Have you ever wondered why colors look different in your home? Simple.

Lighting in the paint store is not the same as in your home. Your windows bring in light and your light bulbs are different. Even against other colors; color can change. Take a paint sample home and see the difference.

Lighting effects colors in the way that they absorb; or reflect light. Some colors will appear warmer in natural light, brighter in florescent light and toned down in incandescent lighting.

Light colors reflect; while dark colors absorb the lighting. Of course, everyone has a different opinion on whether light or dark colors make a room look smaller or larger. What’s your thought? Think about this. If you look at a black ceiling can you really tell where it ends?

Keep this in mind when planning the lighting in your home. Yeah; another thing to think about.

* Incandescent (bulbs) – This light enhances yellow and orange. While it dulls blue and violets. Red takes on an orange tint.

* Florescent (tube) – Invigorates green, blue and violet hues; but it washes out red, yellow and orange shades.

* Natural (outside or man-made lights) – This is the best, but not always practical light for the home. Reds warm and yellows tone down; while blues brighten and greens darken.

Lighting is not the only thing affecting colors. Ever wonder why colors look different when placed next to each other? It has to do with light wavelengths, but that is more scientific so, we will stay clear of that and make it easier to understand.

In plain language, colors can change radically when they are viewed next to another color. Try it at home to see the effect. Or try it with some paint swatches by putting them together.

Red next to blue – Red takes on a yellowish tint.
Red next to green – Red appears brighter and stronger.
Red next to yellow – Red seems bluer.
Red next to black – Red appears duller.
Red next to white – Red seems brighter and lighter.

Also, opposite (on the color chart/wheel) colors attract such as:

Red is redder when it’s with green.
Yellow is sharper when it’s with purple.
Blues becomes bluer when it’s with orange.

Keep this in mind if you have two or more colors that will be next to
each other. Always put the two colors together and view in the lighting
that you have in your home – during the day and at night.

Here is a list of the warm and cool colors:

* Warm Colors – Red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange and yellow-greens.

* Cool Colors – Green, blue-green, blue, blue-purple and red-purples.

Always remember…view the color samples at home in the room they will be used. You will be surprised. View during the day and evening. Leave the swatches on the walls for a few days or longer if you are not sure. Oh, yes…use removable tape (blue or purple) if you are leaving them on for some time. You don’t want to mar the wall when removing the tape.

Then, before buying gallons of paint; purchase a quart or if they sell the small paint samples and paint a 6′ x 6′ square are and feather out the edges so you don’t have a hard line. Why? Because those small swatches don’t give a wide viewing area and to be absolutely sure you love the color before spending lots of money on gallons of paint.

H John Johnsen

Home staging is the proven way to sell your house quicker and at a better price…even in today’s poor market. Home staging makes your house more competitive by presenting the house as “ready-to-move-in” to prospective buyer’s. And; home staging can be a way to get more organized and de-cluttered. This applies to both inside and out of the home.

Staging can be simple or more work and could require the help of a professional home stager. But; in some cases you can do it yourself if it is a simple project.

The first step is to look around each room. Bring a note pad with you if you are serious about doing this. Make notes about any problem items; such as broken doors, light switches. Yes; the ‘honey do’ type list, but it gets much more detailed as you go.

Now look inside the closets. Yes; buyers look in closets to see if there is enough room. Mark in your pad whether the closet is neat or packed and needs some thinning out.

Bathroom is the next stop. Any broken tiles, dripping faucets, etc? Also is there any areas that need to really be cleaned? Look at this as though you were buying.

The kitchen is an important area. Is it cluttered with items all over the counters? Are the cabinets messy and over flowing? Clear out the items you don’t use on a regular basis. Store them where you can get to them; but not clutter a cabinet in doing so.

Look around the living and dining rooms. Clean up as much clutter and items you don’t use daily. Clean out he display case of any items that are not “display casable”.

The garage is another place that gets cluttered very quickly. If you get a hold on it before it gets too cluttered you will be ahead of the game. If you are beyond that you may want to do a little at a time to make it easier on yourself. A cluttered garage can create an issue for buyers. You want to have the garage clear so they can determine what vehicle(s) will fit and how much room they have for their belongings.

Curb appeal is just as it sounds. An appeal of your house from the curb view. What do you see when you look at your house from the curb? Peeling pain, a broken mailbox, dead plants, etc? You will be surprised at how different the house will look once you make the effort to clean up the yard. Take a drive past your house and see what needs to be changed or repaired. And; don’t forget the back yard. This is a particular area where buyer’s like to see how they will use it – especially if they have children. So this area needs a special cleaning.

Staging is just making your home more presentable to yourself and/or prospective buyers. To make it easier on yourself; just make a list of the items that need to be fixed, repaired or cleaned and do it a little at a time.

Ask yourself this question: Would you buy a house that needed a lot of work; unless you were a handyman?

H John Johnsen

Home theaters are all the rage, and why not?! All the comfort and convenience of your own home combined with the entertainment value of a movie theater. And with the price of movies these days, it is becoming more and more economical to build a home theater. While home theater equipment can be expensive, it is important to get the best equipment you can afford, from the projector, to the screen, to the speakers, to the cabinetry and sofas (you do, after all, want to be comfortable). However, in the end it is important to remember that, no matter how good your equipment is, it is essential to use a good home theater room design. Indeed, if your room is designed poorly, you might as well buy a 12 inch black and white television and set it up in the living room.

The most important thing to keep in mind when designing your home theater is to let your equipment be your guide. To get the maximum effect out of your equipment, you need to build around your equipment. For instance, the larger your screen, the farther away your seating area needs to be. You also have to keep in mind where the best locations for your speakers are to give you true surround sound. Not surprisingly, the central speaker should be lined up perfectly with the seating area, with the surround speakers behind the seating area just to the left and right.

You should also consider where in your house you should locate your home theater. Your home theater will not work as well in every room in your house. The best place for your home theater will likely be the basement. When you are in the basement, you will not have to worry about preventing light from coming in and taking away from your picture, and you will be able to insulate the rest of the house from your theater’s sound. Also, your basement will likely give you the most flexibility in terms of placing your components.

Your home theater room design can make or break the effectiveness of your home theater. Creating the perfect home theater is more than just buying the best equipment. Take the time to ensure you have the best layout possible. The last thing you want happening is putting all that money and labor into it and then it turns out opposite the way you planned it to.

Lisa Marx
http://www.articlesbase.com/technology-articles/home-theater-room-design-57220.html

Curtains are a fast way to bring new life and color to any room, and now home decorators can create them more quickly and easily than ever. One clever example: simply clip an attractive tablecloth or tea towel onto a rod. Curtains and drapes will give you the more traditional window covering that you can combine with window shades and blinds.

Choosing a great window treatment idea can be a daunting task if you’re not sure where to start.

Measure each window separately and record the measurements on paper. Be sure to check all measurements twice before you purchase a new window treatment. Measuring and installation is available in the Brooklyn, NY area. Measure from the point you’ll hang the shade to the point where you want it to drop. Add an extra two inches to the top portion of the window frame to allow for mounting brackets.

There are many types of window treatments to choose from. Aside from the standard curtains and drapes here are: wood blinds, pleated shades, cellular shades, plantation shutters, aluminum mini blinds, and vertical blinds are only a few of the many options available.

Matchstick and bamboo blinds can be found at many imports stores or on the Internet. Wooden vertical blinds offer a vast choice of different natural and stained colors. The lightweight woods which offer paler colors such as ash and beech can create a warming and inviting atmosphere, for a more contemporary and dramatic effect dark woods such as dark oak and rowan are very striking. Don’t forget the interior wood shutters. These give a country styled appearance to a home and kitchen. They may be painted in any color that one desires.

Wood, for example, is warm and rich and works well in home offices. Deciding on what type of blind to use in each room can be done with your own creativity or you can hire an interior designer who can offer more helpful advice.

Wood blinds can be cleaned with a cleaner suited for wood surfaces. Use water sparingly, however, as you don’t want to damage the wood. Wood shutters are charming and substantial; those that cover only the bottom half of the window protect privacy but let in light, so you’ll want to add roller shades or Roman shades on top. Gathered Roman shades, handsome even in simple canvas, look wonderful in a circus stripe. Shades are similar to blinds, but instead of slats, they consist of fabric.

Choosing the right kind of window treatment for your home can get very overwhelming and confusing. You should work from the design style in the room you are decorating and choose a treatment that complements the design. Since most curtains and drapes are simply vertical in design; these can work in any décor. You just have to choose a color that fits and that is done by finding the predominant color and matching it (if there is not a lot of this color) or complementing it to avoid oversaturating the predominant color.

A fabric store is the best place to start; so bring a sample of the predominant color with you.

H John Johnsen

“Accessibility”, as it pertains to the design of buildings, is a term that most of us are somewhat familiar with. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the “ADA”) mandates that most buildings used by the public be designed for ease of use by persons with many kinds of disabilities. We’ve all seen accessible parking spaces, ramps, and washrooms in retails stores, airports, and office buildings.

Homes, too, should incorporate design features and products that are easier to use by people of all ages and abilities. It’s a concept called “universal design”. For most people however, the image of an accessible home is one of fluorescent lights, wheelchair ramps, and white porcelain plumbing fixtures – more like a clinic than a home.

But an accessible home needn’t be like that at all. In fact, many design features and fixtures that work well for accessibility are also well suited for just about anyone. Accessible design is often just plain good design – a well-integrated accessible home design can and should extend a home’s usability through more than just one phase of family life.

Start In The Kitchen

Making a house more accessible isn’t particularly difficult or expensive. You might even have some universal design principals at work in your kitchen now.

“Side-by-side” refrigerators are more usable by a person in a wheelchair – unlike a unit with the freezer mounted on top. Inside the refrigerator, sliding shelves eliminate the need to reach all the way to the back to retrieve what you want.

A very common disabling condition associated with aging is reduced physical strength, which can make cooking in a large pot difficult if it has to be lifted into and out of the sink to fill with water. Instead of a standard kitchen faucet, install a “goose-neck” spout that allows the pot to be filled without lifting it into the sink. And place the cooktop nearby so that the pot can be easily slid across the countertop to the burner – no lifting required.

The latest in dishwasher design is the “drawer” type like those from Fisher & Paykel and KitchenAid. Drawer dishwashers don’t require as much bending over to load and unload and because there’s no door in the way, they’re more easily used from a sitting position.

Staying Home

As the American population ages and as housing prices escalate, many homeowners are trying to stay in their homes longer. Too often however, family homes are primarily designed for young families and become rapidly obsolete when they can no longer provide the convenience and safety that older citizens need. It’s an unfortunate result of a “disposable home” mentality – but that’s a topic for a future article!

A few simple design changes can make almost any home better able to support changing lifestyles, as ease of use and safety become important issues. One of the easiest is the installation of blocking for grab bars at appropriate places in the bath when the house is built. These simple and inexpensive structural supports are used for the future installation of grab bars, which provide increased safety in showers, tubs, and at toilets.

Another easy change is using “lever-type” door hardware – popular because of its looks and ease of use but also a requirement for persons with reduced strength or restricted mobility. Widening the doors a few inches can also extend the useable life of the house. Standard thirty-inch doors aren’t wide enough for wheelchairs and can be difficult for anyone with trouble walking. A thirty-six inch wide door solves both problems and makes moving furniture a lot easier, too.

Ups and Downs

Stairs are the biggest obstacle to making any home accessible. Typically, a fully accessible home must be all on one level – no stairs, step-downs, or even door thresholds. But a one-level home is more costly to build than a two-story and may require a larger property.

A better solution is a residential elevator. Sound expensive? Compared to the cost of a one-level home on a larger lot, an elevator is a very reasonable expense. It only adds about sixty square feet to the floor plan, and enables easy access to the first floor, the second floor, and the basement. Even better, only the elevator shaft need be installed now – the actual elevator equipment doesn’t have to be in place until it’s needed, maybe many years down the road.

Easier Than You Might Think

In most cases, accessible or universal design isn’t much more than good design sense and a desire to make houses usable by everyone – and isn’t that a worthy goal for any house, regardless of the current occupants? Our houses are sometimes a little too disposable – we can easily make them less so by making them more functional for a wide range of homeowners with and without disabilities. We’ll all benefit from design that helps people stay in their homes longer.

Richard Taylor, AIA

This guesthouse and weekend retreat in Burnet, Texas juxtaposes rough-edged elements with polished precision. Austin architecture firm, Mell Lawrence Architects, known for the quality and uniqueness of its design work, and for its attentiveness to client needs, took cues from the craggy surrounding landscape. “The trees have a textural quality, and the ground is rocky, with a lot of limestone outcroppings,” he says.

Corrugated metal siding and storage doors made from raw juniper branches relate to this rugged aspect, while the interior wood detailing and standing seam metal roofs add refinement. The local vernacular played into these contrasting material choices as well. “In the older rural areas around the South and Texas, people mixed a lot of smooth boards and rough wood,” Lawrence notes.

The bluff top site’s view down onto the lake below helped dictate the home’s orientation and glass-filled southern facade. A south-facing overhang covered with solar panels wards off the harsh sun, while generating enough energy to power the 1,400-square-foot cottage. A rainwater collection system and xeriscaping provide additional resource-conserving measures. While not technically off the grid, the house is self-sufficient, just as Lawrence intended. “The clients wanted it to not relate to the main house,” he says. “They wanted it to feel like another world.”

Read the full article and check out the photos at The Examiner

Simply stunning... How to be a Diva

Diva by hotshot designer Matthias Demacker is one cool looking piece of designer chair. Your behind have never experienced such decadent luxury. Designed for Belgian company Jongform, this number 9-shaped chair has special footrest area that can be used for a little R&R or a bit of a working vacation by putting your laptop.

Check it out here.

Scanning our analytics and seeing what you like to read about, I noticed that alcove beds are a secret delight (and highly ranked). They’re an unusual addiction as well, since you can’t buy one — you have to build it. Here, then, is a big hit of sweet alcove beds to settle your system. Enjoy!

Read more here.

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