home improvement
Strong, Stylish Spring Home Upgrades
Springtime is a perfect opportunity for homeowners to begin planning renovations to enhance the interior and exterior of their living space.
5 renovation projects where brick takes center stage
(Family Features) Springtime is a perfect opportunity for homeowners to begin planning renovations to enhance the interior and exterior of their living space. Because of its strong performance capabilities, low maintenance and design flexibility, brick is a popular building material choice when looking to improve or refresh your home in time for warm-weather hosting season.
Often selected for its functional benefits, brick is available in a wide array of colors, textures and sizes that can match varying design styles, from modern to traditional and almost everything between. If you’re considering adding brick to your home’s aesthetic, consider these five projects to tackle this spring from the experts at Glen-Gery, one of the largest brick and stone manufacturers in North America.
Basement or patio bar – As homeowners spend more time at home, they often look to maximize livable space. One way to take advantage of unused living space is building a basement or patio bar, which provides an area for entertaining. Using an exposed brick wall can help designate the bar area and separate it from the rest of the basement, or lining a bar counter with brick can create a rustic contrast against the bar’s seating.
Fireplace – To change the look and feel of a room almost instantly, you can use brick to give a fireplace a facelift or make it a focal point of your home. Available in a variety of colors and textures, Glen-Gery’s diverse, premium portfolio of more than 600 brick and stone products can elevate your living room’s style in a big way and create a more inviting area to share with family and friends. An outdoor fireplace is another option for extending livable space in a cozy way that can be used throughout the year.
Accent wall – Create a statement in or outside your home with a brick accent wall. Accent walls can help bring color, texture and beauty to homes by breaking up the monotony of monochromatic color or decor, creating visual interest and dimension. While brick in a running bond pattern is expected, you can spice up rooms with an unexpected bond pattern like a stacked bond for modern appeal or herringbone for a rustic look.
Kitchen backsplash – One of the most overlooked areas of kitchen design is the backsplash. While its job is to protect your kitchen walls from the never-ending assault of kitchen splatters, there’s no reason it can’t look good, too. Brick backsplashes can accommodate most home designs and styles thanks to the versatility of shapes, colors, finishes and sizes available.
Black or white glazed brick works well with more modern kitchens while irregular brick containing an abundance of texture and a messy mortar application can complete rustic farmhouse kitchens. An option like Glen-Gery’s virtual design tool, Picture Perfect, can help you visualize projects in your home to see what fits your style and needs.
Brick skirt – For added curb appeal, consider adding a brick skirt around the foundation of your home. Given its resilient, durable and energy-efficient qualities, brick can help provide better insulation and protection while also adding visual appeal to the exterior of your home through texture, color and contrast. The skirting can also continue through to the front porch floor and steps, helping balance out the elevation of your home.
For more inspiration for your next home renovation project, visit glengery.com.
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Glen-Gery
Family
The House That Hosts: When Your Home Becomes Your Holiday Entertaining Partner
The House That Hosts: There’s a special pleasure in opening your home for the holidays to share the menu you’ve imagined, welcome guests to the glow of a room ready for company and enjoy the anticipation of familiar faces at the door. This year, make sure the house itself can lend a hand.
The House That Hosts: When Your Home Becomes Your Holiday Entertaining Partner
(Feature Impact) There’s a special pleasure in opening your home for the holidays to share the menu you’ve imagined, welcome guests to the glow of a room ready for company and enjoy the anticipation of familiar faces at the door. Every detail is an opportunity to make the loved ones you’ve invited feel especially welcome.
This year, make sure the house itself can lend a hand.
From the kitchen to the living room to the guest bathroom, residential technology offers new ways to turn a host’s imagination into a memorable experience. The best innovations don’t take over the occasion. They help the person bringing everyone together make it extraordinary.
Nor does a home need an elaborate network of connected gadgets. A few well-chosen technologies can make a difference. Explore these ideas from the bathroom design and technology experts at TOTO to level up the different hosting areas of your home as you prepare to gather with family and friends this holiday season.
The Kitchen: Bringing Something Extraordinary to the Table
The holidays invite a little culinary ambition, and today’s kitchens are borrowing a few tricks from professional chefs.
Imagine presenting a beef tenderloin cooked to a perfect rosy pink from edge to edge, thanks to the precision of sous vide cooking. Or bringing a platter of roasted root vegetables to the table, their edges beautifully caramelized and their centers tender, prepared in a steam-convection oven. On an induction cooktop, precise, responsive heat helps turn fresh mushrooms into a golden, savory accompaniment.
These technologies put sophisticated techniques within reach of adventurous home cooks, opening the door to new preparations and dishes worthy of special occasions. Experiment with new flavors and rich cuisines that fill your home with enticing aromas and your guests with awe at the first bite.
Nothing says “happy holidays” quite like watching guests discover what you’ve created for them.
The Living Area: Setting the Stage for Connection
Holiday gatherings have a rhythm all their own. The first arrivals are greeted with excitement, conversations pick up where they left off months (or years) prior, and before long, the room is filled with laughter and the pleasure of being together.
Today’s smart lighting systems allow hosts to create and schedule scenes that shift from the sparkle of a festive welcome to the softer, golden glow of an intimate evening. Multiroom wireless audio systems can bring lively music into the kitchen while keeping it a gentle accompaniment to conversation in the living area. Digital art displays can turn a television screen into a gallery of artwork chosen to complement the celebration, bringing holidays past to life as loved ones mingle in the present.
Successful holiday entertainment engages people not merely as observers, but participants. A short film could start an inspiring conversation, the right music might get people dancing and atmospheric visual-audio experiences, like a crackling fireplace or soft snowstorm, can create a relaxing seasonal backdrop for shared activities.
With the atmosphere changing quietly in the background, no one needs to interrupt a favorite story to adjust the lights or lower the music. The host can simply enjoy the company they’ve brought together.
The Bathroom: The Art of Personal Comfort
The most gracious hosts think beyond the rooms where guests gather. Fresh towels, fragrant soaps and a few unexpected comforts can make the guest bathroom feel every bit as welcoming as the rest of the home.
Technology adds a new dimension to that hospitality. Consider a TOTO WASHLET bidet seat, which offers the welcome warmth of a heated seat, the refreshing pleasure of warm-water cleansing and the soothing comfort of warm-air drying. It’s an unexpected luxury that makes an everyday experience feel special.
Hosts can choose an option that complements their home’s character. The S2 offers inviting simplicity with convenient side-panel controls. The sleek S5 pairs contemporary elegance with a wireless remote. Meanwhile, the S7A adds a touch of theater with a lid that opens automatically, a softly glowing nightlight and personalized cleansing settings.
Even the housekeeping benefits from a little ingenuity through automatic PREMIST and EWATER+: One mists the toilet bowl before use to help keep it cleaner, while the other cleans the cleansing wand and, on select models, the bowl itself with electrolyzed water.
It’s another way a thoughtful host can anticipate guests’ needs and make them feel wonderfully welcome.
Long after the last guest has departed, what lingers isn’t the sophistication of the house. It’s the meal that inspired compliments, the conversations no one wanted to end and the little surprises that made everyone feel at home.
Those are the moments that make holiday entertaining special. Behind each one is a host whose warmth, creativity and attention to detail made it possible, with a little help from the house. Explore more sophisticated bathroom upgrade ideas for the holidays and beyond at TOTOUSA.com.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock (holiday table)
SOURCE:
TOTO
home improvement
Easy Furniture Upcycling Projects You Can Do in a Weekend
Easy Furniture Upcycling Projects: Giving secondhand furniture a new life is a creative, satisfying and budget-friendly way to add personality to your home. Next time you’re in the mood to spend time working with your hands, try these simple DIY furniture upcycling ideas.
Easy Furniture Upcycling Projects You Can Do in a Weekend
(Feature Impact) Giving secondhand furniture a new life is a creative, satisfying and budget-friendly way to add personality to your home. Upcycling doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive – all it takes is a little imagination, some basic supplies and a free weekend.
Next time you’re in the mood to spend time working with your hands, try these simple DIY furniture upcycling ideas.
Give a Worn Dresser a Fresh Look
Dressers have a way of accumulating scuffs and scratches over time, but it doesn’t take much to refresh their look. Clean the surfaces, sand away any rough spots then apply a fresh coat of furniture paint. To turn it into a stylish statement piece, choose a classy, on-trend color like sage green, deep navy or a warm neutral and replace the drawer pulls with modern hardware to match.
Transform an Old Coffee Table
The coffee table is a natural centerpiece of your living room, so give it an update that fits your preferred aesthetic. Sand it smooth, choose a new wood stain for a more natural look or paint it to match or create contrast with your walls and seating. Adding a protective clear coat can help the surface withstand everyday use and look new for longer.
Turn Wooden Chairs into Stylish Accent Pieces
If you have a collection of mismatched or worn-out wooden chairs around the house, try your hand at refurbishing instead of replacing them. Give them a good wash, repair any broken rungs, update the seats with fresh fabric or new cushions or unleash your inner artist by giving the chairs fun new designs with paint or peel-and-stick contact paper. If they aren’t a good fit for your main dining area, use the chairs as porch decorations or extra seating during parties.
Repurpose an Old Bookshelf
Bookshelves don’t just have to be for books. Give it a fresh design using paint or decorative wallpaper then transform it into a display cabinet, pantry organizer, entryway cubby for shoes and school supplies or whatever else your imagination sparks. Stave off clutter by adding visually appealing bins or baskets to help the shelves stay clean and organized.
Create a Unique Side Table
You can turn a variety of old furniture into side tables, from nightstands and end tables to stools and chairs with the backs removed. Consider adding decorative trim, stenciled designs, patterned tabletops or vibrant paint colors then give the finished table a new life as a plant display, bedside stand or porch accent piece.
Discover more home, lifestyle and crafting ideas at eLivingtoday.com.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
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home improvement
4 Ways to Make Room for Better Living
Make Room for Better Living: Oftentimes, making your home better suited for your needs starts with rethinking how the doors open. Whether you’re remodeling or building a new home, understanding the options can help you choose doors – and the installation hardware behind them – that make rooms more comfortable and convenient.
4 Ways to Make Room for Better Living
A bathroom door that bumps into the vanity. A closet interior that’s awkward to reach. A home office that needs a little separation from family activity. Oftentimes, making your home better suited for your needs starts with rethinking how the doors open.
Sliding, folding and pocket doors offer practical ways to improve everyday spaces without adding square footage. Whether you’re remodeling or building a new home, understanding the options can help you choose doors – and the installation hardware behind them – that make rooms more comfortable and convenient.
Consider these four ways to put your doors to work from the experts at Johnson Hardware, who make easy-to-install hardware systems in the U.S.:
Free Up Floor Space with Pocket Doors
In bathrooms, kitchen pantries and laundry rooms, a swinging door can compete with storage, taking up to 14 square feet of floor space and interrupting traffic flow. Pocket doors slide into the wall, freeing the area a hinged door needs to swing open.
Made for single pocket doors in compact rooms or two converging doors for larger openings between adjoining spaces, pocket door hardware with its soft-close feature helps doors glide gently into the open and closed positions, reducing slamming. Discuss pocket doors early in your project so your building professional can plan for the space needed inside the wall.
Keep Essentials Handy with Bypass and Multi-Pass Doors
A frequently used mudroom, hallway or bedroom closet can look more organized with sliding bypass or multi-pass doors. The panels travel on separate tracks and slide past one another, letting you reach different sections without doors swinging into the room.
Options like Johnson’s bypass and multi-pass hardware systems help keep walkways clear while concealing storage or everyday clutter. Ask your designer or remodeler about panel arrangements and soft-close options that suit the opening based on how you’ll use the space.
Add Flexibility with Wall-Mount Sliding Doors
If you want the space-saving benefits of a sliding door but a pocket door isn’t practical, wall-mount doors travel along a track outside the wall. With easy-to-install hardware systems, making the switch from a swinging door can be a quick, practical room upgrade.
Often called barn doors, they can complement many decorating styles, from traditional painted wood to contemporary glass designs. Wall-mount sliding doors work well in home offices, bedrooms, laundry rooms and pantries, where soft-close and soft-open hardware can help reduce noise. Plan for clear wall space beside the opening so the door has room to slide.
Open Up Storage with Full-Access Bifold Doors
A closet can hold more than clothes. It might become a craft station, compact workspace or convenient place for laundry supplies.
Bifold doors use hinged panels that fold together as they open. Unique 1601 Full-Access Bifold Door Hardware goes a step further, allowing panels to fold flat against adjacent walls for full access across the opening. That makes it easier to reach shelves, organize supplies and use the space inside.
Thoughtful door hardware choices can make everyday routines easier, from reaching pantry shelves to creating a quiet place to work. As you plan your project, ask your designer, architect, remodeler or building contractor how pocket, sliding and folding door hardware systems can help make better use of your space.
For more ideas, visit johnsonhardware.com.
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