Blinds Styles to Choose From for Your New Home Design

When planning your new home design, it is exciting to focus on the big decisions and leave the smaller ones for later. Windows play an important role in your home by controlling the amount of heat and sunlight that enter from outdoors. They also contribute to the decor of your home by adding visual appeal and coordinating with the rest of the house. Here are some window blind styles to consider as you think about window treatments and use.

Faux Wood Blinds

This style of window treatment adds elegance and class to any room or nook in your home. Built in a substantial design that is easy to manage, they come in various colors and textures to enhance windows of various sizes and shapes. The slats are easy to dust and readily wipe clean of fingerprint smudges.

Mini-Blinds

Cordless mini-blinds lend a subtle effect as a type of window covering. With simple styling and a delicate appearance, they fit any type of home decor and can either fit in with the background or become a focal point. You can buy them in different widths and colors to go with your home's design.

Room Darkening Blinds

If you love sleeping in a dark room without the interruption of bright moonlight or sunshine, you may want to install room darkening blinds in the bedrooms of your new house. They can be opened when desired but will keep out disruptive bright lights from outside your home.

Light Filtering blinds

You might be interested in window blinds that filter outdoor light to avoid a stark glare entering your home to interfere with computer monitors and television screens. The natural light will be diminished to brighten your home in soft rather than vibrant ways. They can be useful in any room of your new home to control the amount of outdoor light that comes through the windows.

Pleated Shades

Another style of possible interest is pleated shades that come in different colors. These work well with many kinds of home decorating and window designs. Like other blinds, they are cordless and can be easily raised or lowered by hand.

Vertical Blinds

Traditionally used for larger windows and patio doors, vertical blinds fit many window sizes and styles. Once installed, they are durable and easy to maintain. They require similar window blind installation as other styles of window treatments.

With many styles of window treatments to choose from, look for those that will complement your new home's design. You will love the way they add to the overall decorating scheme of your house.

4 of the Biggest Pros of Buying a New Luxury Home

Does the thought of living in a luxury home excite and motivate you? If you're like most people, the answer would be yes, and for a good reason. Living in a luxury home comes with lots of perks.

Not everyone can afford to live in a luxury home, but you should seize the opportunity if you can afford it. While living in a modest house is nice, living in a luxurious home offers a comfortable and modern lifestyle that can't be matched by living in an average house. If you're still on the fence about what type of home to buy, here are four of the biggest pros of buying a new luxury home:

High Resale Value

While the real estate market can be unpredictable, no house is immune to losing value. But luxury homes tend to hold their value because they're located in exclusive locations and neighborhoods. While it may take longer to sell a luxury home, you can see a better return on your investment if the house is in excellent condition.

Tons of Amenities

The best thing about buying a luxurious and expensive home is that it will include all sorts of fine amenities. Traditional homes are often very similar in design, layout, and style, but luxury homes are customized to cater to high-end living and specific interests. Some luxury home amenities can include large swimming pools, basketball courts, gourmet kitchens, theatre rooms, and indoor and outdoor hot tubs.

Excellent Quality of Life

Living in a large home in an exclusive neighborhood won't guarantee that your life will be perfect, but living in a luxury home will afford you excellent quality of life. Many luxury and high-end homes are located in communities near golf courses, private beaches, fine-dining restaurants, athletic courses, and tennis courts.

Lots of Privacy

Luxury homes are usually built and designed with the homeowner's privacy in mind. Large lots with high fences and private locations provide lots of privacy for luxury homeowners.

Luxury home living is ideal and perfect for many people, but it's not for everyone. If you're considering buying a luxury home, you should always use a professional real estate agent to help you find the right luxury home that suits your needs and desires. Luxury homes are costly, so you should get the location and amenities you're looking for.

Creative Ideas for a Unique and Fun At-Home Bar

We all have that area in our home that’s a good space, yet a useless one. Maybe it’s the formal dining room you don’t use because dinners at home are casual at the eat in kitchen, or the room we all call “the front room” because we aren’t sure of its purpose. Good news—those useless rooms make the perfect place for an at-home bar. Let’s look at our creative ideas for a unique and fun at-home bar to get your creative juices flowing, along with your favorite drinks.

Choose a Room

The first step in creating a fun bar at home is deciding where it will be. Formal rooms like living rooms or the dining room work well if you eat and hang out in a different area of the house. If you don’t have a room you can give up, how about a space? A large family room might have a good size empty corner that a small bar area can fit into. Sometimes until we look around, we don’t realize just how much space we have that isn’t used.

Choose Some Furniture

Here comes the fun part—choosing some furniture for your bar area. Here’s what to look for.

Seating

For seating, try a small table or two with chairs. High tops give the bar area a true “bar” feeling.” Or maybe a comfy couch and overstuffed chairs, for a hip, coffeehouse vibe. If you build a traditional bar, then bar stools are a must.

The Bar

The actual bar itself has no limits. Of all the creative ideas for a unique and fun at-home bar, creating the bar itself is where you can really get creative. Keep in mind your space. Do you need something small for a corner bar, or a large piece that takes up half of the room? Will guests sit at the bar, or are you just in need of a liquor cabinet and space to mix drinks? Let’s look at some great ideas for bars in your home:

• Sand down and paint an old door and add some legs.

• Any type of hutch doubles as liquor storage and a mixing spot if it has a ledge or counter.

• Find an old bar at a flea market and bring it home.

• Pianos make cool bars and add uniqueness to a room.

• Open an old suitcase on top of a table and use it as an attractive way to store liquor and glassware.

The possibilities are truly endless. The great thing about bars is they’re an area you can make fun and unique, even if they are a little different than the rest of your home. Use your new bar to express your inner creative genius!

The Liquor

A small detail is that you’ll need a liquor collection for your bar. Keep the basics on hand, but also have fun searching for rare liquors as well to impress guests. Unique spirits that not everyone has tasted are great conversation starters and make guests feel special. Take your time and learn how to spot a rare and wonderful bottle as you start your collection.

Using these fun ideas, you’ll have no need to go out every weekend to have fun. Enjoy making your house the place to be with a creative at-home bar.

Painting Tools That Every Homeowner Needs

If you plan on repainting your home’s interior or doing touch-ups to your existing paint anytime in the future, it helps to have some essential painting tools on standby (or to at least know what you need to grab from the store). Here are a few key painting tools that every homeowner needs to have.

Brushes and Rollers

Unless you’re planning to apply your paint with your bare hands (please don’t) or a paint sprayer, brushes and rollers are an absolute must-have. Pick up a basic set of paintbrushes along with a two-to-three-inch brush for trim work and a roller from your local paint or hardware store.

Plan on painting more than one room or have tall ceilings? Add a roller pole to your shopping list. This extends the length of your roller, which reduces strain on your arms, back, and legs and makes reaching up high easy.

A Roller Tray

Instead of dipping your brush right into the paint can, pour your paint into a roller tray and then go from there. These trays allow you to use a roller and can even extend the life of your paint.

You can pick up a roller tray at the same place you get your brushes, roller, and paint. They’re cheap (usually less than a dollar), so there’s no reason not to get one. Plastic trays are generally better than metal trays because they’re easier to clean.

Painter’s Tape

Can you paint a room without painter’s tape? Technically, yes—it’s not a necessity. But even though painter’s tape isn’t a requirement, it’s still a painting tool that every homeowner needs for a successful paint job.

Painter’s tape protects the places you don’t want to paint from getting paint on them. If you don’t use painter’s tape, you could end up with unwanted and unsightly splatters of paint on your ceiling or trim.

Sponges and Cloths

You can use these items to clean your wall before you start painting. These items are also required if you want to try some of the most popular decorative painting techniques. Want a beautiful color-washed wall? Grab your trusty sponge or cloth and get to painting!

Knives and Scrapers

Don’t forget the paint scraper, putty knife, and taping knife. These three tools will make applying spackle, patching up cracks, and scraping off paint fast and painless tasks.