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Remodeling Your Home? Here’s How to Avoid Some Common Mistakes By Diana Smith

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image-1A thorough home renovating project requires some major planning and even if you know precisely what you wish to accomplish with your remodel, you can expect to run into more than a few obstacles on your way. So, let’s see what are some of the most common mistakes in home remodeling projects and in what ways can you avoid them:

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Avoiding Budget Mistakes

Definitely the most common and, at the same time, biggest mistake in remodeling projects is not setting a realistic budget beforehand. A budget can undermine your project in a variety of ways, spending more than you can afford being the most common. This leaves many people in debts and with unfinished remodels. On the other hand, there’s also the mistake of trying to save money by saving on materials and tools. This can lead to some shoddy work, which can later on end up costing you much more than you originally hoped. The best way to avoid all these things from occurring is to make a detailed budget plan, list all the work you need to do and add another 20% on your original sum. This budget is going to cover all your expenses, but also give you a bit of space to cover some minor accidents (just in case.)

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Avoiding Contractor Mistakes

Many people tend to fall into the trap of hiring the first contractor they find, or even worse – the first that offers them the lowest bid. While paying the lowest fare for a contractor surely is tempting, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best deal you can make. It’s important to find an experienced and qualified contractor, so you can be sure that you’re getting your money’s worth (even if that means paying a bit extra). The other common mistake is not hiring a contractor at all and relying on your own two hands to do all the work. It would be best to realistically evaluate what type of work you’re able to do on your own and where you should seek help from an expert.

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Avoiding Safety Mistakes

While you might think that you can save both money and time by avoiding to meet some basic safety standards, this can greatly sabotage the remodeling. This is exactly why it’s crucial to take all the safety precautions into consideration, including not only safety equipment and gear but also conducting a detailed home inspection before officially starting your remodeling project. A hired professional inspecting your home can uncover a lot of irregularities and failures which need to be taken care of during the renovation. The best solution is to identify all the potential issues beforehand so you’d get an opportunity to add these errors to your to-do list. Hiring an inspector to examine your house after you’ve finished with the remodel is also smart, but it’s much better to fix everything before the end of the project.

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Avoiding Planning Mistakes

Planning is a crucial aspect of every home remodel and it’s critical to plan everything to the smallest detail if you want your remodeling to go smoothly. This includes not only designing a timeline of the repairs, but also considering their factors such as the complete layout of the house. Professionals who design project homes in Sydney advise to carefully plan the location of your electrical and plumbing systems so you’d be able to construct a functional residence suitable for future development.

Big projects such as these are known to be quite overwhelming at certain points, but very rewarding. So, before you dive into this venture, it’s best to be prepared for what awaits you in the following period. It’s best to inquire about all possible outcomes and get a grasp of some of the most common obstacles and mistakes that you should strive to avoid.

 

 

 

 

Top Interior Trends for 2017 By Diana Smith

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Since 2017 is coming, it is the perfect time to redecorate your home and start the new year with a change. A new year means a new beginning, so why not give your living areas a fresh start as well. If you like keeping up with trends, here are some you might want to incorporate into your home décor.

Colours

When it comes to colours, 2017 will be dressed in playful, vivid and vibrant colours. The most popular are the different shades of pink, especially flesh, red and peach. Navy blue, deep blue and green are popular colours for furniture items and accessories.  Dark purple and black with glossy surfaces are a match made in designer heaven. A matte finish will be popular in 2017, adding to the elegance of your home. This will put focus on the form, rather than the surface.

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As experts point out, the main characteristics of furniture in 2017 will be:

  • Roundedness – Round furniture is the thing of the future. Hard materials, such as marble, with curved edges will give the impression of softness and provide a tactile experience.
  • Custom-made furniture – The ongoing trend that will continue into 2017 is creating your own furniture. Many companies encourage their clients to provide their own ideas and thus contribute to the process of making their own furniture. Not only are the customers allowed to customise colour and finishes, but they can also determine the shape and the size.
  • Functionality – No useless items will be present in the house. Each item should be functional and useful.  Multi-purpose furniture for several purposes will contribute to the stylishness and the spaciousness of your living area.image-21

Kitchens

Kitchen designs in 2017 will include many special features that will make your kitchen stand out. For example, you can include a dining table with casters that will allow you to alter seating arrangement depending on the occasion. However, some classic features, such as open shelves and raw materials, are here to stay.  Since minimalism will continue to be big in 2017, many hidden cabinets or pop-out kitchen items will enable a practical use of space.

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Bathrooms

Bathrooms should no longer resemble cold, sterile areas. Instead, they should have the feel of warm living spaces. By using different ornaments, graphic wallpaper, and even some furniture items that you wouldn’t usually opt for, you can create a unique bathroom in line with the 2017 trends. Another possible look to go for is the one typical of spas, which will transform your bathroom into an area for fit for relaxing. Include some plants, bring in a music player and light up some candles, and you’ll have a spa experince of your own in no time.

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Living Rooms

The experts suggest that a more eclectic interior design is a way to go, which means that you can include a variety of different styles that are to your liking. You can decorate the living room in a way that will reflect your own personality and interests, and emphasise different details. With the technological advances, you can now incorporate a fireplace into your home without having to worry about the smell and indoor air pollution. In 2017, fireplaces will be the centre of the room, replacing the TVs. If you don’t have any spare room, you can use a corner next to the windows of your living room to create an area drenched in sunlight, since sunrooms are all the rage 2017.image-5

Bedrooms

Individuality and uniqueness should prevail in your bedroom, as well. Find a style that works for you the most, whether it’s an elegant matte décor, or a room filled with antique furniture. Patterns are rising in popularity, so if they are to your taste, they’ll be a great choice for 2017. If you are ready, you can try out some bold ideas, such as a contemporary room wrapped in wooden walls and ceiling.

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Materials

As regards the materials that 2017 is bringing, make room for black metal. This simple, but elegant material will be used in combination with wood, or glass. Some designers even offer entire furniture items made of matte black metal. Natural materials typically used outside will find their way in, so don’t hesitate to use decorative concrete to create an interesting, unique and functional living area.

Waiting for the new year is exciting, and we all like entering it with a change. Instead of buying a new phone that will be outdated in only a couple of months, why not redecorate your home and enjoy it for a longer than that.

How To Craft The Perfect Home Office By Diana Smith

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Having a full time stay-at-home job or simply telecommuting seems like truly great idea. Working in a friendly environment while your loved ones are just few steps away, taking a break whenever you want – this particular kind of job arrangement does offer tons of advantages. But what about disadvantages? Well, it should be mentioned that, while pleasant, your home is not really the environment that allows you to unleash tons of productivity. No problem here. All you need to make it work is an isolated home office. Let’s see how to set one up.

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Find a Proper Space

Ideally, your home office should inhabit the space of some abandoned room or a basement with the door that will physically separate you from all the other household activities and cut the noise to the minimum. If you don’t own such space, you can separate a part of another room with a folding door or simply set up your office in the corner of some of the less populated areas of your home. Alternatively, you can solve this problem by buying a shipping container and using it as a backyard office.

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Take Care of the Essentials

And by the essentials, we mean chair, desk, and any other thing you can’t finish your job without. As for the desk, its only requirement should be to provide you enough space to get the job done. If you are short on space, you can get away even with a wall mounted table. The chair, on the other hand, is a whole another story. You will spend a lot of time sitting there, so find the one that is comfortable, adjustable, and offers great lumbar support. Other home office essentials may include PC, printer, scanner or a separate phone line.

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Make the Office Pleasant and Inviting

The more appealing and inviting your home office is, the more time you will want to spend there, and rest assured – that time will translate to increased productivity. That is why you should ditch the utilitarian mantra and make your home office as relaxed and cozy as possible. Hang the pictures of the places you would like the visit, fulfill your childhood decorating dreams or do whatever you want to make the office your little piece of Heaven. It would also be a good idea to use full-spectrum lighting if your office does not receive too much natural light.

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Storage, Storage, Storage

Clutter is poison to productivity. The best way to put an early end to it is to pack your office with enough storage space. Fortunately, various shelving solutions can fit into virtually any space, so you don’t have any excuse for keeping the papers scattered around the office. What you should do instead is to organize storage into distinct sections, mark them with different colors or signs and keep the empty walk and document scavenging on the bare minimum.

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Lose Distractions

We already mentioned that your office should be inviting and pleasant. However, if you go overboard you may hurt your productivity. The first thing you should do to prevent this from happening is to clean your office of all the media you like to consume (If music gets you going, you can make yourself a playlist on the PC, though). Second, lose the unnecessary furniture. Your chair may be comfortable but the sofa will always look more inviting. Third, if you have chosen some gimmick (e.g. music, cottage, industrial) stick to it. Odd elements will constantly distract you.

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If you follow these few tips, your home office will become a neat and well-organized piece of space that will strike the perfect balance between pleasant and productive. You will finally be able to use all the advantages of stay-at-home jobs without worrying that the household will consume you. Enjoy, and have a pleasant day at work.

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Tips For Embellishing An Open Floor Design By Diana Smith

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Anyone who wishes to incorporate a contemporary touch into their home design can do so by simply embracing the commodity of an open floor plan. Of course, a layout such as this one also gives you the opportunity to try out your artistic endeavors and experiment with various decoration techniques. These few tips can give you just the amount of inspiration to get you started.

Play With Lighting

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One of the best aspects of having an open floor plan is learning how to implement and play with different kinds of lighting. A design such as this one requires a fair amount of illumination and like that can tolerate a different combination of lighting features. Other than the fact that an open floor plan makes a perfect setting for ceiling to floor windows and skylights, it goes quite well with dramatic and recessed lighting fixtures. A dramatic chandelier can greatly illuminate a space, but also give it a stylish touch, while smaller pendant fixtures can easily draw attention to individual spaces.

Roomception

The idea of creating a room inside of a room might seem a bit uncanny, but it’s actually quite doable and very much desirable in a layout such as this one. An open floor plan gives you the opportunity to combine certain spaces and rooms and create multipurpose areas. This can be achieved quite easily by visually separating the spaces and giving them a subtle transition zone. This way you can easily blend together a family room, dining room and the kitchen while preserving your original sense of style. Another way to achieve this concept is to add levels, i.e. create a split level room.

Incorporate Color

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The use of color has always played a major role in interior design as it has the ability to transform the complete space, create an illusion of a much broader or smaller space, but also put accent on certain places and connect or divide a room. This is why it’s crucial to learn how to smartly incorporate color into your open floor design. One of the options is to apply a neutral foundation and permeate the whole space with touches of bright and vivid hues. Another option is to use different shades of the same color in separate spaces. This will create a subtle and soothing transition between the rooms, without adding a distasteful and splashy vibe to the space.

Choose a Theme

While a theme surely isn’t a necessary component, it can greatly aid you in the choice of your decorative pieces and other accessories. Placing too much different decorations can create a rather unappetizing setting and make it appear quite confusing. This is why the best solution is to rely on details within the same style or at least the same color, texture or pattern. This way you can easily interconnect the rooms and place items such as vases, sculptures or paintings in similar shapes or sizes. Area rugs are one of the best decorative pieces, as they have the ability to connect or even desalinate the space.

Separate By Zones

While a spacious area with lots of room and lighting seems like a great idea, sometimes these broad spaces can take away the personality and intimacy out of the space. This is why people rely on some subtle but yet effective solutions for separating the rooms into different zones. Some of the most popular options are using transparent divisions such as sliding glass doors or stylish bi fold doors. Another option is to use folding screens, drapes or even creating green walls.

In the last couple of years, an open floor plan has become an essential part of a modern household. Not only does this layout give the household a broader sensation, but it also provides a great space for entertainment as well. With just a few simple hacks and a clever use of imagination, an open floor plan can easily become your fairy-tale palace.