Front Yard Landscaping Design for Better Home Privacy

Your front yard should be a space to enjoy as you like, without the fear of noisy neighbours watching your every move. Sadly though, as land becomes scarce and more and more houses are being built in limited areas, it can be difficult to find that peace and tranquility when you step out of your front door.

Thankfully, some clever landscaping could hold the key to a solution. Let’s take a look at ways to improve your privacy with landscaping.

Example of Front Yard Landscaping

Landscaping the front yard - courtesy of cottagegardening.com

Property line plantings

Property line plantings can provide privacy throughout the year, and are often much more attractive than gates and fences. Fast growing evergreens are a great option here, and they require very little care once they’re up and away. Make sure that you check any council restrictions in your local area, though you won’t have any problems in most cases. (more…)

Tags:
Posted in Guest Post, Outdoor, Plant on May 28th, 2013, 11:10 am by Webmaster  Comments Off

Why Decorate an Attic?

Most ready built houses come with an attic since contractors know the benefits that this space can provide for its new owner. In the past, this area was not given as much importance since it was small and dark. Way back then, people just used it as storage for their extra things. Nowadays, attics are being transformed into a useful, living space. They can look beautiful by decorating them with aspen furniture and other things that are mostly seen in different rooms of the house.

attic picture

Image courtesy of atticconversionscork.com

About Attics

In general, an attic is the available space between the ceiling and the roof. This is commonly seen in houses with pitched roofs. Residents have access to an attic through a trap door located in the ceiling. This can be reached through a stairway or a foldable ladder.

Advantage of Finishing and Decorating an Attic

- Insulation
Among all benefits that an attic can provide, insulation is perhaps the most important of all. A finished attic has the ability to retain heat. Studies show that cold air and high humidity is caused by air leaks found in an unfinished attic. To improve the atmosphere in a home, it is best to finish an attic and seal any visible cracks.

- More value
When you decorate your attic to make it a living space, you are adding an additional room. So, this gives more value to your home since it will have a higher price.

- Additional room
Instead of building an additional room on the first floor for a family member or for guests who sleeps over, you can create one by finishing your attic with beautiful aspen furniture. This way, you do not have to spend on new walls and flooring.

- Extra space
Like it was used in the past, an attic can be utilized for storage. With all the extra stuff you have such as gifts, decorations, appliances, clothes and others, you need more storage space. The attic has to be finished though to prevent humidity and mold from damaging your goods.

Ways to Decorate an Attic

- Paint it with light colors.
Attics are usually small and dark since natural light does not enter it. So, painting it with light colors like white and yellow can make this area brighter and appear more spacious.

- Use a solid light color
By using a solid color all across the attic, there will be no lines to divide it. The same light color from floor to walls to ceiling will let it be perceived as larger.

- Make use of panelling.
If you want your ceiling to look higher, you can use vertical panelling. On the other hand, if you like to widen your space, you can opt for horizontal panelling.

- Paint a wall pattern.
If you dont want to spend too much time in hanging decorations, you can paint a wall pattern instead like stripes to heighten a room or small designs for more sophistication.

- Choose your furniture.
Since the area is limited, you can choose to decorate your attic with a few aspen furniture pieces. This will certainly add beauty and interest to a small space.

- Place furniture close to the window.
Attics have only one or two windows. So to take advantage of the natural light, it is best to situate your bed or working desk close to the window where it is brighter.

- Consider sheer drapes.
Since the attic is the highest space of a home, it does not require the privacy offered by thick drapes. Sheer drapes will do since they do not block most of the light.

Conclusion
There are many reasons to decorate an attic, and they all add up to allowing a homeowner to have more useful space, either to be used as an extra room or for storage. Additionally, they provide insulation for a more comfortable indoor atmosphere.

About the Author:
Anne is a writer and SEO specialist for JHE’s Log Furniture Place, one of the oldest and most trusted online providers of log beds and rustic furniture.

Tags:
Posted in Furniture, Guest Post on May 8th, 2013, 8:40 am by Webmaster  Comments Off

Is The Best Home Lighting Also The Cheapest?

When people buy things for their home they invariably consider the price as an indirect guide to what makes the best purchase. This is often not a bad way to proceed since many budget items can prove to be a false economy when they don’t perform or last terribly well.

Unfortunately though, working out the true cost of things can be a little more complicated than simply comparing respective purchase prices. You also need to factor in the cost of ownership in terms of maintenance, servicing, frequency of replacement, consumables and intangible elements such as whether an item has either a positive or negative impact on your enjoyment of your home.

sample of conventional home lighting

home lighting sample - courtesy of ideashomedesign.net

Of course not everything you buy for your home necessarily has to represent the best quality you can afford. Sometimes low quality and/or disposable is totally the right choice. Increasingly these days though, a critical consideration (especially where electrically powered goods are concerned) is the operating cost. In other words, how efficient an item is as regards electricity consumption, with perhaps one of the most dramatic and yet most overlooked cases in point being lighting. (more…)

Tags: ,
Posted in Guest Post, Lighting on Apr 23rd, 2013, 1:55 pm by Web admin  Comments Off

Home Improvement: Choosing New Windows

Replacement windows are a fantastic option for many homeowners looking for a way to decrease their electric bill and increase the value of their home. You might also be tempted to assume that choosing replacement windows is one of the simplest projects out there- they’re just windows right? Wrong! There’s a lot that you need to know about replacement windows if you want to get the right high quality result out of your renovation.

Choosing your new windows should be about both the product physically and the product aesthetically. Besides energy efficiency one of the main reasons to get new windows is to improve the curb appeal of your home, another is functionality. Let’s consider just these two options as we talk about the many types of windows that are available to you.

Bow and Bay Windows

Replacement windows picture

replacement windows - courtesy of sevacall.com

Bow and bay windows are well known windows that extend beyond the wall of the house with multiple sashes angled away from the house creating the depth often used as a bench seat. The difference between a bow and a bay window is that the bay window has only three sashes, but the bow window can have as many as six different units. These windows look great in any room especially since they function as a centerpiece for the room. These windows can be more difficult to clean especially if the units are picture windows that do not move for ventilation.

The Basement Hopper
Far less common in reputation is the basement hopper, a much more practical window unit. These are designed specifically to serve at or just below ground level. They are shorter than other windows and open from the top of the sash rather than opening from the bottom. By inclining inwards toward the room when open they make cleaning and ventilation easier. They are designed to seal tightly shut so that window wells that might flood will not leak into the room.

Casement Windows

casement windows picture

A sample of casement windows - courtesy of agjoinery.com


Casement windows are windows that are opened by a crank. These windows will open outward vertically from the house and can be specifically beneficial when used in areas where the window is hard to reach for ventilation purposes. These windows are the easiest for general maintenance as they open a complete 90 degrees allowing for open access to the inside and outside of the window. They are also the most energy efficient windows many companies offer.

Awning Windows
An awning window functions exactly like a casement window with a crank to open it by. The biggest difference is that they open out from the house horizontally.

Double Hung Windows
Double hung windows are the most common replacement windows with two sashes that open by sliding vertically past each other. Not just one sash though, they can be opened from top or bottom with both sashes being movable. Designed for high efficiency many of these windows even have 3 panes for increased U-factor. These windows are often easily removed from the frame for cleaning.

Garden Windows

Garden Windows picture

Garden Windows - courtesy of installamerica.net


(more…)

Tags: , ,
Posted in Guest Post, Window on Apr 18th, 2013, 2:09 pm by Web admin  Comments Off

Page 1 of 611 2 3 4 61

 
Kris Allen Daily
You might also like ...close
This site is protected by WP-CopyRightPro
This is a free demo result from the Wayback Machine Downloader. Click here to download the full version.