Category: Home

Have you recently moved into a property for the first time?  Or have you been one of the lucky ones that have managed to buy a property?  Buying a property in the 21st Century is incredibly difficult, so count yourself fortunate. As we look to building a more sustainable environment for future generations, how can we put this ethic into our homes? At the same time making them a comfortable and welcoming environment?  Take a look at these few points and get some inspiration if you want to make an eco-friendly habitat out of your habitat!

Step One: Be Practical

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Being environmentally conscious doesn’t mean scrimping on style! With the focus firmly on upcycling and reusing old products, you can afford to get really creative. You could make 3D wallcoverings from something as simple as a recycled card.

Make sure you put everything you have to new use. That is one simple way of being green.

To be practical, you could do something as simple as sourcing everything you need from the same area, town or city. That way, you are not having items made or shipped, which will increase your carbon footprint.

If you live in an area that is thriving, you may have thrift stores or charity shops in the vicinity. The great thing about these stores is that they are likely to have hidden gems. The other great thing about these shops is that you are always likely to find a bargain. It is also an excellent way to find inspiration for a new way to decorate your home. These shops are usually full to the brim with vintage tea cups, decanters, glasses, coffee tables, and so on.

Step Two: Create A Unified Look

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When it comes to really communicating an individual style to your home, making things match is one of the most obvious approaches. While it can cost a lot of money to really get the style that you want, why don’t you try and purchase everything you can from one supplier?

So if you need to make changes to your staircase and your doors, for example, if you get your building supplies from one place, such as George Hill Building merchants or Whitchurch Builders, it will save you on additional costs like shipping.

Step Three: Feng Shui It!

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If you are into more leftfield approaches, you could use feng shui is a way to give your space a more ethereal feel. Feng shui focuses on arranging your space so that it brings harmony to your home. Even if you are not into this, it’s still a great way to get inspiration for new color and a way to bring some harmony and style into your home.

In Feng Shui, colors are used in relation to their elements, and certain rooms can be painted in different colors to change its ambiance. For example, yellow, the color of sunlight and is, in Feng Shui, a fire or earth element. So it can be used to create a more blissful and happier working environment.

Interior design is a myriad of ideas. It is difficult to be sustainable when making your dream home. However, it can be achieved!

One of the biggest selling point that a property sells on at the moment is its character. They are even constructing new builds in the old Victorian style with high windows and iron railings. But no all of us are blessed with a characterful home from the get go. Luckily there are a few things we can do to inject a bit of personality into an otherwise blank canvas. Read on for some tips.

Range Cooker

Something that estate agents are always hearing is that people want a farmhouse style kitchen. A big part of that is having a massive enamelled range cooker.

Some people prefer the more traditional wood burners, while others are happy to have one that runs on conventional power but looks the part. In combination with a rustic style kitchen, a range cooker like an Aga can go a long way in bringing some character to your home. This even works if the property is brand new.

Attic Reading Nook

People also seem to respond well to homes that have small, comfortable spaces in which to cosy up and relax. A perfect way of creating a space like this is to install a reading nook in the attic or loft.

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Before you start the conversion, you will need to get planning permission and make sure that the roof is in good condition. Depending on what your roof is made out of you may need to speak to a company that works with shingle repair. They can help you prevent nasty leaks in your new library.

Once you have the basics completed, you can choose to install a skylight, bookshelves or some covered seating. Add a lamp and a seriously comfy chair to allow you to have the most comfortable and relaxing experience.

Sunken bath

A relatively new trend in home design is the gorgeous sunken bath. The idea is that by sinking the tub into the floor, it becomes more of a bathing pool, than a traditional bath. Some ground floors bathrooms can house dug in cobwork baths, which are full of character and luxury at the same time.

If a cob bathing pool is a bit much for your home, then why not invest in a freestanding roll top bath. Popular in the Victorian period these are still around today and can help even the smallest room in the house be full of life and character.

Indoor Cottage Finishes  

It is entirely possible now to make even the newest and plainest of houses look like a country cottage from the inside. One way to do this is to have exposed brick walls. These are very popular with the industrial look as well as the country look that we see so much of at the moment.  If you cannot uncover the bricks, then you can buy brick tiles which will give you the same effect.

You can also install fake beams on the ceilings, These give the impression of the property being a traditional oak beamed house. Perfect for hanging swag from come Christmas!

Despite what all the magazines may have you believe, you don’t need to spend a small fortune to update and upgrade your kitchen. Almost any tired-looking kitchen can be totally transformed with a little creativity, time and effort. If you’re getting sick of coming downstairs and looking at a kitchen that’s had its day, there are many things you can do to turn it around. Here are a few great suggestions.

Image: Public Domain Pictures

I’ll start this off with the oldest, and at times most effective trick in the book. Painting the walls! A lot of people feel the need to update their kitchen because it looks and feels too small. If this is the case, then giving all the walls a fresh coat of paint can be the answer to your prayers. Going over your walls with a lighter colour of paint can make the whole room feel more spacious and bright. Dark colours, although useful for some rooms, tend to make a space appear tight and small. I’d go with the ceiling first, as this is the surface that changes colour with more noticeably over time. Sand the walls down and clear up any dirt that’s clinging to them. Use TSP to clear away any grease. Primer to seal the wall is also important. Painting your kitchen won’t cost much, especially if you do all the work yourself.

Image: Flickr

The next thing you should do to upgrade your kitchen is improving storage. I’m sure you’ll agree most of us accumulate way too much stuff over the years. This is as true for any room in your house as it is for your kitchen. Set some time aside, and use it to re-organise all your drawers and cupboards. Make it so that there’s no more clutter, and you always know where everything is. As part of this, gather up and get rid of all that miscellaneous stuff that’s been cluttering up your worktops for ages. This won’t cost you a penny, and will make for an instant improvement. You might want to get a whole new set of storage solutions for your kitchen. Drawers in a cupboard let you make use of every last inch of space available to you. Even if you can’t splash out on replacements, you can improve your existing drawers with some soft close drawer slides.

Finally, consider getting some new fabrics. After all, you’ve already put all that time into re-painting the walls. Why not have some fun choosing a new set of fabrics which will compliment them? You might have seat cushions on your kitchen chairs which are looking a little worse for wear. If this is the case, you may want to buy some new covers or completely new cushions. Matching blinds and tablecloths that go with the new colour scheme can be very potent. Oilcloth table coverings are particularly fashionable these days. Whether you’re more into classic floral patterns or bold, minimalist designs, experimenting with the fabrics is a great way to spruce up a knackered kitchen.

Picture credit – Pexel

If you’ve lived in the same home for a long time, you might start to notice that it’s no longer the best fit for your lifestyle. Your family might have grown meaning you need more bedrooms and bathrooms. You might start a job or hobby which means you need you need extra office space, or you might require more storage. Rather than adapt your lifestyle to fit your home, you can make your home fit you instead. Here are some of the ways you can go about it.

Extend Your Kitchen

It used to be common for homes to be built with a smaller enclosed kitchen, with larger dining and living space for entertaining. These days most people prefer to go with open plan areas as suggested by articles like this www.schroederdesignbuild.com/10-benefits-of-an-open-concept-floor-plans. Large kitchens which feature islands give us the ability to entertain right from where we cook. Modern day entertaining tends to be a lot less informal, and this newer style of open plan living reflects that. Bigger kitchens also make your job as a home cook much easier too. If your family has grown and you now cater for more people on a daily basis, upgrading and extending your kitchen can be a good way to go. You could either extend outwards or rejig the layout inside and use some space from the living area.

Picture credit- Pexels

Utilize Your Loft

If your loft is currently home to a million spiders and a few Christmas decorations, then you’re missing out on all-important space! Converting your loft will give you a brand new room and additional space. Articles like www.theguardian.com/money/2007/jul/25/homeimprovements have suggested the benefits in doing so Even if it’s only used for storage, having a functioning room will allow you to organize things more neatly. You could buy big sets of drawers and cupboards to go up there to store the things you’re not currently using. This should free up space around the rest of the home too.

Build a ‘Garden Room.’

Instead of adding an extension onto your home (or if you have already done this) a great way to gain some additional space is to have a garden room built. If you have a larger garden and can spare the space, then this is a great option. Unlike regular draughty old outbuildings, a well-built garden room will be fully insulated making it suitable to use all year round. They can have electricity and plumbing run to them, making them a properly functioning space. You could transform one into a home office, studio or guest room depending on the kind of space you’re after. My previous post http://www.sillydrunkfish.com/2016/09/make-your-guest-room-comfortable-for.html may give you ideas for how to make your guest room cozy once it’s done!

Add Ensuites

Instead of squabbling over the family bathroom every morning, adding an ensuite or two could make life much easier. It wouldn’t have to take up much space, especially if you opted for a shower cubicle rather than a bath. Sacrificing a small corner of your bedroom would be worth it if a lack of bathrooms is an issue.

Rebuild From Scratch

For a truly personalized home, you could even consider building from scratch. That way you get it customize it to exactly what you want, with a layout that works for your life. You could look at house plans from a site such as https://www.thehouseplanshop.com/country-house-plans/house-plans/18/1.php or speak to an architect to design something completely unique to you.

When you personalize your home, it allows you live your life much more easily. It eliminates the stress of running out of space, or not having enough rooms to fulfill each aspect of your life. Whether you choose build on what you currently have or start again from scratch, personalizing your home means you can live in a place that’s perfectly suited to you.

Since we just got a piano for beginners for our home, I have been looking around for some decor ideas.  I think we need to revamp the living area for a bit to accommodate the new piano.  Whole blog-hopping, I found this gorgeous living space at Decor8.   I just love the white walls, white flooring and the white furniture with a touch of earth tones from a few items.  I am totally smitten by the recycled pallet as coffee table.  Perhaps I should paint my walls to white and change the furniture too.  The piano is black so it adds a touch of colour to the living area.  Let me think about this.