Top 5 Bedroom Design Tips:

We all get stumble across the dreaded decorators block now and then, finding it difficult to make decisions despite wanting a change. Get inspired and back into the swing of things with our 5 simple tips for bedroom interiors.


Use a neutral colour scheme.

A well-constructed colour scheme helps bring a room together. Plan your colour scheme using a palette of three colours. Work with one main color in a room to create the base. Add a secondary color to be used in a smaller quantity, such as for one wall. According to designer, neutral paint colours in medium values will help to create a room that lulls you to sleep

Save your brightest hue for the third accent colour. Use this colour in smaller amounts – on artwork, luxury bedding, throw pillows, wall hangings, flower vases and other accessories.



Invest in classic pieces.

Allocate the largest portion of your decorating budget on bedroom furniture that will have a long life such as solid wooden beds, dresser chests and bedside tables. Keep these investment pieces in good condition and they will provide a solid foundation for your bedroom. Use your decorating prowess to complement your bedroom furniture with luxury bedding, throw pillows and accessories working around your décor scheme.


Choose versatile bedroom furniture.

Versatile pieces are worth their weight in gold. Whip off a throw or summer slipcover to reveal your classic upholstered accent chair, ready for fall or a new décor scheme. A chest of drawers or blanket chest can take on many roles – in many rooms -- as your needs change or you move from home to home. Likewise, an upholstered ottoman can function as a coffee table or extra seating. These pieces will work hard and give you more than your money’s worth over time.


Update with Accessories.

A well planned interior can take you from summer to winter with just a few simple changes. By keeping your walls and furniture simple, you can update the whole look of your living room or bedroom just by changing accessories.

Classic bedroom furniture, neutral walls and upholstery in plain textured fabrics will allow you to decorate around them as you change your mind, update seasonally, or move homes. Simply update your scheme by swapping throw pillows, duvet cover sets, wall hangings and curtains.

So, you can choose a handmade wooden bed for the long term, and complement the rich wood with ruby red throw pillows in the winter and vibrant yellow for the summer. Get creative!


Keep it Simple.

Clear out the clutter from your bedroom by using clever storage techniques such as under-bed drawers and concealed storage. Use a blanket chest to function as a coffee table as well as a place to store your bed linen. Remember, your bedroom should be a sanctuary where you can relax, switch off from the day and get a good nights rest.

Renovation & Design Tips

If you're thinking of remodeling your bathroom, consider adding elements of comfort and elegance . Transform your bathroom into your own personal sanctuary . While many home interiors are becoming more simple, bathrooms are getting the royal treatment. Elegance, softness, and sophistication are the keywords for bathroom decor..



In general, bathrooms are getting larger . In many renovations, homeowners are tearing down walls, eliminating small bedrooms, and creating giant bathrooms. combined with dressing areas and walk in robes. Add to that, oversized bathtubs, and double showers, telephones and televisions, a bathroom is becoming the retreat.


Cabinets
Custom cabinetry is designed to provide maximum storage, eye-appeal, and convenience. Tall cabinets on either side of the sink area, offers eye-level storage for bathroom necessities. Electric plugs installed inside the cabinets help hide ugly appliance cords. Extra-deep drawers offer out-of-site storage for tall bottles. Even a small bathroom will look larger with mirrored walls or cabinet doors. To add floor space to a narrow room, consider having cabinets cut shallower, and recess the sink area. A bathroom will look more interesting without a long, straight line of cabinets. If your space has room, consider having the countertop installed at two heights. The lowered area can serve as a dressing table. You might even have a whole wall of cabinets built in to store towels, and bathroom necessities.

Tiles
While many bathrooms have laminate or solid surface countertops, tiles of all shapes and styles are the choice of the day. For any variety of looks and durability, choose glass, ceramic, stone, or metal tiles. Even in ceramic tiles, there are many painted or embossed styles to choose from. These are especially useful to create a border around an area, or to frame a mirror or cabinet. You can also scatter hand-painted or embossed tiles at intervals on a wall to create texture and color.
A word of warning if you're decorating on a budget:, decorative tiles are sold by the piece. Before you go shopping, measure the space you're going to tile so that you know how many tiles you'll need. If you're doing a shower enclosure or countertop, the number adds up. And then multiply the number of tiles by the price per piece, and the number gets big quickly. Remember to add in edging pieces, corners, and borders . An extra dollar per tile could mean a lot of dollars extra for the whole room! Additional labour is required to lay porcelain, marble, granite and unsheeted mosaics, and therefore extra costs incurred.

Basin/Vanity
For extra floor space, you might select two elegant pedestal basins in either traditional or contemporary designs. If using pedestal sinks, you must provide extra storage space. For busy bathrooms , you'll definitely need two sinks. You can place them next to each other on a long countertop set on top of a beautiful customised cabinet. Each person will be able to use their sink without rubbing elbows. Another look in bathroom basins shows a large bowl mounted on the top of a bathroom counter, or installing the sink in front of a window to take advantage of the natural light. Install a drop-in basin into a marble or solid-surface countertop is a classic look. To theme your bathroom, you can choose traditional knobs of glass, brass, pewter, or crystal.

Lighting is very important in your bathroom. Both artificial light and natural light should be considered when redesigning your bathroom. There should be plenty of light directed at work areas. Soft lighting is great above a soaking bath & can be achieved with the connection of a wall dimmer. Be sure to confirm your plans for lighting with an electrician or lighting designer before the ceiling and walls are closed up after remodeling. You'll want to have the wiring all installed behind the walls so no cords or wires show.


Mirrors come in various styles including polished edge, framed or beveled edge. Mirror shaving cabinets are best for hiding storage ideas, besides giving the room a bigger feel.

Taps Depending on the style of your bathroom, decorative taps are available in brass, chrome, pewter, or satin chrome. There are many types of taps available, please consider their make, place of manufacture and warranties when you make your choice. Taps come in sets or mixers. Tap sets include 2 handles whereas Mixers have one handle. Mixer taps are more streamlined and light on the hand. Should you be considering putting mixers in your bathroom, expect higher installation & component costs.

Accessories selected especially for a bathroom can help to take away the cold, hard look often found in bathrooms. You might want to select elegant window coverings, artwork, or flowers to add warmth to your space. In place of a simple towel rail , consider a heated towel rack that will have your towels nice and warm. Towel ladders can also be used to fill up a large wall and allow many towels to be hung at once.

Tips For Building Your Own Garage

Home improvement projects increase the value of your home, while building skills and giving you a hobby to relax with, making something worthwhile with your hands. One of the simpler home improvement projects to tackle this coming summer is building a new garage.

Before building, you need to figure out how big you need the garage to be. Think about not just putting your car in the garage, but what other commonly stored items will be placed there. Checking out floor plans will give you a good estimate to work from.


Garage Building Materials
Once you've determined the size of the garage, it's time to determine what materials you want to use to build it, whether it's pre-treated or pressure treated wood or a metal frame and siding arrangement. Both metal and timber garages come in pre-fab construction kits, making the selection one that's driven by your needs.

If you're in a colder climate, the timber garages will generally have better insulation than the metal ones. If you're in a climate with a lot of sunlight, the metal garages will hold up better to the extremes in temperatures.

The first step in construction is getting a concrete slab laid down. This will be the anchor point that your garage is built on. Do yourself a favor and hire a good contractor for this - pouring cement is harder than it looks and it's very easy to ruin your garage with a badly poured slab and the consequent poor drainage that results.

Assembling your garage from a kit is mostly a matter of following the instructions. With some help from your friends, it's not unreasonable to put up a pre-fab garage or other building inside of a weekend. It'll take some quality time with hammers and a nailgun, but the end result will raise the value of your property and give you grist for stories along the lines of 'Yeah, remember when we put up Bill's garage?'...

Types of Garages to Build

While we mentioned that there are pre-fabricated kits for building your garage, it was understating the extend of these things. A brief internet search on 'types of garages' will give you an overwhelming number of answers about this type of construction.

While we mentioned choosing space requirements early on, look for garages that have some expansion ability. In particular, several vendors make garages that are modular components, allowing you to customize the covered area to suit your needs directly and even add on to them later.

If you're building a timber garage, always go for pressure treated lumber. This is lumber that has had a good coating of protective agents applied by high pressure jets of steam, making it resistant to rot, water, mildew and insects. Even better, it doesn't need an annual coating of preservative treatment every spring, doing so roughly every three years is good enough.

For a more form follows function construction method, nothing quite beats the benefit of pre-fab metal buildings. They're often enamel coated and built from high grade steel and aluminum and will last for years with no real effort needed to maintain them. Further, unlike a lot of wooden buildings, they usually have cable mounting brackets allowing you to run wiring for power tools or a small office into them and can be insulated in their void space with spray-in insulation. While this is a bit more involved than throwing up a garage, it can have its merits as well - as families or home-based businesses grow, you'll eventually need either an office or storage space for your records and backups.

Final Garage Building Considerations
Finally, for appearance, look at how the garage will situate in your yard - will it provide shade, a convenient place to hang a basketball hoop? Do your intended color schemes match your house or complement them? Does your local homeowners association have regulations and guidelines for this sort of building?

Always look, when working on improving your property, for the things that will add the most value for the least amount of effort and investment.