According to industry designers, many people these days don’t know how to distinguish between a family room and a living room.
The family room is where a family comes to spend all their down time and the living room is the more formal, less-used room in the house. However, just because it is used less doesn’t mean it deserves less attention in terms of decorating and detail.
This is the space where many people would sit with company to visit with when distractions are taking place in other rooms of the house.
The living room needs a more formal touch than the rest of the common areas of your house. A great focal point of a living room would be a fireplace or a piece of art.
Leather would be a great, classy type of fabric to have for the couches due to the lack of frequent traffic that would keep scratches at a minimum. Using a higher maintenance floor in this room would be OK, however, you still want to keep it easy to clean.
Decorative accessories in this room are a must. Your living room needs to keep the life in it. Plants, whether real or fake, always add a nice decorative touch to any room.
The living room is often the space for entertaining guests and that is the crucial point to remember. Excessive amounts of accessories can distract and make your living room appear cluttered, which would remove the formal touch from the room.
Many new houses don’t have both a living room and a family room, so trying to bring both into one room can be difficult. Depending on your space, there is really nothing you can’t do though. Using a neutral paint tone on the walls allows for vibrant, rich colours to be brought in on accent pieces. Consulting an interior decorator will always help clear up those points of confusion when trying to do this yourself. Each space can warrant different needs for flooring types and the professionals in that area are always willing to lend an opinion to keep your space as great as possible.
When it comes to furnishing the room, always ask an expert. The last thing you want is to wind up with furniture that’s too big, that doesn’t match or that just is not shaped right for the room. After all, you want your company to enjoy visiting with you in your living room.
Renovating can be a daunting task, let alone those do-it-yourself renovations. More often than not, the family room becomes that cluttered mess with toys spilling out of bins or pushed into corners, a few too many contrasting attempts at interior decorating and no real theme for anything going on in the room. Where else would we start fixing that problem, other than the chosen area of focus in your room?
While the television may be the most obvious choice for a focal point, it’s not always the best one. Fireplaces, bay windows or artwork all make appropriate focal points, even if you decide to have two.
Important things to remember when you are designing your family room are the” Who, How and What”: Who will be using the room, how do you intend on using the room, what style is your home and what items do you need to include into the room? There is nothing wrong with clipping a photo from a magazine and using that as your inspiration. Often times it helps you focus without getting side-tracked and over-doing the decorating.
Keep in mind that children, not to say adults are incapable of this, tend to be in a rush, messy and all over the place. Choosing appropriate materials when it comes to flooring, furniture and other accessories is vital. You don’t always have to sacrifice fashion for functionality when it comes to the flooring.
You can get the wood floor look in a vinyl make that is easier to clean and maintain. With couches, while leather and microfibre can both be easy to wipe up a spill on, leather is more likely to show physical damage. Don’t forget, as long as your couch can be sprayed with a protective coating, it will be easier to maintain. Try to steer toward rounded edges on coffee tables in any home, not just around children! Coffee tables can even double as storage when you find a box-type coffee table that expands into numerous storage compartments and some even contain a hidden wine rack.
Common sense comes into play when remembering to keep the cords hidden and out of reach. Also, remember not to try and do everything yourself. Often times, products will void their warranty/guarantee (if applicable) when self-installed. That future headache can be prevented if you allow the professionals to install flooring or move your furniture.
Sometimes, when all you crave is a fresh look, that’s nothing a fresh coat of paint can’t jazz up. Just remember when renovating for your family room, each home is different and there is no textbook answer as to what properly fits each family’s needs.
Renovating your kitchen can be an overwhelming task and to do it right it just may cost a migraine or two for all the thought that is required to properly plan a kitchen that you’ll love to live, work, cook and dine in for the next fifteen years. A modern kitchen does not simply follow the classic layout pattern of a triangle- infact if you hear any kitchen planner mention the word triangle run and run like heck out of there as that formula went with ‘Leave it to Beavers’ mom. It simply doesn’t work for how we work and use our kitchens today.
So no triangle layout schemes - got it! Now we ask ourselves where do we start the planning process, what do I need to know and where do the best kitchen design ideas come from? Hang on and I’ll walk you through some ideas and a whole lot of food for thought that you can use during the planning stage. First of all, don’t plan to do this in an afternoon or even a weekend. Remember, you’ll live with this kitchen for a very long time it’s a lot more permanent than a new sofa. Today we take our design cues for a great kitchen from commercial kitchens. Think about it, more than one chef in the kitchen (we have a husband, kids and friends that want to all help cook) easy access to pots and pans and tableware (think open shelving), multiple ovens and sinks and ergonomically positioned appliances (think elevated dishwashers and bottom freezers).
Today’s kitchen is designed with the way you like to cook and entertain in mind. For example, if you are a pie queen then we need to have a section of countertop that is marble (pastry chefs love marble for rolling their pastry), you’ll also want a section of butcher block countertop, perhaps a raised bar so that the rest of us with wine in hand can marvel at your culinary skills and then perhaps some granite
or stainless steel for sparkle and elegance. So many decisions and that was just for the countertop... see what I mean, if you don’t take it one step at a time you can have major regrets. One of your first steps is to commit to your appliances. How many ovens? Is the freezer separate from the fridge? Wine fridges? Drawer dishwashers? Drawer microwave oven? TV? Computer? Fireplace? Coffee maker? Customized cook top (many appliance manufactures such as Wolf and Jennair allow you to custom build your cook top - design the elements all gas or gas plus induction, grill, wok, even a deep fryer. This is just too much fun these days! You need to know what appliances you want and their required space before we can actually layout the kitchen plan.
The next step will be to space plan, to make enough space for your spices, knives, utensils and all other cooking essentials. Plan each area as a “zone” and you may have many zones, within each zone plan enough space for all that will be needed. For example, in the coffee zone you’ll need space for coffee, the coffee maker or built-in appliance, cups and saucers, flavours, and sugar.
We are not done with the zones yet. The prep zone, the baking zone, the clean-up zone, the garbage zone (we need bins for compost, garbage, glass and recycling materials) the cooking zone, the wine zone, the baking zone (there are even apparatuses that allow you to leave your mixer permanently on and then when you need it, it will simply flip up ready to use), the eating zone, the lean-on-the-bar-and-watch -the-cook zone and of course the dog zone (I have under cabinet beds in our kitchen and a permanent spot for their dinner dishes.) I know it can be overwhelming but it really does make a lot more sense and the results are worth all the effort - you’ll love to “zone out” in your new kitchen. Now, the fun part - you get to choose all the pretty stuff such as flooring, lighting, back splash, cabinet style and material. Again you can mix and match here, no reason to stick to one colour, material or even style. It won’t be easy but then as mom would say nothing worth while comes without a price, so take your time, do the research and then be sure to invite me over for that first dinner party. I love hanging out, leaning on the bar with a glass of wine and watching you work in your zone.
Most people have a vision in their head of what they feel to be the ideal bedroom. Oftentimes that ideal includes a king-sized bed, a walk-in closet and a bathroom connected directly to the bedroom. While those desires are nice, they’re rarely reality. In most cases, simply fitting a king-sized bed is luxury enough for homeowners who may find the room is a tad small for the extra amenities. For renters, this is especially the case, as rental properties rarely boast master bedrooms, making it harder for renters to create their dream room for rest and relaxation. Fortunately, there are ways to turn a small bedroom into a personal oasis and maximize whatever space is available. It just takes a little hard work and some trickery to pull it off.
Shelves
Shelves can help make any bedroom seem larger, and shelving units typically take up very little space. Mementos from past vacations, pictures of family and friends, books, and even an alarm clock can be placed on shelving units, negating the need for various small tables strewn about the bedroom that take up space.
Bedding
Another great way to save space in the bedroom is to purchase a storage bed. These are beds that have drawers built into the bed frame. While these frames are typically large, for those with ample closet space (be it in or out of the bedroom) to store their clothing, the storage provided by a storage bed can remove the need for a dresser, saving significant space in the process.
Another way to create space with bedding is to purchase a platform bed. These beds are generally smaller and low to the ground, which makes the room appear larger as a result. Of course, the bed will be smaller and might not actually increase space in the room, but it will give the appearance of a larger room.
Conventional beds that are higher off the ground can also save space. Because conventional beds are raised higher, the area underneath can be used to store items such as luggage, shoes or anything else doesn’t require daily use and can be easily slid under the bed.
Mirrors
Mirrors can also be used to make a small bedroom appear larger. Again, the mirrors will not increase the actual space in the room, but when properly placed about the bedroom, they can create a doubled-look effect that makes the room appear larger than it actually is.
Furniture
While it might not seem as though adding furniture to a small room can make it appear larger, small furniture arranged in the right way, often at angles meant to distract attention from the walls, can give a small bedroom the appearance of being larger. Also, for those who like to read or work in their bedroom, adding small furniture might be a necessity and not just on the wish list. Just be sure to arrange the furniture in a way that doesn’t make the room feel or appear cluttered or small.
Wallpaper
Bedrooms can also appear larger depending on the wallpaper. Horizontal patterns, for instance, tend to make a room appear larger. If wallpaper isn’t an option, consider hanging smaller pictures or artwork that make the room appear larger. The bigger the picture or artwork, the smaller the wall will appear, making the room seem more confined in the process.