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Interior Design

How to Choose Different Room Flooring

November 2, 2020

It’s easy to spend more time choosing the color of your walls than different room flooring. But don’t ignore the importance of the right type of flooring.

Style, color, and material matter on your walls, but your floor is much more likely to be the victim of spills and stains. You want to choose flooring that works for your lifestyle and holds up in high traffic areas.

Choosing Colors

A room’s flooring can bring a room to life. When choosing different room flooring, the colors can trick your mind into thinking the space is larger or smaller than it is. It can also affect the room’s mood and how you feel when you spend time in it.

If you have a room that feels too large, try using darker colors and warmer tones. These colors can make the room seem smaller and cozier. Conversely, lighter tones can make a smaller space feel more open.

If you’re looking to impact a room’s mood rather than its size, start with colors here, too. Different colors make people feel different things.

Whites and beiges feel open and clean, while yellow feels bright and optimistic. Browns create a rustic atmosphere. Blues make people feel calm, and red brings energy into the room.

Matching and Coordinating

If you don’t know the difference between matching and coordinating, you may want to when considering your room’s flooring.

Matching your flooring means keeping the same type throughout your home. However, coordinating means using complimenting colours and styles that work with the aesthetic of each room. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

The Right Flooring for the Right Room

Choosing your flooring shouldn’t only be about color and style. You also need to think about the practicalities. Consider how you’ll use the room, and even who will use it.

Your children might love the idea of carpet in their bedrooms, but a hard surface that’s easy to clean may work better. The same goes for the kitchen where you have a high chance of spillage. A floor that you can easily mop rather than scrub functions better in these spaces.

If you’re stuck on whether to go for style or practicality, think about how much traffic each room sees. Rooms everyone in your home uses daily would benefit from harder surfaces like tile cork or slate. Consider carpet for rooms you use less often, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning them.

Transitioning Between Floors

When deciding on different room flooring, consider when and how to transition between the different types from room to room. You can ruin your home’s aesthetic with an awkward change in flooring.

You usually see floor transitions between different rooms. But you can get more creative than that. You can have one kind of floor surrounding another, like tiles surrounded by hardwood. Try switching your flooring around a corner, too.

If you’re choosing different room flooring for each room of your home, remember that the rooms may not be level with each other. In these cases, use a transition strip to even them out. This will make the transition look better, but also makes you less likely to trip.

Filed Under: Accessories, DIY, Interior Design Tagged With: decorating, decorator, design, design elements, design trick, designer, dramatic interior, floors, hardwood floors, home, home design, home interior, House Cleaning Tips, interior, interior decorating, interior decorator, interior design, interior design tips, interior designer, interior designing budget, living space, painted floors, painted hardwood floors, painted wood floors, professional designer, professional interior designer, wood floors

House Cleaning Tips: Four Ways to Get it Done Fast

October 12, 2020

Most people hate cleaning and want to get through it as fast as they can. In an ideal world, you would keep up with cleaning your home every day. Still, even if you enjoy cleaning, sometimes you don’t have the time.

Whether you love breaking out the dusters or not, use these house cleaning tips to make tidying your home a breeze.

Before You Start

Before you even start cleaning, clear away all the clutter. While this may seem like a tedious task to, it will save you time when you get into the soap and scrubbing. It means you won’t have stop in the middle of cleaning to move clutter out of the way.

clutter in child's bedroom

Move from room to room and decide what should stay and what needs to go. Throwing away trash and putting miscellaneous items in their places will also leave you with less to clean as you go.

Plan your route around your home before you dive into cleaning it. Knowing which room you’re cleaning next will keep you focused on the task at hand. A plan creates an efficient system so you won’t be wondering what to do next. This plan doesn’t need to be complicated—you can make it as simple as working from the top left of a wall to the bottom right.

Work in Blocks

One of the best house cleaning tips you can learn is to not focus on finishing all cleaning tasks in one room at a time. This process might sound counterintuitive to some, as moving all over the house seems like it would take longer. But by working on one task at a time, you can clean more efficiently.

If you decide to clean the kitchen or the bathroom in one go, you could find yourself stuck in there all day. Instead, work your way around your home doing the same task in each room.

Wipe down all the surfaces in each room first. Then move on to another task like mopping the floor. This process is called task cleaning and it helps keep you motivated rather than continuously switching tasks in the same room.

Tools of the Trade

As declutter the house, try to take stock of everything you might need to clean. Then when you start, gather all the tools you’ll need and take them with you as you move from room to room. Keeping your tools on hand will keep you organized, which can only increase efficiency.

Remember to keep your tools clean as you go. There’s no point to wiping down a surface with a cloth that’s covered in grime from a previous room.

Get Everyone Involved

This house cleaning tip might be easier said than done but try making cleaning a team effort. The more people involved, the quicker the job gets done.

Organize a group and schedule a time for everyone to clean. When you’re done, make sure there’s a treat you can all enjoy. Order a pizza or find a movie everyone loves. Finding something that makes cleaning worth it gives everyone incentive to complete the task.

Filed Under: DIY, Interior Design Tagged With: Cleaning, Cleaning Tips, decorating, decorator, design, design elements, design trick, designer, dramatic interior, home, home design, home interior, House Cleaning Tips, interior, interior decorating, interior decorator, interior design, interior design tips, interior designer, interior designing budget, living space, professional designer, professional interior designer

Expert Interior Design Secrets to Styling Shelves

September 14, 2020

Styling shelves is a great way to give your unique items the attention they deserve. Framed photos, books, and decorative pieces that you might otherwise keep stored away find a place at the forefront of the room, where they catch the eye.

secrets to styling shelves

Decorating marries style with substance. You can take something that seems purely practical and make it a stylish part of your room’s design. Shelving makes it easy to create a striking atmosphere in a room.

However, shoving everything you own onto some shelves doesn’t always work. You have think about what you want to see when you look at your shelves—and the answer isn’t a wall full of junk. Follow these simple rules to create stunning shelves.

Clear Everything Out

Shelving units are the perfect way to show off your favorite items, but you still have limited space. Choose carefully what you want on display. That doesn’t mean you need to throw everything else out, but tidying the space goes a long way.

After spending so much time curating your shelving, you don’t want to ruin the effect with unnecessary clutter.

Start with Empty Space

Before you start filling your shelves, look ahead and imagine how it might look when you’ve finished.

There will almost always be some empty space exposing the back of the shelves. Consider painting this space or filling it with a fabric or wallpaper. These finishing touches can add new layers of depth and contrast to the shelving unit.  

Choosing Books

Start with the books when you’re styling shelves. If you’re a collector, try grouping them by color. If you have a limited book selection, add bits of color throughout the shelf. Using colors sparingly will make the books you have stand out.

You can stack the books or line them up on the shelf, but never have less than three together or they’ll look sparse. At the other end of the spectrum, avoid putting more than twelve or fifteen books together, or you risk making your shelves look too crowded.

Don’t be ashamed of buying a book for looks alone. Sometimes beautiful book covers can really make your shelving unit pop, and that’s what you want.

Add Sculptures and Vignettes

Sculptures and vignettes can add a lot of character to shelving units, but only if you use them correctly. While pairing smaller sculptures with books will draw the eye, larger sculptures should stand on their own. Putting large pieces in with books or other items can make the space look cramped.

It’s easy to fine unique bits and pieces to add to your shelves. They add personality to your shelves and function as conversation pieces when you have guests.

Balance is key when you’re choosing what to put on a new shelving unit. It’s tempting to fill them with everything you own, but attractive shelves take some thought. Make sure that everything on them has a purpose. By styling shelves with carefully selected items, your room can become its own piece of art.

Filed Under: Accessories, DIY, Furniture, Interior Design Tagged With: decorating, decorator, design, designer, For many DIY designers, home, home design, home interior, interior, interior decorating, interior decorator, interior design, interior designer, living space, professional designer, shelves

Stay at Home Interior Design During the Pandemic

August 30, 2020

stay at home interior design

Just because you’re stuck inside, it doesn’t mean that you can’t spruce up your home. While the coronavirus keeps us all indoors, you can use the time to do some stay at home interior design.

Whether you live in a mansion or a small apartment, here are a few ideas that can help to brighten your home. Best of all, you won’t need to buy anything new.

Rearrange Your Space

Moving your furniture around can give you a whole new space. Many people never rearrange the layout of a room unless they purchase a new couch or dining table. Stay at home interior design can get you comfortable with discovering different—and better—ways to lay out your furniture.

That bookshelf that’s been in the corner since you moved in might look better on the opposite wall. When you’ve moved that, you might find that it covers up a rug that you could lay out as a focal point for the room.

Try to let yourself have fun experimenting. Look at your living room and see what furniture you can move and where. Just make sure you have help moving heavier pieces.

Transforming Your Rooms

Many people who did not previously have the opportunity are now working from home. Rearranging your home can improve productivity by giving you a designated workspace. You may be tempted to lie in bed with your laptop, but you should take this as an opportunity to do some stay at home interior design that maximizes the use of your space.

Look at the available space in each room and consider where you can get the most work done. Try setting up your desk or workspace in different rooms to find out where you feel most inspired and productive.

Plants release oxygen through photosynthesis. Putting any houseplants you have near your workspace can give your brain a boost with that extra oxygen and improve your concentration.  

Don’t Forget Spring Cleaning

Summer might be just around the corner. What better way to prepare that with some spring cleaning? Some people cringe at the idea of decluttering, but working in a clean space can help your productivity and make you more comfortable.

Nothing distracts you more than a desk full of knick-knacks. How many times have you caught yourself tapping the bobblehead in front of your computer, or sorting through the cup full of pens beside you?

Studies show that your brain tries to focus on everything around it. The less it has to focus on outside of your current task, the more you will get done.

Start by throwing away anything you don’t need. Removing items you don’t use is not only a great way to declutter your house and help you focus, but it also increases your general sense of well-being.

Stay at home interior design doesn’t have to break the bank. By moving around things you already own, having a bit of a tidy, and repurposing some rooms, your home will feel like new.

Filed Under: Interior Design Tagged With: covid, decorating, decorator, design, design elements, design trick, designer, dramatic interior, home, home design, home interior, House Cleaning Tips, interior, interior decorating, interior decorator, interior design, interior design tips, interior designer, interior designing budget, living space, pandemic, professional designer, stay at home

Choosing the Right Appliances for Your Kitchen

August 17, 2020

Kitchen appliances can make or break a kitchen remodel. There are so many styles, features, and technology options available it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Then, there are always budgetary concerns—picking the right appliances would be easy if money were no object. Even so, it is possible to design the perfect kitchen with a little forethought and your priorities firm in mind.

choosing the right appliances for your kitchen

Here are some things to consider when choosing kitchen appliances to ensure you fall in love with the heart of your home.

Ovens & Cooktops

A high-performing, quality oven is crucial. Because ovens can have many features, it is best to focus on those you’ll actually use and the food you want to cook. A good oven will have a fan to cook food faster and more evenly. You’ll also want an oven with bake, roast, and broil features for all your baking needs.

Picking a suitable cooktop is important for both the practical purposes of remodeling your kitchen as well as aesthetic purposes. Just like your oven, you need a cooktop that gets the job done, but it certainly doesn’t hurt if it looks good, too. Try to pick a cooktop that takes up appropriate space and fits your overall color scheme.

Most cooktops have four burners, which is pretty standard for home cooking. However, if you like to entertain guests and large crowds, you may want to pick a cooktop with more burners. Then, you have to consider how easy it is to maintain. Whether you’re a clean-as-you-cook or cook-at-the-end type, you’ll most likely want clean-up to be easy.

Refrigerators

There are three fridge installation types:

  • Built-in
  • Freestanding
  • Fully integrated

These three options all come in a range of sizes and styles to suit your needs. You will also want to consider performance and configuration. Performance-wise, you need to choose between a single-compressor or a double-compressor unit. A single-compressor unit works twice as hard to maintain both the fridge and freezer. While double-compressor refrigerators cost more, they allow you to keep food fresher for longer.

One of the most popular refrigerator configurations is the French-door style with a side-by-side fridge and freezer. Make sure you don’t go too small when you’re choosing kitchen appliances. When you buy your fridge, you want to have enough room for your typical food storage. For two people, consider a fridge size of 12 cubic feet.

Sinks & Dishwashers

Your sink tends to be the focal point of your kitchen. Some popular sink configurations include:

  • Single, rectangular basin
  • 50/50 double-bowl
  • 60/40 double-bowl
  • Three-bowl

Once you know your ideal configuration, the next step is to compare materials. The material you choose affects whether your sink is resistant to scratches and stains, how you’ll clean the sink, and your kitchen’s overall look.

As for your dishwasher, you want to choose something that is efficient and fits into your kitchen seamlessly. If you use a dishwasher often, choose one that has deep-cleaning features and a variety of options. Running volume is one of the most important factors. Find a dishwasher with a low decibel rating so it won’t keep you and your family up all night.

General Tips for Choosing Kitchen Appliances

No matter what appliance you’re shopping for, there are a few general tried-and-tested tips that can help:

  • Don’t be afraid to mix-and-match. You don’t have to buy all your appliances from the same collection or brand.
  • Tailor your budget allocation to your lifestyle. It doesn’t make sense to spend a big chunk of your budget on a double oven, for example, if you rarely bake. Forget what a traditional kitchen “should” have and get what you’ll use.
  • Time your remodel. Many appliance retailers hold annual sales around the same time every year, such as Memorial Day or Black Friday. Time your remodel to line up with these sales to save more. Buying your appliances as a package from a single retailer also often comes with a discount. 
  • Know your space. As appliances of all types come in standard sizes, measure your space, and note any size restrictions. It can help to draft your kitchen on graph paper. Also, note any ventilation or power requirements and where they are in your kitchen.
  • Stay neutral. That bright blue retro fridge may look amazing right now, but will you still love it in 10 years? With big-ticket items like appliances keep to neutral colors—silver, black, or white—so that if you choose to redecorate in the future, you’re not choosing kitchen appliances all over again. Paint colors and cabinet handles are much easier to change!

Filed Under: Accessories, DIY, Furniture, Interior Design Tagged With: history of interior design, home interior, interior decorator, interior design, interior design tips, interior designer, kitchen, kitchen appliances, redecorating kitchen

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