Passive House Brooklyn

Efficient Home Improvement & Buying Passive House Tips

Passive House Brooklyn - Efficient Home Improvement & Buying Passive House Tips

Monthly Archives: January 2012

Popular Styles of Bathroom Design

The bathroom has come along way in the past one hundred years. Once just a basic tub set in front of the living room fire and filled with buckets of water, the bathing experience is now a luxury in almost every western home. Back then, a “bathroom” was something only the wealthy and privileged could afford to have in their house. It was this trend which lead to the mass production of bathroom products.

The Edwardian and Victorian styles of the time are still a popular choice today. They look exquisite in a villa or cottage bathroom, and never loose their appeal in terms of design.

Today, thanks to advanced plumbing and modern technology, the bathroom may well have evolved as far as it can. With luxury steam rooms and hydrotherapy baths, it’s difficult to imagine how bathrooms could get any more sophisticated. That said, the bathroom, like any room in the house, is ever changing in terms of design trends.

Here we look at the five most popular styles of bathroom designs. Traditional, Country, Shabby chic, Contemporary and Fantasy.

Traditional

The Traditional bathroom can mean either traditional in terms of Edwardian or Victorian style, or in respect to a standard white bathroom with basic sanitary ware and bath. Here, we’ll be looking at the style of bathroom design where it all started. The Edwardian bathroom.

Over the past decade, with the popularity of TV shows like Changing Rooms, the trend for old-fashioned bathrooms has seen a real upsurge. A rare gem of an old slipper bath or rusty traditional faucet may be found at a scrap yard or in a skip, but thankfully manufacturers are keeping up with demand with skillfully crafted traditional bathroom products. Continue reading →

Wall Stickers – Removable Wall Decor

There have been various fads for wall decor over the past decade. In the 90s, it was wall stenciling and before that it was wallpaper. Both of these options were very permanent decor options and when it comes to decorating a room that is most likely going to be changing within a year or two, these options are not ideal.

Instead of pasting paper to your walls, which is virtually impossible to remove later in life or painting on your walls, there is another option available to you. For instance, you can try a new and contemporary method of decor called wall stickers. This type of removable wall decor allows you a lot more flexibility later in the life of a particular room in your home.

There are several instances in life when you will be decorating a room that is not necessarily going to have this same decor for a long period of time. For instance, you just had a new baby so you want to do your new baby’s nursery in a cute Winnie the Pooh or other Disney character design. So, you paint the walls and put up a wallpaper border, or you do the entire room in Winnie the Pooh wallpaper. Or, perhaps you do an entire wall mural of the “Hundred Acre Wood” in paint on the wall. But, what do you do when your little boy or girl decides that they are much more interested in Transformers or Barbie? Do you rip down the wallpaper and hope that you can salvage your walls? Do you cover up the paint with more paint?

Instead of having to worry about repainting walls or tearing down wallpaper, you could make life and your decorating much easier on yourself. You have several options with removable wall decor, or wall stickers. This removable wall decor is available in all of your child’s favorite designs. You also have the option of wall murals, so no painting is needed, nor is an artist. You can choose from a wide variety of borders and other decor as well. If your child is a Disney fan, self-stick wall appliqués provide you with a number of different Disney and Pixar characters to select from. All are easy to put and made of heavy duty vinyl that they can peel and stick whenever the desire.

As your child grows, their tastes change. They enjoy a variety of different cartoons, movies, and even sports teams. They will probably even want to change their room’s decor once every couple of years or so. This cannot only get very expensive throughout their life, but it is a time consuming process to paint, repaint and wallpaper the same room repeatedly. Removable wall decor makes it easy for them to decorate their own room. With removable wall decor, you can provide your child with a blank wall and some wall stickers and let them have at it. You can even find wall sticker growth charts so that you can track your child’s growth without having to write on the walls or make notches in the doorframe.

One of the many benefits of wall decor is that you don’t have to worry about the wall stickers leaving any residue. They stick to virtually any flat surface in their room, which allows your children to be as creative as they want. Your child can change the room everyday if they want. With borders, wall murals, and appliqués to choose from, they will have the flexibility of not only what designs they want, but they can decorate any way they want.

In addition, they can create a unique photomural of photos on their wall as well. These are removable wall décor that provide you with various options including wall pockets and photo frames. These allow your children to frame photos of them, their friends and family all over their walls. Wall pockets provide them with a way to store all of their little trinkets or display items on their walls.

If you’re interested an easier way to decorate and keep up with your child’s ever-changing decor tastes, you can keep up with them by using removable wall decor. Removable wall decor does not cost any more than what you would pay for wallpaper or paint. It’s an affordable way to decorate and you can reuse the wall decals for up to two years or more.

The Pleasures of Outdoor Living

Creating a comfortable outdoor space, beautifying your garden area, installing a poolside outdoor kitchen or even a covered outdoor living room has become a popular way to extend the livable portion of your property.  In addition, the return on investment (ROI) is generally positive as outdoor living spaces, landscaping, decks and patios can make all the difference when you’re ready to sell your home.

When I was a child, “Outdoor Living” meant playing outside while my parents sat on the front stoop visiting with the neighbors, passing time until the street lights went on and all the kids came home. That was before every house had a backyard patio or deck and leaf blowers hadn’t been invented. The focus back then was on neighborhoods and the community outside. As an adult, the popular trend was “cocooning.”

Thankfully, that time has passed and now, we’re all about connections. The cycle is back to nature, green things and community good. Along with that, people are re-discovering their backyards, gardening and the pleasures of outdoor life.

Creating separate outdoor spaces allows you to create functional, yet unique designs for each of area. The more successful you are in physically separating one outdoor living space from another, the more flexibility you have to diversify. For example, group your outdoor living furniture into conversation areas, use living screens (plants, trees, flowers) to provide privacy and think of each section as a separate outdoor room.

In a house the concept of separate “rooms” is that each unit is unique unto itself. Consequently, you can install a component in the kitchen that looks great there, without worrying that it would look out of place if viewed from the bedroom. The same is true for outdoor living spaces. Think of the structural components of outdoor living spaces in terms of their counterparts in indoor rooms: ground (floor), sky (ceiling), dividers (walls), lighting, and ambiance.

For example,

  • Floors might consist of grass, decking, pebbles or slate.
  • Walls might be man-made lattice or fencing. Or, natural, such as hedges, tall grasses or stone.
  • Ceilings might be shade sails or shade trees, arbors, umbrellas, porch ceilings or canvas canopies.
  • Lighting might combine solar accent lights with the flickering flame of a garden torch.

In designing your outdoor living space, you have a lot of leeway. Most of the outdoor elements are interchangeable and can be mixed and matched, depending on your needs, budget and personality. Hedges may form one wall, fencing another. Even patio sets, garden benches and other backyard furniture can be attractive and functional separators. And, while a vine-covered arbor may be more inspiring to gaze up at than a lawn umbrella, the umbrella will keep you — and the books you may be reading — dry!

Picture relaxing on an outdoor sectional with a few friends and a glass of wine… or watching the sailboats from an Adirondack chair on the dock…serving snacks to the kids from the bar set near the pool…or even two trees and a hammock — each is like its own vignette with its own emotions, memories and even scents.

Find The Look You’re Going For In Living Room Decor

If you need living room décor there are dozens of items that will work perfectly for your living room. Whether you want an elegant look, a more modern style or if you are going with some sort of motif, there are many kinds of living room décor to choose from.

Whether you are redecorating or just buying a bit of new living room décor for your living room there are many items out there to choose from. If you think your living room needs a new look, try accentuating your living room with the most popular new accessories. New living room furniture can also transform living room décor. So you will be able to create a beautiful living room, or add a beautiful touch to your already beautiful kitchen.

Living room carpet:

The carpet in your living room is very important for the overall look of your living room. The carpet can be a certain color that you will try to match when putting together the rest of your living room décor, or it can be put in (usually using a plain, neutral color) to fit with the rest of your new living room décor. Once you have designed the perfect living room, you will be glad you did. You will have a living room that is pleasing to the eye, and that reflects your personal style. Continue reading →