Archives for 2015

How to Turn Almost Any Space Into a Guest Room

January 14, 2015 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

The Hardworking Home: Murphy beds, bunk compartments and more can provide sleeping quarters for visitors in rooms you use every day

dedicated guest room is a luxury that not all can afford. But even if you need to use every inch of your home for your own living space, a guest room may still be in the cards. From combination home office–guest rooms to living rooms that do a disappearing act, these ideas are here to help.

Hardworking space: The guest room.
The challenge: Hosting occasional overnight guests is a fact of life for many … but not so many of us have the square footage to spare for a guest room that rarely gets used. Make your guest room work just as hard for you as it does for your guests by combining it with another space.
Good to know: A ceiling-mounted curtain is an easy and budget-friendly way to give your guests privacy in a shared space.

How to Turn Almost Any Space Into a Guest Room

Filed Under: Blog, Home Care, Home Remodel

The evolution of the fireplace [infographic]

January 13, 2015 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

There’s nothing like the feel of a crackling fireplace when the temperature drops, but not all of us are so lucky as to have one ready to fire up in the living room.

Warm those cockles then with this infographic from Compact Appliance and get some ideas of modern versions that could keep you cozy for the rest of the winter.

Filed Under: Architecture, Blog

Savvy Style and Easy Flow in a Contemporary Kitchen

January 11, 2015 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

A well-planned ground-floor addition makes room for a streamlined kitchen and dining area in a London terraced house

When Paul Brivati was asked to design the kitchen for this London terraced house, he soon became involved in rethinking the entire ground floor. “There are four bedrooms upstairs, but downstairs was not that great,” he says. “It was cramped and didn’t flow well. We wanted to give the owners and their two children more of an open family home by extending out to create a kitchen and dining room that lead into the garden.”

Brivati cast his design eye over the garden and into the hallway too, where he and his team recommended moving a wall and installing sleek storage to help the entrance flow into the house. This attention to the overall space made the finished kitchen not simply a beautiful room sitting at the back of the house, but one that is fully integrated into a connected, flowing and family-friendly ground floor.

Savvy Style and Easy Flow in a Contemporary Kitchen

Filed Under: Blog, Home Remodel

6 Smart Ways to Work Your Square Footage

January 10, 2015 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

The Hardworking Home: From Juliet balconies to movable walls, here’s how to make a home of any size feel more open, flexible and fun

New homes are getting bigger. The size of the average American home built in 2013 was 2,600 square feet, which is bigger than ever, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While it can be nice to have such a spacious dwelling, many of us live in much older homes, built early in the previous century, with smaller floor plans that reflect the routines of a different era. Many people are continuing to flock to urban environments, too, where living spaces are generally smaller. So how do you make a smaller home feel bigger? If you have limited space, consider these design solutions to improve the livability of your home.

6 Smart Ways to Work Your Square Footage

Filed Under: Blog, Furniture, Home Care

Sitcom Cribs: Could Your Favorite TV Characters Actually Afford Their Home?

January 9, 2015 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Homer Simpson seems to be one of the more well-off characters that we’ve listed below. With affordable living being at 30% of one’s monthly income – Homer dominates with only spending about 15% of income on living. Other TV stars aren’t so lucky. Full house is devastated when taken into account San Francisco’s housing boom. With modern day prices even Don Draper of Mad Men would be spending too much on living, although I’d say it’s worth it to live in his homes.

Our TV stars seem to have good jobs and no one is living on the minimum wage. Well, there’s always It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Who knows how that crew pays rent. [via]

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Random Thoughts, Real Estate

Ideas for Making the Most of Your Hallway

January 8, 2015 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

The Hardworking Home: Halls can do more than connect rooms. The ones here house bookcases, cabinets, office space and more

How hard does your hallway work? If it does little more than provide a way to get from point A to point B, consider if you could use your hall for something more. From simple DIY wall-mounted storage to custom bookshelves and built-in workstations, here’s how to get the hardworking hallway your home deserves.

Ideas for Making the Most of Your Hallway

Filed Under: Blog, Home Remodel

Real Estate Habits Of Millennials

January 8, 2015 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate

CES 2015: Inching Toward a Smarter Home

January 7, 2015 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Companies are betting big on connected devices in 2015. Here’s a look at what’s to come

Companies that make appliances and electronics for the home will be doing two main things at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on January 6 to 9: exhibiting their smart-home tech products and explaining to people just what a smart-home tech product is.

That’s because while there’s obvious interest, even demand, for devices that allow people to adjust lighting or unlock a door from a smartphone, the average homeowner isn’t quite sure what to make of it all yet. There are so many different products running different software systems, each with its own smartphone app, that it’s hard to know where to begin in making a home more “connected.”

Searching for Connection

For now the smart-home frontier is more like the Wild West, with many developers creating their own operating systems independent of one another or compatible only with certain brands. It’s somewhat good for innovation but sort of bad for the consumer, because it’s hard to make sense of the overwhelming number of products and which ones have the ability to coordinate with others.

For example, you might own a smart thermostat, a smart light dimmer package and a smart door lock, but all three could have very different systems that don’t necessarily communicate with one another. So, you’re left to toggle between different apps, interfaces and panels to control them all. As a consumer, you have to do some serious research before buying smart-home products if you want them to be compatible in the future. For now it can be like having a separate remote for the DVD player, TV, stereo, ceiling fan and so on. At some point you just say, “Well, how is this smart?”

CES 2015: Inching Toward a Smarter Home

Filed Under: Blog, Home Remodel, Technology

A Hidden Charging Cabinet Corrals and Juices Family’s Electronics

January 6, 2015 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

The Hardworking Home: Laptops, phones and tablets now have a safe space in this kitchen, keeping the countertops uncluttered

“Everything tends to wind up on the kitchen counters,” says interior designer Harmony Weihs. While working on a breakfast nook in Jeff and Amy Miller’s Mercer Island, Washington, kitchen, she couldn’t help but notice all of the phones, tablets and laptops that had overtaken this couple’s kitchen counters. “They had wires everywhere, even dragged across a gas range,” Weihs says. “I said, ‘Yeah … so … this is a safety hazard!’” In addition to safety concerns and keeping the electronics sheltered from spills and grease, the designer wanted to help the couple free up their cooking and prep space. She designed a freestanding cabinet with built-in power strips that not only cleared up their countertop space but also added to it.

A Hidden Charging Cabinet Corrals and Juices Family’s Electronics

Filed Under: Blog, Home Care