiFi password and some light reading material, including copies of your local city or regional magazine and a thriller or two, should do the trick. For more design ideas, check out our Interior Design channel.

  • Best flooring choices for your kitchen

    Whether you’re planning a full or partial kitchen renovation, the good news is that there are myriad options when choosing the best flooring for your kitchen, and those choices are available at a variety of price points. We’re no longer restricted to tile, linoleum or wood flooring.

    Here’s a rundown of some of today’s best kitchen flooring options and some of the pros and cons of each.

    Best environmentally friendly kitchen flooring options

    If you’re concerned about off-gassing or passionate about leaving the smallest environmental footprint as possible, you may want to stick with options that don’t include vinyl or heavily manufactured floorings.

    Those can include cork, bamboo, new or reclaimed wood, and stone.

    Wooden kitchen floors are a huge trend these days and one that’s likely to continue for the next decade or so. If your kitchen cabinets are painted, glass-fronted or melamine, wood can provide some much needed visual warmth as well as design continuity between your kitchen and the rooms adjacent to it. Both hardwood and softwood floors are expensive. If you can find a source of reclaimed wood or salvage flooring from your own renovations, reclaimed wood might be your best option, especially for smaller kitchens.

    Bamboo, while gorgeous, is not a great idea for kitchen flooring. While it’s an amazingly renewable resource and very durable, it’s also highly reactive to temperature and humidity.

    Cork flooring is a great choice for kitchens and is both environmentally friendly and durable. It does, however, need to be resealed every few years. Check out the cork flooring options available and you’ll discover you’re not confined to natural cork-colored flooring. Dyed cork is available in a whole range of color options, from mint green through dark red to bright purple. And it’s available in tile, sheet, and plank formats. Cork is also both warm and comfortable underfoot. If you spend a lot of time (or long stretches at a time) cooking, it’s a lot easier on your legs than almost any other kind of kitchen flooring. Cork can be dented over time, so choosing a near-industrial grade of cork flooring is important for a high traffic area. Bright sunlight can also cause cork to fade, and light is important in a kitchen. If your kitchen has a southern exposure, this may not be the best flooring choice for you.

    Stone floors are beautiful, luxurious, environmentally friendly and extremely durable. You will be limited in your color choices if you choose stone kitchen flooring, and you’ll also pay a premium for them. Artificial stone floors are available in a wider color range. But the beauty of slate or stone floors is the natural color variations and textures. The other unexpected premium you may pay for stone floors is replacing dishes. If you drop it, you break it. There is also the beyond slippery-when-wet factor. You need to wipe spills up immediately, not to protect your floors but to make sure you get from the fridge to stove without a mishap.

    Last but not least is linoleum. Made primarily from linseed oil derived from flax seeds, it can also include jute, cork powders, wood flours and tree resins. Linoleum could work very well if your kitchen has a retro theme, and is available in many color options. Installing linoleum is a renovation that won’t add anything to your home’s value, however.

    Best comfort options for kitchen flooring

    Cork, softwood, and vinyl flooring are your best kitchen flooring choices if you spend a lot of time in your kitchen cooking and baking.

    Vinyl flooring is cheap, durable, and highly water-resistant. Think of it as linoleum’s “synthetic cousin.” It also comes in almost-infinite options: sheets, planks, and tiles and in almost as many designs as you can imagine. There is some very good vinyl “wood” flooring on the market these days. It’s also warmer and softer than either wood or ceramic tile floors, and a padded underlayer can sometimes be added for even more cushioning. It is, however, one of the least environmentally friendly flooring options.

    Best design options for kitchen flooring

    Wood is “in” for kitchen flooring, whether it’s real or engineered hardwood or vinyl planking, and the first two options can add significant value to your home. Wood flooring can provide nice design integration in a more open-plan home, but be careful not to create wood overload if your kitchen cabinets are wood as well.

    Stone floors are a time-honored, casually elegant option.

    Porcelain and ceramic tiles are extremely durable. The color and design combinations are endless, from mosaics to marble. Porcelain tiles are harder and less porous than ceramic tiles. If your kitchen isn’t absolutely level or your house is settling, these tiles can crack easily and repeatedly in problem areas. They’re not indestructible either: a hammer falling off a counter can crack or chip one of these tiles. There’s no one best flooring choice for all kitchens. Try to eliminate some options based on price, availability, and difficulty of maintenance and installation.

  • How to Place Mismatched Furniture to Feng Shui your Home

    Thousands of years ago, Taoism developed a set of spiritualistic practices around the belief that two fluid energies—wind and water (feng and shui)—flowed through homes, buildings, or exterior spaces, contributing to the users’ harmony and success. If you’re wondering how to feng shui your own home, start by designing free flowing energy paths through the careful  arrangement of your buildings, interiors, furnishings, and possessions.

    Combat Clutter

    Clutter is feng shui’s mortal enemy because it means the natural flow paths of chi energy are blocked by tchotchkes and other obstructions. Therefore, decluttering is the first  step in creating feng shui.

    Many things contribute to clutter, but not keeping up with maintenance is the most common cause: for example, simple unattended things like burned-out lightbulbs, malfunctioning appliances, or leaky faucets are all part of household clutter, since they pull your attention away from harmonious thoughts and pursuits.

    Simplify your home’s spaces before delving into cabinets, drawers, and closets and reorganizing them to free them from obstructions. This is a really useful exercise to do first. As you do it, you can physically feel a burden of care lifting as clutter disappears.

    You can also accomplish a spiritual cleansing of inappropriately obstructed chi energy by opening your windows and blowing out your living space for nine minutes (nine) is an auspicious number in feng shui.

    Rearrange Living Spaces

    After cleansing and decluttering, you should begin to rearrange your living space according to the five Taoist elements that underlie the philosophy. For Taoists, the world is divided into five materials which possess definitive qualities of color and shape: earth, metal, water, wood, and fire. The easiest way to introduce good feng shui to your home is by including something to represent each of the five elements in your space.

    Earth, for example is brown, orange, and yellow and comes in flat or square shapes. A dark rug in the middle of the room should provide sufficient earth element for your space. Metal is represented by white, gray, or metallic colors with spherical, round shapes, like a large circular porcelain bowl. Water, interestingly, is represented as black, or very dark blues, with curvy, wavy shapes like furled or blowing dark blue curtains in front of a patio door. Fire, of course, is represented by red colors, in triangular shapes like stems of red Japanese maple leaves on the mantel or in a vase.

    Since your home is a shared space, you need to take careful consideration with the placement of your furniture. A large living room encourages chi energy to pass freely in and around the room. The room should be large enough to accommodate the entire family and guests comfortably. There must be a comfortable seat for each member of the household, and for this reason the furniture arranged in a space with good feng shui is often mismatched. Each person in the home should feel welcome and accommodated, and his or her tastes should be reflected in the piece of furniture best suited for them.

    Furniture Placement is Essential

    Where you place furniture impacts the way the chi energy enters and moves around the room. Never place furniture in natural pathways through the room. This type of placement will block chi energy, cause it to become stagnant, and create negative energy.  The furniture should be arranged to invite conversation and interaction with your chairs and couches facing each other and no one sitting with their back to the door.

    The most significant piece of furniture in any living room is the couch. It should rest against a solid wall. Nonetheless, a popular western furniture arrangement is to place a sectional couch in the middle of the room without wall support. This floating should be avoided since it permits and encourages instability in your family’s life, work, wealth, health, and relationships. You can easily test the intuitive truth of this design principle by sitting on a couch against the wall before sitting on one set in the middle of the room. With each arrangement come different feelings. Chances are you feel safe and secure when sitting on the couch against the wall, while the one set in the middle of the room leaves you feeling vulnerable and uneasy, as though you need (constantly) to look behind you. Geomancy or feng shui is an ancient design system that produces unified pleasing interiors with reduced clutter and obstructions. Use these design ideas to provide unity and integrity to your living space. Creating good feng shui might not connect you to universal chi, but it leads to health and happiness. It’s only a short stretch from there to good fortune.

  • How to Decorate a Master Bedroom – Creating a Peaceful Oasis

    It’s possible one of the reasons you’re not sleeping as much as you should is that you haven’t invested enough time or thought in how to furnish or style your bedroom. Here are some tips on how to decorate a master bedroom to create a peaceful oasis you can retreat to at the end of the day.

    Paint the master bedroom a color you find soothing

    When choosing a color, remember that it’s not going to be seen in natural light very often. That may mean going a shade or two lighter if you’ve picked a darker color. Think about your bed linens and the color range they’re in. While black and white high-contrast subway tiles work well in bathrooms and kitchens, try to choose a color palette for the master bedroom that incorporates different shades of the same color and save the accents and “pops” of color for throw pillows, decorative objects, artwork, and plants.

    Digitally declutter

    While we all unwind in different ways, there seems to be consensus that digital devices hinder the process. Consider performing a digital declutter of your bedroom, removing everything from televisions to digital clock radios. You may still need to set an alarm to wake up, but if you use your cell phone’s alarm with the ringer turned off, you won’t really need another alarm clock. Try to ban computers from the master bedroom entirely. If you really want to watch TV in bed, invest in an armoire with doors that close so you don’t have to look at it when it’s not in use.

    Consider investing in a four-poster bed or an upholstered headboard

    Regardless of your decorating style, there are four-poster beds that can work in both modern and traditional bedrooms. Whether you choose to add curtains or not, a four-poster gives you a visual sense of isolation that makes the bed seem like a sanctuary.

    If you read in bed, an upholstered headboard can make a world of difference to your comfort, too.

    Follow the rule of threes

    Keep decorative items to a minimum in your master bedroom and follow the rule of threes. Dresser and nightstand tops can easily become very cluttered. If you love pottery or glassware, collect three different pieces and arrange them on a dresser. Bonus points if the decorative items are also functional—small jars in which you can stash earrings, tie pins, or loose change, seagrass baskets that can hold scarves, or boxes of different materials and materials.

    Green it up

    Plants (and water) are what makes a room an oasis. While you’re not likely to be able to keep a date palm alive in a master bedroom, adding a big plant gives you not only visual interest and a huge shot of green, but the oxygen plants produce at night can help you sleep better. Since you’re probably going to have the curtains or blinds closed most of the time in your master bedroom, consider plants that thrive in low or diffused light, like peace lilies.

    Add a seating area

    Depending on how big your master bedroom is, you may be able to create a seating area with a couple of chairs and a small table, or build a window seat (with storage for extra blankets and pillows, out-of-season clothes, or board games) so you can watch the world go by on rainy days or read a book. If your room isn’t big enough, a blanket box or sturdy storage ottoman at the foot of the bed will work, as will an armless slipper chair in a corner.

    Invest in window coverings that work for you

    You may want to consider investing in both curtains and blinds or heavy lined drapes to keep light out. That goes for natural light and the sun’s tendency to poke through eastern exposures long before you actually want to wake up, as well as street lights whose glare might make getting to sleep harder.

    Splurge on your bed linens

    Good sheets may be the best investment you can make when decorating a master bedroom. Quality cotton sheets won’t pill and they start to feel like silk after multiple washings. Rather than choosing sheets with busy patterns, consider buying only plain colors, sheets with satin stripes, or very small patterns, and save the patterns and textures for your throw pillows, which are meant to be decorative.

    Ultimately, how you choose to decorate a master bedroom is up to you. Now that you’re an adult and “go to your room!” is no longer a punishment, your master bedroom décor should reflect that while ensuring you get the kind of rest you need.

  • Laundry Room Renovation Tips

    The average lifespan of washers and dryers is less than 15 years these days, although your mileage may vary. While no one jumps for joy at the expense and inconvenience involved in replacing major appliances, replacing your washer and dryer is a great incentive to do a laundry room remodel.

    The good news is that by choosing the right new appliances and renovating your laundry room, you can create a space that maps to your workflow. Whether you do laundry on a daily basis or have family laundry marathons once a week, designing a layout that works for you and your family will make this chore less onerous. You’ll also be able to invest in energy-efficient appliances that will save you money over time and may also save you major wear and tear on your clothes.

    Here are some laundry room renovation tips to think about before starting your remodel.

    Upgrade your lighting

    No matter where your laundry room is located, good lighting is almost as important in this area of the home as it is in the kitchen. You can’t pretreat a stain you can’t actually see. This is especially important in basement laundry areas without a lot of natural light.

    With so many lighting options out there, get rid of any fluorescent tubes and harsh lighting that can create shadows and glare. Invest in some ceiling pot lights and make sure you’ve got good lighting over your laundry sink and washer area, since that’s where you really need to see stains that need to be treated before hot water and hot air cause them to set permanently.

    Get some storage systems

    Depending on how you organize family chores, doing laundry may be a centralized or a decentralized chore. Does each member of your family converge on the laundry room with their individual baskets of dirty clothes to do their own laundry? If so, you probably won’t need as much storage space as a family that’s delegated the task to a single person. If dirty clothes are stored in the laundry room before being washed, you’ll need more storage space and some pre-sorting bins to speed up the actual process. Pull-out bins in lower cabinets will help.

    If you have the space, a hanging rack for clothes that may not need much (or any) ironing will let you get on with the necessary folding without letting wrinkles set in freshly washed clothes, creating more work for yourself later on. A drying rack for clothes that can survive machine washing but will shrink in the dryer is a great idea too.

    And of course, an area set aside for ironing in the laundry room is a necessity unless you iron somewhere else. There are lots of space-efficient ironing board over-door systems available now with racks to hold both the board and the iron.

    If you don’t have any cabinets in your laundry room to hide bottles or boxes of laundry detergent, bleach, stain treatments, and dryer sheets and you’re replacing your appliances anyway, invest in under-appliance drawers to store these items. They need to be accessible, but they don’t need to be on display.

    Create the counter space you need

    Front-loading washers are game-changers in many ways. They use less energy and less water, and the fact that they spin rather than agitate means less wear and tear, and therefore longer life, for your clothes. But they are also amazing space savers. If you have enough space to install your washer and dryer side by side rather than stacking them, a two- or three-sided countertop that fits over your washer and dryer gives you a flat surface for folding.

    If space is at a premium and you have to stack your laundry appliances, you can install a folding table that doesn’t take up space or get in the way as you try to get to the washer and dryer.

    Make it pretty

    For those who consider laundry a thankless task, an undecorated, poorly designed space just makes it worse. And for those who actually like doing laundry, why spend time in an ugly room with no redeeming features? Invest in some bold paint or wallpaper or a piece of art that isn’t going to be adversely affected by heat and humidity and give it pride of place on the wall above your appliances or the one you’ll be facing while folding or ironing. Small quilts, handmade rugs and wall hangings that bring you joy are perfect.

    You don’t need to paint or wallpaper the whole room. Think of the area behind your appliances as a feature wall. It’s a small, low-traffic area that can be transformed with a pint of paint and no more than two rolls of wallpaper. And once you’ve finished your laundry room remodel, you may find you don’t hate doing laundry anymore.

  • Coordinating Your Garden to Your Home

    While architects have often noted that landscape architecture has lagged the modernist building movement since the late 1930s, these days, there’s consensus that your garden should, if not match, at least coordinate with your home.

    An English country garden may work just as well with a Cape Cod style home as it does with a thatched Tudor cottage. However, it really doesn’t suit a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired angular home with clean lines and lots of glass.

    Try to match your garden’s style to your home when it comes to size, color, and style for a clean, comforting appearance.

    Big custom made luxury house with nicely trimmed and landscaped front yard

    Size

    If you’ve got a tiny little porch, don’t flank your home’s entryway with massive flower pot sentinels. That will only emphasize how small your porch is. Similarly, if your front yard is the size of a pocket handkerchief, perhaps bursts of color from small petaled trailing plants like lobelia are a better idea than a hibiscus bush. Save the big, showy flowers for those you can train to grow on a trellis against the house, like a clematis.

    If, on the other hand, you’ve got a huge front yard, you may want to create interest by designing winding pathways that delineate different kinds of gardens: flower from herb, annual from perennial, rose garden from mixed flowers, Zen garden from rock garden. Also, you’ll want to scale up the size of your plants as well. If you’re working with a big space, you can invest in plants like hostas and hydrangeas, which will grow and grow and grow until you cut them back.

    Try to scale the size of your plantings to the size of your home. If tiny and perfect works for your house, it’ll work for your garden too. Make sure, if you have a small home on a small lot, that you keep both evergreen and deciduous trees trimmed. Letting them get too tall isn’t just an aesthetic faux pas, it can be dangerous, given the severity of many storm events.

    home with nicely trimmed and landscaped front yard

    Color

    Repeating your home’s paint colors in your garden’s foliage or flowers is one way to link interior and exterior. Think of the house color as the flower painting’s backdrop. You can echo your home’s color scheme, or you can choose contrasting colors to make your garden pop.

    The easiest house colors to integrate with foliage are, of course, greens and browns. But you can use your garden flowers to both amplify and contrast with your home’s exterior wall color.

    White has a commanding presence in a garden, and some landscape gardeners think it should be used with care, to create a focal point or unite a space. Trim and roof colors should be repeated throughout a garden, with white or off-white plantings as accents or unifying elements with any house that has white or cream in its paint scheme.

    modern house with matching style garden

    Style

    The warm texture of a red brick house with gingerbread trim and deep overhangs calls for one kind of garden and a specific range of plants, while the neutral concrete and glass angles of a modern, custom-built home would look silly adorned with petunias.

    If you’ve bought a heritage home, honor its stature with traditional and vintage garden designs. Make use of arbors and hanging baskets on the porch. Flank a colonial style home’s front door with large planters bursting with trailing flowers. Create a rose or hydrangea or French herb garden. Build a latticework gazebo.

    Landscape architects suggest using foliage as building blocks with modern design, and some of the best examples of this are of rectangular planters filled with wild and spikey decorative grasses. The abundance, movement, and deep true colors of the grasses provide contrast to the neutral color scheme. They also supply texture, movement, and a wildness that works well with a very precise and sometimes coldly confrontational architectural style.

    Modern architecture lends itself very well to xeriscaping, and once a xeriscape lawn has been designed and planted, it matches the spirit of modern architecture: clean lines, low maintenance, and a lack of ornamentation. Vertical gardens and green walls work very well with modern architecture too, providing a shot of color and free form design, adding a bit of warmth and interest to hard edges. Planning, planting, nurturing, and appreciating your garden should be a voyage of exploration and discovery, something you perfect over the course of years. Don’t be afraid to try new colors, plants, and accessories to see what works and what doesn’t. Most importantly, don’t forget that gardening can be a year-long passion. After all, the important work gets done in winter: planning, poring over seed catalogues, and researching patio stones, water treatments, wind chimes, and lawn furniture.

  • Innovative Ways to Use Your Basement Space

    Finished or unfinished, basements are too often overlooked. They are frequently forgotten when it comes to considering available space, due to clutter, dampness and darkness. These issues can be addressed with a few tried and true techniques and basement renovation ideas. Here are five suggestions.

    1. Home gym

    Save yourself the gym membership fees and commute time by installing a home gym. For a modest investment, create a dedicated workout space that changes with your needs. Start with a yoga mat, an elastic exercise band and some free weights. You can find a used weight bench with a bar and some weights for about $150.00, or find working stationary bikes and treadmills for even less. Heavy bags provide a wonderful way to relieve stress and condition your body in the privacy of your own home.

    Make your home gym even more serviceable and comfortable by including rubber flooring and a full-length mirror to monitor your form. Shelves are handy for exercise books, cleaning supplies and bottled water. A bar fridge or plug-in water cooler will help you stay hydrated. Finally, a smart TV that supports YouTube lets you sample a variety of exercise techniques or catch up on the news during cardio.

    2. Home Theater or Music Room

    A home theater delights the whole family and is relatively cheap to install. A large screen smart TV and a family computer with lots of memory are a great way to begin. Good speakers enhance the entertainment experience. Sectional couches (or old movie theater seats) provide ample, comfortable seating. A microwave and a bar fridge allow you to prepare snacks and refreshments for game or movie nights. Carpeting is a good idea to warm up the space and reduce noise.  If you’re willing to make the investment, cork flooring provides a beautiful and forgiving surface that doesn’t need vacuuming.

    3. All-Ages Playroom

    The large footprint basements offer means little ones can scatter their toys and enjoy hours of fun. Shelves for books and board games make the space useful. Install a large table for crafting and painting, as well as for puzzles and games.

    The good news is your basement can provide a playroom no matter your age. Invest in an air hockey or ping pong table, foosball, miniature pool table or a pinball machine to create a grown-up relaxation space.

    4. Bedroom, Bathroom, and Laundry Room Combo

    An extra shower in the family home is a great idea and it gives guests a little more privacy. Installing one in your laundry room can be an efficient strategy. Adding bedrooms and bathrooms will also improve the resale value of your property and provide a convenient place to host family and friends. Be sure you comply with regulations, including mandatory exits and closets.

    5. Bachelor Suite

    If you’ve already got a bathroom and bedroom downstairs, think a little bigger. A children’s room adds convenience for sleepovers, while a full guest suite provides extra income through homestay students or long-term tenants. A kitchen space that includes a sink, stove, refrigerator and table is essential for a self-contained rental unit.  Additionally, a private entrance is the single most important feature tenants looks for.

    Before you embark on a basement renovation, make a list of goals. Use shelving and storage boxes to pack and re-organize everything you’ve stashed under the house. Unify what’s stored into a single room furthest away from the social or living areas of your repurposed basement.

    Invest in a dehumidifier. As the damp disappears, so will the impression of coldness. Cozy is good, but hygge is better.

    Eliminate dark basement corners with appropriate lighting or add a large carpet to unify the space and provide bright splashes of color. Paint walls white or an engaging hue, like butter yellow, to improve your mood. Add to this airy brightness by choosing shiny flooring materials and a variety of small lamps. Use mirrors and clear glass windows to brighten the space or use frosted glass lit from behind to give the impression of windows. Overall, it’s most important to be creative. It’s your basement, after all.