House Design News

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5 Stunning Backyard Designs In your Budget Posted: 27 Jul 2014 12:34 PM PDT Want to transform your backyard from drab to dazzling? Tired of having no place to entertain guests? Are you working within a limited budget? You’re in luck! There are many affordable ways to create stunning backyard designs without spending a lot of money. Check out these five design ideas and find one that speaks to you! Incorporate Decorative Concrete to a Patio Area More affordable than flagstone, yet available in an array of textures and colors, decorative concrete is an ideal option for a patio or outdoor dining area. You can even use stamped concrete, which adds an extra depth and dimension to any design you choose. Concrete is durable, versatile and comfortable to walk on with bare feet. According to home improvement expert, Bob Vila, it provides a non-slip surface, which is crucial for slippery pool and patio areas. Instead of the traditional square or circular pattern, create geometric patterns and use complementary colors to make the space stand out. Add Levels For dimension and style, add levels to your backyard. As suggested by the DIY Network, a once weedy washout of a backyard can be easily converted into a three-level entertainment area. Each level can feature a different natural element, such as bright green grass, crushed gravel or wood chips. Add in a garden to one level and a couple of benches for sitting, and you’ve got yourself a yard everyone will be talking about. Make Your Own Path Carve a quaint pathway into the side of a small hill and line it with crushed stone for the perfect meandering spot for relaxing. DIY Network recommends adding a rustic bench to compliment a small garden and a running fountain for a Zen-like spot to sit and contemplate. To complete the look, all you need to do is outline the pathway in large stones and fill it in with wood chips, small stones, rocks or crushed gravel. Build a Stone Wall One way to wow guests and add interest to a small garden is to build a simple, stacked stonewall, complete with vines and flowers cascading down the wall. Add an environmentally- friendly touch to this splendid backyard oasis by including a garden walkway, filled with small, recycled, decorative stones. Build a curvy or straight border along the walkway to ensure any added stones stay within the set area and don’t get kicked out of place when people walk on it. Save money through collecting old stones from the woods or edges of your property. Pergolas for Shade Pergolas are all the rage right now, but you don’t have to buy or build a huge one to make an impact. According to HGTV, a simple one will do just fine, with a short bench right underneath for sunning or shading. Start a vine on either side of the pergola to add historic charm. A small stone fire pit nearby pulls the rustic outdoor look together. These simple and affordable projects don’t take long to accomplish and can be fun if you turn them into group projects and involve the whole family. The result is an entertainment area on your patio where guests can gather for summer parties and enjoy the fresh air. This article was written by home improvement blogger, Jared Miert. As a father and home handyman, he knows how important it is to stay within your budget, and recommends decorative concrete from Austin’s Allied Outdoor Solutions for an affordable solution.

6 Amazing Ways You Can Transform A Spare Room Into Something Special Posted: 27 Jul 2014 12:34 AM PDT Do you have any rooms inside your home that you do nothing with? Lots of people usually have one that they go into a few times per week. It maybe gets used as storage space and nothing else. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make because you’re throwing away a chance to make your life better. Do you have any idea how much people wish they had a spare room to do something amazing with? It’s probably more than you can ever imagine and they’d be cursing you if they knew you were wasting a whole room. Why don’t you do something amazing with it? The reason I said you were throwing away a chance to make your life better is because you can turn the room into anything your heart desires. It’s your home and it means you can do whatever you want with it. The only thing stopping you from turning it into something amazing is your imagination. If you don’t believe me then let’s look at some of the things that are possible. You could choose to use one of these ideas or you could come up with your own, but you must do something. Your very own gym If you want to start turning your life around in the health department your very own gym is going to be perfect. You can crawl down the stairs and soon as you get out of bed in the morning and you don’t even need to get dressed before you start exercising. Most people don’t have the motivation to go to the gym because they are preoccupied with other things, but having a gym inside your home means you have no excuses. If your room is big enough you will have room for any piece of equipment you need. A games room If you want to bring a bit of excitement back into your life then having your own games room will be great. Instead of hogging the television to play your computer games you can take yourself into a separate room. It doesn’t just have to be for the computer and there will be enough room for a pool table or ping pong table too. Maybe you can even get one of those old arcade machines to add a touch of style to the room. All your games will be perfect for the children too. A relaxing study A lot of people prefer to read books rather than watch television and if you fall into this category I bet you would kill for your very own private study. You could line the walls with lots of bookshelves so it resembled a library. This wouldn’t look great if you didn’t have books to fill the spaces, but if you did it would be perfect. All you would need is the most comfortable chair you could find and you would probably end up spending all your time in there. An office space It’s not uncommon for people to work from home now and some of them still refuse to build a home office . You can’t expect to be great at your job if you sit in the middle of the living room every day. Privacy is underrated and your productivity would increase. It’s something you wouldn’t regret, but you might not be able to appreciate this until you can sit down and get to work in your own space. Even if you don’t work from home it’s still great to have an office if you enjoy writing books because you’ll feel more professional. A crèche for the kids You can’t go away and turn your spare room into somewhere special without at least considering doing something for the kids. If they had their own crèche they would have the greatest childhood ever. It would also be a lot easier on you because you wouldn’t need to keep them entertained all the time. Do they have anywhere inside the house they can play at the moment? If they’re stuck playing inside their bedroom or making your living room a mess, build them a crèche. A private cinema Nothing beats going to the cinema to watch a movie because you get to watch it on a gigantic screen. Sitting and watching one in your living room is OK, but if you had your own private cinema  it would be even better. The screen might not be as big as one you’d get at a proper cinema, but because you’d be sitting so close to the screen it would still feel amazing. At least now you can watch any movie you like and you’re not restricted to brand new ones. Leslie Kramer, the author of this post, is a freelance blogger who often writes for Habitat1, a leading  interior design and construction company. Leslie likes to bake and read in her free time.

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