Bathroom Design Ideas to Increase the Value of Your Home
When it comes to adding value to your property, focusing in on the bathroom and kitchen almost certainly guarantees profitable returns. If you’re considering making your home appealing to potential buyers, then one of the first places to start is in the bathroom. When it comes to bathroom design, what is it that most people really want? Would choosing a spacious jetted tub above a soaker tub be financially beneficial in the long haul? Wouldn’t designing your bathroom be a much easier task if you were armed with a guideline of what tickled the fancy of potential homebuyers? If you’re going to design your bathroom get it right the first time round to avoid flushing away hard-earned money. Hello simplicity From as far back as the 1960s much focus was placed on bold colour in the bathroom. Patterned wall tiles of nautical creatures and over-the-top colours were the trend, along with plastic. Plastic bathroom decor was the craze, from bold orange, olive green, mustard yellow and chocolate brown coloured toothbrush, soap and towel holders, to thick patterned plastic shower curtains that screamed colours of the boldest nature. As the times moved on, the 1970s and early 1980s became a period when gold bathroom fixings and furnishing, such as taps, towel rails and toilet roll holders, were considered very stylish. These ostentatious gold trimmed features were all the rage, and bathroom décor was ‘loud’. Added to this were those once delightful bathroom suites in colors avocado, coral pink, and chocolate brown. Bathroom color has changed dramatically over the past few decades, and shades have become more neutral, sometimes with a hint of color that adds a complementary vigor to the overall scheme. So, when designing and decorating your bathroom, consider white decor, and opt for chrome fixtures and furnishings. Not only do the lend to a much more of a neutral palette, they will appeal to the majority of potential homebuyers, therefore adding to the overall value of your home. Shower power When designing a bathroom at home, we face the dilemma of opting for the installation of either a shower or a bathtub. In both cases, design plays an important role, but this role is even bigger as far as functionality, space availability, and the necessary requirements are concerned. Fitting out a large bathroom is not the same as doing a small one, and furthermore, the fact that the bathroom is used for just a person is far different from a whole family’s way of using it. Consider installing a shower over the bath if space is limited. A shower takes up much less space than a bathtub, and it also offers a high adaptability to any space. There are shower models of all kinds of sizes, colours, designs and shapes, and its access becomes much easier and faster. Saving water is, moreover, a plus for the shower installation. According to many studies, showering instead of taking a bath is a great water saver, providing that is used responsibly. Choosing your bath tub The bathtub becomes the centre of attention in the bathroom, by bringing together almost the whole decorative style and at the same time, it becomes the focus of attention. Furthermore, nowadays we can find highly contemporary minimalist bathtub designs which are able to delight interior design and turn it into something very exclusive and unique. Bathroom flooring Bathroom flooring needs to withstand water and high humidity while keeping slip resistance. Most homeowners prefer floors that are also easy to clean and maintain. The best flooring types for the bathroom are more than just functional. They are also attractive and improve home decor. Consider features such as shape, colour, texture, and material when choosing flooring for bathrooms. Ceramic and porcelain floor tiles are a popular choice for flooring in the bathroom. Consider choosing a textured tile to help keep bathroom floors from getting slippery when wet. Keep it clean If you are planning to put your home on the market, inspect your bathroom for those small generally unnoticed flaws, like mould on the silicone sealant around the bath, and even on your shower curtain if you have one. Potential homebuyers may notice these small faults, which could send then running! It’s up to each homeowner to decide if a bathroom renovation is worth the expense. Overall though, you can expect to get a good return on the money that you spend, plus a high joy score out of the project. If having a bathroom that you enjoy being in matters to you, then go for it. It’s just icing on the cake that you’ll get to recoup a lot of the associated costs as well.
DIY Concrete Ideas for Your Home
You can enhance your home’s existing concrete surfaces using acid stains, water based stains, epoxy paints, and scoring techniques. If you’re tired of looking at dull grey concrete, there are some fairly easy projects for the serious do-it-yourselfer to give your concrete a refreshing new look. Or perhaps you plan to have some new concrete installed but you don’t want plain grey concrete. Decorative concrete work costs double to triple that of regular concrete and many people simply can’t afford it. There are inexpensive ways to decorate concrete after it has cured without having to pay skilled tradesmen. Acid based concrete stains are becoming more and more popular for coloring concrete surfaces. They chemically react with the cementitious material to produce permanent color with variegated or mottled appearance like that of marble. This results in a natural, elegant looking surface. Acid stains are available in 8-10 different colors, mainly brown, green, and reddish earth tones. A coat of clear concrete sealer when you’re finished really brings out the colors and beauty of acid stains. Water based concrete stains are an alternative to acid stains and are much more user friendly because they’re much less toxic. These stains don’t chemically react with the concrete; they are absorbed into the surface pores and act like a dye. The big advantage of water based stains is the wide array of colours available. You can find just about any colour in the spectrum and create a more vibrant and consistent appearance. If you want to venture beyond the basic staining of concrete, consider using some scoring techniques to create patterns on the surface. You can make your concrete look like a tile floor for example. It’s up to your imagination. An angle grinder with a 4 inch grinding or cutting wheel is the ideal tool for this. The important thing to remember when scoring is to draw the pattern on the concrete first and make sure you’re satisfied with the way it looks because scoring is irreversible. Most people don’t own an angle grinder but you can rent one at almost any tool rental shop. Epoxy paints make an excellent coating for garage floors and basement floors. Many commercial floors have epoxy coatings because of their durability and resistance to chemical spills as well as their appearance. In recent years, however, it has become very popular for residential use with an increasing availability of different colors. This is not a difficult project, but the key to successful application is surface preparation. Epoxy paints have also become available in a water based form making it safe for the do-it-yourselfer and ideal for indoor applications.
Should You Hire Someone to Organize for You?
Is your den a disaster? Is your closet so crammed that you can’t find pants and shoes that match? If you’re like many people, you have so much stuff that you can’t control it. So you just throw up your hands and let it accumulate. Well, it might be time to call in a professional organizer. These specialists can help clear out and clean up junky garages, stuffed closets, dirty dens and even your computer’s hard drive. A lot of people ask me if it’s really worth hiring a professional organizer or if you’re better off doing it yourself. Both are valuable options, but either way you should understand the specific steps and strategies to having a more organized home, making little changes gradually to simplify life at home. Well at first glance having someone do things for you can certainly seem better than doing it yourself. And most people are confident that they can tackle their organization projects on their own. But when those projects get overwhelming and you stall out, it’s time to consider hiring a professional. Professional organizers can work with you to decide what you want to keep, and to identify where unwanted items will go. They will, in many cases, facilitate the disposal, donation or sale of belongings a client wants to part with. They also work with clients to determine what the functions of their spaces should be, and to set up those spaces in ways that can be easily maintained. But there are things to consider before you hire someone. How do you know, once the service is complete, you are going to be satisfied or if you are even going to be able to maintain organization beyond a week, a month or a year from now? Now here’s the thing. If you really, really want to make changes to the way you live in your home, you need to start living your life a little differently. You should be able to manage your “stuff” and understand what it really takes to start enjoying the benefits of home organization. Learn what it takes to get organized from the inside-out and discover the basic and simple rules of home organization so you can enjoy more time, more space and a better, happier life at home. Then, even if later down the road you decide to hire someone to help you, you will be more knowledgeable, you will understand the process more and — combined with a few changes — you will be living in an organized home before you know it.
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