Guest Post: Staircase Designs & Decorations

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Everyday Design, Guest Posts, The Home

Tags

banisters, carpentry, Dark woods, glass, modern home, painting, Railings, recessed lighting, Richard Tucker, slide-out drawer, stacked books, staircase, Staircase Designs, Storage, Victorian banisters, wood

The stairs are often neglected when we remodel because we just do not think about them. However, our staircases have the potential to be a major focal point in our homes. Since the stairs are such a small area, we can go a little wacky and still make it work with our other decorative features and schemes. The key is to choose something that you will love for a long time because redecorating a staircase can become tedious.

Turn Your Stairs into Storage
Each step can be transformed into a slide-out drawer. This is a place where you can store a number of smaller items. This also provides an immense amount of storage space because most home staircases are 10 to 12 stairs. This would be 10 to 12 storage drawers. This is a task you do not want to take on if you are unaware of what is under your stairs and not very handy. But if you are handy, some paint, drawer track kits and some power tools could transform your staircase into storage space while still preserving your ability to use the stairs to get up and down to different floors in your home.

Photo Credit: Fresh Home

Be Book Smart
If you are a book lover, you can decorate your staircase to look like stacked books. You will just need some paint and some drawing talent. Then, paint the face of each stair to look like the spine side of your favorite books. If you are not the best at art, you can find letter and number stencils at craft stores to help you along in painting the book titles. This is a more subtle change, but it will give your home some personality.

Photo Credit: Apartment Therapy

Light Them Up
If you have open space under each of your steps, you can use this space to light up your staircase. There are simple options like stick up lights that can easily be placed under each step with special adhesive strips. These just click on and off by you tapping on the lights. You can go more sophisticated and get recessed lighting put underneath each step. This would require a lot of carpentry and electrical knowledge, so do not attempt it on your own unless you have the required skills.

Photo Credit: Aldea

Update Your Railings
If you are going for a more modern home, those Victorian banisters are not doing your home justice. Glass and metal are very popular in modern homes and these can be installed in a day either by you if you have the skills or a professional contractor. You can also mix modern, straight line wood with glass, or just the wood. Wood can still be used in modern homes if it is stained the right color and is straight lines.

Photo Credit: Seven Home Ideas

Go Dark
Dark woods are really popular right now and work well with most design schemes. Changing the color of the wood is something that you can do with some time and elbow grease. First, you will need to strip your stairs down to their natural wood. This will require stripping chemicals, so take all necessary precautions and do this safely. Once everything is safely stripped and dry, you will need to take a dark wood stain and simply stain the stairs with the new color. Staining is something that can be tricky, so be sure to get some help if necessary.

Once you have stained everything, you should apply a finishing wax or clear top coat to protect the wood. These will also make the stairs resistant to drink, dirt and food stains, and will make the stairs easier to clean.

Photo Credit: Decor Pad

{Richard Tucker has been writing about home design solutions for nearly a decade. When he’s not writing, you can find him working as an engineer, designing energy efficient elevator parts.}

Tips for Organizing Your Closet

26 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Everyday Design, Guest Posts, Kim Willington, The Home

≈ 2 Comments

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closets, Clutter, Donate, Hangers, Helpdesksoftware.org, Hooks, Kim Willington, organization, shelves, space, Vertical Space

Closets start to become the refuge for everything else in your home that you don’t have a proper space for or just haven’t taken the time to classify. It’s easier to throw something on a shelf or on the floor of the closet to get it out of the way than it is to properly organize your space.

Bedroom closets are prone to even more clutter and mess with piles of clothes, shoes, scarves, ties, and handbags crammed into every last space. Not only does it make it hard to find the things you need when your closet has reached such a state, but it also brings down the feel of the room, creating clutter and tension.

It is important to get your closet organized to free up the space you need and to create a pleasing, relaxing space. Here are a few tips for how you can get your bedroom closet organized:

Clear the Clutter
Before you can start organizing the things you need in your closet, you have to first get rid of the things you don’t need. Sort through all your clothes, all your shoes, all your accessories and ruthlessly cut the waste.

Donate the items that you haven’t worn in several months. Stop hanging on to those jeans you think you’re going to wear after you lose 10 pounds. Get rid of those shoes you hang onto for a special occasion. It is better to buy these things again when you actually need them than to waste your time and your mental energy maintaining them.

Use Hooks and Shelves
Most closets have a basic rod and top shelf, creating only limited space for hanging clothes and storing boxes. You can create more opportunities for storing and hanging by adding more shelves and hooks. Use the shelves for folded clothes, shoes, boxes, and handbags. Use the hooks for ties, scarves, handbags, and necklaces.

Photo Credit: The Container Store

Creating this additional space will give you more opportunities to organize your items so that your belongings are not cramped and cluttered.

Choose Tiered Hangers
You can only create so much space with more rods or shelves. If your closet is very small or you just have too many clothes to fit comfortably in it, you can create more space by using tiered hangers. These hangers lock onto one another vertically to allow you to hang up to five items in the space of one. You may not be able to use them for bulky items like sweaters, but you can use them for most other items, creating much more space in your closet.

Be sure that the rod in your closet is strong or is reinforced. By using tiered hangers, you are significantly adding to the weight on the bar.

Do Double Duty
Take advantage of all the space in your closet by making some items do double duty. Suitcases can be used to store linens like tablecloths and sheets, or you could use them to store last season’s clothes. Handbags can stores scarves, hats or mittens — or even other handbags.

Don’t store items that you will use on a regular basis, such as clothing. You’ll only create more work for yourself when you go into your closet, and the point of organizing is to make life more simple.

Create Vertical Space
Don’t limit yourself to the width of your closet. Create more space by storing all the way up to your ceiling. No, we don’t mean piling clothes and boxes as high as they will go. Instead, add shelves and other storage devices all the way to the ceiling. You can create space over the door and along the sides, as well. You can even create a basket on the ceiling that can hold wrapping paper or similar items.

Photo Credit: HomeSessive

Organizing your bedroom closet is a first step towards creating a simpler, cleaner space in your bedroom. These simple steps can take your closet from a cluttered mess to an orderly space that makes it easy for you to find what you need and makes you feel good about your living space.

Photo Credit: The Buffalo News

How do you organize your bedroom closet? Share your strategies in the comments!

Written by Kim Willington

Restoration Blues

24 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Everyday Design, Guest Posts, James Harper, The Home

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Tags

diy, home, interior design, Momentum, restoration

Taking on a home restoration project is a lot of work; when you move in to a period home, it’s easy to be enthusiastic about the potential – you can imagine what the home will look like once you have an authentic looking (but still suitably modern and luxurious) kitchen, an exquisite period fireplace, and historically faithful, heavy and imposing period doors. Your home, you tell yourself, will be a mini mansion. All it will take is a bit of research and elbow grease.

Sadly, that initial enthusiasm rarely lasts for the whole project. Before you move in to the house, you’ll fix the floorboards, replace and re-paint the oak skirting, seal the windows, and do all of the critical work, but as the job drags on, your energy levels will naturally wane.

Photo Credit: Mark F. Levisay

Keeping the Momentum Going
For most people, the lack of energy isn’t down to a lack of interest, or laziness; far from it! The problem, put simply, is real life getting in the way. While it’s easy to devote a weekend or two to fixing up your skirting boards and sourcing authentic looking period doors, it takes far longer to re-do the entire bathroom, or source the right tiles to sort out your roof. If you have a full time job, finding the time and energy to take on another full time job in the form of home restoration is almost impossible.

Once your home gets up to a “liveable” level, you can be forgiven for thinking “I’ll get to it later” when it comes to the more time consuming tasks. So, how can you break out of the restoration blues?

Inspire Yourself
Many people invest in a period home, or a classical barn, and restore it piece by piece based on their mental image of what the place should look like. Instead of relying on your imagination, why not invest in some computer aided design software so that you can see a “real” version of your home in front of you. This will help you to stay motivated, and understand that while you’re “almost there”, your home will look even more awesome when it’s done.

Remove Access
If you’re prone to making excuses such as “Well, I don’t have the marble for the fireplace yet”, or “I haven’t sourced an appropriate cistern so there’s no point doing the rest of the bathroom”, sort that out. Take a trip to a local architectural reclamation yard and find the bits and pieces that you need. Buy as many of them as you can afford – if you spot a good deal on roof tiles that match the ones for your home, get them. If you have everything you need to finish your restoration, and it’s all taking up space in the garage, you should be more likely to finish the work.

Another good way to encourage yourself to get working on your home is to start a blog about the restoration process. Once you start posting progress photographs and diaries, you will have people asking how the work is going; public accountability can be a great motivator!

Written by James Harper on behalf of UK Oak Doors

Creating a Designer Kitchen on a Budget

19 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Everyday Design, Guest Posts, James Harper, The Home

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Tags

appliances, cabinets, Caple, color, design, diy, floor models, Frigidaire, General Electric, home, interior design, james harper, kitchen, Kitchen Appliance Centre, redesign, refurbish, shopping, sinks, vintage

The average custom kitchen can cost upwards of $20,000, but in this poor economy not many people can afford to spend that much. If you’re willing to put in some sweat equity, you can have the designer kitchen you want without blowing your budget.

Add a Splash of Color
Bold, bright colors are everywhere; candy-apple reds, sunny yellows, and rich, warm tones are very popular in appliances. Electrical stores and kitchen specialists offer a huge range of products to suit all budgets, look for established brands Neff, Zanussi and Caple and do your research to find top of the line products. Buying your appliances from a discount outlet will give you the high end look you want at a much lower price.

As an alternative to spending thousands on an appliance that will have a permanent place in your kitchen, consider buying changeable panels for your dishwasher, stove and refrigerator. Other less expensive options include freestanding appliances in bright colors, changing lighting fixtures, adding a bright splashback, or re-facing cabinetry and changing hardware. These smaller projects can cost less than $100, but make a big impact.

Photo Credit: Kitchen Cabinet Design Ideas

Refurbish Vintage Pieces
Today’s less structured looks can be achieved at a lower cost by taking some styling cues from your family room. Get the look by using different finishes on furniture-style cabinetry; a cheap way to do it is to refurbish old pieces like dressers, armoires, and even rolling carts to create additional storage. For even more personalization, incorporate architectural pieces from the salvage yard.

Photo Credit: Ghoofie Design

Buy Floor Models
Manufacturers such as General Electric, Frigidaire and Caple frequently have stock that’s been slightly damaged; in most cases, the “damage” is a slight scratch that you won’t even see once the appliance is in place. Buying from scratch-and-dent stores or getting a floor or demo model can give you the kitchen you want without breaking the bank.

Shop Smart
Other kitchen necessities can be bought on the cheap as well. Caple sinks, custom cabinets, granite countertops and flooring made of bamboo and other materials are all widely available from discounters both in-store and online. With all the options available, it can be hard to find the look you want at a cost you can afford–online comparison-shopping tools make the process much easier.

Do the Work Yourself
Some of you may be reluctant to get your hands dirty, but going the DIY route can help you get a designer-look kitchen without the designer price tag. Installing your own countertops and splashbacks will give you a tremendous sense of accomplishment (and a fatter wallet). Of course, your pricing will vary depending on the products you choose, but you’ll definitely save on labor.

Photo Credit: CabFabLab