home improvement
Residential Refresh: Personalized touches for your home
“Your home is a reflection of your unique personality and lifestyle, making it an authentic expression of who you are.”
Last Updated on May 28, 2024 by Daily News Staff
(Family Features) Your home is an expression of you, your personality and your lifestyle. When it comes to personalizing your home’s aesthetic, try leaning into your senses to inspire change within your space.
Inspiration can be found everywhere around you – from taking cues from Mother Nature to “shopping” your own house or, with a little help from Air Wick, finding and incorporating your home’s signature scent.
Give yourself a residential refresh with these tips:
Rearrange Living Spaces
Breathing fresh air into a room doesn’t always require a complete overhaul, or even any construction or DIY projects. Sometimes all you need is a little rearranging. Shifting furniture to better suit your needs or let more natural light in can significantly improve the space’s aesthetic.
Additionally, the items you currently own are most reflective of your style; try “shopping” your own house by repurposing items from other areas or rooms to give them a fresh feel. When decor pieces are overused in one spot, they may feel brand new in a different space. These are practical and cost-effective tactics to create a new and inviting space for both you and any guests entering your home.
Introduce Plants and Greenery
When sourcing your design inspiration from nature, adding greenery is an inherent way to bring in the beauty and freshness of the great outdoors. To personalize your home with plants, visit a nursery or local flower shop and choose ones that are appealing to you based on their shape, color or size. Live plants offer multiple benefits, like naturally purifying the air, and studies have shown numerous therapeutic benefits of spending time with nature. Therefore, designing with natural elements, like house plants or flowers, can bring a sense of serenity into your home.
Find Your “Scentscape”
A home upgrade rooted in nature includes more than just what you can see and feel, it also includes engaging the sense of smell. One of the latest home decor trends, “scentscaping,” is growing in popularity as a way for individuals to enhance the ambiance of their homes through tailored scent.
“Scent is an often-overlooked aspect of design,” said Egypt Sherrod, HGTV personality who is both an interior designer and real estate broker, and Air Wick partner. “People tour homes and experience spaces with all their senses. It adds a new layer to home personalization, as an authentic fragrance experience often heightens the aura of your space beyond its physical layout. Scentscaping is the perfect way to add a bespoke vibe for your home that reflects your personal style, in turn creating a welcoming atmosphere.”
With innovative devices designed to deliver carefully blended scents like Air Wick’s Advanced Plug-In Scented Oil, you can enjoy long-lasting pulses of scents inspired by nature in the comfort of your home for up to 60 days on low setting. With anti-fading technology, an on-demand boost button and adjustable intensity settings, you’ll notice the fragrances from the first drop to the last.
Update Colors
Introducing color to a room can transform its look, and the scale of change is up to you. You might repaint the entire space, simply paint an accent wall or even just spruce up a corner with a pop of color. Incorporating accessories or decorative elements with new colors can also create some variety, such as including pops of seasonal-inspired colors in artwork and textiles.
Switch Out Light Fixtures
A room’s lighting is an important detail for personalizing the type of mood and ambiance you are trying to achieve. Swapping out light fixtures for dimmers, for example, can create a brand new atmosphere, allowing you to adjust the light to the time of day and for your intended experience. Consider updating old lighting fixtures with new ones to enhance the presence of natural light or changing the bulb wattage to further impact the mood.
Embrace the Scent of the Season
If you tend to make frequent edits to your home’s design, you may also find the idea of experimenting with different fragrances appealing. A short-term scent can be ideal for seasonal swaps, like trading fresh spring blooms for sweet summer citrus, for example. Lasting for up to 45 days on low setting, Air Wick’s Essential Mist Diffuser fills the room with a gentle, fragrant mist with natural essential oils so you can set it and forget it. Adjustable settings are included on the device, and the cordless and portable design allow it to blend seamlessly into any home decor.
Explore more inspiring ideas for incorporating a breath of fresh air into your home at airwick.us.
Scentscaping to Give Your Home a Personalized Style
Achieving your perfect scentscape begins with nature-inspired fragrances, including classics like White Sage + Mahogany, Lavender + Waterlily and Eucalyptus + Wild Berry. If sweeter scents are your preference, consider enticing blends like Pink Watermelon + Mimosa, Lush Honeysuckle + Raspberry or Hawaiian Guava + Tropical Flowers.
To establish a one-of-a-kind scentscape for your home, start with these tips from Sherrod:
- Identify your scent preferences, whether leaning toward citrus, spicy, fruity, floral or woody notes.
- Consider the scent’s intensity and the scent level you and your guests find pleasing.
- If you plan on creating room-specific scents, or want to use different fragrances in each room, consider how these scents interact with one another to harmonize the scents with contrasts that add dimension.
- Consider rotating your seasonal scents to freshen up your home and bring new energy to your space at different times of the year.
- Maintain a scent balance so different scents do not overpower each other. Rather, create a soft and pleasing aroma that establishes inviting spaces throughout your home.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock (woman arranging plant)
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Air Wick
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fitness
Design Your Home Workout Space Around the Way You Actually Exercise
Use these tips to create a home workout space you’ll keep using after the novelty wears off.
Design Your Home Workout Space Around the Way You Actually Exercise
(Feature Impact) It’s a tale as old as treadmills: You buy a new exercise machine with the best of intentions, only for it to become an expensive laundry rack that makes you feel guilty every time you glance over at it. When it comes to making lifestyle changes, the key is not to overhaul your whole routine at once, but to figure out what habits match your lifestyle, personality and passions.
Use these tips to create a home workout space you’ll keep using after the novelty wears off.
Figure Out What Exercises You Enjoy
Before you commit to a big equipment purchase, think about what kinds of exercise feel natural and enjoyable (and which ones make you groan).
If you love running, a treadmill may be worth the space it takes up. However, a rack of dumbbells might just wind up collecting dust if you hate lifting weights. Yoga or dance enthusiasts may prefer to design a more studio-like home gym, while bodyweight strength trainers could be happy with a pull-up bar in the doorway and a mat to do planks on. Consider joining a workout class or gym for a month or two to try different kinds of exercises and machines so you’ll have a better idea of what’s worth investing in permanently.
Evaluate the Space You Have
A good home workout area needs to work around the physical realities of your house or apartment. If you have a whole room or finished basement to dedicate to the cause, this won’t constrain you too much. If you’re working with a corner of your home office, bedroom or garage, saving space becomes a more critical factor.
In these cases, it all comes down to priorities. If you only have room for one piece of bigger equipment, get the one you know you’ll actually use, whether that’s an elliptical, strength machine, standing bicycle or rowing machine. Then build out your collection with other items that can be easily moved and stored, like resistance bands and small weights or dumbbells.
Start Small and Expand as Needed
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need to have everything before you can get started. It’s often better to build out your workout space slowly – get a few things at a time, see what you use regularly and figure out what you might be missing along the way. Maybe you realize you enjoy lifting weights and keep wishing you had heavier ones, signaling a need to upgrade.
Add Some Atmosphere
Dark, dismal home gyms are more likely to make your workout feel like a punishment instead of a part of your day worth looking forward to. Creating a space you enjoy being in is just as important as choosing a workout you enjoy doing.
For you, that might look like choosing an area of the home with plenty of natural lighting to make you feel more awake – or adding string lights and color-changing wall sconces for a relaxing yoga session. Maybe it means adding art on the walls or a floor-to-ceiling mirror so you can check your form. A large rubber floormat with a cheerful design, a sound system to play your favorite hype songs or a daily calendar of motivational quotes could be the magic ingredient to get you into the right mindset so you can crush your workout. As long as it works for you, anything goes.
For more tips on home design that fits your life, visit eLivingtoday.com.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
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Family
6 Hacks to Prep Your Mudroom for Back-to-School Season
When school is back in session, it means a lot of coming and going to and from your home – often in a rush. Start with these mudroom organization and habit hacks to make your family’s daily routines a little easier.
(Feature Impact) When school is back in session, it means a lot of coming and going to and from your home – often in a rush. Smooth out those morning scrambles and save yourself some afternoon cleanups by turning your mudroom into a space that feels more organized and less chaotic.
Start with these mudroom organization and habit hacks to make your family’s daily routines a little easier.
Do a Beginning-of-Year Declutter
If the coat hooks are still sporting rain jackets the kids outgrew several seasons ago, that’s your sign to plan a purge. Out with the old, in with the new: collect last year’s coats, too-small shoes, the backpack with the broken zipper, worn-out accessories and that pile of junk mail then figure out what to keep, toss and donate.
Create a “Get-Out-The-Door” Spot for Essentials
“Have you seen my…” is a sentence you can only stand to hear (and say) so many times in one morning. Set up shelves or baskets for important items like keys, permission slips, library books, water bottles, lunchboxes, sports gear and anything else that needs to leave the house with the family. Repetition will build the habit, and even if things still get lost from time to time, this system gives everyone a first place to look.
Choose a Shoe System
Whether you’re a shoe rack kind of family or you’ve got DIY dreams of building an aesthetic wooden bench with shoe storage underneath, lock it in. Shoes are easy for kids to kick off when they get home, and if they aren’t sure where to put them, they’ll remain wherever they land or pile up by the door. Also consider putting down washable mats so grime doesn’t accumulate on your rack or floor.
Give Each Child a Designated Drop Zone
It’s easier for kids to stay organized when they have their own dedicated spaces to hang up jackets, set down backpacks, put shoes and store everyday essentials. Provide each child with their own coat hooks, cubbies, bins or lockers. Build them at kid-friendly heights and make it fun by letting everyone decorate their own zone.
Have Options Ready for Bad Weather
With a little advanced planning, you can prevent your mudroom from living up to its name. Set up a rainy-day corner with an umbrella stand, boot tray, towel basket and hooks or racks to hang damp outerwear. Keep a laundry hamper in the mudroom, too, so wet clothes and dirty uniforms don’t migrate through the house.
Label Storage Areas Clearly
Nearly everyone’s been there: you start a new organization system feeling efficient and optimistic, then over time, memories lapse and it descends back into anarchy. Labels may not stop this from happening every time, but at least they might make kids stop and consider whether their books should go in the basket labeled “Books” or on top of the shoe rack. That’s one step closer to restoring order.
For more back-to-school tips and tricks, visit eLivingToday.com.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
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home improvement
Forever to For Sale: The Resilient Flooring Benefits for Short- and Long-Term Homeowners
Whether you just closed on your forever home or decided to stay put with a low-interest loan and renovate, choosing the right flooring often pays off. Flooring is a foundation homeowners count on every day in their homes and often a key factor for potential buyers.
(Feature Impact) Whether you just closed on your forever home or decided to stay put with a low-interest loan and renovate, choosing the right flooring often pays off. Flooring is a foundation homeowners count on every day in their homes and often a key factor for potential buyers. No matter where you are in your home journey, your flooring needs to deliver.
Great design, durability, ease of maintenance, convenience, indoor air quality, performance and value – these are universal considerations when choosing flooring, but not every type of flooring offers these benefits with such a wide breadth of options. Resilient flooring has a host of solutions that offer a balance of performance with personalization, making it a great option for homeowners at every stage of their building or renovation journeys.
Resilient Meets You Where You Are
If you’re staying put, one of the most impactful things you can do to improve your home is refresh your floors. In addition to a new and inspiring aesthetic, resilient flooring offers numerous options that deliver more.
Ease of maintenance is one of the most valued attributes in flooring. Resilient flooring has a host of options that are known for how easy they are to clean and how well they stand up to furry friends’ claws and accidental spills.
On the other hand, if you’re moving on and up, it’s important to remember dated and poorly maintained flooring are red flags for potential buyers or renters, making them consider repair costs or whether the rest of the home has been maintained. Updating flooring prior to selling often supports the value of your home compared to similar homes with worn or outdated floors. They inspire in the listing photos, create a positive first impression and make your home feel move-in ready.
No matter where you are in your home journey, when you’re balancing your budget for upgrades, it’s important to consider where you’ll get a good reward for your investment. Resilient flooring offers thousands of options to refresh any space in your home at a host of price points.
When designing or redesigning a space, it’s important to also look beyond durability and performance and consider the invisible benefits like indoor air quality. Resilient flooring offers two major third-party certifications in indoor air quality. The FloorScore certification means your floors have been tested and confirmed to promote good indoor air quality. For rigid core flooring, Assure Certified also has strict standards for indoor air quality and content and performance requirements. Both give you and your family peace of mind, knowing your floors are creating a better home environment where you live, play and work.
Sound Footing for Any Stage in the Home Journey
Ultimately, resilient flooring has numerous options that deliver beauty and performance for your family now and years down the road. Whether you’re staying put or moving to your next home, resilient flooring meets you where you are in life and helps you enjoy the next step. Its combination of thousands of designs, durability, ease of maintenance, third-party certifications and more make it a great option for sellers and dwellers.
To learn more about the benefits of resilient flooring, visit BeautifullyResponsible.com.
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