Improving your home through DIY

May 10, 2012 Leave a comment

Improving your home through DIYRecent house market trends have been pretty abysmal and seem to be in line with the UK’s dip back into recession.

For many property owners, the prospect of placing their house on the market just does not fill them with optimism. It’s an expensive game with all the associated fees, it can be tiring too, with time-wasters, or people who are viewing just to be nosey. Very often householders will be going into negative equity too with very low house prices.

One positive thing house owners can do, is consider sprucing up the home over a one or two year period in hope of a more buoyant property market further down the line. You’ll also have the benefit of any home improvements in the mean time. One such way is to employ builders to add that extension you’ve always dreamed of, or maybe a new bathroom, and if you’re a bit more practical why not consider doing this yourself? There are plenty of DIY blogs with great advice, or home improvement books, magazines and plenty of online forums where DIYers can ask questions on DIY topics. Read more of this post

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Ensure your property is always bringing you rent

May 4, 2012 Leave a comment

Ensure your property is always bringing you rentAs a landlord you naturally want to keep the vacancy of your properties at an absolute minimum. An empty property is only going to cost you money. Ideally, you want to be able to go straight from one tenancy to another.

Not only do you want to make sure your properties are always bringing you income but you’re going to want to optimise this income.

One of the best ways to do this is to furnish your property. Furnished properties will receive a higher monthly rent and for only a relatively small amount of time and investment. As a minimum, an furnished property should be bringing in 25% more in rent than if it were unfurnished. This needs to cover the initial cost of furniture, ongoing replacement/repairs and for the extra work involved. Read more of this post

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Feng Shui for fireplaces

April 16, 2012 Leave a comment

Feng Shui for fireplacesClaire Kirkwood of Stores Direct has many years experience dealing with woodburners and fireplaces. In this guest post she explains how to deal with the challenges of Feng Shui for the fireplace.

Anyone who has tried to give a Western home a Feng Shui makeover will have quickly found that our houses are simply not built with Feng Shui in mind. Whether you map out your bagua quadrants the traditional way by compass orientation or use the modern Western method which aligns them to the entrance wall of your property, you are more than likely to find yourself stuck with features in quadrants in which their energy is unsuitable. Read more of this post

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Traditional vs. contemporary bathroom

March 31, 2012 2 Comments

Traditional vs. contemporary bathroomThe traditional vs. contemporary bathroom dilemma is one that everyone seems to agonise over – should the bathroom follow the theme of the rest of the house or should it be the stand out room that provides some healthy contrast. If you’re currently in the throes of making this decision then here are some pros and cons for both traditional and contemporary bathrooms.

Traditional

Traditional bathrooms tend to take a leaf out of history, using natural materials such as iron and wood and going for a luxurious and boudoir type feel. Roll top baths, wooden floors, thick fabrics, low lighting and fantastical tap designs are all common features of the traditional bathroom. Read more of this post

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Organise your bedroom in 4 easy steps

January 14, 2012 Leave a comment

The bedroom is an important part of the house where we spend up to 8 hours a day resting. It should be a room where you can unwind and rejuvenate, and feel like taking it easy.

It is important to not only keep your bedroom tidy, but also organised and free of clutter. Clutter in the bedroom can disturb feelings of relaxation and disrupt sleep.

Studies show that clutter in the bedroom can be a factor that contributes to a lack of concentration, irritability, exhaustion,  and trouble sleeping. Read more of this post

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Opening plan living makes dining rooms redundant

January 10, 2012 Leave a comment

Opening plan living is now being advised for new property owners and developers, a survey by Lloyds TSB shows.

Dining rooms are no longer seen as a necessary potential room in a house as the concept for open plan living rises. It has been estimated that over 20% of property owners have already created this style in their own homes, with a further 20% intending to do the same in the future. It is thought that open plan living is more popular nowadays and so it will make a property more marketable or push up the value of a property. Read more of this post

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Make your house a cosy home

December 29, 2011 Leave a comment

Sometimes you walk into a house and get the immediate feeling of it being a cosy home. But what is cosy exactly? How do you define it? Warm, comfortable, ‘snug’? It can be some or all of these things combined, and many of us wish to achieve the same for our own homes.

To attain such a status is simple and need not cost the earth. Here we have a few tips we have compiled to help you with your quest for a cosy home.

Furniture

First and foremost, your furniture must be comfortable. A cosy atmosphere cannot be achieved with hard and unwelcoming furniture which no-one will want to sit in! Sofas will look cosier with blankets and pillows, while empty tables look cold and uninviting.

Read more of this post

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Feng Shui for the home

December 3, 2011 Leave a comment

Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese belief that a good flow of energy (chi) can be obtained by placing items in certain places. Having a good flow of energy ensures good fortune and peace of mind. According to the principle of Feng Shui there is a balance of yin- the dark, damp, yielding feminine; and yang- the light, dry, active masculine. For every yin there is a yang, and thus the universe remains balanced.

Feng Shui is seen as an especially important factor to take into mind in the home and in regards to decoration and furniture. Placing furniture in a bad place can create bad energy and certain colours can even ‘shift’ the energy of a room.

Here are some tips for how to make your home more Feng Shui friendly: Read more of this post

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Dining room Style

November 26, 2011 Leave a comment

Dining room styleDining room style has gone through many changes over the past few years. Whilst usually dining rooms have been plain and attention is usually given to the table décor, now focus is more on the walls with any style being acceptable.

Rich elegance, minimalistic style, retro patterns, all characterise the various types of dining rooms that people are going for these days. By keeping these few points in mind, we guarantee that you will have great success with your dining room. Read more of this post

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Make your home brighter

November 5, 2011 1 Comment

Make your home brighterAfter geometry and textures, it’s now time for some tips about how to let and embed light into your interior. It is not necessarily all about altering in your artificial lightning or opening the shades, although it can be helpful. We would like to give you some ideas on how to make your home brighter, by implementing some changes to the interior itself. It will not only increase the effectiveness of your current lighting, but also make your home appear bigger and lighter. It is very useful when it comes to small spaces. Making a small room feel bigger is generally based on achieving optical illusions. Elements that matter are light, colour, shape and size.

The most straightforward way to make your interior brighter is painting it in a right colour. Paints have different levels of brightness and two shades of white for example can have completely different reflective properties. Light colours like white, écru, ivory, vanilla, white chocolate, dove-grey make the interior look bigger and brighter. Painting two opposite walls in same colour, and the other two in other will enlarge and extend the room, but only if the colours are similar. Textured wallpapers with a sheen can help make the space larger, especially in apartments with angled ceilings and walls, which usually close up the room. If you are afraid that using neutral and muted colours will make the interior too monotonous and boring use some vivid and bright colours in unexpected places like niches or details. Bright red chair or violet pillows can also do the job. Read more of this post

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