Guest Post: Redesigning Your Home on a Budget

03 Monday Dec 2012

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

Tags

budget, color scheme, designing, furniture, home, interior design, Measure, money, Redesigning, theme

Interior design, for many, can be a scary thought. Planning the layout and design of your home is something that needs time and care put into it to ensure your home is exactly how you wanted it and many people end up going way over budget. Here are a few helpful tips to keep you on track whilst designing your perfect home.

First off, you need to come up with a budget. You will need to consider how much you are willing to spend and how much money you have actually got to spend before you go ahead with buying your materials. Calculations of expenses for tools and materials need to be made, planning carefully what you are willing to spend on each item of furniture. This will give you an idea of the kind of design you are going for and more importantly, the kind of design you can afford.

Now you can source your materials and furniture to fit into your budget. Look at how you have divided your money and start to shop around for the right materials for you. You do not need to buy the materials straight away until you know where to find the cheapest price. Shop around for bargains online and in stores to ensure you will get the best prices.

Once you are certain of the products and furniture you want to buy, you will be more aware of the kind of price range and budget you are looking at. Of course, if you are confident that you have found the best price for a product then you should buy it, but be careful because a plan still needs to be drawn up for your room to give you an idea of the amount of furniture your space can accommodate.

Choose a Theme & Color Scheme
You should come up with a theme for the room you are going to redesign – look at color schemes and the type of style you will be going for in the room. This will help start you off on your project as you will have a clear understanding of what you are going for and the type of furniture and materials you need to buy. Look through some magazines or some online articles to get an idea of the kind of things you are looking for and what will suit your budget most.

Photo Credit: Lowes

Measure the Space
Next is to come up with a plan for the room(s) you want to redesign. Measure the room and draw up a floor plan so that you can see how much space you are working with. For now, this can just be a bird’s eye view, but if you want to include more detail, draw a plan showing the height of your furniture and decorations to give yourself more of an understanding of the space you’ve got to work with. This will help you decide which furniture is going to be the best for your room.

Photo Credit: Furniture From Turkey

Look at the sizes of the furniture which you have chosen and look at how you can most effectively utilise your space. Find measurements of the furniture which you will be using and draw them into your plan, try different rotations of the furniture and get a general idea of how the room is going to look in terms of size, space and aesthetics. This part is the most important and speaking from experience people that don’t plan their projects well, tend to go way over budget.

You need to keep a strict attitude towards the project to not only make sure that there is a definite completion date, but also to make sure you don’t end up spending a lot of time and money on the project only to be forced into defeat simply because you ran out of money.

Purchase Materials
When you feel confident that enough planning has been done for your project, you can now buy all your materials and prepare them for installation. Follow your plan and all should be well. You might find that there are a few minor things that you looked over in the planning and designing, although if you are thorough enough these occurrences can be minimal. Stick to a strict regime, but make minor changes to the design if you feel the need to and you will have the perfect room for you in no time.

Some people may find designing and planning interior design by themselves to be too much of a daunting task. If this is the case for you then you could always get a painter and decorator in to give you a help in hand, they may even be able to match your budget and keep things cheap!

{Brad Warmbold wrote this article on behalf of Butterworth Interiors, an Interior design and Decorating Company in Cheshire, UK. }

Planning a Vacation at Home

30 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Guest Posts, Maddy Olsen, The Home

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

couple, cuddle, destination, escaping, home, love, relationship, romantic, vacation

When life has stressed us out beyond belief, the only thing we want to do is escape. When you are married, you just want a little down time with that person you love. However, taking the time off of work is not possible all of the time and can lead you down the dark road of feeling down, caged in. So remedy your situation with a compromise and create your own romantic getaway at home.

Just like any vacation, you need to plan the days you will be escaping from life. If you work, it may have to be Friday night through Sunday night. Arrange for the kids to be elsewhere so you have the house to yourself. Then, you get to work on planning!

The Invite
I’m not the most romantic person sometimes, but I am creative and I want to be romantic so I work at it. To introduce the idea to your spouse, leave an envelope with something that resembles a plane ticket in it. It should include when you will “depart” for the fun and where your “destination” is. You can print these types of things out with your printer on card stock. Browse for templates online, they are out there. Crafting stores may have pre-printed options that you just fill in. Tell them to pack a suitcase for the weekend and leave it by the front door.

The First Night
Think in terms of relaxing. Order dinner in and decorate the patio table or just your dining table to reflect how you feel. Doesn’t really have to be fancy. A tablecloth, a vase of roses or favorite flowers, pull out the china, chill a bottle of wine or sparkling juice, a candle, manage a nice place setting (look it up if you don’t know how), maybe a mint like Ande’s on the napkin for after dinner, and put your take out in serving dishes. Play some nostalgic music and ask your partner to dance with you for a moment. Then, enjoy your meal. Of course, this all helps the atmosphere, but cleaning up the house beforehand makes it feel a little more commercial.

Once you have eaten, cuddle up with a fire in the fireplace and watch an action flick. Romance movies tend to make women cry and feel a little deflated. Guys just can’t live up to those movie characters and their stories! Ha! It is a proven fact that watching something that gets the heart pounding and the adrenaline going will keep you both from feeling sluggish afterward.

Take the time to pour a warm bath with a lot of bubbles. Play music and light small tealight candles around the edge. Just be careful not to get too close or catch a towel in the flames. Have your bedroom decorated to simulate a hotel. Swap out your current comforter for an older one in the closet to make it different. Use white sheets and pillowcases and pull them tight over your bed. (That is one of the greatest things about sleeping in a hotel!) Turn on the bedside lamps to a low glow and have your suitcases on the floor. Bring a television in, if you don’t already have one and spray a clean scent around the room.

Photo Credit: Hotel Book

Use removable wallpaper along a bare wall or one that could be cleared. You can get this printed with a photo of your choice, so pick a photo of your honeymoon or find a database shot of a place you both want to visit. This has a sticky back like unto a Post-It note and can be put up and taken down for future use. Lay out traveling pamphlets over the dresser and just unplug the phone! There is no need for wake up calls in the morning. Lay out fluffy towels for bath use and even little soaps and shampoos, if you feel like making that extra effort. Search a place you want to visit for photos to recreate the same sort of look.

The First Day
Get up. Don’t allow yourself to sleep all day. Make breakfast together and enjoy a mug of cocoa or coffee. Turn on the fireplace and talk about anything for an hour while you eat. Then, enjoy a shower and get ready for the day. Have a place in mind that you can drive to, that won’t take all day, and get out of your…er…hotel. Try to make it a new place you have never experienced before. That is how it would be if you were on a real vacation.

Take a picnic lunch with you and share that while doing your excursion. Then, come home and refresh and take your special someone out to dinner at the place you met or had your first date. Try to even sit at the same table you had shared. Even more fun is to role play. Secure a reserved table but one of you sit at the bar. Come up and offer to buy them a drink. End up eating dinner at your table and pretend you are meeting for the first time. Afterwards, go for a stroll through downtown or in a park.

The Last Day
Leaving your vacation spot is always difficult. Filling the suitcase to head for home can be a little depressing. However, spend the day unpacking your suitcases and doing some laundry. Just a nice quiet day together is the great way to end your vacation. If it is possible, go have a massage together. Just be ready to face the work week with recharged batteries.

By setting your scene and playing the game you can really enjoy yourself for little money out of your pocket. Having a vacation a few times a year is good for the mind and the relationship. Set your decorations aside and use them again next time. That way subsequent trips cost you less! No matter how you relax, do it together and enjoy life!

Written by Maddy Olsen

Guest Post: Different Ways to Add Wooden Features to Your Home

28 Wednesday Nov 2012

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

diy, foreign countries, home, Natasha Alatassi, natural element, ornaments, rustic, Travels, wood, Wooden Floors, Wooden Furniture

Depending on your personal taste, you might love wooden features as much as I do. I think it can give a home a really natural look and adds a rustic feel to décor. However, unless you want to put lots of bonsai trees and tall plants in your house, it’s not easy to incorporate your love of nature in your interior design ideas.

That’s why I’ve come up with a few ideas on how you can do this – without making your property look like a jungle!

Bring Back Ornaments from Your Travels
My love of travelling allows me to combine a lot of my interests, and although you may not initially assume going on long-haul holidays does this, it enables me to express my character in my interior design plans. This is because you can pick up lots of knick knacks, pictures and ornaments from foreign countries, and I love bringing home lots of wooden features.

No matter where you go, you’re bound to find lots of carvings and picture frames made out of wood. I can’t tell you how many statues, masks and boxes I have from all over the world featured around my house. This is a great way to add a natural element to your property and it also gives you lots of things to talk about with guests when they compliment one of your findings. If you have items from lots of the countries you’ve visited, you’ll have several conversation starters to use with your friends.

Photo Credit: Flickr – Riz

Buy Wooden Furniture
Perhaps the most obvious way to add wooden objects in your home (apart from putting lots of small trees in your house, which is often not a suitable option!) is to buy new furniture. It can be easy these days to pick up inexpensive pieces for our home. However, if it’s authentic wooden features you’re looking for, you may have to expect to pay a higher rate to get good-quality wood.

Having said this, you don’t have to replace these items of furniture as often as you would metal, plastic or a lower-standard of wood because they are built to last. Therefore, you could see your oak dining table or mahogany bureau enduring many years.

Photo Credit: West Elm

Photo Credit: Pottery Barn

Install Wooden Floors
If you really want a rustic look to your house, I recommend installing wooden floors. These fit well in a manner of properties, from old Victorian houses, where wooden floor boards were typical at the time, to modern homes.

Photo Credit: Floortex Design

Those who are quite good at DIY might want to try rescuing the original wooden floor if you have one but I think it’s far easier to get new solid wood or engineered wood flooring fitted. This way, you don’t have to worry about any rotten or loose floor boards, as everything is brand new and looks smooth and stylish. You can choose from a variety of wood floors and have many options when it comes to color and style. You can even select ones that look aged to give your period property an authentic appearance. In fact, if it was me, I wouldn’t tell anyone your new floor wasn’t an original feature and I bet they wouldn’t be able to guess otherwise!

Photo Credit: West Elm

{Natasha Alatassi specializes in writing about home interiors and DIY on behalf of Ryder International.}

Restoration Blues

24 Saturday Nov 2012

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

≈ Leave a comment

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