How to Transform your Garden into a Stunning Place to Spend Time

Unfortunately, many gardens are neglected and are not the best places to spend time. They may be overgrown, poorly drained or not suitable for spending time in for other reasons. This is a waste of a valuable part of a home which could be put to better use. Those who develop their gardens and keep them maintained are able to entertain friends and family outside. This is something many homeowners wish they could do, especially during the warmer months of the year. These are some simple, but effective ways you can transform your garden into a stunning place to spend time alone, with family and with your friends.

Improve Underfoot Conditions

Some gardens are not appealing to walk on especially if you have to walk on grass or clay when it’s wet or there’s dew on the ground. However, adding garden paving to your garden or similar features will improve the underfoot conditions and make this area of your home more accessible more of the time. It’s a cleaner solution than simply having grass or clay underneath your feet and gives you the foundation to add other features to your garden such as outdoor furniture.

Add Lighting

A garden can be a magical place to entertain family and friends, especially during the warmer times of the year. However, many people are restricted to spending less time in their gardens because they don’t install the proper lighting. However, adding the proper types of light can change an ordinary garden into a spectacular place, friends and family will enjoy spending time in. The most effective types of outdoor lighting for a garden include outdoor wall lights, post lights, deck lights, outdoor recess lights, ground lights and LED flood lights. Adding some coloured lights adds to the effectiveness of your garden lighting even more.

Use the Power of Water

Water is another feature in a garden that adds magic to this part of a home. You don’t need to have a huge garden to add some kind of water feature outside your home. If you do have the space, you have more options, but it’s not always necessary. The most popular water features homeowners can add to their gardens include cascading water features, ponds, hand pumps, bird baths and fountains. Even more accessories are available to complement and enhance these water features, helping to bring your garden to life.

Keeping Warm in the Garden

Most entertaining that takes place in a garden normally occurs in the evening time or at night. Cold weather conditions often prevent this but there are ways to solve this problem. Once people feel comfortable they are more inclined to stay outdoors. The most effective way to do this is to invest in heating products that make it comfortable to spend time in a garden. Adding fire pits, fire places or patio heaters ensures that those in your garden won’t be complaining about the cold and will enjoy themselves more.

Thousands of gardens around the country are not used to their full potential. This is a mistake but making simple changes like those above can transform your garden into a stunning place to spend your time and entertain others.

The right atmosphere (Moving on!)

Congratulations, we have concluded the Principles of Design section on the blog! But before moving onto the Elements of Design, this is the perfect time to begin an intensive exploration of your style, which will lead you to find the atmosphere that works for you. One of the most important considerations in the interior design dimension is adaptation. The key here is to understand that independently from this last concept, we need to make ourselves feel at home, or in other words, comfortable. We have already discussed many ideas to transform your house into a home, but it is now time to think radically as to what needs to be changed and when. Throughout our lives, adaptation has taught us the economic and social obstacles when it comes to finding a place to live, and it is known that it is not always possible to purchase (or even find) your dream residence. This does not mean, however, that the place we're currently living at cannot be adapted into our dreams through remodels. Here are some pieces of advice for discovering the right atmosphere for you and your family:

1) Don't wait! In all honesty, the home improvement area is one of those aspects in our everyday lives that if we leave for later, it might just never happen! Because, yes; we all know that remodeling our homes can be a messy and extremely uncomfortable process for all of the residents in the space, and that is one of the primordial reasons why we prefer to postpone it for later, every-single-year. However, trust me when I tell you that there is not a better time to get started with the planning stage than NOW. Begin by meeting with a designer/contractor to explore your ideas, future costs and expectations. Then we can start working on deciding when it would be a good time to do what, and so forth. 

2) Decide what really needs to get done. Once we meet with our desired home improvement specialists, it is extremely tempting to want to do it all at once. You imagine that beautiful new kitchen with the astonishing quartz countertops and that elegance provoked by your brand new cabinetry, and you think: "Well, just imagine how that marble tile that we saw would look with the rest of the house?" While the reality here is that you just installed new flooring for the entire interior two years ago, and perhaps that marble tile is not even what you want. From various experiences we can tell you that it is precisely that (final) initial plan that you, your designer and contractor came up with the one that is actually fulfilling your needs; nothing less, nothing more.

3) Realistic planification. Planning is always fun; and it is almost as fun as dreaming! Nevertheless, after every dream that we truly desire to accomplish, there has to be a: a) "What?", b) "How?", and c) "When?" in order to take full advantage of your time and the services provided by other professionists involved. I think we have made it clear as to what the "what" and "how" both stand for, but perhaps the most difficult one to define here is the "when". No, deciding when to start with the project does not mean that a specific date must be chosen for each of the modifications you would like to perform at your home. On the contrary, we're actually talking about how many months or years it would economically take you to be able to remodel this or that, so that when the time comes, you can follow the two previous pieces of advice! Layout your possibilities and think realistically.

Are we ready to start finding the right atmosphere for you?! 

Handy Pointers For Attic Renovation

These days, attic renovations are becoming more and more popular. And why wouldn’t they be? So many people end up wondering about all the wasted space, or need another room when they realise they have a kid on the way. Whatever the reason you want to have your attic renovated, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it, as with everything. Understandably, you may be exuberant about the idea of your renovation. Yes, it will be lovely to have all that extra space to use, but you’re not going to get there without some pretty hard work. Here, I’ve thought of some helpful tips for undertaking this kind of work.

Don’t jump straight into looking at wallpaper styles or lavish rugs. First you need to make sure your attic is in the right condition to be renovated. You probably remember my recent post on stinky house syndrome. If you did all the treatment suggested there, and you’ve gotten used to the lovely, fresh smell of your home, you could be in for a nasty shock! Many people who decide to touch up their attic haven’t even been up there in years. It’s fairly common for a lot of horrible black mold to build up on the walls of the attic. Hopefully, this can be treated with your own means, but if the damage is severe enough you may need some professional mold remediation. This will ensure that the mold disappears and that the attic has less of a chance of being damaged in future.

Next, on to the aesthetic side of things. Make sure you use every single bit of available space when moving things into the room. For the most part, attics aren’t especially big, but some wise decisions in storage can really make a difference. There are many simple decoration tips you can use to stop the room feeling too enclosed, as well. Painting the ceiling in a simple pattern will draw people’s eyes, and make the whole attic feel a lot taller. Pulling furniture out so that it leaves a slight gap between it and the wall also creates a feeling of spaciousness. As with clothes, a large, striped rug can make a room seem much longer or wider. Ceiling fans can make a subtle accessory and will keep you refreshed in the summer. You’ll also want to use thick floor joists in the renovation in order to soundproof the attic. This will ensure you don’t keep people up all night simply by walking from one end to the other!

Hopefully these pointers have made your renovation seem like less of a mountain to climb! The end result may not quite measure up to the fantasies you’re having. Still, getting a decent attic renovation is rarely as difficult as people expect. Approach every job in a collected, methodical way, try to steer out of arguments with your partner, and everything will run smoothly. All great things take time, and I’m sure you’ll love finally being able to relax in your new room!

Perks of Seattle Lofts in Queen Anne

Choosing Seattle lofts in the neighborhood of Queen Anne may be right up your alley. Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood is conveniently located near several of Seattle’s most popular attractions and has plenty of bars and restaurants to enjoy. Queen Anne offers small town charm right in the middle of a big city. This “urban village” as it has affectionately been revered, offers about ten blocks of unique and interesting places to shop, as well. The sidewalks of Queen Anne are typically bustling day and night with residents and visitors alike.

If you’re still unsure about buying Seattle lofts in Queen Anne, consider this: year after year, Seattle Met Magazine ranks Queen Anne as one of the top ten neighborhoods to live in. The community is home to several of the oldest and most beautiful homes and other architectures. Neighborhoods so close to Seattle’s downtown, like Queen Anne, continue to experience steady growth, as young professionals opt to reside outside of the city but within a reasonably close distance. Another draw is the easy access to other neighborhoods nearby and to downtown, by means of public transportation or walking.
Discover the possibilities that Seattle lofts in Queen Anne have to offer for you. Contact the Stroupe Group to find listings and more details about the neighborhood today!

Opposition/Contrast in Interior Design (Principles of Design)

Having a constant trend towards contrast creates an oppositional rhythm able to drag people’s attention to any interior. Contrast in interior design is mainly used to alter the uniformity in the space, which is also a way to incorporate distinct focal points and emphasis in any area. Manipulating your color scheme to obtain oppositions and contrasts is an area of experimentation, and personally, I can say this is by far one of my favorite aspects of design: being able to control all your different hues in an interior to make them responsible of the reactions of its users. It is truly fantastic how throwing a navy blue pillow into a lighter beige couch can have such impactful reactions on people’s opinions and eye movement; however, as interior designers, it is our job to determine when and where to throw that pillow in, and if it is actually appropriate or not.

I would like to begin by stating that the main key in creating contrast in a room is being able to balance this last one. If our oppositions/contrasts in an interior become too continuous, we would be then talking about pattern and uniformity instead of the radical change we should be striving for. To achieve contrast in any space, it is important to keep into consideration our:

1) Color scheme: Our palette is of extreme importance because of the fact that our contrast choices will completely depend on the interior’s color scheme itself; even though one of the main purposes of contrast is to create a dramatic statement between two or more objects in a room, we still need to make sure that the oppositions in color are all inside of the same color scheme.

2) Style: Secondly, re-arranging furniture to achieve this principle of design is also a very common path to explore, but as unity has taught us, both, our palette and theme should be able to represent our initial concept statement along with the respective incorporations of contrast. (You have one style and should not be trying to contrast between themes).

3) Square footage: When counting with limited space, it is also important to remember that darker colors, unlike brighter and softer hues, tend to make any room look smaller. When achieving contrast, it is very tempting to try to go for these dimmer additions to an area, without considering that oppositional effects can also be admired with lighter accompaniments. Paying attention to detail is a great method to fully take advantage of this principle of design.

3D Architectural Villa Rendering