Garden Design

Great Landscape Design and Time for Leisure

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Everyone loves to have some kind of landscaping for their property to enhance their own enjoyment and make the place attractive to others.  However, garden chores are often heavy and time consuming, and if you work all day you might prefer to keep your weekends for playing sport or just relaxing rather than weeding, mowing and doing all of those other  never-ending gardening chores. There are several ways you can have the best of both worlds; great landscaping and time for leisure as well. How?

Lower the Maintenance

First off, you need to plan your garden to be a low maintenance one. This means forget the annuals that are so showy and need to be planted, watered and weeded every season. Instead, find perennials or permanent shrubs and bushes that offer attractive flowers, seedpods, autumn foliage and bark so that your garden will have something of interest in it all year round. If you dearly love annuals, grow a few in pots that are quick and easy to replace. Garden Design Photo Courtesy of LandscapesWA

Low Maintenance Landscaping Ideas

Shape Rather Than Colour

Think in terms of shape and different shades of green to give the visual interest you need. Have plants with narrow, spiky leaves, fat round leaves, tiny oval leaves – and so on. Many plants have multi-coloured or variegated leaves and flowers and new leaf growth that is pink. Have tall and short, erect and weeping types of plants; deciduous and evergreen. Choose trees and shrubs that do not have large seedpods to drop over your lawn and look untidy. Read more: Deciduous and Evergreen Trees

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House Design

The Importance of Good Lighting in the Bedroom

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Bedroom-Lighting

These days when space is often at a premium in the home, the bedroom can be used for more than just sleeping, so long as there is good lighting in there.  With the addition of a simple easy chair or sofa and a small side table, you can use it for doing craft, reading or just relaxing. It would also be a good place from which to make private phone calls.

So what kind of lighting do you need? It all depends on what you want to do and what is there already.  You may have plenty of natural lighting, but this won’t help in the night time when you want to read. At the very least you’ll need bedside lamps, but these may not cast enough light for doing fine work.  Here are some points to consider before you start changing the lighting.

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House Design

5 Different Gazebo Design Styles

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Gazebo Design

A gazebo as opposed to an outdoor patio is a structure that stands apart from the house and is usually located somewhere in the garden to create a focal point. The idea of having a gazebo is that it gives you a place from which to enjoy the outdoors while still having some kind of comfort and shelter. Perhaps you want to recreate a holiday feel in your backyard similar to what you may have enjoyed at a luxury Bali villa or some other exotic location.

The roof is shelter from the hot sun and sudden shower, while the furniture inside – whether comfortable sofa or plain bench – offers a place to sit and rest for a while. It is up to you what kind of gazebo you have and what you have inside it.

Gazebo Design

Gazebo Design

Here are 5 different styles of gazebo you might like to choose from.

  • Octagonal or hexagonal. These are the two most popular shapes for gazebos, though they can be oval, square, rectangle or even round. The round one is not considered to be efficient in what you can fit into it for the size, however it may suit your purposes better than the others.
  • Another distinction between gazebos is what they are built from. You can choose almost any type of building material, with timber being one of the most common and popular. There is also powder coated aluminium, steel or even plastic. Metal gazebos are almost maintenance free which is why they are popular. Timber must be treated to prevent rot and warping, but it gives a timeless look in many different styles that is always popular.
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Kitchen Design

Kitchen Design – How to Make Your Kitchen More User Friendly

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Kitchen Design

Not all kitchens are user friendly, especially those older ones that were designed before new innovations had been thought of. Today there are many ways that are very cost effective to ensure your kitchen is easy to use. If you are designing a home or plan to renovate the kitchen, it is easier still to add components that make working in the kitchen much more pleasant.

Counter space is an important part of kitchen design. If you don’t have enough space to prepare dishes you will always find the kitchen difficult to use. With a kitchen that is already built, additional counter space can be added in several ways.

  • Install an island or butcher’s block in the centre or side
  • Purchase a special tray designed to go over the sink
  • Add a fold out table at one end of the counters that are there
  • Find a spot to have a small table
  • Clear stuff off the space you already have to make the most of it

Appliances are often simply left on the counter top, taking up valuable space that could otherwise be used for food preparation.  Storing them in cupboards or adding a shelf above the counter for them will free up space on your counter.

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House Design

Limestone Products To Give An Ideal Design Touch

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The dilemma facing most stylists, landscape architects, interior designers as well as interior decorators is what kind of finishing to suggest. This dilemma of old is solved with the current industry which in fact has diversified the incontestable limestone products in the perfect choice of material for luxury yet still covering affordability. Stone products can be seen in villas at www.luxury-villas-bali.net – on floors and especially used as stone wall cladding.

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Limestone finishing could be in a variety of products:

  • Limestone tiles.
  • Polished limestone surface finishing.
  • Honed limestone surface finishing.
  • Brushed limestone surface finish.
  • Antique surface finish.
  • Bush-hammered surface finish.

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Limestone tiles
Limestone tiles used as stone cladding are in a wide variety of shades to fit the customer’s specific taste. The wide variety of limestone tiles give you a sense of nature indoors. From the earthen shades of brown to lighter grey-white shades of shell, to cream-yellow shades which give a touch of yellow sand. All these to be enjoyed out of the limestone tile-finishing.

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Graphic Design

Graphics and Visuals – Can they improve the attractiveness of your website

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Go viral with a difference with engaging graphics and visuals! The success of sensory marketing is largely based on its visual appeal. A lengthy chunk of text, even if it is exceptionally well written, can bore the readers after a while. On the contrary, people tend to retain 50% more information when it is presented to them in the form of enticing graphics and visual cues.

We humans like to believe what we see and perhaps this is the primary factor that does wonders. More and more digital agencies are starting to realize that humans are likely to retain more information when it is presented to them in the form of interactive graphics and engaging visuals than in the form of simple boring text which just shows how much of an impact visuals and graphics can have on human mind.

Visual Storytelling – The Art of Communicating through Visual Cues

Because seeing is believing!

Telling the story of your brand is not an easy task for most businesses. Start ups in particular find it difficult to communicate effectively with their target market. Writing your ideas is one thing but demonstrating your brand to the world using creative graphics and visuals is an altogether different dimension.

So why go for tried and tested boring marketing tactics when you can offer your target audience with much more? Visuals and graphics therefore offer a great way of getting the customer a glimpse of what you’re offering to them to help them satisfy their needs, how they can avail your services and what makes you different from others.

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House Design

Home Elevator Design – 4 Different Types

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home lift design

Have you even thought of installing an elevator in your home? Having a home lift will make life much more convenient and pleasant for you, with access to the top floors just a step away. It is not only the frail elderly that need a lift in their home. Stairs take a great deal of energy to use and are actually quite dangerous, especially if you are carrying goods – or the baby.

Lifts these days have undergone a transformation; they don’t all look like a square box in the wall and they are certainly not something the home handyman should attempt to install. In fact, you can even get an octagonal or tubular lift for your home, depending on your needs.

However the main difference in lifts is the way they work.

Cable Winding Drum

This is one of the most affordable home elevators to install; unfortunately, the ongoing costs are fairly high because cables eventually stretch and wear, so have to be replaced. This can happen every 2/3 years, so you may not save as much as you thought. Another downside is that it does not give a smooth ride. You may not mind feeling the tremors; many people don’t. However, if you are not expecting it, you may think something is wrong with the lift. It is also fairly noisy, which could be a problem. Read more here

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Kitchen Design

4 Great Design Ideas for the Modern Kitchen

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Kitchen Design

There are many ways to change your utilitarian kitchen to one that is modern, distinct and a pleasure to spend time in. While an old trend was to eat out or buy fast food, these days’ people have become more conscious of their health and realise that good food cooked properly is not only tasty, but very healthy for us.

Children especially need healthy food if they are to grow up strong and healthy.  The old adage ‘you are what you eat’ still holds true and when you employ highly experienced cabinet makers for a modern kitchen, it will help you to prepare food that makes your family healthy and energetic.

Here are 4 great ideas you may be able to incorporate in your kitchen to make it more modern and easier to work in.

  • The butler’s kitchen – If you are designing your home or renovating the kitchen you may be able to incorporate this idea. Basically, it is to have a workspace for food preparation off the kitchen so all the messy part of cooking is not so noticeable. This space can also contain the washing machine and dryer, but it should major on counter space and storage. The main part of the kitchen will contain the stove, dishwasher and sink along with a breakfast bar and stools. It will lead into the dining area.
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House Design

5 Ways Your Home Design Can Save You Money

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Most people are interested in ways to save money. If you are planning a new home, now is the time to start thinking along these lines as the design is an important factor in the costs of running the home.

If you intend to stay in your home for many years you really don’t want to choose design elements that are going to always be expensive. It is simpler than you may think to ensure you include cost-saving elements at the design stage, but many of the simpler ones can also be added after the home is built, so don’t feel dismayed if you are already in your home.

Here are 5 ways to save money with your home design.

  • Consider the climate. In a warm climate, large windows installed on opposite side of the home will enable cooling breezes to flow through. This means the air conditioner will not be needed so often. Find out which direction the prevailing breeze usually comes from and go from there. In cooler/cold climates, smaller windows may be better- or you could have double glazing. Larger windows on the sunny side of the home can often bring in natural warmth. They also increase natural light so you will not need to have lights on during the day.
  • Room placement. This is not always possible, but if you can have the living rooms on the sunny side of the home you will find life more pleasant and the need for heating/lighting reduced. Some floor plans can be reversed to facilitate this.
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Office Design

3 Modern Trends for the Home Office Designs

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Home Office

The upsurge of modern technology means that it is now possible for many more people than ever before to work from home. But to do so they need some kind of office space, thus the home office has evolved from a spot on the end of the table or sofa to a dedicated space. One major contribution to a change in home office space is the laptop or tablet.

Many people who work from home do not need to have a large computer desk with room for a tower. A sleek table where they can use their laptop is sufficient and looks much nicer. All that is needed in addition to the table and chair are a few shelves for storage. This can also be minimalist due to the ability of the laptop to store more information than ever before. In fact, cloud storage solutions are even better as they are safe from physical harm such as fires or vandals and available whenever you need them. So the home office continues to evolve, but what you actually need in your personal office space will depend on how much work you need to do on your computer.

People who sit for hours typing away on the computer may feel that a larger screen and keyboard is essential. Even a roll-out keyboard still leaves you looking at a smaller screen. A larger screen will save your eyes from strain and a full size keyboard may help prevent RSI and even shoulder and arm strain. People with wide shoulders find it difficult to force their hands to stay close together for long hours on the keyboard. They would benefit from a split keyboard so they can spread out a bit.

That said, the home office has evolved and is still evolving into a personal space that will suit your needs and workload. Here are three modern trends seen in the home office.

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Interior Design

Restaurant Interior Design Trends

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Restaurant Interior Design

The word from interior designers who see a lot of different restaurant designs come and go over the years is that those dark – and somewhat morbid – colour schemes known as industrial chic are going out in favour of the light and bright. Who wants to sit in a dark cave to eat anyway? Here are 8 more hot trends in restaurant design that will delight and inspire you.

  • Let there be light. Lighting that does its job is more in favour these days. It is brighter while still giving an intimate feel to the setting.
  • Adding to the light and bright look are the pastel colours that have now gained favour for restaurant design and decor. These offer a light and airy feel that everyone enjoys.
  • Sustainability can be seen in every area of the latest interior designs for restaurant, from the use of natural materials for the furnishings, walls, ceilings and furniture. Marble, stone and timber elements are incorporated into decorative elements as well as the essentials such as floor and walls.
  • Handmade artisan tiles from the local area are now emerging from the amenities rooms to decorate splash backs on bars and perform new work as table and bench tops.
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House Design

How Colorbond Roofing can Enhance Your Home Design

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If you are building a new home, you will be aware of the many choices you need to make regarding building materials and home design both inside and externally. One of the major considerations is the roof and roofing materials. There are several choices for roofing materials, from various types of tiles through to Colorbond roofing, which is made from steel and has the coloured finish baked on.

The actual design of the roof can make a great deal of difference to the look of the house, but sometimes you are limited by the capabilities of the material you build with. For instance, generally speaking tiles cannot be used on a flat roof – at least not without a lot of waterproofing underneath, because rainwater would run under the joins and leak into the ceiling cavity. This does not happen with steel sheeting.

Colorbond steel roofing can enhance your home design in several ways: –

  • Colorbond comes in 23 colours, most of which are suitable for the roof. There are light colours and darker colours that all reflect the natural environment of Australia. You will find a greater variety of colours in Colorbond than in any other kind of roofing material; creams, greys, greens, blues, ochre tones and even deep red and black.
  • The special way the colour is baked into the surface of the steel increases its insulation properties, giving you a home that is cool in the summer while still being warmer in the winter. While this aspect is not a visible home design enhancement, it certainly makes a difference to the comfort of the residents.
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House Design, Office Design

Home Design – Where to put Your Home Office

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House Design

When people first started working from home their home office was usually a spot on the end of the dining room table. Or if they had a laptop, maybe it was on the most comfy seat in the living room. However, the home office has now evolved to become a dedicated space more suited to the user’s needs.  Where you put your home office will depend a lot on your lifestyle and stage of life as well as on what you use the office for.

If you have children at home that need to be supervised, your home office will need to be somewhere in the home from whence you can see them and tend to their needs, rather than a room you can go into and shut the door. A corner of the family room would be a good place. Here you can set up your desk and have some kind of storage. You may also want a box of toys to distract the children with so you can get on with what you are doing.

If your children are at the stage where they can amuse themselves or are going to school, you can still have your home office in the corner of the living room as there will be no distractions through the day. However, if you have a spare room you might consider converting it to a real office space, especially if you need to use it a lot. You can have a space that is all your own and be sure that there will be no disturbances.

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House Design

How Can Great Pool Design Add to your Already Exceptional House?

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Do you think a pool adds beauty to a house? Does it increase the market value of your property? Investing in a pool is good for leisure; however its preference varies from country to country depending on the weather condition and lots of different factors. Let’s find out how a pool can prove to be beneficial for your upscale house.

Market Value: Up or Down?

Although there is an ongoing debate regarding pools adding value to the house; in upscale areas, pools are considered to be a necessity. The National Association of Realtors has published a study which shows the rise in home market value from 8% to 15% after the installation of swimming pools. Regionally, the Southeastern side depicts a growth range from 5% to 10%; whereas the Southwest region increment is from 8% to 13%.

It is better to install pools on big properties in rich neighborhoods as this investment will pay back in the end when you will put your property up for sale, because the buyer will want luxury in everything.

People who live in a warmer climate benefit the most from the addition of pool. The size of the pool should also be according to your property. If your property is not of much worth, installing a pool won’t be a rational investment at the end of the day. So if your backyard is big enough, you can add a garden or play area to double the fun and value.

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House Design

Designing Your Move Interstate

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4 Difficulties You May Encounter When Moving Interstate

Moving interstate is somewhat different from moving across town and not only because of the extra distance, although that is certainly a factor.  The longer a truck is on the road, the more likely it is that misadventure will affect it in some way. There can be bad weather, heavy traffic, accidents and breakdowns that are all likely to cause delay in arriving at the destination. It is essential to take this into account when planning times and dates.

  1. Keep in contact

It is also essential to give your professional removalists several ways to contact you in case of emergencies or hold-ups.  Otherwise you could be waiting at your new house wondering when your furniture will ever arrive. Your mobile phone, phone numbers of friends or family who can contact you and even an email address will all be very helpful for the removalists to stay in contact for whatever reason. And don’t forget to keep that mobile phone charged up and on at all times until you and your furniture are all reunited in your new home.

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Pool Design

Pool Design – Are Robotic Pool Cleaners Environmentally Friendly?

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Robotic-Pool-Cleaners

Installing a swimming pool in the backyard is an added responsibility even though it brings a great deal of pleasure. Cleaning the pool can take a lot of time and effort, unless you purchase one of the robotic pool cleaners that are available. A pool cleaner will take the burden of work off you, but are they environmentally friendly?

The answer is yes, and here’s why.

  • Pool cleaners have a very low voltage, so they don’t take up as much power as you might think, even if they are going for several hours. Some only cost 15 cents to clean the pool.
  • Using an automatic device to clean your pool on a regular basis will reduce the amount of chemicals needed to ensure the correct ph of the water. Less chemicals is always a good thing.
  • Cleaners remove algae, leaves, sticks and other debris that falls or blows into your pool, making the pool water cleaner and more fit for swimming in, so that is being eco friendly too.
  • Being electric, they don’t have any dirty emissions from the motor, so can’t pollute the air.
  • Some newer types of cleaners can be powered by the pool pump and are very quiet.

There are a lot of different cleaners on the market so it is important to do some research to ensure you get one that is suitable for the pool you have. Another consideration that many people forget about is the weight of the cleaner. You have to lift the cleaner in and out of the pool.

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House Design

Fence Design – How to Make Security Fencing Attractive

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wood-secure-fence-design

Security fencing is often chosen by homeowners to ensure their homes are secure from harm and their lifestyle safe from intruders. It gives you peace of mind that no unpleasant things will happen and that your possessions are safe. However, if you have a nice property with attractive grounds the last thing you want is an ugly fence to spoil the look of it and to spoil your view, so what can you do? Choosing a fence design to suit the grounds and the home is a good start.

Choose the Style and Colour

While the options may be limited, there are still some. The main choice is between a chain link or mesh fence and one with steel posts and rails. The latter gives a higher level of security and can be powder-coated so there is some choice of colour. Choose the colour to blend with your grounds and landscaping. For instance, if there are a lot of trees with dark coloured trunks on your property, a dark brown fence would blend in with them well. If your grounds are more cleared with lots of lawn, green would be more suitable.

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House Design

Moving Your Design Firm

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Many people try to save on costs when moving into a new home or office by asking friends to help them move, or by hiring a truck, or asking someone who owns one to help them out for a small reward such as a 6-pack. You may think these options could save you money in the short term, but they are likely to  cost more in the long run. How?

  • You cannot really trust anyone other than professional removalists to get it right. For starters, they are not likely to know how to pack your goods into their truck in a way that will stop them from moving. Scrapes and dents on your favourite pieces of furniture are likely and fragile treasures may get broken beyond repair.
  • A non-removalist will not have the right insurance, so if anything gets broken you will have to pay the cost of repair or replacement yourself. And what happens if they are involved in an accident enroute to your new home? Most of your furniture will end up broken and you will have to pay for that, too. You may also have to pay for medical costs or truck repairs.
  • If they are doing a freebie for you and suddenly a paying job shows up, they may ‘forget’ your deal and leave you without a truck at the last minute. It is almost impossible to hire a professional removalist at short notice, so your moving day and organisation will be thrown into disarray.
  • A friend won’t be able to supply the correct packing boxes or offer extra services such as wrapping, carpet cleaning and packing like most professional removalists do.
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House Design

Designing Cleaning Products

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eco friendly carpet cleaning

For many years the only carpet cleaning products available were toxic chemicals. That was before people realised just how bad they were for the environment, not to mention the people who worked with them. It took longer for anyone to realise that such chemicals were also bad for those who used the room afterwards.

Unlike eco friendly carpet cleaning products, the fumes from chemical cleaners caused breathing problems, skin rashes and allergies. The ingredients in some chemicals are also known as carcinogenic, which means they are linked to causing cancer in some way. This in itself is a good reason to choose a professional carpet cleaner who uses environmentally friendly products to clean your carpet.

In the workplace it is important that staff can work in a room as soon as possible after it has been cleaned. If toxic fumes are rising from the cleaning products, their safety will be compromised and they will find it difficult to concentrate on their work. They could feel sick or even have problems breathing. Besides, no one wants to stay in a room that smells awful.

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Interior Design

Choosing A Theme For Your Bedroom Design

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Bedroom Design

Whether you are deciding on the interior design of a new home or redesigning an existing one, the bedroom tends to be the room that gets pushed to the back of the queue. It is understandable given that the living room is the main room of the house and others like the bathroom and kitchen generally require a fair degree of remodelling.

Nevertheless, if you are in design mode remember that the bedroom is where you are likely to spend a third of your time when you are at home, so its design warrants some careful thought.

The first consideration is whether you share your bedroom with someone else such as a spouse or partner. If you do, then before you even so much as pick a pillowcase, you need to discuss the design with them. Now it could be they are happy to sit back and tell you that they’re willing to let you choose everything, and at first, this may seem a perfect scenario. However, you can bet your bottom dollar there will be something that you pick that they won’t approve of.

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