A recent visit to a wonderful woodland sculpture park really inspired us to try our hand at making some sculpture of our own. Our first creation was a chicken wire toadstool….
Find out more and instructions here: Chicken Wire and Moss Toadstool Living Sculpture | Hometalk
A woman grabs old photo frames & everyone’s going to copy her idea!
Find out more details here: Making of a Conservatory on the Cheap! | Hometalk
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Even though early 2000s and 2010s are the era about which many greatest Sci-Fi authors wrote about, when it comes to decoration, vintage and steampunk are all the rage. One of the reasons behind such popularity of this style is that it is extremely versatile. For example, if you were to decorate your home in a contemporary manner, you would have to get your hands on some purpose specific items like tech gadgets, and furniture mostly made from plastic and glass. On the other hand, vintage allows you to decorate with things you find on an attic or buy at a garage sale. With this in mind, here are a few ways of using vintage finds in decoration.
Shabby Chic and Rustic Home
One of the greatest aspects of the vintage style is the idea of shabby chic. What this essentially means is that when buying an antique furniture, you should be concerned with it looking authentic rather than it looking undamaged. This led people to stop painting old nightstands, while some took it even one step further. Rather than buying genuine vintage items, some people started painting furniture to look more antique on purpose. Others, however, decided to take a different approach. As soon as they get enough shabby chic items in their home, they start adjusting the rest of the household to this style. This usually included painting other wooden surfaces like doors, window frames and even floorboards white.
All About That Lace
If a vintage army ever had uniforms, it would definitely be made of lace. In fact, lace is the only thing you just cannot add too much in a vintage setting. There are so many awe inspiring ideas, like making pendant lighting from lace or even decorating your candleholders with it. Of course, making small lace ornaments and adding them to pillows, walls and lamp shades also goes, but don’t forget about your persona as well. Like a fashionista chameleon, try to fit in this vintage shrine of yours and reintroduce lace into your own armoire. Those who take a bit more out-of-the-box approach are even known to make lace jewelry such as earrings and necklaces.
French Country or Vintage Glam
Saying that you want a vintage style in your home is pretty much like saying that you want it to have walls- it really doesn’t reveal much. How tall? How many? What kind? Sure, you may want your home to appear like from another century, but do you want it to look like a French countryside manor or a Victorian villa. For the first impression, shabby chic in combination with natural hues like lavender, burnt rust and hunters green will do you just fine. On the other hand, vintage glam takes a bit more effort. Here, you will have to exploit all that shimmering metallic color palette has to offer. Your closest two allies are pale gold and cream, while satin is your weapon of choice.
Let There Be Light
Finally, no matter what you do with the rest of the home, proper lighting fixtures can make or break the entire impression. This is why going with modern lamps or contemporary downlights simply won’t do. The safest choice you have is to go with elegant yet subtle led wall lights. When buying, however, try to avoid looking at them as a separate items and try to focus on what they will look like in your household. In fact, this advice is something you should take in general, not just when buying lights.
Whenever you encounter a perfect vintage item, you need to ask yourself two questions. The first one is ‘does it fit with your home’. If the answer is no, then you need to ask the following- ‘can I make it fit?’ Some finds are just so perfect that it can be worth your while to redecorate your entire place just to integrate them.
Garlic is arguably one of the world’s most versatile and healthiest foods. report this ad While you can use garlic to add some serious flavor to any dish, garlic also has quite the long list of health benefits as well. That’s why we’re here to break down how you can benefit from these major remedies […]
Read more at the following link: Stop buying garlic. Here’s how to grow an endless supply of garlic right at home
Country & Victorian Times 