 Flat Rate Exterior Design via Online Design Looking for help selecting exterior colors and finishes? Offering a flat rate design package for exterior home design, which includes: Exterior paint color + trim Exterior siding color + material Exterior stone facade {if applicable} Roofing material Decking + railing colors (optional) Doors + windows Door hardware Exterior lighting Concept board with ideas + selections Flat rate exterior design package for $500 Please email for more info JSInteriorDes@aol.com  Large-scale renovation projects can be expensive, time-consuming and stressful. The good news is that you don’t have to remodel or upgrade every room to transform your living spaces. In this guide, we’ll share some top tips to revamp your home with minimal effort.  Picture from https://www.pexels.com/photo/stylish-dark-kitchen-interior-in-modern-apartment-6969870/ Change up your colorways Changing the color of a room is one of the easiest and most effective ways to create a new look. Whether you fancy being bold and adding bright colors to your kitchen, or you’re thinking about stripping the palette back in your bedroom to create a beautiful, serene sanctuary, the colors you choose will impact the look and feel of the room. Think about the styles and trends you love and the function of the room. In sociable spaces and creative areas, experiment with vivid colors that energize and uplift. In tranquil areas, opt for neutrals, soft tones like pastels and shades of soothing blue, purple and green. Create a new focal point Creating a new focal point is a fantastic way to spruce up a room without overhauling the entire space. Focus on one area or feature that will catch the eye and turn heads. Chic, luxurious marble countertops for the kitchen, a funky, retro couch for the living room or a spectacular print or piece of art for the dining room are excellent examples. You could also explore options like replacing the bed frame or bed head in your boudoir, investing in an oversized tub or adding printed wallpaper in the bathroom, or hanging a statement-making pendant lamp or chandelier in the hall or landing. Accessorize Accessorizing is a simple, affordable way to make changes to your décor. You can use accents and finishing touches to make subtle or dramatic alterations to the aesthetic of your home. From storage jars, plant pots and vases of fresh flowers to magnificent rugs, patterned cushions and framed prints and photographs, there are all kinds of items you can buy or make to bring each space to life. Use accessories to channel different trends, themes and looks, introduce color and patterns and personalize your home. Learning to accessorize will help you to create stunning spaces, but it’s also a brilliant way to keep up with interior design trends without breaking the bank every season. You can mix and match, combine old and new and swap fabrics, prints and colors to cater to the season and your evolving taste and style. It’s a great idea to get inspiration from social media and magazines, as well as places you’ve visited. Perhaps you love the way they’ve decorated a local bar or restaurant, or you want to recreate the vibe of a hotel you’ve stayed at or a fancy resort you’ve seen on TV, for example.  Image source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-couch-with-throw-pillows-3614082/
Many of us love to spruce up our homes and experiment with new trends and design ideas. Renovating can be expensive and time-consuming but there are lots of ways you can transform living spaces without embarking on a remodel or an ambitious redecorating project. Simple steps, such as changing colorways, creating a new focal point in the room and accessorizing, can have a dramatic impact. Buying a home is one of the biggest investments you will ever make. Unfortunately, it can also be one of the most complex, confusing, and time-consuming processes. To ensure that you choose the right home and get the best deal possible, there are five key things to keep in mind when shopping for a new home. Whether you’re just beginning your search or already have a list of potential homes to view, these tips will help you navigate the process easily and confidently.  Via Pexels
1. Location Is Key. A home’s location is critical to consider when shopping for a new home as it will affect many factors, such as your commute time, access to amenities, and even school district boundaries. You should take into account how close major highways are so that you can plan your daily routine accordingly. Determine if there are shopping centers nearby and what kind of entertainment options exist within the area. 2. Consider Your Budget Carefully. Before you begin looking at homes, determine how much house you can afford based on your budget and current income level. Make sure to factor in all associated costs, including mortgage payments, taxes, insurance premiums, HOA fees, necessary repairs or renovations, utility bills, etc., so that you don’t stretch yourself too thin financially. 3. Have An Inspection Performed. Once you have pinpointed your ideal location and determined how much house you can afford, it’s important to have a thorough inspection done on any home that is under serious consideration for purchase, even if it appears flawless upon initial inspection! An inspector will be able to spot potential issues with plumbing, electrical wiring, or roofing materials, which may not be visible at first glance but could cost thousands down the road if left unchecked prior to the purchase agreement signing. 4. Look Into Potential Remodels Or Rebuilds. If there is an older home on the market that you’re considering for purchase, it may be a good idea to look into how long such a project might take, how much it would cost, and whether any permits or other red tape will need to be addressed. Even with this in mind, however, many older homes can still be great investments, especially if they are in prime locations or have been remodeled to suit your personal tastes. So consider contacting a professional company of home builders to help you determine whether a remodel or rebuild would be the right choice for the property you have in mind. 5. Hire An Attorney To Help With Legal Matters Finally, it is important to work with a qualified real estate attorney who can ensure that all legal matters related to your new home purchase are taken care of correctly and that no details get overlooked. This will give you much-needed peace of mind during this potentially stressful time and help ensure that everything goes smoothly during the process. In conclusion, you should keep these five tips in mind when shopping for a new home. From selecting the best location to working with a team of home builders and real estate professionals, these tips can help you feel confident and prepared throughout the entire home-buying process. When you want to make your property stand out and help it shine and improve, there are so many things that can help you to understand this, as well as working toward taking the right steps to be successful. If you want to provide a jaw-dropping home environment, one of the best ways of doing that is to come up with some of the leading interior design hacks that will help you with this. There are a lot of ideas that you need to work on when it comes to improving your life, and this is something that you have to think carefully about. Make sure you come up with some of the best ideas that are going to allow you to improve your property and help it shine. Here are some of the key interior design essentials that you can use to help you create a jaw-dropping home environment.  Picture
Feng Shui the Heck Out of Your Home! Feng shui is one of the key components of making sure you improve your property, as well as helping you when it comes to making the right choices for the future. You have to try to create the most jaw-dropping interior you can, and one of the best ways of doing this is to make sure you embrace feng shui. Rebalancing the energy in your home, and rearranging the furniture to a much better and more appealing setup is super important. You need to look for some of the best ways of being able to achieve this process moving forward, and there are a lot of things that play a role in helping you here. Trying to use feng shui to improve your home is super essential, and this is something you can embrace for long-term success as much as possible.. DIY the Place as Much as Possible There are loads of things that you need to consider when you are looking to improve your property, and making sure you DIY the home is one of the best. There are tons of great things you can do to revamp the place, and being able to take charge of this yourself gives you an extra layer of achievement and fulfillment. Try to think about some of the key ideas that can help you improve this as much as possible. If you can utilise home DIY, and make changes that are going to help your home stand out, there are loads of ways you can benefit from this and it is essential to try to make the most of this as much as possible. Come up with some of the best ways of being able to make your home better, and this is so important. Make Your Property More Secure Taking steps to help make your property more secure is hugely important, and there are a lot of things that you can do to help make the most of this. It is essential to make sure you think about some of the best ideas that play a role in helping you here, and things like window replacement services can help you to make the property more secure, which is going to help you significantly. There are a lot of things that you need to get right when you are looking to improve your home as much as possible, and this is something that you need to focus on as much as you can. Making your property more secure is something that makes a huge difference to the way your home comes across, and this is something you need to consider with any changes you are looking to make. Go Green Try to make sure you focus on some of the best ways of being able to improve your home, and going green is one of the best ways of being able to achieve this. It is important to make sure you think about some of the best ways of being able to improve this process, and there are a lot of things that play a role in helping you achieve this. There are loads of great ways of being able to improve your property as much as possible, and it is important to make sure you focus on the best ways of going green, and there are plenty of things that you can do to improve this in your life as much as possible. It is vital to make sure you think about some of the best ways of being able to make your property healthier and greener, and this is something you need to get right as much as possible. Be Smart Going smart at home is a great way of being able to boost the home environment, and there are so many excellent ways of being able to achieve this. Try to come up with some of the key ideas that will help you when you are looking to improve this process, and you have to come up with ways of being smarter at home, via things like smart thermometers, smart metres, and more, and you can link these up to your phone. This is a great way of being able to keep your home up to date as much as possible, and there are a lot of things that play a part in this right now. As you can see, there are so many different ways of being able to improve this process, and there are a lot of excellent ideas that will help you improve your home. Making the right changes to provide a jaw-dropping home environment is something that you have to work on as much as possible, and these are some of the best ideas that will help you with this moving forward. There are so many ideas that you need to focus on when it comes to improving the interior of the home, as well as boosting your home environment and trying to create an amazing home life that you can benefit from as much as possible.  Image credit
People work hard to get their homes. Unfortunately, a big mistake people make is neglecting the correct maintenance and repairs that are required to keep their property in the best condition possible. Property maintenance and repairs are important, especially leading up to and during the winter months as this can be when the weather is at its harshest. Why is it important to prepare your home for winter?Not only will preparing your home save you money in the long run, or on your heating costs but it will also slow down or even stop the process of your house deteriorating. All houses need to be warm and dry to optimally increase their lifespan. Luckily there are several things you can do to prepare your home for winter, whether it is clearing your gutters, adding insulation, or hiring professional plumbing services to check your pipes. To help you, here are several things that anyone can do or check to help prepare their homes for winter. How to prepare your home for winter #1 Heating systemsThe heating system in your house has a finite lifespan, and they are most likely to fail after sitting dormant over the summer months and then being used in high loads over the winter months. It is advisable that you get these heating systems regularly maintained and that you are aware of when it was installed so that you might have an idea as to when they will need to be replaced or upgraded. There is nothing worse than getting to winter and realizing your heating system has failed and then living without heat. #2 Cleaning your guttersThe job isn’t glamorous, and many people are reluctant to do it but once all the leaves have fallen from the trees it is time to check and clean your gutters. If they are clogged up with debris then this will cause them to overflow and run down your property, leading to dampness and drainage issues. Luckily in most cases, this task shouldn’t take more than a few hours or a day at the most, and you only have to do it once a year unless you are extremely lucky. #3 Adding or replacing insulationOnce you have heated your home, you want to keep all that heat in for as long as possible, so it is a good idea to check your roofing insulation and the seals on your doors and windows as these are the most likely places that the heat you are losing will be escaping from. You could also look at what type of windows your property has, and if they are single, double, or triple-glazed. If you have single-glazed windows, then it might be an idea to invest in upgrading them. Not all of us have the time, health, or experience to carry out some of these tasks, but there is always professional help available. There are of course other things you can also do to prepare your home for winter, but these are a few of the important ones to consider. Taking great interior design photos is an art and a science – and incredibly difficult to get right. Mostly, it’s done by professionals with extremely expensive standalone cameras. Now, though, many people are wondering whether their phones fit the bill. Is it possible to take great interior design shots on an iPhone? Well, it depends on who you ask. Die-hards will always tell you that it isn’t. You simply can’t get the quality you need. But more open-minded people will tell you that it’s not just possible, it’s downright desirable. This post takes the view that the latter is true: you can use your iPhone to take interior design photos. However, it takes a bit of planning and preparation. Here’s what you need to do to get good results. Shoot The Same Object From Different Angles And Distances Getting perfect interior design photos involves a bit of trial and error. Chances are that practically all of the photos you see online were taken as part of a much bigger set and then selected later when the editor whittled the album down to just one solitary photo. That’s why it’s a good idea to change the angle, distance to the subject, and even the lighting. You can then review all the photos and see which one makes the most sense for the room you want to shoot. Keep Your Lines Straight  Unsplash - CC0 License Behind every great interior design shot, there’s a certain linear logic. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at any popular stock interior photo. You’ll notice that all the lines match up with the angle of the photo perfectly. Images tend to look really bad when lines don’t line up. But they can look great when they do, according to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukbrg7vEFMs. You want as many vertical and horizontal elements in the image to line up with the angle of the picture as possible. (It won’t always work 100 percent of the time because of perspective. In these cases, just make sure that the most prominent lines line up). For instance, if you’re taking a photo of a bathroom, make sure that the bath is horizontal and that the lines between the tiles are vertical. Likewise, in the kitchen, keep the countertops horizontal and the gaps between the cabinets vertical. To convince yourself that this is worth doing, take a few photos of your rooms that don’t take horizontal and vertical lines into consideration and see how they look. You’ll be surprised just how bad they look compared to the ones you take properly. Shoot Straight On You’ll also notice that professional interior photographers always shoot subjects (such as bathtubs) straight on. That is, they don’t try to peer into them. Instead, they photo them side-on. Why this looks so much better is actually a bit of a mystery but it works. Therefore, think carefully about your body position and how you could change it to take a better shot. Kneeling down, sitting, or even lying down can make your rooms look spectacular. Shoot Late In The Afternoon  Unsplash - CC0 License
Here’s another pro tip: shoot interiors in the morning or late in the afternoon if you’re using your phone. You want to avoid harsh sunlight coming in from the top of the photo and casting shadows across all your images. If you can shoot on a cloudy day, that’s even better. Natural dullness opens up space for you to artificially illuminate images (or get your camera to do it for you). Overcast days generally fill rooms with a soft light that you can brighten up later at the editing stage. Edit Your Photos Speaking of which, it helps enormously if you can edit your photos after you take them. Touching them up can bring out the best in the room and show people features as they are meant to be seen. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can simply follow your phone’s recommendations. There’s no need to use complex software, like Photoshop, unless you’re working professionally or have specific effects in mind that you want to achieve. The iPhone takes away a lot of the hard work on most pictures for you. You simply adjust the sliders and it’ll give you the effect that you want. You can also adjust all your settings to the same preset. This way, you can edit photos with the click of a button and get them all in the same style. Don’t forget, if there’s an interior that you really like, you can set it as your background by following the instructions described on sites like https://setapp.com/how-to/screenshot-on-iphone. Brighten Your Images With Natural Light When photographing interiors, don’t forget to brighten them with as much natural light as possible. You want the images to appear as “true” light, something that modern phones are getting better at doing. Artificial light generally doesn’t work as well. If you decide to use your phone to take artificially-lit interior photos, you’ll need to edit them afterward to make the light appear whiter. Beware that natural light changes throughout the day. If you take photos too late in the evening, they’ll appear dark on camera and, possibly, reddish in color. Try taking photos a couple of hours before sunset or after sunrise for the best results. Conclusion In summary, you can take interior design photos on a phone, but you need to follow some rules. With the quality of modern phone cameras, it’s easier to achieve than you might think. If you are shooting on your phone, make sure that you get the lighting right and arrange the room in the correct format. Also, avoid the temptation to blur out any of the foreground or background, unless you’re specifically going for perspective. Remember, most people who see interior design photos want to look at all the items in the room, not just the main subject because they want to get ideas. If a photo doesn’t quite turn out how you hoped, don’t delete it immediately. Play around with your phone’s editing tools to see if you can improve it.  Image Source
Organization can make a profound difference to your life in many ways. For now, let’s focus on organising the more physical aspects of your life - your belongings. We all have a number of belongings and it’s good to be able to keep and maintain them in a presentable way that doesn’t result in clutter and crowding. Here are some top tips to aid you on this journey! Declutter The first step on your journey to organization is decluttering. Over time, we all end up accumulating items we simply don’t want or need. Take some time to go through your belongings and determine which can go. You should remove items that you don’t use, don’t want or hold no sentimental or decorative value. These can be sold, donated, recycled or (if beyond use and not recyclable) thrown away. You should also look into bought or homemade storage solutions. Household Storage Solutions Once you’ve whittled everything down to the itmes you actually want and need, it’s time to implement some household storage solutions. There are so many different storage ideas out there and the best for you and your home will depend on the items you’re attempting to store. From toy boxes to shoe racks, bookcases, shelving units, under bed storage and more, you’ll be able to find a place for everything. On the Go Organization Of course, not everything in your life has one set place within your home. The average person will take a fair few items out and about with them, each time they leave the house. Now, many of us are guilty of simply throwing a bunch of things in our bag and then digging around looking for them as and when we need them. But this doesn’t have to be the way. You can organise your personal belongings much better. A good solution is, again, ensuring that everything has its own place - even within your bag. You should have a purse or wallet for your change and cards. You should have a doob tube for prerolled cigarettes - not only does this let you find them easily but it prevents them getting crushed too. You should have a small makeup bag for any makeup you may be carrying around. A pencil case is useful for pens, pencils and other stationery. Make sure to regularly empty out receipts. Keep the ones you need in a file in your home. Recycle those you don’t. Clever Investments Once you’ve got everything organized and into a routine, it’s important to keep things that way. This means making wise and clever investments each time you go to purchase a physical product. Before buying anything, make sure to question if you actually need it. Will you get good use out of it? Do you have somewhere to keep it? This goes for freebies and gifts too. It can be easy to accept things you neither want nor need, but is much better to simply not accept or pass it on. These are just a few top tips that can help you to better organzie your belongings in every aspect of your life! Purchasing the home of your dreams can seem impossible at first glance. After all, you don't just need to be able to pay your mortgage each month, and your legal and moving fees, but you will need to raise a significant deposit as well. However, if you are looking to get onto the property ladder, I'm here to tell you that all is not lost. Indeed there are several tactics you can use to help you raise the money you need. Read on to find out what they are.
Cut the cost of your current rent For many people buying their dream home is tough because they already have to pay out a big chunk of their income on rent each month. However, there are ways of cutting this expenditure to zero, if you are brave enough to try them. One option is to move back in with your parents or family for a while, as you save like crazy for your deposit. Of course, this option is only viable to those people whose parents have space for them and whom they get along well enough with to stand 6-12 months of living together again. Another possibility is to take a post as a professional house sitter. House sitters are people that live in other people’s homes and take care of them, as well as their pets and plants while they are away. House sitting tends to be an unpaid position, but the benefit is that you get to live in someone else's home rent-free so you can put all the money you save on rent away onwards your deposit. There is also nothing stopping you from working a day job, especially remotely when house-sitting so you could continue earning while saving on rent at the same time. Investing Another way you could add to your deposit savings pot is to invest some of your money. There are many different types of investment that you might like to consider, and those that offer a faster return such as Share CFDs, otherwise known as a contract for difference investing, and Forex might be most suitable in this case. Although it is always advisable to do your homework and educate yourself on what each type of trading is and the return you can expect. After all, profit is not quartered when it comes to any type of investing. Work out at home Last of all, if you are looking to save some significant amounts of money each month, then why not swap your pricey gym membership for working out at home? Indeed, there are many effective workouts you can do that do not require gym equipment. One of the most popular of these is running, as it can be done anywhere, even if you are travelling and all you need is the right pair of shoes. Similarly, bodyweight exercises are very effective and do not require any expensive gym equipment, and there are plenty of free exercise videos on sites like youtube that cover everything from dance to Yoga. |
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