Guest Post - How to Make Your Home Decoration Look Luxurious

It doesn't matter if you are making your home decorating stand out because you want to or because you are looking to be selling your home, making your home decorations look more luxurious is the way to go. It will freshen up your living space and make it overall a better place to live in. 

Add New Molding

If you think that your walls are really boring and bare there is nothing better that will add more luxury to them than adding crown molding. If you want to make crown molding add narrow strips that will frame your walls. 

Update Your Old Lighting Fixtures

There is nothing so simple yet so effective as adding new light fixtures to your home. It doesn't matter if you are updating your chandeliers or your lamps in the rooms, a new light will create a whole different look to your home. 

Don't Hold Back On Art

The simplest way to make your home feel and look luxurious is by adding amazing art to it. Hanging a large-scale piece of art on your wall will have a big impact on home decor. 

Add a Fashionable Rug

A lot of people don't really like to have rugs and think that they just aren't a sign of luxury. But they are wrong. Adding a fashionable rug where there is heavy foot traffic will not only make your floors look better but will make your home look more luxurious and put together. 

Create a Fun Accent Wall

Adding an accent wall to your home is one of the most popular ways of making it feel and look more luxurious. It doesn't matter if you choose to do it with a bold color, patterned wallpaper or even by adding a brick or wood wall, it is the way to go. 

Bring In Some Nature

A popular misconception is that you need to spend millions of dollars in order to create a luxurious home. Something as simple as adding plants will bring sophistication and a luxury feel to your home decor. If you would like to have a pop of color you can add reefer bouquets as well as plants that bloom. 

Make Sure Your Home Is Decluttered

There is nothing that will make your home look cheap and appealing than clutter. Therefore, make sure that your home is clutter-free. It doesn't necessarily have to be minimalist in order to look luxurious but you do need to ensure that it is decluttered. Pair down things that will make your decor feel classic and elevated. Having a clutter-free home will also help you be less stressed when you are home. 

Hang Nice Curtains

When you think about a luxurious home you are probably envisioning high ceilings and a room filled with natural lighting. But if your home wasn't built like that you simply can't change it. That is where this tick comes in, you can fool your eye to think that the feelings are higher. Make sure that you are hanging your curtains as close to the ceilings as you can so it will give you a loftier feel and it will draw your eyes up. 

Add Fun Tiles

There is nothing that will spice up your home than adding cool and eye-catching tiles. The key is to choose a tile that will make everything you own pop and make your home look custom made.

Update Your Hardware

If you are looking for a quick way to update your home and make it look more luxurious there is nothing better than updating your existing hardware. Go from installing new towel bars, door pulls, showerheads as well as even upgrading your toilet to a smart toilet.

Refresh Your Doors

If you want to add more pizzas as well as luxury is either painting or changing your doors completely. If you are someone who likes to change things up around the house repainting your doors is the best way to satisfy that craving. 

Get Fake Built-Ins

Having custom built-in furniture can both be a hassle and an expensive tough to do. But if you still want to have that lustrous furniture you can get fake built-ins., Choose warm wood tones as they will add more class and drama to your space. 

Play Around With Different Scents

While you can't really see smells, there is just something about scents that will elevate your home design and make it feel much more luscious. Add scented candles as well as diffusers that will add more ambience to your room. 

Add A Backsplash

When you are imagining a luxurious kitchen, they all usually have a fun backsplash. But you can add a backsplash to your bathroom or laundry room too. If a tile backsplash is too much for you, you can make it an accent wall with different materials or types of paint. 

Invest In Your Statement Pieces

There are some decor pieces that you will want to splurge on and that will make your home look super lustrous and not tacky. Invest in statement pieces such as chandeliers, tables or even sofas. The key is not to splurge on every single decor item because it will look really tacky and over the top. By choosing only to have statement pieces you are making your home look classy and luxurious. 

Incorporate Different Mirrors

The best way to make your home feel much airier, bigger and luxurious is by adding a lot of mirrors on the walls. A large mirror will reflect the back of your room therefore, it will make it appear much larger than it actually is which will make it more luxurious. 

Choose Neutral Walls

Where a lot of people go wrong is when they are choosing the color of their walls. Choose colors like beige or grey because it will make your home look fresh, as well as your decorations, pop. When you have neutral walls, you will be able to play with bold decorations pieces. 

Coordinate Your Finishes Instead of Matching Them

There are a few finishes that go well together, but there are more than just don't work together at all. Ones like hickory blends work with almost any other while cherry wood looks good with oak. Have some fun and mismatch your doorknobs from your cabinets. But keep in mind that you should either go with a real contrast or an exact match. Anywhere in between will make your home look tacky. 

Incorporate Real Stone

Something that we all know is that there is nothing that will make your home more luxurious than having real stone countertops. Real granite countertops are so much more luxurious than having acrylic or wooden ones. It can act as a great statement piece in your bathroom and kitchen as they are so unique and draw the eye to them. 

When you are decorating your home, it is important that you do it the way that you like it as you are the one who has to look at it. If something is not trending but you like the look of it, do it the way that you want. The most important thing is that you are pleased with the outcome of your home and that it looks luxurious to you. 

Author bio:

My name is Grace Wilson. I’m a 27-year-old biotechnologist and kind of a bookish girl. Surfing the Internet is my favorite, that’s why I’ve turned into blogging. Following a healthy mindset and lifestyle is what I consider my life principle. If interested, follow my Twitter.

How To Make Your Home More Eco-Friendly

The question of sustainability has come into the public discourse over the past few decades. Ways of minimizing our impact on the environment have seen much development, and in recent years, those developments have become more commercially available.

Knowing how to make your home more eco-friendly does not have to be an expensive endeavor; you don’t need to set up wind turbines in your backyard. Sometimes, it’s as simple as changing up a few small things around the home or taking up a new hobby.

Electricity Consumption

The more energy you consume at home, the more strain you put on the local power grid. With that strain comes an increase in air pollution, thermal pollution, and water pollution. However, you can mitigate this stress on your community’s power grid by using more energy-efficient appliances throughout your home.

It’s a case of a little going a long way. The more appliances you switch over—whether it be a refrigerator, lightbulbs, or handheld appliances—the more energy you save. Beyond saving energy, more efficient appliances also save you money on your monthly energy bills.

Insulation

Using the same principle as energy consumption, insulating your home reduces the amount of energy your home uses. Depending on your area’s typical climate and whether it ranges from hot and cold throughout the year, you will need to cool or warm your home accordingly. How well your home maintains its ideal temperature depends largely on its insulation; the better it is, the more efficient the energy usage is.

Bettering your insulation means using your climate control systems less, thereby consuming less energy than you otherwise would have. Ensure that the heat inside your home stays inside and that the cold air outside stays outside.

Cultivate Your Own Food

Instead of going to the supermarket for everything on your grocery list, consider growing your own food through a garden or, if space and logistics allow, supporting animals in a backyard hobby farm. While your garden and hobby farm won’t provide everything you need, it can reduce your reliance on going to the store.

Establishing your own food source not only reduces the need for factory farming, which can produce harmful pollutants, but it also can provide additional advantages. Creating a hydroponic farm comes with several benefits, including reducing soil erosion and water consumption, to name just two.

Available Options

There are more options open to you now than ever, whether you’re looking for small changes or bold strokes. To make your home more eco-friendly can mean making a few minor lifestyle adjustments or jumping headfirst into the fray—it’s up to you!

5 Tips to Build a Fun and Safe Backyard Playground for Your Kids

Children deserve to be out in the fresh air, having fun. Playing outdoors is also a great way to exercise and burn off their energy. But how practical is it to visit the park every time to play?

Building a backyard playground can be a practical solution. However, while you may think your backyard background is safe for your child, as per the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report, around 50,000 kids get admitted to the emergency room yearly owing to injuries that occur on home playgrounds. 

So it is crucial to think about the safety of your child while building a backyard playground and not only consider the fun factor. Here are five tips you can follow while building a fun and safe backyard playground for your kids:

1. Choose the right location

Start by surveying the lane. Before you design the playground, you should decide where to build it. Everything, including site dimensions, water levels, expectable weather patterns, and irregularities in the land, should be taken into consideration.   

When it comes to space size, it will depend on your property. 

Other factors to be considered include:

• The location should be a safe distance from the streets. 

• It should be within view of your house. You should be able to see it through the windows as well.

• Make sure that the location is free of hazards such as electrical wiring or low-hanging trees.

• Avoid locations with things that could cause your child to trip.

2. Consider appropriate layouts

The item layout on the play structure will also play a central role in reducing injury risk. 

Take these tips into consideration while making item layout:

• Minimum Distance Between Swings - There should be 8 inches at a minimum between swings that don’t have a lot of sideways motion. Keep 12 inches at a minimum between the swing and the pole.

• Separate Bay - If you are installing tire swings, disk swings, or items that rotate 360 degrees, there should be a separate bay. It will help you avoid collisions.

• Distance Between Disk Swings With Lateral Movement - There should be 24 inches at a minimum between disk swings or other swings that have lateral movement and the poles.

• Distance Between a Swinging Item and Ground - The swinging items should be hung 8 inches at a minimum above the ground’s protective covering.

3. Pick age-appropriate activities

Younger kids may enjoy digging in the sand or sliding down the slide, but older kids will instead climb walls or cross monkey bars. So you will have to keep age in mind while picking activities.

Moreover, younger kids will often lack body strength to climb walls or cross monkey bars without some serious injury risks.

Whichever activities you choose for your playground, ensure to double-check the equipment. For instance, if you pick a slide, see that the slide surface is smooth to avoid cuts. An enclosed tube slide will also decrease the risk of falling off the slide.

If you really need to install monkey bars for younger kids, experts say the bars should not be above 60 inches high, and the gaps should be 12 inches apart or less. Eighty-four inches in height and 15-inch gaps are suitable for older kids.

4. Ground safety

Though you may have grass, it isn’t going to offer the safety your kids need to evade injuries. Many homeowners cover the grounds with shock-absorbing materials as it can lessen the impact if your child falls while playing. 

The rubber surface is also a good choice for ground safety. Luckily, you can make it appear pleasing to the eyes since it’s available in a variety of colors, patterns, and textures. If anything, the surface will provide protection and simultaneously enhance the aesthetic appeal of your outdoors. 

Rubber surfaces are also mold and moisture-resistant, shock-absorbent, slip-resistant, durable, versatile, and easy to maintain. 

Since rubber surfaces are resilient, they can withstand heavy equipment and high impact activity. They are also sound-proof and relatively easy to install.

Just ensure that you pick the best-quality rubber surface and hire a certified flooring installer so that it is installed correctly.

5. Pick materials that are suitable for the outdoors

An essential aspect of building a safe and fun backyard playground is picking the right materials for the outdoors. Since the equipment is going to be exposed to elements, you want to pick materials that are durable. 

If you are using wood materials, they should be treated with a solution that will safeguard them from decay, molds, and pests, but they should be non-toxic. Woods like cedar, redwood, and pine are great choices.

While choosing metals, ensure that they are galvanized or painted. This way, they will not rust or wear out ahead of time. 

The hardware that keeps the equipment secure and stable should be chosen carefully. The bolts, screws, etc., should be corrosion-resistant as they are going to face different outdoor conditions. You can go for hot-dipped galvanized steel hardware as they are highly durable. If you find any exposed bolt ends, cap them to deter cuts and punctures.

Additional Tips

• Supervise: Supervise even if it is in your own backyard. Having an adult nearby is crucial for your child’s safety.

• Inspect equipment regularly: New equipment may be safe, but you need to ensure that they are still in good working order after you start using them for a more extended period. Check loose parts, exposed bolts, and so on and fix them.

• Tighten bolts: You need to check for loose bolts every two weeks as, over time, they can loosen. Tighten the bolts once before your children start using the equipment in Spring. Winter can accelerate the bolt loosening process as the materials expand and contract.

• Check S hooks: The S hooks are hooks that fasten equipment onto the structure. The hooks shouldn’t be loose as they will detach the swings and trap clothing. To check for loose hooks, slide a coin in the gap. In case the coin fits through easily, the hooks are loose. Make sure to tighten them using pliers.

Wrapping-Up

Having a backyard playground is convenient and a great way to keep your children engaged, happy, and healthy. 

However, if you are not careful while building the playground, your kids may easily get injured. Follow the safety tips mentioned in this article to build a safe and fun backyard playground for your kids.

Redecorating Your Home? 4 Ways to Make the Transition Complete

Everyone needs a little change in their surroundings sometimes. Redecoration is an easy way for you to keep things fresh and exciting. However, there are a few things people overlook when redecorating their homes that can give an extra pop to its new look.

Change Window Treatments

Most people know that painting a room in bright colors can make it feel bigger and brighter. Often, they miss that modifying their window treatments can have the same impact with less effort. If you want to substantially change their home, you can replace windows with new models that have internal privacy features. However, even switching out heavy drapes for gauzy curtains can bring more natural light into a room and help it feel less cluttered.

Replace Doors

Doors may be the most ignored part of a house. Most people don’t stop to think about doors beyond the act of opening and shutting them. The exception is when a door is squeaky, and even then, it just gets oil on its hinges. Replacement doors are a surefire way for you to make a big impact when redecorating your home. Changing a solid front door for one with a patterned glass window or switching out a patio slider for French doors can make a big difference in your home’s appearance.

Rearrange Furniture

Over time, everyone gets so used to their home that they can practically walk around it with their eyes shut. That means one of the most effective methods of redecorating is as simple as rearranging your furniture. Moving a couch from one wall to the other might not seem like a big change by itself, but by the time the rest of the living room furniture has been readjusted, you will see a remarkable difference.

Install Art

Thoughtfully considered art pieces are a wonderful way to develop your home’s theme. Rope accents, paintings of the ocean, and small ship statues can bring a sense of the beach into your home. Rustic wood carvings, pictures of mountains, and natural stone vases, on the other hand, help your house feel like a cozy cabin. Varying the artwork displayed throughout your home is guaranteed to make any redecoration a success.

No matter how you choose to redecorate, the most important thing you need to remember is that you should only make changes that you know will make you happy. A successful redecoration should always make you smile.