Revamping Spaces: Transforming Your Home

Revamping Spaces: Transforming Your Home – There’s no time like the present to start transforming your home into a space you love. Here’s what customers are asking for right now to help you reimagine your space.​

Our clients continue to fully embrace open concepts and repurpose space in their homes to create larger multi-purpose areas.​

Revamping Spaces: Transforming Your Home

The clients at Bon Hill Drive wanted to design a lower level that reflected their lifestyle, creating a space that would accommodate the family’s entertainment, relaxation and exercise needs. Wood accents, such as ceiling beams throughout, and dramatic dark accent walls that complement the cabinets and doors help create cohesive divisions in the expansive lower level. ​

Diy Projects That Can Transform Your Outdoor Space

In this Kehrs Ridge Drive kitchen, sunroom, and great room project, we kept the floor-to-ceiling windows in the sunroom, the large picture windows in the … Read the rest

Blue Zones The Science Of Living Longer

Blue Zones The Science Of Living Longer – I had the privilege of hearing Dan Buettner speak about longevity at the University of Minnesota yesterday. He is a National Geographic Fellow, author and researcher and has published a NYT bestselling book about the world’s Blue Zones – the geographical locations where the likelihood of living to 100 years and older is much higher. He investigated why life is long in these places. Some of the most important things: People have a purpose that gets them out of bed every day, they eat a predominantly plant-based diet, they belong to faith communities, they are close with family or friends who support each other, and they never stop to work. In one part of Japan there is literally no word for retirement. They have lifestyles or jobs that keep them busy or moving, and they are not sedentary. The other reason they … Read the rest

How To Make My Futon More Comfortable

How To Make My Futon More Comfortable – Many people think that purchasing a bed for a guest room can be a bit expensive. For this reason, people usually choose blankets. The futon can act as a sofa during the day and turn into a bed at night. One downside is that futons don’t always provide the most comfortable sleeping experience like your everyday mattress. There are a few ways to make your blanket more comfortable.

A feather bed is similar to a down comforter, except that you sleep on it rather than on top of it. Feather beds add a soft, warm layer between you and the futon mattress. It is usually divided into sections to prevent the down from shifting to one side of the bed.

How To Make My Futon More Comfortable

If you use your futon frequently, your futon mattress will start to sag. When this … Read the rest

Good Paint Colors For A Small Bathroom

Good Paint Colors For A Small Bathroom – Ah, the age-old design myth that crisp white paint makes small rooms like small bathrooms and powder rooms feel much larger. Sure, it sometimes rings true, but it’s definitely not the only option. Sometimes the best way to make a small bathroom feel more spacious is to highlight it with dark, bright or experimental paint colors. To open everyone up to the wide world of small bathroom paint colors, we highlight our favorite shades below. From neutrals to moody hues to vibrant pops, you’ll find a small bathroom paint color idea to inspire your weekend home project (because small space = less painting time, so you really can do it in a day!).

Color blocking is a great way to play with color if you don’t want to cover the entire room with one experimental shade. Here, Heidi Caillier chose a soft … Read the rest

Nurturing A Home That Feels Like A Hug

Nurturing A Home That Feels Like A Hug – Morning rundown: Princess Kate seen in new video, rough Trump referendum and new risks of intermittent fasting

The researchers found that those who were hugged were less affected by interpersonal conflict than those who were not hugged.Shutterstock / Blend Images

Nurturing A Home That Feels Like A Hug

There are three types of people; Touchy people who always hug you hello, special occasional huggers, and those who find displays of affection awkward. Interestingly, your sensitive friends may also be happier and healthier, as recent research has begun to identify hugs as a real mental and physical health boost.

The Waning Practice Of Hugging Our Children

How? For starters, a recent study published in PLoS One investigated whether the effects of a good hug can calm you down throughout the day—even if you end up having a fight afterward. The researchers found … Read the rest

Utilizing Smart Thermostats For Energy Savings

Utilizing Smart Thermostats For Energy Savings – There are many different types of smart systems that get tiled when designing Smart Home Systems today. Some smart systems include smart lighting, smart entertainment systems like smart TVs and smart thermostats. The most widespread and academically researched smart home system today is the smart thermostat. Research from Nest Labs shows that users of their smart thermostats use an average of 15% less energy to heat their homes and approximately 11% to cool them. sers of smart thermostats save about $140 annually.

The Schools of Compter Science and Architectre at the University of Virginia did a study on energy consumption with smart thermostats. Their stdy was titled The Smart Thermostat: sing Occpancy Sensors to Save Energy in Homes. The purpose of their study was to propose a valid solution to the problem of transmitting energy with conventional heating and cooling systems. Their solution … Read the rest

Home Safety And Security: A Holistic Approach

Home Safety And Security: A Holistic Approach – Today, Maslow’s pyramid is so common that most people are not familiar with the concept. In an article reviewed by clinical psychologist David Susman, Cherry says, “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is one of the most popular theories of motivation.” Unlike many of his peers at the time who were concerned with the eradication of immorality, “Maslow was more interested in studying what makes people happy and what they do to achieve that goal.” He described five levels: Physiological, security, love and belonging, dignity, and self-realization. In its original definition, each level provides a way to achieve goals by maximizing growth potential. The idea was that when a person’s “basic needs” are met, happiness depends more on achieving higher levels of desire. “As people move up the pyramid, the needs tend to increase psychologically and socially.” It should be noted that from the … Read the rest

Cozy Living: Simple Ways To Feel Comfortable

Cozy Living: Simple Ways To Feel Comfortable – Over the next couple of months we are changing up our bedroom furniture – AGAIN. PLUS decorations for the holidays. So I figured I’d share our current setup before Christmas throws in here and also share a few easy ways to create a nice living room.

Originally the plan was to get this beautiful green sofa for my office because I wanted something really big and comfortable. In the office space it is the perfect place to do something fun or unexpected with a pop of color. When we made our decision to go green I thought it would be fun to have a green sofa in our main living room for the Holidays. Delivery couldn’t have come at a better time to do something extra fun for the holidays.

Cozy Living: Simple Ways To Feel Comfortable

I’ve rearranged things a couple … Read the rest

Emergency Response Planning For Homeowners

Emergency Response Planning For Homeowners – Earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and terrorism are examples of unexpected disasters that result in catastrophic loss of life and property. While we cannot predict when these disasters will strike, we can be prepared. The City of Aliso Viejo is dedicated to protecting lives, property and the environment before, during and after a disaster. The city is working closely with regional emergency management partners such as the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the Orange County Fire Authority and members of the community to increase resilience and improve preparedness.

This guide provides important information to help residents take ownership of their personal preparedness. When community members are prepared, our emergency management system and first responders are better able to respond to a disaster. Disaster preparedness residents can contribute to the overall safety of our city and be a resource to their family, friends, neighbors and co-workers during a … Read the rest

Maximizing Mudroom Functionality

Maximizing Mudroom Functionality – We don’t have a proper mudroom in our house and our garage door, which we use as our primary entrance, throws us directly into our kitchen. So, you may remember that we imposed one’s function on our large kitchen remodel by placing large cabinets with doors—kind of like lockers, but nicer—right next to the door that leads to our garage. If you’ve got a small space but still want some mudroom storage, we recommend cabinetry with doors like these! But now that we’ve been living with our mudroom lockers for more than two years since our kitchen renovation, we’ve realized that a few simple changes will make these hidden cubbies work a lot more for us.

To help you get oriented, here’s the area of ​​our kitchen we’re talking about. That garage door is our main entrance, and if you look at the floor plan options … Read the rest