Sectionals Are Back!

Do you remember the days when sectionals were really popular? I remember thinking it was the neatest thing that so many people could fit on one sofa.

Sectionals are coming back in a big way. They are not the sofas we remember from our past.

In today’s economy and housing market, many people are downsizing their living spaces. This doesn’t necessarily change the number of people using the room.

Sectionals can be a great solution to this problem. They’re all about functionality. Many manufacturers have the ability work with you to design the perfect sectional for your room. Sectionals are convertible. You can remove a piece if the sofa no longer fits your space.

A chaise lounge on the end of a sofa or sectionals have also become popular. They allow for one person to lie down while someone else sits on the sofa. Many companies even make the chaise base removable. If an extra sofa cushion or cushion for the chaise base is sold with your sectional you can transform them into an ottoman. Now that’s impressive!

Sectionals can make your life a little bit more comfortable. For example, some of the seats have reclining footrests, movable headrests, even drawers to store remotes, magazines or blankets. Some sectionals even include a corner piece that connects two regular-sized sofas together. It can be removed to leave you have two separate sofas.

Sectionals come in almost any style, from modern to country to traditional. If you go to the right furniture store you can customize your fabric.

Will you be spending a lot of time in this room? Don’t forget to ask about performance fabric options.

Are you excited about the comeback of sectionals? I sure am!

Let’s Get Organized!

Organization is the key to any household that runs smoothly. Now, you may be wondering what you can do to become organized in your home. There are many opportunities out there.

First of all, locate a centralized area in your home – somewhere that everyone goes to on a daily basis. This might be in the kitchen next to the refrigerator. How about the entrance by the front door or garage door? Wherever the perfect spot might be, make sure there is enough wall space to hang several items up.

Calendar

For starters, let’s establish that almost any family today needs a calendar. This way you can know where everyone is with a simple glance. As many of us know, things change on a day-to-day basis, so I would suggest getting a wipe board calendar. Speaking of the wipe board, how about having a blank one for quick notes, the chores list that week, or dinner menu?

Hooks and Mail Slots

Next, every good home needs a key hook. Without the key hook it seems like no one can ever find their keys! Every family gets mail, so what about having separate holders with your names on each slot?

There are also smaller versions of these holders where you can store pencils and pens, scissors, notepads and tape. This will be very convenient when you need something quick before running out the door!

What does every family have multiple of these days? If you guessed iPods and cell phones, you are right! There are even separate holders that you can personalize for each family member.

Bulletin Boards

Finally, you may want a place to put up photographs, to-do lists, notes or friendly reminders. Cork bulletin boards are perfect for this and can be built into these home organization centers. For an added personalized touch, try lining over the cork with a fashionable fabric! Or tack on ribbons that you can tuck the photo’s or notes behind.

The majority of home organization centers come in painted white or black wood. But you may be able to find them in a cherry or maple finish. If you have light painted walls, I would recommend going with one of the darker finishes for an added pop!

How has your home become more organized? Do you have anymore helpful tips? Please share here!

Wow, Look at that Sink!

Are you thinking about redoing the sink or vanity in your bathroom? What about your powder room or half bath? This is typically the bathroom that all of your guests use when visiting your home. Selecting a decorative vanity or sink is a great way to impress guests. 

Artwork

When walking into a half bathroom, the first thing you typically see after the wall in front of you is the sink. Start by selecting a beautiful piece of artwork to hang on that wall and then concentrate on what you can do with the vanity or sink.

Pedestal Sink

A typical powder room or half bathroom may have the sink of the side of the door swing and a toilet located behind the door, when it is open. If you focus on the sink, the answer is easy – select a decorative pedestal sink! I recommend choosing one with just a little bit of room on the sides of the bowl? There is nothing harder than trying to put your makeup on or doing your hair without a place to put items down on. Some pedestal sinks today have built-in decorative towel bars.

Pedestal Bowl

But maybe you would like more of a vanity. Wood is a great choice here, but make sure there are cabinets or drawers built in. If there is not, you will have to find creative ways to store toilet paper, tissues, soap, etc. Today the majority of people select a vanity where the bowl is recessed inside the cabinet. Consider a pedestal bowl. They look really trendy, but beware when trying to get ready in the bathroom that those high sides of the sink could get in the way. If you are simply going to be washing your hands in there, it is one of the most fashionable choices available!

Cabinet

When selecting a recessed bowl, I suggest an antique wood cabinet base. The decorative details on the sides or doors will provide an impressive effect from the moment guests walk in. Often the counter and bowl will be a slate, tile, or granite material to offset the decorative details in the base cabinet.

How have you spiffied up your bathroom sink?

Things to Look For in a Home You Will Eventually Retire In

Thinking about retirement and looking for a new home? If you aren’t, do you have parents that are? It’s really never too early to start thinking about this when purchasing a home.

Today people are living longer and unfortunately, there are many illnesses that affect us in our later years. Having to get around your home during this time can prove to be a big challenge. There are some simple things you may want to consider before making your big purchase.

Are you considering looking for a single story house? This is always great for mobility because stairs can prove to be a huge challenge, especially if the shower and bedroom are on the second floor! As everyone seems to be downsizing these days, this may really be the more popular choice in the years ahead!

Next, look at all the doors in the house. Do they have lever handles? Lever handles can be great for many reasons, such as if your hands are full you can open the door with your elbow, hip, or foot! But in the case of getting older, arthritis may set in and lever handles are much easier to function with on a day to day basis.

Now onto the bathrooms. Look carefully at the shower and tub. I recommend having a shower stall and not a tub in at least one of the bathrooms. Many shower stalls in new homes are beautiful tile with glass doors, but check to make sure that there is a sitting ledge. This will be of great benefit to you in your older age. But in the meantime, it’s a great place to store your shampoo and soap bottles.

Finally, pay careful attention to the design of the kitchen. I am not recommending that you get an ADA accessible kitchen, but there are definite perks that will help you in your later years. Bottom cabinets can be difficult enough to try and bend down and get items out of the way back. Make sure that there are pull out drawers and shelves. This will save your back, knees, and help you keep your balance. I personally think everyone should get this!

What are some other tips you can give for elderly people looking to purchase a house?

Simple Ways to Spruce Up Your Bathroom

Often the bathroom is a room in our home that gets forgotten about. But why? We are actually in there for a decent portion of our morning routine…well, at least us women are! Bathrooms can easily become one of the most gorgeous rooms in the home without a ton of thought.

Color: The majority of our bathroom fixtures are white – they just come standard that way. So the easiest solution would be to paint the bathroom a color! Color pops great against the stark white fixtures. I might suggest a green, purple, or a blue.

Shower Curtains: For a more upscale look, purchase a fabric shower curtain verses the plastic ones. They won’t show the mildew that can form overtime and you can wash it. What could be better than that? Did you know there are also fabric curtain liners? These can be washed, are more environmentally friendly and don’t stink like plastic when you take them out of the package for the next month of your life.

Towels: To really make the color pop on the walls, buy a striped towel that has your paint color in it. This is the easiest way to bring in multiple colors and the towel designer has already figured out what color coordinates with yours!

Accessories: If there is room on your vanity, try placing a floral or candle arrangement on the counter to give a relaxing feel.

Storage: Placing baskets on the floor is an easy and fashionable way to store toilet paper, rolled-up fresh towels, shampoo and soaps that will impress your guests.

Artwork: Artwork that pops your color scheme can really make an impact in this small room. Just be careful to select one that will not be damaged by moisture. Try hanging it above the toilet to fill the open space that usually exists.

Light Fixtures: Many new construction homes have simple strip lighting fixtures with bare bulbs above the sink. I don’t know about you, but they really hurt my eyes if I look at them first thing in the morning. Go to your local Home Depot, Lowe’s or lighting store and find a new lighting fixture. This can usually be found for under $100 and if you are at all handy when it comes to electricity, it can be easily replaced. Buy one in brushed silver or bronze with frosted glass shades to give your bathroom an updated look and be easy on your eyes in the morning. Don’t forget to use compact fluorescents in your new fixture, now you can save money on your electric bill too!

I bet the start of your day will seem a little brighter when you start it off in a great looking bathroom!  How have you designed your bathroom to give it a softer feel?

Thinking Vertically – Making the Most of the Space You Have

When you want to make a space look bigger, you have to get lighter as you go up. A dark ceiling can make a space feel closed in, so naturally doing to opposite and making a space lighter towards the top will give the space expanse. A light-colored ceiling reflects light and allows for openness. So now that you have an expanded space, what can you do to fill it and bring it to it’s full storage and display potential?

Thinking vertically is a way to use limited floor space and gain storage at the same time. We create floor plans most of the time in interior. Traditionally a floor plan is the equivalent of slicing a space at the four foot elevation and marking everything below that line. For this blog I want to focus on the space above that 4 foot line.

A really trendy and creative way to think vertically is the use of ladders. Either a super sheik metal ladder or perhaps an antique ladder matches your style; both will serve the purpose of thinking vertically. There are even some nice bookcases that look like ladders that are a great alternative to assist in the vertical movement.

Memo boards are another good way to use your wall space. Memo boards are a dressed up way to display notes, cards or other “to dos.” A memo board is just a little more dressed up. Plus, with this type of display, you can make one very easily yourself – select your favorite fabric and ribbon, add a staple gun and a spare piece of board and you are golden! But don’t forget buttons and batting to wrap it up!

Finally, shelving overhead is a great way to think vertically. When talking about that space over 4 feet – why not go all the way up to 6 or 7 feet on the way? This type of installation might give you a heavy feeling from above, but it all depends on what you are planning on putting on the shelving. If you choose heavy books, the shelves will be visually heavier along with having a heavier load.

So whatever method of thinking vertically you pick, just be sure to get the most out of your wall surface area!

How do you use your walls to think vertically?

What Was I Thinking?! My Bathroom Building Experience

We have the basement bathroom toilet installed. We could have just done a pedestal sink, but oh no. I wanted to have a cabinet so there could be storage for soap and toilet paper, some hand towels, you know the drill. And it couldn’t be just any cabinet; it had to be the one we used as our dry sink in the dining room before the new furniture because I am all about recycling and reusing everything I have. So we moved that bad boy to the basement and began the reworking.

There is the drilling of the hole in the top so the sink can discharge. Then there was the plumbing from the “Saniplus” system at a slight incline so we could determine where the plumbing would come up inside the cabinet. Then there was the connection between the bottom of the sink to the outflow pipe. Sounds easy right, well that part was, but because I wanted a glass sink to sit on the dry sink and a faucet that came out of the wall…things got a little tricky.

First, basement walls are typically poured concrete, so we built a fake wall. Now the wall couldn’t be a typical wall thickness because that would have made the room too narrow, so we built a 2” fake wall (just thick enough to hold the water lines). Because I wanted a faucet that came out of the wall, we had to figure out how to attach the faucet to a finished wall while having part of the wall unfinished to do the plumbing.

We dry walled only the top half of the wall. We attached the faucet to this part and dropped the flexible water lines down the wall. Have I told you how much I love flexible water lines? We would be still working on this job if we had to use rigid lines.

We then hooked up the water lines in the not yet dry walled area of our wall and proceeded to dry wall the lower part of our wall. That only took us a couple of weeks to figure out all of the parts and pieces to make it work.

The plumbing goes through one of the drawers in the dry sink, so we took the face off the drawer and permanently attached it to the dry sink.

Now I have 1 drawer and ½ of the dry sink for storage. It looks great and we have had a lot of complements on it. Have you ever thought up a project that ended up  taking a lot more effort and time than you originally thought it would? Tell me one of your “What was I thinking?!” projects.

Stairs That Double as Storage – Why Have We Not Thought of This Before?

I am all about planning for more than one purpose. Recently I was reading through some articles and I saw this great image of storage and stairs combined. I know that currently in my apartment, the space under my stairs to my loft is a dead space – I actually have my TV sitting underneath as if it was a cubby. When I saw this creative use of storage, I was awestruck and found myself asking “Why have I not seen this before?!” This is a smart solution that can also look beautiful. Just don’t let it become a junk collector! However, this could almost do away with a console table by the front door. Save money and save space!

Often enough, in a lot of living situations, the stairs can be found close to the front entry – in this photo you can see a good use of a drawer for immediate show storage. One of the “greenest” things you can plan for is reducing your overall building footprint – so why not save the space. Also, if this encourages your kids to put their shoes away and out of site, more power to you! I would just make sure to include a mat or at least clean it out often… I just would not want a pair of stinky tennis shoes to smell up the joint. Every time you open the drawer you would want to enjoy it, not dread it!

I also remember growing up and having a small closet that was built under the stairs – this is another great way to incorporate storage and stairs. If your space is built, this could be accomplished by a local millworker. The inside of the closet does not even necessary have to be finished – but if there is dead space under your stairs, why not put it to use?

It is important to keep in mind that if your stairs are “stacked” in your home, meaning the stairs from the basement are directly below the stairs from floor one to floor two, that most of these solutions will not work – but that is OK. It just means your space was planned well to begin with! But, if you live in a ranch, or in a space like mine, there is only one floor to travel to; you should be set to make your best attempt at smart storage.

How do you use your space efficiently?

How to Make Exercise a Part of Your Small Space

During the winter, I think we all have tendency to gain a few pounds. I know the reason this can happen to me is because, no matter how great my gym is, if I have made it home and there is snow and ice building up outside, I really do not have the desire at the end of my day to venture out in it again. There always seems to be the next space saving piece of exercise equipment on infomercials, but what if I have no desire to do the same exercise over and over again, and I do not want to spend hundreds of dollars on that single static piece?

I think one of the greatest ways to make a space feel bigger and offer a nice exercise ready element is to add mirrors. This is great because it spreads light and will offer a more open and inspiring space to get you ready to sweat. You could get large frameless mirrors from a local glass store or building supply. Or, if you really wanted to conceal your workout space, you could get a more decorative framed mirror and have that double as your workout partner. Another idea is to get a series of smaller mirrors and hang them as a collage to make a wall of mirrors. When you are ready to workout, you can just move a piece of furniture or two to make room.

Other smart piece of basic equipment that are small in scale are yoga mats, a set of free weights and a deflatable abdominal ball. All of these items are easy to store. But what to store them in?

One of my favorite pieces of furniture I have is my rolling coffee table/ottoman. It is actually my toy box from when I was a kid. I have repainted it at least three times and I made a removable lid and added castors. This piece has traveled through childhood, to college and now to my apartment in metro Detroit. The beauty of this piece is that I store all of my small exercise equipment inside. Now it has so many purposes – storage, foot rest and exercise bench!

So no matter is you have the self reliance to make it to the gym this winter, or maybe you are craving a little hermit-like activity, with little space and some smart storage choices, you can have space to burn some calories!

What are your solutions to working out in small spaces?

Get Rid of the Clutter!

Do you want a designer friendly looking house? Then start by getting rid of the clutter! Clutter is the fastest way to ruin the look of a space. I’m talking papers, books, too many throws and pillows, envelopes, large quantities of candles, etc. Life gets very busy and clutter is a result of this. I understand completely that it happens, but let’s get creative about clearing out the clutter.

The most common idea people have to get rid of clutter is a junk drawer. Well, this works great…until we find ourselves rummaging through trying to find something and it is nowhere to be found. Then we start taking everything out and the next thing you know, there are piles on the table. Let’s limit what goes in the junk drawer and that will solve some of these issues.

Next, try a small chest or cabinet to incorporate into your room, entrance or hallway. There are many fashionable chests available. These are the perfect places to store extra blankets, photos, CDs or DVDs, table clothes, napkins, etc. You name it and the sky is the limit! We all have these items that we don’t want to get rid of but need a place to shove them. Plus, this is a perfect opportunity for a lamp to help light up the room!

How about bookcases? Not only is this the perfect spot to store many books, but it’s also a great opportunity to display accessories that you can not part with. Getting items up off the floor and tables really opens up the space. Accessories should be kept to a limit on cocktail and end tables to eliminate the clutter. I recommend utilizing these extra pieces on a bookcase and don’t forget to accessorize the top! Typically it is best to work in odd numbers with accessories. Standard would be three accessories on the cocktail table while one to three accessories on the end table. Otherwise, the tabletop can start to look cluttered. The same odd numbers can be repeated on the bookcase.

Storage ottomans are also a great idea! These are perfect places to hide blankets or pillows. Possibly even the television remote or game controller. Plus, it allows for a comfortable place for people to prop their feet up or allows for an extra seat at a crowded party.

Have your own unique storage solution? Share it with us so we can all have a designer-friendly pad!