Home Renovation Ideas Part 3

Since you are already into home renovation, check out if you have ample storage spaces. Old houses tend to have inadequate closets and storage spaces. Having enough storage space means you can minimize clutter in you home.
In small rooms, the simplest and cheapest way to make the room bigger is by installing mirrors. This can be a big framed mirror placed on a wall, or a wall to ceiling mirror. You can also change closet doors with mirrored sliding doors.
Another home renovation idea to dramatically change the look of a room is by adding wainscoting on walls. This can be done by adding a horizontal molding on the wall at about 3 feet high (height of the wainscoting is subjective, adjust height to the proportion of the room). Apply a different wall treatment on the upper and lower portion of the wainscoting (paint, wall paper, wood panels, etc.)
When building an extension to your home, blend the design, roofing, windows and exterior finish of the extension to the existing house structure. The extension should not look like an extension but rather, it should look like part of the original design of the house.

Home Renovation Ideas Part 2

Lighting is an important element of home renovation. As a rule of thumb, use yellow (warm white) light inside the house. People's complexion looks better, food on the table appears more appetizing and the overall ambiance is enhanced. Exceptions are work spaces like the kitchen. Note that a combination of white and yellow lights in the same room is very pleasing to the eye.
If you have a bungalow built in the 70's with low ceiling and are about to do a major home renovation, you might be able to make your living/dining room ceiling higher by removing the ceiling and reinstalling the ceiling up near the roof and exposing the trusses or rafters. This will make your room look bigger and will have a impressive change to the look of the room.
Don't replace old and even damaged parquet and hardwood floors (unless you really want a new type of flooring). There are many shops who will repair and re-polish/re-sand your floor and will look like new.

Home Renovation Ideas PART 1

A good part of the house to start renovating is the kitchen. It is the most used room in a typical home that is used not only for cooking but many use it for informal dining as well.
One of the inexpensive way to give a kitchen a new look is to re-paint (or re-varnish) the cabinets. If you have a bigger budget, change the cabinet doors (retaining the cabinetry), then re-paint the whole cabinets.
If the cabinets are still good, changing just the knobs and handles will give it a new look and feel.
Replacing old and chipped kitchen counter tiles is a good renovation investment. There are many alternatives that will beautify any kitchen style: laminates, ceramic tiles (some are very inexpensive), granite, natural stone, marble, cultured marble, stainless steel and even wood.

General Interior Design Tips

If you just bought a new house and will start decorating, keep the walls simple and majority of the walls plain especially if you are the typical Filipino who keeps accumulating things over the years and can't throw away anything because of sentimental reasons. So that when you move in your furniture, wall decors and accessories, the rooms will not look cluttered.
If you are buying new furniture, measure your room and the furniture. Scale the room & furniture on cutout newspaper: 1 feet = 1 inch and see if the furniture are proportionate to the room. Make sure there are ample spaces to walk around your furniture.
eel free to mix and match different styles of stuff, like contemporary furniture with oriental pieces. Just don't over do it. Make sure they blend together.
One way to beautify a room even if the walls are plain white is by putting moldings or cornice on the ceiling edge and baseboards.
If you want to make a room look bigger, use mirrors. they give you an illusion of more space. Colors too affect the illusion of space. A monochromatic color scheme (one/similar color with different shades) like off whites, cream & beige will give you an appearance of more space while warm colors like red and yellow will give an impression of a smaller space. On the other hand cool colors like blue and green will give an openness appearance.
When choosing a new color for a wall, paint a section of the wall and observe it for a few days at different times. It is a good idea to paint one shade lighter than your sample swatch. Almost always, the color on your sample will look brighter on a big wall than on a small swatch.
Don't use gloss paint on ceilings, they will show imperfections specially at night when you open the lights.
Don't use gloss paint on ceilings, they will show imperfections specially at night when you open the lights.
Install your picture frames on eye level, putting them high on the wall makes your ceiling seem lower. Aside from the fact that people will have to gaze up to look at your picture.
If your floor is made of concrete, tiles or any stone material, put area rugs to make your room cozy and rotate your rug /carpet once in a while to even out the wear and tear.
Use inexpensive garden pots as indoor planter by painting and decorating them.
Your garden affects a great deal in beautifying your home but be cautious with big plants, shrubs and trees. They can be hiding places for burglars.
It is also a good idea to put gravel near windows so you (or your dog) can hear if somebody is trying to peek inside.
Lights are deterrent to thieves. Light your house exterior more than the inside of your house when going to bed.
In designing, the overall look of your home is paramount. From your furniture, wall colors, to lighting fixtures, everything should be proportional, balanced and harmonious. A small and delicately carved side table may be beautiful as a piece of furniture but it may not blend well next to a bulky and oversized living room set. Always consider other elements in a room when choosing your furniture, drapes, etc. Ask yourself it is the right size & scale, color and style. If the answer is yes, go ahead and trust your instincts.
Your home should reflect your personality. You can hire an interior designer or decorator, but in the end it should be you and your family's character that should reflect in your home. Go along only with suggestions that is pleasing to you. Remember that a beautiful home is a home that is beautiful to it's owner.

Fresh Start Decorating Ideas!

Renting doesn't mean you can't enjoy decorating your space, whether it's an apartment, home, studio or dorm!

Interior Design 101

Get started with your home or apartment interior decorating project by learning the basics of interior design. Whether you want to transform a space yourself or hire an interior designer, try these tips for home design!

Learn basic interior design principles used by the designers! Get ideas to help in creating your own personalized living space. Find out how to create a floor plan and the basics on selecting furniture and room decorating.

Wasabi Smoke Alarm

Do you have trouble waking up to the noise of a ringing alarm clock? If you don’t immediately wake up to the sound of an alarm, you might want to consider investing in one of these new smoke alarms in Japan.

Rather than trying to wake the residents of a house with sound, this smoke alarm instead sends the strong smell of wasabi throughout the area. Early tests of the device show that most people wake up within one to two minutes, which is a fairly impressive (and somewhat unexpected) result for a silent alarm.

What do you think? Would you be confident enough to go to sleep in a house with only a wasabi smoke alarm? Or would you prefer to rely on the old fashioned model?