Your Home and Kitchen Solution

Archive for July, 2011

If you’re like many homeowners, you have a blossoming desire to bring the outdoors in-and to expand your living spaces onto porches, decks and courtyards. Carefully planning the style of windows and doors in your home is an important step in creating a seamless transition from the inside comfort of your home to the natural beauty of its surroundings.

“Transitional spaces between the home and garden invite residents to spend more quality time outdoors,” says award-winning garden designer and host of the public television program “P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home,” P. Allen Smith.

He says regardless of your neighborhood or the type of house you have, you can use the windows and doors in your home to take full advantage of what nature has to offer.

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Smith suggests planning your home in a way that maximizes your views, increases natural light and provides easy access to outdoor entertaining. When he recently built his own garden home retreat, he focused on these areas and used windows and doors made by Marvin Windows and Doors. Here’s a closer look:

• Bi-fold doors, which open up accordion-style, provide a vast opening that maximizes the amount of warm, natural sunlight in a room and perfectly complements outdoor entertaining.

• Frame stunning views of landscapes with large picture windows. Marvin offers a Venting Picture Window that provides the unique combination of unobstructed views and cross-ventilation to bring in the fresh air.

• Sliding patio doors are a traditional option when planning a backyard deck or courtyard. Choose a four-panel door for a greater expanse of glass and a larger opening. Also look for top-hung panels for smooth operation and dual-point locks for security.

“For several years now I have been touting the idea of the garden home, a place that blurs the lines between indoors and out, expanding our living space into the garden and our garden into our homes. My garden home retreat is my expression of this concept,” said Smith.

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Indoor gardening is becoming more popular as technology improves and costs decrease for supplies and equipment.  Growing indoors can be very rewarding and the results are absolutely fantastic when done correctly, that said they can also be devastating when things go wrong.

In this article I would like to dispel some myths about indoor gardening as well as give some tips for simple ways to improve your harvest.

Myth #1: You can grow in any room indoors.

Growing indoors even in the best circumstances is more difficult than you would think at first, and depends a lot on “what” you are trying to grow.  For this article I will focus on food bearing plants such as tomatoes and cucumbers, and other succulent garden plants, as well as herbs and fresh flowers and orchids.  Plants such as garlic and carrots that create bulbs are even more challenging and will not be discussed at this time.

Tip #1:  No matter what plants you decide to grow indoors, you will still need to meet its basic requirements for growth.

Mainly, good ventilation from the outside, Light, and fertilizer as well as a exhaust for the heat from the lights and built up oxygen that the plants cannot eat.  Plants Breath CO2, but with global warming and all there is plenty of that in regular air, so just make sure your ventilation is good into and throughout the room.  Light and fertilizer depend more on what you are trying to grow. Be sure that water is nearby unless you like to carry heavy things a lot.  Even long hoses only go so far.

Myth #2:  Indoor gardening doesn’t involve getting down and dirty.

Cleanliness is close to godliness.  Growing indoors can be a messy job.  Weather you decide to use hydroponics or soil, there is usually some sort of spills involved.

Tip#2: Plan for the worst!  Enclose the growing area in a cheap and easy home-made reserve reservoir to prevent run-off and spills from damaging your home.

Create a wooden frame of 2x4s that sits flat on the ground and lay a giant plastic sheet (available at home depot) that tucks over the board on all sides.  Be sure to measure before hand, but often you can get 12 x 30 ft or more.  The idea is to create a giant tub below the plants in case of emergency. This is especially important for hydroponic systems that are not on the ground floor.

In Mark Oser’s world, light is art, and the most important design element in a house. A trained painter, he prefers white walls to showcase canvases and sculptures, and dramatic lighting to highlight the architectural details of his 6,000-square-foot modern home in Holland.

It’s not your typical Bucks County fare, but that’s not why clients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida call on Oser, an interior designer for 20 years who now does many design/build projects.

His own home features glass for staircases, stainless steel for curved walls, granite for floors, and open spaces for paintings that make it feel like a modern museum or a slick movie set. A comfortable one, though.

“My main goal was to create an ultramodern [house], but warm at the same time,” says Oser, 44. “I softened all of the hard materials with warm lighting, thick carpets, and warm touches of color.”

Building his home from the ground up was a challenge, Oser says: “I have been exposed to so much over the past 20 years and had so many resources that I loved to use. How do I narrow it down to what I like?”

First, he had to find where to build. He wanted to be in Bucks County, but he didn’t think a big development would be right for him, his wife Lisa, and daughter Halie, now 9. He found a community of 10 homes where the builder would allow him to design and construct the interior.

Like the rest of us, Oser had to contend with that awful word budget.

“When I thought about all of the things I wanted in this house, I thought, ‘I can’t afford myself.’ If there was something I wanted that I could not afford, I tried to do it with more cost-effective materials.”

It took Oser a year to design the whole house and another year, after they moved in in May 2001, to design the lower level. He bounced ideas off his wife, who was involved in the projects.

“My most important requirement was that my home feel inviting while being warm – modern design sometimes has a cold feel to it. Mark blended a modern style with a sense of warmth,” Lisa Oser says, crediting his use of lighting with making that happen.

The basement that took so long to design? It features a six-seat theater with ticket booth, a bar, a seating area, a gaming area, and the requisite home gym. The rooms have a movie theme, and there is even a life-sized clay sculpture of a movie attendant in the ticket booth.

The soundproof theater has fabric walls and dramatic sconces, and a 125-inch movie screen behind remote-controlled curtains.

“This is my favorite room,” Mark Oser says, “because you feel so different here. It takes me away.”

“You can do anything using this screen: show family photos, play games, and watch movies, of course,” says Oser, who often hooks up his computer and works there.

Adds Lisa Oser: “My friends and Halie’s love this house. It is really set up for entertaining.”

The bar and seating area have fun pop-art touches such as puzzle-piece ottomans and chairs done in fabric that looks like film reels. Oser painted an “Al Pacino in Scarface” movie mural onto the wall near the pool table.

Upstairs, in the main living spaces, however, “I wanted to have an art gallery effect,” says Oser, who mixes his own work – his take on a Roy Lichtenstein is on one wall – with that of other artists.

For the kitchen, he wanted sleek and angular mixed with curved design elements. The granite floors match the countertops, and white custom cabinets conceal small appliances. The eating area has a Jetsons-like triangular table and colorful seats.

In the square family room, Mark Oser wanted curves. He created them with flooring cut in a wave shape. The room features a built-in TV over the fireplace and, on an opposite wall, an airbrushed sky effect with the words COOL in 3-D.

“Paint can be changed, so if I get tired of it, I can easily change it,” he says.

The master bedroom needed lots of storage. Oser tucked it away behind curved brushed-steel and lacquer custom cabinetry that looks like an architectural element. A fireplace and TV are built into a wall opposite the bed, which rests on a glass-block base, lit from within.

“The lighting and glass create a floating effect,” Oser says.

He painted the molded ceiling a warmer color than the walls, and tucked away cove lighting to give the space a wonderful glow. And he created a meditation area for his wife, who owns an insurance-brokerage agency.

Three years ago, Oser took his talents outside, adding a pool that transports visitors to his favorite state, Florida. He brought in sand from the beach and palmlike trees, worked his magic with lighting again, and dotted deck areas with art and sculpture from favorite artists.

“The best part of living in a modern house is it is open and airy, unique and timeless,” Lisa Oser says. “I feel like I am on vacation in Florida or California in my own home.”

Mark also thinks of it as a living portfolio.

“I could have a showroom,” he says, “but I choose to live in mine.”

For gathering and entertaining, your living room is important, so you want to be sure it has a great interior design. But what should you do if the space is very small? Fortunately, decorating a small living room can be easy with the interesting room design ideas practiced today.

First, you must stick to an interior design style which you like but which will also suit a cozy area. One significant feature to avoid with small living rooms is clutter because it has a proclivity to make the room look significantly smaller.

Maximizing the area in your living room is key so take this into account when thinking about your design theme. A modernized design could be ideal, as this tends to enhance space and living area, instead of many items battling to occupy the same space. Take care to pick an interior decorating scheme you love since this is going to be where you spend the majority of your time.

One key piece of making your living room feel bigger is the color palette. Usuallu people are under the impression that that you ought to just use light paint colores in small rooms, but usually there is actually more to it than that. If you prefer bright or deep colors in your living room you can have it without making the room look small if you decorate with a monochromatic decorating theme, or one where the colors are of an equal brightness. For a scheme that is more colorful try blues and greens that all reflect an equal intensity or to achieve a calm and peaceful style pick a monochromatic color scheme of moss greens. If you’d like to allow for the illusion of depth paint the wall opposite the entry a deep, intense color. For wall paint colors, pale tones like gray-blue will create an overall larger look as they make the walls appear to recede. If you fancy something a lot of interesting, cool colors including blue, purple and green will have the same effect.

Don’t forget when you are decorating a small living room to research where you are putting the furniture and accessories. While lots of people dismiss the qualities of Feng Shui, the ideas behind it could still be practiced when arranging the accessories and furniture in your living room. Be positive your furniture is not set close to the doors since this can truly open up the space. This should also help set off a larger piece of furniture such as an entertainment which can help the room look bigger.

When it comes to filling the room with furniture, stick to small or medium sized pieces. Using a loveseat, in lieu of a large sofa, can make a lot of difference in space, but still allow guests to be comfortably seated. It makes sense to add appealing charm to your living room by mixing in a bit of larger scaled items, so why not use the small sofa but also use a large mirror or art piece, it is able to also add atmosphere to the room.

These philosophies could help you in your interior design adventure while decorating a small living room. Purely because your living room is less spacious doesn’t mean it can’t have the same top notch design style you see in big designer homes – it basically takes a bit of unique creativity.

Spacify offers a broad collection of corner desk, designer modern contemporary office furniture that fit into the e-age work-culture like a perfect riddle. Whether you are looking for a trendy executive office furniture, office corner computer desk furniture or modern home office furniture, you will be amazed at the wide-spreading range Spacify offers.

The concept of modular contemporary office furniture has revolutionized the way we think, and the way we work. The idea of bulky furniture with sole utility has taken to the air and has become outright ‘out-dated’. With miniaturization of workspace appears the demand on smart-n-functional furniture that serves a variety of purpose. The mantra for computer desk furniture is surfacing with its own momentum. Light, easy, comfortable and sprightly designs that allow unhindered legroom are very much ‘in’ vogue.

The Kendu Office desk looks modern and stunning in homes and offices. A striking combination of melamine wood and steel, the table comes in classic wood finishes-Walnut, Maple and Gray. With a sleek finish, the Kendu modern office desk presents ample space for computer desk furniture and work area. One end of the table accommodates computer, while the other can be transformed into extended work area or even a conference end. The tubular steel legs cast a spell with its sleek looks, while the table scores modern looks, utility and timeless appeal.

Lunette ends the monopoly of wooden contemporary office furniture. An innovative usage of glass, metal and wood, the home office furniture unit showcases a flawless design featuring a tempered glass top and metal legs with wooden highlights. Liberal work area, legroom and computer desk furniture ensures comfortable work hours. Choose the legs in three distinct wood finishing, and the table with or without the mobile wooden pedestal.

A spacious curvy wonder in wood, the Ego curved desk is an ideal platform for productive work hours. A complete workstation, the unit has a desk, one return desk, and a glass conference table along with a 3-drawer mobile pedestal unit. You get to choose from three classic wood finishes. The aluminium coated legs with elaborate details of craftsmanship blend up to create a complete workstation for smart homes and offices.

Furniture for home offices demand details of space, engineering, work area and design to optimize functionality. At Spacify, you will hit upon the most thoughtful designs for home corner computer desk, corner computer desk furniture and computer office furniture. Utility, comfort and aesthetics weigh high in every designer piece you come across.

Spacify: Resource for Modern & Contemporary Office Furniture.