Retirement Reinvention: Boomers Plot Their Next Big Move

Posted on by Faids1936

We’re on the cusp of a great migration that will fundamentally change the landscape of America. It is a simple matter of numbers.

We of the boomer generation, those born between 1946 and 1964, are retiring. The oldest people have started reaching what the Social Security Administration calls “full retirement age.” The likely result over the next decade or so will be a migration from the North into the South. Obviously, not all those 80 million people will decide to move, but those who do will cause massive changes to the built environment.

Just as boomers generated sequential surges in the construction of K-12 schools, suburban home, shopping centers, faculty expansions, more suburban home, vacation homes and hotels; our generation will cause the building of a tide of “retirement home.”

In a feeling, this migration is going to be the final chance boomers might have to reinvent themselves. So what locale and type of dwelling will they select for their golden years? A single-family detached residence? A community of condominiums, townhouses, villas or other attached forms? Will it be on the water, nestled in the woods, by a river, overlooking a fairway, perched atop a hill, place among the cacti or at an urban setting with all the conveniences? Will it be a modern equivalent of the Plains Indians’ cellphone, light-on-the-land teepee, fixed in place, or some blend of the two?

Let us take a peek at some of the chances.

Water, palm trees and an incredible pink blue sky: A house in Florida or the Caribbean has for its reward that wonderful blend of sky and water with you in between. It is a life that disturbs us to love and enjoy each passing blur, each shade of lush green and each rising and setting sun.

Christopher A Rose AIA, ASID

Maybe we favor a 200-acre “backyard.” We would like the expansive vistas and all that green but do not wish to worry about maintenance. In addition, we need a place of community, with a clubhouse and a social life that retains our evenings and days filled with action to replace the old 9-to-5 grind.

Andrew Hinman Architecture

Many of us boomers will hear the call of the open road. We’ll proudly display all those state decals on the side of the RV as we consider in what this vast country has to offer you. And if we are fortunate enough, we’ll have a place we could go back to whenever we need. It’ll be a place that we simply drive the RV around and anchor ourselves while the batteries get recharged. A property yacht indeed!

Carney Logan Burke Architects

How about a cabin somewhere on the Great Plains? A place of reflection and solitude, where we establish a bond with character that could only be located there.

Many people, thankfully, will stay up North near family and all that’s familiar. Cold and snow are all components to be enjoyed. Skating, skiing, sledding, hot cocoa by the fire, snow angels and much more are all things to be cherished and celebrated instead of to be escaping from. A location nestled in a wood however near a little town might be just the right answer.

Edgewater layout llc

Those people who stay near home and kids might need to be certain that we’ve got our own space, even if it’s attached to our child’s house. Something that’s not too little, not too far away rather than a burden on us. Maybe this is a location where, when it is just too hot in the South or cold in the North, we locate ourselves for a few months. Or perhaps it’s a permanent house that we’re able to escape from for travels across the world.

jamesthomas Interiors

And who among us would not want their very own small pied-a-terre? While this might be the year-round residence, it might also be that special place we go to once in a while, once we would like to observe the glowing lights and enjoy city life.

For many, this can be an out-of-reach luxury that makes no sense as a first or second residence. In these cases, we could home swap or perform a temporary rental. Just think, with no 9-to-5 grind along with the kids on their own, getting to research many different lifestyles and places could just be what the doctor ordered.

Sure, there are some who state that people haven’t saved and sacrificed enough to ride into the sunset and revel in their golden years. While the fantastic Recession has made it hard for many, especially where the property markets took a nose dive, the reality is that tens of millions of people are financially protected. And, like they have done in every decade since the 1950s, they will guide the way in a lot of things.

Inform us about your dream retirement house. Are you currently staying stuck or planning a move? Please tell us how are you going to make it a reality, and the way you’ll love yourself once you get there.

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20 Wonderfully Inventive DIY Projects by ers

Posted on by Faids1936

Home dwellers can reveal great creativity when confronted with less-than-ideal conditions such as a tight budget, a small space or a dull rental. Even the most mundane and unexpected items — FedEx boxes, mason jars, metal salad bowls and wine bottles — locate instant lives as decoration in their palms. Have a look at these 20 creative DIYs and get inspired for another weekend project.

Andrew Snow Photography

1. Salvaged storage for basement appliances. This old, peeling door was cut into three separate hinged sections to fit to this basement kitchen nook. The sections open to show the fridge, freezer and microwave.

See this house: Creative Moves Turn a Toronto Basement Into a Fashionable Lease

Emily Campbell

2. Flying-carpet coffee table. The illusion of the wonderful flying-carpet table adds a small bit of magic to this DIY-heavy apartment. A small Persian rug rests along with a piece of plywood. Once removed, the plywood reveals a small wooden coffee table with a built-in wine cooler.

See this house: Ultimate Live-Work Space Adapts to the Requirements of the Day

Megan Buchanan

3. Wallpapered stair risers. Leftover background and vintage address numbers pasted onto this Vancouver staircase risers make for an enjoyable, interactive way for your homeowner’s young kid to learn how to count.

See this house: Quirky, Colorful Vancouver Heritage Home

Rikki Snyder

4. Colorful cardboard-box wallpaper. A collection of old FedEx boxes went to great use with this wall covering — each box was cut into several shapes, layered onto the wall and hands painted.

See this house: An Antique Cape Cod House Explodes With Color

Shannon Malone

5. Outdoor-friendly wine-bottle light fixture. This homeowner created an outside light fixture out of wine bottles along with a steel bar. Edison bulbs alternative with tea lights for additional charm.

See this house: Eclectic, Artistic Rented House in Ojai

Andrew Snow Photography

6. DIY salad-bowl sink. A hardy stainless steel salad bowl fit the bill for a modern and very affordable sink in this home. The base of the bowl was drilled through for the pipes.

See this house: Creative Open-Concept Home in Toronto

Valerie McCaskill Dickman

7. Free-form wallpaper replacement. This homeowner took a while – and money-saving approach to her wall decoration — instead of hanging background, she painted a simple circular design, inspired by a favorite designer.

See this house: Budget-Friendly Bohemian Ranch in Dallas

Chris A Dorsey Photography

8. Salvaged wood seating. This awkward space instantly turned into a cozy corner with some salvaged wood joists, cut to size and wedged into place.

See this house: Artful Restoration for a Brooklyn Brownstone

Sara Bates

9. Freezer-paper wall therapy. This couple came up with a smart and cost-effective solution due to their plain walls. After cutting and ironing 550 circles of freezer onto the walls, then they added a coat of paint for a brand-new appearance.

See this house: DIY Efforts Vary a South Philly Row House

Amy Renea

10. Built-in CD rack storage. You need to get creative when you’re moving into an old pretzel factory. In search of additional storage, these homeowners put in Ikea CD racks in between the wall studs, creating four additional cabinets in their very long hallway.

See this house: Converted Pennsylvania Pretzel Factory

Lindsay von Hagel

11. Custom Southwest stencil artwork. This Dallas couple custom made a Southwest-inspired stencil for their own dining walls. Several colors of purple create a dazzling ombré effect.

Watch this house: Colorful Hand Painting Bedecks a Creative Home

Julie Ranee Photography

12. Easy and very affordable bulletin board. In search of a means to maintain her family organized, this homeowner snagged a huge pinboard from a school auction for $1, sawed it in half and coated it in fun fabric with a lively pattern.

See this house: Glowing and Eclectic Ohio Family Home

Heather Merenda

13. Stacked-lampshade lighting fixture. Plain-Janelampshades acquired new life in this homeowner’s artful lighting installation. Each lampshade is stacked on top of another, and the whole thing is lit by a series of low-wattage bulbs.

See this house: Travel Art and Creative Layering Mix in Vancouver

Corynne Pless

14. Pinned-up-paper wall therapy. Textile designer Kate Roebuck couldn’t bear to have too many white walls in her Mississippi rental. Green printed paper rolls pinned to the wall act exactly like background, without the hassle.

Bonus DIY: Roebuck also made the glittery chandelier cover shown to hide an unattractive existing fixture.

See this house: Artful Character Colors a Textile Designer’s House

CM Glover

15. Undermounted mason jar storage. Mason jars make for a smart storage fix in this crafty home. Mounted under small floating shelves, the jars are easy to twist out and in — ideal for a sewing room’s small odds and ends.

See this house: Craftiness and Colour in 3 Charming VIrginia Spaces

Shannon Malone

16. Simple sticker wall artwork. What child would not want a giant sticker album on the bedroom walls? Butterfly stickers cover the walls of the woman’s room for a wall remedy than could be easily added to or replaced.

See this house: Hip, Historic Victorian in Santa Cruz

Holly Marder

17. Custom Expedit room divider. Maybe the most astounding Ikea hack ever, this retro DIY shelving unit and room divider is created completely out of Ikea Expedit shelves, MDF panels and plastic foil.

See this house: Plastic Is King in an Out-of-This-World Home

Esther Hershcovich

18. Doorknob coatrack. Rather than hanging hats and clothes on his house’s doorknobs (like so many of us do), this smart homeowner left a coatrack out of black porcelain doorknobs and a scrap of wood.

See this house: Ecofriendly and Salvaged Style in a Montreal Triplex

Heather Merenda

19. Contact-paper wall artwork. Using an overhead projector, this bunch traced letters out of a photograph onto shelf-liner paper. They’re tenants, along with also the touch paper may peel off easily whenever they proceed.

See this house: Passionate Repurposing in a Heritage Home

Lucy Call

20. Wooden-crate wall closets. Wooden crates like these are simple finds on Craigslist. These crafty homeowners chose to make the most, installing several on their bedroom wall for practical storage.

See this house: Eclectic Repurposing Fits First-Time Homeowners in Utah

More: 29 incremental home decorating projects to make you a DIY superstar

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Are These Best Houses on the Planet?

Posted on by Faids1936

A white box covered in Teflon-coated fiberglass cloth in the Netherlands. A Cor-Ten-clad volume cantilevering within a glass shop in Pittsburgh. A home in Tokyo composed solely of glass and little platforms of stainless steel. A concrete box in West Africa designed by two artists. A seven-story concrete tower serving as a home and workplace for Chilean architects. These are a handful of the 50-plus houses collected in the third volume of Philip Jodidio’s Architecure Now! Houses novels (Taschen, 2013).

The Architecture Now! Series also concentrates on green buildings; interiors for eating, eating and drinking; landscapes; temporary buildings; and even those made of timber. Nonetheless, it’s that the Houses books that are some of the most popular, given that the continuing experimentation that architects tackle in residential commissions and, as Jodidio explains it in his introduction, ” these are no thin times for the wealthy and that, consequently, luxury homes are being built.” Luxury isn’t the defining feature of the houses within this volume, as they vary from under 1,000 square feet to more than 20,000 square feet. Rather, the book is about the wide array of forms, programs and websites that are being made and formed by architects for homes in the past couple of decades.

This ideabook touches a small percent of the houses in the book to, I trust, provide a feeling of the formal and geographical variety found in all of the jobs, and to see whether the choices are, even as Jodidio claims the “finest of what has been achieved anywhere in the world.” Even though “best” is such a subjective word, it is hard to deny the ways that many of the houses go well beyond the norm.

These architects are certainly pushing the boundaries on what may be possible, even as the ideas the houses Celebrate may take years to be integrated into more mainstream style, if ever at all.

TASCHEN

If a book can be judged by its cover, Architecture Now! Houses 3 presents design that is modern but with a twist. Instead of a glass box sitting in the landscape — the penultimate modern home in this strain is the Farnsworth House — we’ve got three boxes that are linked to another and rising out of and alongside a dark rock foundation that merges into the landscape.

The L House in Yvelines, France, designed by Christian Pottgiesser along with his company, architecturepossibles, is really composed of five towers. This caused the customer’s desire to construct a single tall structure (to obstruct views of a neighboring land) together with local codes and the landmarked orangerie it adjoins. Each tower is attached internally on the bottom floor, which can be pierced by skylights.

TASCHEN

The book includes eight jobs in america. Among them is that the Woodstock Farm Estate in Vermont, designed by Rick Joy, a architect normally associated with his home base of the desert Southwest. This project — two gable volumes forming a “L” in plan (the shorter leg, a two-story barn, is out of frame on the left) — reveals Joy is a fantastic enough architect to create a thing in your home in rural New England too.

Jodidio calls for the home “an extrapolation of [the] vernacular genre,” given that proportionally the pictured section is stretched longer than, and therefore has a considerably different percentage compared to barn. However, the design is serious, with shingles covering the roof and walls that are long, and mottled stonework covering the ends. (A photo of one of the rock ends actually graces the cover of Diane Keaton’s book, House.)

TASCHEN

Two projects in the book are in Sri Lanka, either by Japanese architects. One is a massive 27,000-square-foot home designed by Tadao Ando, and the second is that the 8,800-square-foot Villa Vista designed by Shigeru Ban and really built for the son of Ando’s client. Ban was employed in the region in the middle of the last ten years, building catastrophe housing after the earthquake of December 26, 2004, and has been approached to style Villa Vista after his renovation work was completed. Throughout his career he has balanced design houses for those in need and for the wealthy, in this instance in certain comparative proximity.

Boundaries between indoors and outside at Villa Vista are blurry. While this view from a bridge traversing a pool (visible in the lower right corner) reveals, the shutters serve to aid shade what’s basically a terrace covered by a generous woven teak ceiling. Trees are visible in the distance through the shutters, but when we turn to the left we see over more trees into the sea from a large opening.

Belzberg Architects

Two of the eight houses in the USA are designed by Hagy Belzberg, one in Hawaii and one in Los Angeles; the latter is pictured here. The Skyline Residence is a large house perched on a ridge in the Hollywood Hills. The project is called for the detached carport that doubles as a projection screen. Wood slats unite the 2 structures and color the spaces in the home and above the garage.

Belzberg Architects

Appropriately, given the name Skyline Residence, the design can be about the view. Belzberg took good advantage of the site to not only provide a excellent place for watching movies, but to produce the valley that is Los Angeles a constant presence through the full-height glass walls.

TASCHEN

Though Japan is only roughly the size of California, the book features 10 jobs in Tokyo and other environs. Easily the most striking is Sou Fujimoto’s House NA, in a residential area of central Tokyo. At first glance there is nothing house-like about it … it is even hard to decipher how one occupies the small platforms made of stainless steel and defined by glass partitions.

Fujimoto contrasts it to living in a tree, even though he doesn’t attempt to possess the home formally resemble one. It is like the home is made up of a series of little tree houses, but the openness of these glass walls sets the occupants obviously on screen.

How somebody lives in the home is a matter Jodidio appropriately asks, and the response could find a parallel in the sharing of lives that occurs in electronic networks. The home is subsequently for young people with various approaches to dwelling, “assembled more online than on the machine-driven world of the past,” in Jodidio’s words.

Almost as striking is Ryue Nishizawa’s Garden and House, also in Tokyo. The architect calls the home with four levels plus a roof a building with no walls. There are some walls — fixed and sliding walls of glass — however their location and extents of enclosure differ from floor to floor, like the earth floor is mainly enclosed but the third floor is outside, with no stair and a toilet. Each floor is then a mix of indoor and outdoor, house and garden.

The majority of the jobs in the book are single-family houses, but the Shakujii Apartment building in Tokyo differs. The project, designed by SANAA/Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa, consists of eight apartments that complete 5,200 square feet (so much smaller than the home in Sri Lanka from Shigeru Ban!) . The units are a mix of full-height glass partitions and open porches, strung along a road in 2 layers front and back.

SANAA’s project is like a metropolitan, multifamily update of the Farnsworth House. The steel frame, glass partitions and open porches are here, but everything is slightly intermittent: Roofs and floors don’t align, and things change in plan to squeeze a lot of units on this small site.

In the end of the book’s socioeconomic scale is the Float House, designed by Thom Mayne and Morphosis for Brad Pitt’s Make It Right base, which helped rebuild portion of New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina.

The design relies on a traditional shotgun home, however asymmetry and some flourishes in the construction, porch railing, dividers and windows make it a contemporary neighbor. And while the house may seem too low for a Katrina-like occasion, it can really be increased up to 12 feet high on guideposts.

This last project is the cantilevered building in Pittsburgh mentioned in the introduction. Called the Art Glass House, by architect Eric Fisher, the house is for the owner of the eponymous company that occupies the industrial building it cantilevers over. The Cor-Ten steel siding calls even more attention to what the architect explains as “the world’s longest residential cantilever” — inspired by Fallingwater but going well beyond the limited reach of the earlier residential masterpiece.

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8 Cabinet Door and Drawer Types for an Outstanding Kitchen

Posted on by Faids1936

Don’t resign your kitchen to standard, everyday cabinet doors and drawers. Make it extra functional and extra beautiful with cabinetry which utilizes every square inch, camouflages potentially messy locations or accents the unique parts. See if these cabinet drawers and doors can enhance your kitchen’s design.

Glenvale Kitchens

Corner drawers. These are a spin on the corner cabinet, pulling out of the corner. You normally have to bend over backward or crawl on your hands and knees to find items within a corner cabinet, but these fully accessible drawers help solve this problem.

These drawers might not be available from each cabinetry company; check before settling on a producer.

Webber + Studio

Track doors. Consider eliminating all your swinging doors and put your cabinet doors on a path instead. These cabinet doors slide side to side on a ball-bearing track. Twist 1 doorway in front of the other to access the interior of each cabinet.

This system can make things easier, but you can not have every door available in precisely the same time, unlike with traditional side-hinged doors. Additionally, the trail is considered an eyesore by some homeowners, especially in more traditional kitchens. Look into monitor hardware having an oil-rubbed-bronze finish for a warmer look.

Elad Gonen

Pocket doorways. Pocket doors aren’t only for your home’s doors — use them to hide greatly used job or prep areas on your kitchen. A tiny internal pocket (usually approximately 3 inches) is built into each side of the cabinet. When the doors are open, they can look exactly like any other cabinet door. Nevertheless, once they close, they slide back into themselves. They are ideal for a kitchen — isn’t bumping your shin or elbow on a cabinet door the worst?

Camber Construction

Flip-up doors. Hydraulic mechanics help boost such cabinet door up, rather than you opening them along with the traditional sideways motion.

These are also known as parallel lift-up doorways; they’re very popular with European cabinet businesses. They are fantastic for specialization areas — such as this microwave station — where the door needs to be entirely out of their way.

Colmar Kitchen Studio

Sliding doors. These cabinet doors slide to the right and to the left to start up storage or prep area. Specialty hinges applied towards the top, bottom and middle allow them to fully clean what’s inside, like this appliance center, making for a clean kitchen.

Get a price range to get a setup like this before adding it to your wish list. The hardware can be costly, and you’ll need a cabinet installer who is acquainted with it.

Celia James

Tambour doors. Also known as a garage doorway, the tambour door is ideal for hiding small appliances used on a daily basis — such as the blender, coffee maker or toaster.

The doorway usually opens from top to bottom (some open from side to side), slipping up and down on a track within the cabinet. Lean horizontal strips of timber with a cloth backing allow the timber to roll over the inside top of the cabinet once the door is still open.

gogo gulgun selcuk

Glass-front drawers. Much like glass-front cabinetry, glass-front drawers can make a kitchen look larger and help you stay organized. This kitchen has glass-front drawers which store dry food items — showing them off is part of the plan. Many glass-front drawers have a 2- or 3-inch space directly behind the glass which you are able to keep full of food so the drawer consistently appears complete. You don’t wish to show off an empty jar following mac-and-cheese night.

Watch more about glass-front kitchen drawers

Studio Carver Architects, Inc..

Custom drawers. Get creative with your drawers — don’t be afraid to show off your style. Old-fashioned fruit and vegetable crates were turned into beautifully innovative cabinet drawers. The look isn’t for every design style, sure, but it is fantastic for those who wish to take a risk.

Tip: Many DIY drawers don’t have internal components. A tiny beeswax will help them float in and out easily.

Not prepared for something this extreme? Consider adding playful knobs or brings to a cabinetry.

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Great Garden Combo: 3 Awesome Plants for a Deer-Resistant Screen

Posted on by Faids1936

Many challenges are faced by gardeners. The need to screen neighboring houses is a common one in urban lots and is typically dealt with a 6-foot-tall weapon or a combination of arborvitae or comparable columnar trees. However, this situation can be a chance to turn into a problem area to a garden highlight. Rather then construct a barricade, include layers of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, then accent them with seasonal color for a gorgeous focal point you may want to look at.

In rural gardens deer could cause substantial harm and try the patience of even the very wildlife-loving gardener. The first strategy is to select plants that are generally considered algae resistant. I also have found that this sort of obstruction planting are able to continue to keep the deer off from some plants which may otherwise be considered caviar. Dense layers appear to require too much effort for the deer to permeate, and they wander elsewhere to hunt for their treats.

The most gorgeous planting combination below will flourish in full sun, average soil and a temperate climate, and consists of deer-resistant plantings. Considering that the hardiness zones are given for each plant, start looking for comparable substitutes if one of these drops out of your range. Just follow these principles to make beauty regardless of the beast.

Le jardinet

The top screens are the ones which don’t appear to be screens at all; this is a perfect example. Layers of deciduous, evergreen and seasonal color make this an eye-catching combination if it’s used to make some privacy, keep deer or simply capture interest as a striking vignette.

This calming monochromatic scheme relies on varying foliage textures and forms for interest. A canopy of golden locust tree (Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’) leaves rustles in the breeze, towering over dwarf Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans Nana’), while a strong vertical accent provided by fragrant lilies(Lillium ‘African Queen’) fills in the middle plane.

Le jardinet

How to Get the Look

1. Start with the showstopper.

Golden locust tree (Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’)is once seen, never forgotten; this really is a shrub that will always be on your favorites list.You have only to endure under the golden canopy of foliage that is translucent to feel bathed in sunshine even on a cloudy day.

This fast paced shrub tree is shunned by deer, as a result of the thorns across the branches. It has fragrant white flowers in spring, although they’re slightly hidden by the foliage, and it is remarkably tolerant of poor soils. Maybe its main drawback is that the branches are brittle and can break in strong winds, therefore placing it into a somewhat secure area is recommended.

USDA zones: 4 to 9 (find your zone)
Water condition: Low once recognized
moderate requirement: Full sun for best color
Mature dimension: 30 to 50 feet tall and around 20 feet broad
When to plant: Plant it into well-drained dirt in spring or fall.

Le jardinet

2. Add a lower tier.

Dwarf Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans Nana’) always reminds me of a fat small dumpling. It has a rather loose mounding shape and a soft, feathery texture.

I adore evergreens that alter somehow during the entire year; this one does this nicely, with blue-green summer foliage that takes about a purple throw during winter. Being evergreen, this conifer offers year-round interest.

USDA zones: 5 to 8
Water necessity: Moderate
moderate requirement: Full sun or partial shade (therefore it’s Perfect for planting under a deciduous tree)
Mature dimension: 7 feet tall and around 7 feet broad
When to plant: Spring or fall

Le jardinet

3. Fill in with accents that are interesting.

African Queen lily (Lillium ‘African Queen’) is your filler here; Oriental lilies are a fragrant garden highlight in mid to late summer. With each bulb supplying multiple blooms over several weeks, you receive a lot of punch to the buck.

‘African Queen’ is one of the tallest cultivars, and its melon-colored trumpet-shaped flowers are really stunning. Grow these massed on your edge for best effect — they will continue to multiply each year.

USDA zones: 3 to 9
Water necessity: Average, but avoid soils that stay moist during winter
moderate requirement: Total sun
Mature dimension: 5 to 6 feet tall
When to plant: Plant bulbs in spring, about 6 inches deep and with the pointed side up.

Le jardinet

4. If you prefer, expand the combination. Add color contrast and an extra layer by adding darker foliage for example ‘Grace’ smoke bush, shown here. This can help to fill in between the golden locust shrub and conifer whereas the lily grows and continue to include construction when those blooms have ended.

I have found that deer may nibble smoke bushes somewhat but seldom do significant harm. In this compact planting like this, I would not expect a problem.

Banyon Tree Design Studio

Botanical name: Cotinus x ‘Grace’
Common name: ‘Grace’ smoke bush
USDA zones: 4 to 9
Water necessity: Average
Light requirement: Total sun
Mature dimensions: 10 to 15 tall and broad, but I love to cut it back hard in spring. This prevents flowering, produces larger leaves and keeps it about 8 feet wide and tall.
When to plant: Plant it into well-drained dirt in spring or fall.

Le jardinet

By continuing to include layers of lush and colorful foliage, you can develop the combination to attain the desired degree of screening.

Deer disclaimer: The phrase “Deer will eat anything if hungry enough” is often quoted. Personally, I would rather say “Deer will eat anything if expensive enough.” In any event, the suggestions here are based on my deer battles and those of many references that are highly dependable. Fantastic luck!

More: Things to do in your garden now

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Readers' Choice: The 10 Most Popular Garages and Sheds of 2012

Posted on by Faids1936

Garages and sheds on came with lots of surprises this season. While users added lots of photos showcasing organizational theories to their ideabooks, they loved seeing creative transformations of the often-underused space. A backyard workplace, a exceptional play pavilion and an amazing man cave are just a few of those spaces that topped the popularity list for the past year. Which one is your favorite?

TransFORM | The Art of Custom Storage

1. Ultimate organization in Brooklyn. This little New York garage includes a place for all. The compact solutions — hooks onto the walls, file cabinets, open shelving — could prove useful in any storage area.

Sett Studio

2. A 92-square-foot refuge in Austin. A wonderfully modern surprise at a Texas backyard, this prefab shed serves as a backyard office and part of an outdoor harbor. Many ers thought something this small are the perfect way to experiment with prefab layout.

Watch more of the backyard office

Cardea Building Co..

3. San Francisco backyard cabin. Even homes with a lawn smaller than this one often have room for specific touches. This lawn has many inspiring small-space notions — readers especially liked the raised garden beds.

Menter Byrne Architects

4. Seattle garage-turned-playspace. These homeowners turned their garage into the greatest play pavilion to their kids. While the first floor still stores the family car, the next floor now acts as a multipurpose space that concentrates on action instead of TV.

Watch more of the space

Lands End Development – Designers & Builders

5. Cabin-style Minnesota carriage home. This heavenly winter house is actually a spacious carriage home, constructed at a rustic log-cabin style. ers adored every little detail of the space — including the red trim, exposed rock and shingled dormer.

Woodbourne Builders Inc

6. Customized storage to get a Massachusetts family. A big and active family can always use a little help with organization. These custom-built storage units in a glossy gray each possess a little bench where family members may take shoes off, and a lid that lifts up for additional storage.

Siemasko + Verbridge

7. Conventional stonework in Marblehead. Nestled next to a romantic house in Massachusetts, this garage has the exact same storybook feel as the main property. Most ers spared this photo for its exquisite custom garage doors made from dark wood.

Flow Wall System

8. On-the-wall storage. The best thing you can do to maintain your garage organized would be to get things from the ground. This garage makes use of a useful system that keeps everything to surfboards out of the way.

Norris Architecture

9. Rustic Tennessee shed. ers adored the dreamy, rustic feel of the potting shed. It’s set amid rural forests, and recycled wood pallet walls provide the space the worn-in look and feel of a barn.

TR Building & Remodeling Inc..

10. Car lover’s man cave in Connecticut. Made to be the greatest man cave, this space stores a whole lot more than just a few great cars. A wine cellar, subterranean parking, a vehicle elevator and a vanishing TV in the bathroom mirror are only a few of its amazing capabilities.

Watch more of the space

These photos made the 2012 Most Popular list based on how many times they were inserted to user ideabooks. Still looking for your dream garage or shed? Find thousands more here

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Sexy Colour Touches for Neutral Kitchens

Posted on by Faids1936

Sure, you chose your color palette sensibly, doing your kitchen up in bright, timeless and sophisticated neutrals. But now those planes of ecru, ivory and ice are feeling a little ho-hum, and you’re ready to bring some character. Maintain the elegance (and your investment) by augmenting neutral countertops and cabinets using a color or personality-rich two or detail. Here we look at over a dozen smart neutral-based kitchens which have sexy color or details and that will inspire you trade in ho-hum for hubba-hubba.

MN Builders

Glass Backsplash

The backsplash is one of the greatest regions to switch your kitchen’s character. Due to its limited expense and setup time, it can be a great place to indulge in, say, the color of the minute.

This kitchen’s white cabinets and grey countertops play second fiddle into a cheery grass-green back-painted glass backsplash. Smart too, to tuck it behind the range, as the glass makes for easy cleanup of sauce splatters.

Amitzi Architects

A wall of white cabinets and counters almost disappears when played against ruby-colored back-painted glass. The discreet robin’s egg blue on the island retains the palette modern.

Increation

A turquoise back-painted glass backsplash commands all the focus in this otherwise clean and simple white kitchen.

This white kitchen is elevated with a timeless cobalt-blue tile backsplash from countertop to ceiling. Opting for a few shelves and the drama of all that tile instead of upper cabinets led to a just luxurious kitchen.

Green Apple Design

Tile Backsplash

Potentially normal white countertops and cabinets look more intricate paired with an eye-catching tile backsplash that’s extended from countertop to ceiling. A single isolated wall similar to this is a excellent location for a unique substance, as it produces a focal point and also can cut the expense of pricey particulars.

Buckminster Green LLC

This striking Cuban Heritage Design handmade cement tile backsplash is well shown off against an otherwise straightforward and neutral kitchen, where its character can shine. The swing-arm wall sconces are a fine and unexpected means to light a kitchen counter, too.

Pale blue and white encaustic cement tiles, extended full width and also into the ceiling, lend a cheery chicness against the backdrop of white cabinets.

Andrea Schumacher Interiors

Background

This mostly white kitchen’s character comes using scene-stealing hand-painted wallpaper that’s sealed to protect it from wear and tear. (Ironically, these chandeliers are no shrinking violets either.)

More: Background from the Kitchen: Is it a No or a Go?

Renewal Design-Build

Paint

All these glass-front cabinets with mint paint in the backmake for a candy kitchen feature. If you do not have any glass-front cabinets, you might have a pair or two made. As an alternative, you could just remove the doors from one of the upper cabinets boxes and then paint the trunk for a special screen.

Layouts by individual.

Envision this kitchen without the orange paint. Nice, but a bit boring.While paint is an obvious selection for spiffing up a kitchen, few pictures illustrate the power of paint so well.

Jeni Lee

Fixtures

A sexy faucet? Really. This wise architect-homeowner had a typical faucet powder covered. Alternatively, Vola offers faucets in a rainbow of colors. This unexpected color move might be all that’s required to bring some fun and character to your kitchen.

Matarozzi Pelsinger Builders

Lighting

Lighting is just another component where you can readily exercise your style whims. The designer of the light-filled kitchen reinforced its white cabinets and counters with fresh-looking large-diameter shades which could be easily swapped out.

Marsh and Clark Design

This handsome but fundamental all-white kitchen is adorned and transformed using a dramatic chandelier in Restoration Hardware on the island.

360 design studio

This sleek kitchen employs sparse but fearless use of color with not just one but better still — a set of bold orange bracelets to lend some critical character to an otherwise stoic space.

Inform us : How will you spice up your kitchen in the new year?

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Northeast Gardener's December Checklist

Posted on by Faids1936

It’s a year’s last month. Most of us have stashed away gloves and tools for the season, and a few can kick off their boots with a toasty fire to warm their tired limbs. While our gardens sleeping beneath a blanket of mulch and snow and do not require attention, there are still plenty of things to think about and do.

For starters, look at the landscape, discovering its basic outlines and contours. Tall or short deciduous trees, shrubs and evergreens comprise vertical walls, critical focal points in the winter garden. With off the leaves deciduous woody plants, the structure becomes more evident, and masses of shrubs or parasite trees accept new character — particularly if they’ve got interesting bark, like the multistemmed redtwig or even yellow dogwood (Cornus spp), or even the Japanese coral bark maple (Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’, zones 5 to 8), an outstanding cultivar with odd coloration.

With everything looking gloomy and empty, evergreens become the dominant landscape feature, therefore take inventory — do you have a good mixture of evergreens on your beds and borders?

Paintbox Garden

Enjoy winter evergreens. Vertical evergreens, like the columnar white cedar ‘Emerald’ (Thuja occidentalis ‘Emerald’, zones 3 to 7), are great for mixed borders, as they punctuate space and take up little room. Planted in classes, they draw on the eye and offer a good backdrop to grasses and stonecrops.

Keep in mind that deer love to eat cedar and can easily defoliate plants. If you are in deer country, loosely wrap burlap as high as possible around the tree to protect it. It’s awful, yes — but it is far better than having to change out your cedars, that can be costly.

Paintbox Garden

Nothing beats on boxwood for classic good looks in containers in this time of year, especially by doors, where it can be dressed up with miniature white lights or left au naturel. For best result, mix things up with different-size containers and plants, and be sure they are watered on a regular basis throughout the season. If you are utilizing ceramic pots, it is ideal to keep them on a covered porch therefore freeze-thaw cycles do not harm the containers.

Boxwood (Buxus spp) is also lovely in the winter when planted in groups of varying sizes with all the creeping ground cover bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, zones 2 to 6), that Native Americans telephone kinnikinnick. It’s a dependable evergreen that enjoys acidic soils and full sun.

Paintbox Garden

Bearberry is a good choice for cold-climate areas where winters are harsh, and it seems particularly good planted around the base of white birch (Betula spp).

Its reddish stems contrast brightly with its shiny, rounded leaves, which turn bronze in dormancy. Good cultivars of this underused perennial comprise ‘Massachusetts’ and ‘Emerald Carpet’.

Cut little packages and tie them together with ribbon or twine to decorate preferences, or add them into fresh arrangements for the holiday table.

Paintbox Garden

Take inventory of outside seating. Most terrace furniture gets winterized beneath protective covers or moved into the garage, however the Adirondack-style chair shown this is made of tough postconsumer plastic from recycled milk jugs and will stand up to winter’s worst weather. Since the substance is a composite, the color won’t fade and the seat resists cracking and splitting, unlike its own wooden counterparts.

Furniture that stays in position is a great option, and on gentle days it is good to have the ability to sit outside and soak up the sun. Doesn’t that sound better than dragging a lawn chair from a storage shed?

Paintbox Garden

Keep an eye out for wildlife. This birdhouse makes a great focal point from my kitchen window, and it is practical too. As juncos, cardinals and grosbeaks forage for crabapples and winterberries on my house, they often perch on its roofing or land on the split-rail fence nearby.

Feeders suspended from branches or wrought iron poles set in strategic places can offer many hours of viewing pleasure. Make sure to install your feeder sticks before the ground freezes solid.

It’s true that birds are the blossoms of the winter, bringing color and joy!

Paintbox Garden

Walk around your premises and check trees for fallen limbs or broken branches. Winter storms can wreak havoc and cause widespread harm; get outside with a broom following moist, heavy snow and brush it off shrubs and tiny trees to prevent permanent damage.

Collect branches and add them into a brush pile on your property — somewhere from view, where they can decompose and make a shelter for wildlife.

Light pruning may be done at any time today that plants are dormant. Look for healthier bud tips and snip off dead branches to increase the brush or burn pile.

Paintbox Garden

Note areas that may require stonework. Start getting names of reliable masons or landscape contractors who service your community.

If you are a new home owner, notice slopes and grade changes that may require retaining walls and be prepared to devote some hard-earned cash on hardscaping next calendar year. Be sure to check references and be sure that your contractor is fully insured.

Smaller jobs, like walkways, patios and chair walls, are good to think about in the landscape design process; the stripped-to-the-bones view of your premises at this time of year can make you see where privacy is needed or where to route a stepping stone path through a side yard.

Paintbox Garden

Get outside with a camera and take photos of your backyard. Back indoors, you can brew a pot of tea and examine the images while you thaw.

Keeping photos organized in easy-to-access folders on your computer will help immensely as you plan your next movement. You are able to organize plants by particular areas of the backyard, such as “Front Walk” or “Peony Bed,” or set them by groups, such as foliage or blossoms. It’s good to have a visual record of your own landscape, particularly as you chronicle the growth and development of new areas. I am amazed at the transformation of a lengthy border I installed a few years ago — I’d forgotten how small everything was!

See the way to arrange photos in a flash

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Acid-Etched Concrete

Posted on by Faids1936

Acid etching is the process of roughing up the glossy surface of concrete with compounds. Concrete can also be roughened with a grinder, but acid can do it with much less dust and muscle strength. Acid creates tiny holes at the surface of the concrete, enabling it to bond with topical treatments like paint, epoxy or stain.

Visionscapes NW Landscape Design

Typically muratic acid can be used to chemically treat concrete so that it can form the proper bond with topical surfaces. This concrete needed metal flakes sprinkled while the concrete was wet, then the surface was acid etched.

Cody Anderson Wasney Architects, Inc..

Acid combined with stain will etch and colour the concrete at precisely the same time. Applying stain can be tricky, and puddles and thin areas should be avoided to prevent the look from being mottled.

Victoria’s Interiors

The more the acid is left on the surface, the more porous the concrete becomes more. Note the grainy pits at the surface of this kitchen floor. After etching, a neutralizer has to be implemented to block the chemical reaction. Some acids time out so that neutralizer isn’t vital.

Artisan Custom Homes

Even with a careful use of an acid or stain chemical, a pure amount of imperfection will lead to. A marble-like effect is created, because the acid is unpredictable. The result is a superbly distinctive surface.

Hufft Projects

Concrete also has to be acid etched before you can apply epoxy. Epoxy is a polymer-based adhesive or paint which has a plastic feel to it. Thicker than paint, it’s the benefits of being stronger as well as oil and heat resistant, and it fills in surface imperfections easier. Epoxy flooring are common in professional garages.

RD Architecture, LLC

The industrial look of this floor was created with an acid stain and the stubborn leftover adhesive from the original floor. Sometimes the top situations arise from mishaps.

Genesis Architecture, LLC.

Acid stain comes in many different colors. Color can also be added by sprinkling pigment onto the moist surface after the concrete is poured.

Treoma Design

Whether the acid happens before the stain, epoxy or paint is added or not, the amount of sheen or gloss is determined by the clear topcoat. A high-gloss topcoat reflects light but also creates the surface.

Holly Marder

This concrete flooring has been acid etched and then painted with a low-sheen paint, making a matte look, and a topcoat was not utilized.

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Sublime for Skiing in the Rocky Mountains

Posted on by Faids1936

A Denver couple with four children hired interior designer Donna Grace McAlear before they began construction on this ski house. “This was a big job — while the architect designed the house and engineering, I chose each of the interior and exterior finishes and fixtures, designed the lighting schemes, laid out the kitchen and baths as well as the decor and furnishings,” says McAlear. She had these priorities:
The mountain views were paramount, so the decoration needed to enhance them, not compete with or distract from them.The house had to be functional for a family with young children who loved to collect with and entertain extended relatives members and friends from far-flung places.The home’s insides necessary to have continuity and associate with the natural environment outside.McAlear, of New Mood Design, began by deciding upon the rock for indoor and outdoor accents, creating a warm, modern sanctuary inspired by its color palette. The rock, known as Mountain Ash, contains the colors of the surrounding landscape, by the glean of silver into sky gray, from heavy bronze into the hot ocher of earth. She utilized the numerous colors to create distinct spaces inside the wide-open third floor strategy and continued their use throughout the rest of the house. The result: Beautiful interiors that complement the mountain views, no matter the season.

at a Glance
Location: Breckenridge, Colorado
Who lives here: This really is another house to get a Denver couple and their children (3 sons, 1 girl )
Size: 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms
That is interesting: The house is arranged upside down, with the common areas at the top (so everybody can enjoy the best perspectives ), the bedrooms on the middle floor, and the guest suites and wine cave onto the first.

New Mood Design LLC

We’ll begin our tour at the front door, run up to the third floor and work our way down.

The entryway foreshadows a lot of what awaits inside. “The colours [of the stone] reminded me of the Colorado landscape — mining cities, earth, rock, mountains and sky,” McAlear says. “Also it was the most clean-cut, rectangular and flat rock they had.” Every one of these attributes made it the ideal selection for the hot, modern mood she had been creating.

McAlear also chose the stainless steel door, which divides on the silvery grays in the rock and lets people know they are not planning to enter a rustic mountain house full of antlers and mooseheads.

New Mood Design LLC

The elevator shaft is shrouded in Mountain Ash stone in the first floor up into the third. On the very first level, the entry foyer and wine cave floors are an Idaho silver quartzite flagstone, which can be utilized as an 18-inch border around the hardwood floors on the third degree.

New Mood Design LLC

McAlear used the exact same rock on the fireplace along with elevator shaft surround. This connects the inside and outside and provided a hot, rich palette to use throughout the house.

New Mood Design LLC

When selecting the furniture, flexibility, flexibility and relaxation were key. “As my clients like to entertain, we made certain things were flexible and easily moved about,” she says. “They love to sponsor friends and family from far and wide, and wanted this distance to work for 20 to 25 people.”

New Mood Design LLC

These dining room chairs are comfortable and light, for instance, and the clients move them over to the living room area whenever they have a party.

The Pascal Mourgue Calin dining seats have slipcovers made of Alcantara cloth, which is similar to microsuede. “This cloth is very easy to clean, and the buttons in back allow them easy to eliminate — a must for a household with children,” McAlear says.

Dining table: Homme into koa timber with bronzed aluminum thighs, Berman Rosetti

New Mood Design LLC

McAlear also gave the dining area a distinct presence by pulling the warmer earth tones in the stone’s color palette. “I chose some of the warmer ocher tones since I needed the dining area to stand out as its own space inside the open plan.”

She tradition designed the onyx light fixture to pick up on these colours without blocking the views.

New Mood Design LLC

The bar stools, coated in hot bronze , can be pulled into the living space and used as additional seating; they can adjust from down bar height to seat height. “These are the most comfy bar stools I have ever sat in,” claims McAlear.

Kitchen cabinets: Pedini Cucine Integra foundation and tall closets in grey stained European walnut; counters: Quartz Reflections, Caesarstone; bar stools: designed by Karim Rashid for Bonaldo

New Mood Design LLC

“In this kind of open program, I needed to ground the kitchen,” says McAlear. “This backsplash anchored the kitchen to the area. It is also reflective and changes color based on the time of day.” The glass upper cabinets also reflect light.

Upper closets: taupe reflective glass, Pedini Cucine

New Mood Design LLC

The living area is comfortable, flexible and versatile, and also gets its color palette from the rock, now in a range of warm grays.

“The Puzzle coffee table is another versatile bit; it’s composed of 2 coffee tables that could be combined as a single, used individually or reconfigured,” McAlear says.

New Mood Design LLC

Because clear views of character through the windows proved to be a priority, there is not any artwork on the walls, also because this is another home, the clients didn’t need a bunch of accessories around. Therefore, McAlear chose artful, sculptural lighting fixtures to function as dramatic features throughout the house.

Light: Oh Mei Ma Kabir suspension lighting, Ingo Maurer; Deadly ireplace: LED gasoline, Heat & Glo LUX60; swivel seats: Portofino, Minotti

New Mood Design LLC

A versatile sectional couch from Ligne Roset could be divided in 2, arranged in an L shape or pushed into a long couch. “Pushing it into a long couch can clean up space to make a dancing floor,” McAlear says. “It is also very hardy; you are able to perch atop the trunk comfortably.”

New Mood Design LLC

A pair of comfy Pierre Paulin Pumpkin seats can swivel around to take in the view at sunset.

New Mood Design LLC

McAlear custom designed this chandelier with C Lighting to work with the exterior and interior architecture. “It needed to fit in a rather horizontal space and extend down the stairs,” McAlear says. “Each of both tiers drops between the stairs and large windows on the second and third levels. It is minimalist but very dramatic at precisely the exact same moment.”

New Mood Design LLC

Moving down to the family’s private areas on the second degree is the children’ lounge, which connects physically and visually into the landscape.

The area also picks up on the warmer colours of the stone’s palette and tweaks them up a few shades. Ligne Roset’s Togo series couch is great for flopping on following a long day of of skiing. The 2 doors on the left lead into a toilet and a ski area for keeping clothing and dressing to the slopes, and another door leads to a deck. As you can see through the window, this house is ski in, ski out.

New Mood Design LLC

This bath attaches to the family space and the ski space, so one could enter the house après ski, strip off snowy outerwear, then enter this toilet and hop to a nice, hot shower.

New Mood Design LLC

The color palette continues to the master bedroom, where McAlear plucked a hot terra-cotta colour in the earthier colors in the rock. The cherry ceiling adds heat.

The fireplace in the master bedroom is an abstraction of the huge rock fireplace on the third floor; the exact same palette is used but rendered in glass tile . Again, McAlear set up a stunning, artistic light fixture — this one, the Aloe Bud Multi from Jeremy Cole, is made from porcelain.

Bed: Bloom by Bonaldo, table lamps: Coral, Swank

New Mood Design LLC

New Mood Design LLC

In the master bath, a curved, high-gloss lacquer cherry vanity from Pedini Cucine echoes the master bedroom ceiling.

New Mood Design LLC

Before you go believing these clients are aprés-ski exhibitionists, look very closely at the windows. There are up/down shades by Hunter Douglas Silhouette that mix right into the window casing.

New Mood Design LLC

The boys’ bunk area has six beds complete, so that the couple’s three sons could bring friends on weekend ski trips. There’s also a girls’ bunk area for the daughter and her friends on this floor.

New Mood Design LLC

Down on the first degree, the wine cave joins an old-world feeling with modern design. The wine and ceiling rack are both white oak.

The primary level also includes a mudroom, garage access and two guest suites.

New Mood Design LLC

The two guest suites provide instantly visitors their own domainname, each with its own private bath suite and closet.

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