Beautiful Home

Every dollar counts these days. Heck, every penny counts. As a result, we’ve become the "Do it yourself," or "DIY" generation. Anything we can fix on our own, without the outside expenses of contractors, professionals or what-have-you, we attempt. The internet has obviously had a big effect on this, as most home projects – from changing your oil to adding an extra room onto the house – can be found online. Everyting down to where to hammer the final nail is there, described in stark detail.

Of course, there’s plenty of stuff to work on in between changing your oil and adding an extra room. Bathroom renovation, for example, is a popular do-it-yourself project, and there are tons of websites dedicated to the process.

Obviously the motivation for bathroom renovation is severalfold. First, you’d obviously like your bathoom to have a different look or feel. I know that my parents’ bathroom looked very different in the 1980s than it does today. As they got older, my dad renovated it to have a more classic, timeless look than the "Modern" look it sported 30 years ago. Of course that modern look is now a terribly dated look, while the classic look is now perfectly modern. Time paradox!

Secondly, maybe your bathroom isn’t up to snuff in terms of functionality. Perhaps you need a toilet with bigger pipes, or the showerhead doesn’t provide enough water pressure, or the sink drips. All of these are bathroom renovation projects that people throughout the country take on daily, and all of these have detailed project specs online and at your fingertips. All it takes is a quick google search, and you’re there.

And of course, when doing something like bathroom renovation, the goal is to save money. Sure you could get a professional in, but they’re going to charge you an arm and a leg. Doing it yourself means your only overhead is the cost of materials and whatever value you place on your time and labor. Me, I can hardly open a jar of pickles, let alone replace a toilet, so I’d probably just have a plumber come in. It’s not worth the time or the effort to me to work on something that I’ll probably get wrong in the end, anyway.

But if you’re a little more adept in teh manly arts, you might want to give it a shot and see if you can’t save yourself a few hundred bucks. In the end, that’s more money you can spend on beer to celebrate your domestic triumphs.

Which, of course, is the final reason that most people take on bathroom renovation. A man’s home is his castle, and you can’t be king if you’ve not fully conquered your castle. Enjoy that victory, men.

Tags: bathroom renovation

Whether your dining room furniture is casual or formal in style, it need not fall into the ‘museum look’ of never changing décor. While your dining room furnishings are more or less permanent fixtures, we’ve got six dining room decorating ideas you can use to keep your dining area looking freshly decorated at all times. This may sound like an audacious claim, but let’s explore the possibilities before you pass judgment. Each of these dining room decorating ideas are inexpensive and require little effort!

1.Think seasonal! Seasonal themes are one of the easiest ways to bring a new look to your dining room. Wreaths, decorated for each season, are easily made with items from the crafts store. Buy a wreath made of straw, rattan, grape vines or foam. Ribbons, dried flowers, silk flowers, little faux birdies or fruit, gingerbread men, branches of berries or fresh flowers from your garden are all works of art waiting for you to assemble and disassemble on a moment’s notice. Change your ribbons every now and then and swap out faded fresh flowers for new ones. Allocate a spot in the dining room for your wreaths. When summer has passed, bring out your fall themed wreath. Store summer’s wreath in a box in the garage.

2.Keep a varied stock of flower vases. For example, a red glass vase makes a fine holiday display case for a mix of holiday greens, holly or poinsettias. A white ceramic vase can showcase a mix of colorful dried flowers. Tiny blue bud vases at each place setting are stunning with a small bunch of marigolds. Keep your eyes open at garage sales and thrift shops for attractive vases. This is one of the least expensive and easiest of dining room decorating ideas to add to your repertoire.

3.House plants are another decorative touch that brings a lively touch to the dining room. Many house plants enjoy a seasonal rotation. That hanging spider plant which thrives in a north facing bedroom during the summer will benefit from some additional light in a south-facing dining room during the winter.

4.If you’ve got school age children, this dining room decorating idea is sure to be a hit. Designate some wall space in the dining room for the kid’s art and craft projects. When they bring home their Halloween, holiday, Valentine or other seasonal craft projects, show them off in the ‘kid’s corner’. The kids will be proud to see their projects displayed and your dining room has fresh decorations and conversation pieces.

5.Changing your table settings often, everyone has something new to look forward to when they sit down to eat. Start collecting several different sets of place mats. Alternate the use of place mats with brightly patterned, casual tablecloths and reserve a damask linen or two for special occasions.

6.The last of our easy dining room decorating ideas concerns window treatments. Changing from sheer white curtain panels for summer to a heavier drape and valance for fall not only brings a brand new look to the whole dining room, but helps on the energy front too, retaining heat in the cooler months. If your dining room has a bright exposure, a set of neutral colored levelors allows you to adjust for brightness and works for all the seasons. Coordinating the colors of your window treatments with place mats and linens is easy, so combining this strategy can give the impression of a mini-makeover to your whole dining room decorating scheme.

You’ll see that each of these dining room decorating ideas can be adapted to casual, formal or whimsical interpretations, with little effort or expense. Simply swapping out a few decorative items now and then keeps your dining room a place where everyone will enjoy congregating for meal time! 

Tags: dining room decorating ideas, dining room decorating