Making the most of your space

Roughly seven in ten homeowners in Britain say they are not happy with their home and 28% of participants stated that their home is simply too small for them…

So, how can this be resolved? By making just a few changes to your home, some DIY spirit, a few decent decorating tools and a bit of good old fashioned elbow grease you can quite literally transform your home to not only appear bigger but to have much more useable space. Try a few of the tips and tricks in the infographic below and you’ll be surprised how much of a difference you can make.

The Colorful World of Laminate Flooring

Flooring is not something that you would frequently consider as a key aspect of your home design. After all, when looking around your own or someone else’s home, you will rarely look at their floor first. Normally it’s their wallpaper, mirror or other decorative feature instead.

In reality however the floor is the most critical aspect of your room design. This is because the tone and color pallet of your floor, acts as a catalyst to the rest of your room design. From wall coverings to furniture, it all goes through what kind of floor you have in the room.

From tiled flooring to natural hardwood flooring, each type and style will affect the direction that your home design will take.

So what if there was a type of floor which is flexible enough to meet your exact design ambitions, while also delivering the charisma found within natural hardwood flooring.

Thankfully there is such a combination – the colorful world of laminate flooring.

This is one of the most customizable forms of home flooring, allowing you to fulfill your design ambitions by designing from the ground up.

This is thanks to a thin printed layer within each piece of laminate flooring, allowing for a wide range of colours and shades, normally difficult to obtain in natural wood flooring.

For example, take a look at our white laminate flooring, offering a distinctive wood look and feel in a sleek and cool white finish; allowing light to envelop the room like nothing else.

What’s better is that this does not need staining or any other expensive work to achieve this look. So how does laminate flooring achieve this feat?

It all lies in its design, as each piece consist of a durable and hardwearing central layer – which the printed design is layered on. After this a transparent layer is then placed over this, creating the desired effect.

This allows for multiple colors and grain effects including brown, oak effect, black and grey laminate flooring.

This offers limitless possibilities when renovating your home as with a simple snap, click installation common with most laminate designs, you can completely change the tone of any room.

For example say you are looking to maintain the soothing and sophisticated look in your bedroom yet need to replace your aging carpet. Then how about some brown laminate wood flooring. On the other side of things, say you were wanting to define your new dining room space, how about some traditional oak laminate flooring, for a traditional restraint look and feel.

What’s great is how long this new color and tone will remain within the home. Bypassing the fragility and high maintenance of tiles, hardwood and vinyl floors; the 4 layers found in laminate gives it enhanced durability.

This makes it a great option for rooms with heavy traffic levels such as the living room, thanks to its hardwearing design. This also means it is easier to clean and maintain, as spillages and dirt can simply be mopped away, without much risk to your floor.

Once this foundation is down then you can begin to design your room around the unique tones and color pallets available with laminate wood flooring, or even simply find the color that’s fits your current design.

Top Advantages To Installing Solar Shades In Your Home

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If you’re looking to replace your current blinds or shades over your windows, you’ll definitely want to give solar shades a close look.

Solar shades are unique over other kinds of window treatments in that they work by reflecting the rays of the sunlight rather than allowing it to come through the window, while simultaneously absorbing the heat from outside.

The best analogy would be to think of solar shades as sunglasses. Your sunglasses can both filter and shield sunlight, and solar shades are the same way.

Now that you know what solar shades are and why they work, you might be wondering why exactly they would be a wise investment for your home.

Here are the top advantages to installing solar shades in your home:

They Are Available In Numerous Designs

Most blinds and shades are available in a wide variety of styles, designs, colors, shapes, and textures, and solar shades are no exception. It’s not like you’re limited to just one or two designs. You can certainly find a set of shades that will complement the colors and furniture in your room to give that room a more appealing and attractive look and feel to it.

They Block UV Rays

One of the best benefits to solar shades is the fact that they are effective at blocking ultraviolet (UV) rays. This is important for your family’s health, because UV rays can potentially cause diseases such as skin cancer.

They Protect Your Furniture

There are many natural enemies of furniture, including spilled beverages, pet hair, and of course, sunlight. In fact, sunlight can really degrade your furniture and cause it to lose value. Solar shades are very efficient at filtering out sunlight and especially UV light, which means you’ll protect the investment you made into your furniture.

They More Efficiently Regulate Heat

Solar shades do far more than just keep sunlight out of your home. They are also very efficient at minimizing the amount of heat that transfer into your home from the outdoors. When that heat is blocked, it means that your home can feel like a cool haven from the hot and humid air that’s outside.

They Reduce The Need For Air Conditioning

Since solar shades work wonders for reducing the temperature inside of your house during a warm summer day, the need for your air conditioning is naturally reduced. This will enable you to save more on money.

Furthermore, during the winter, solar shades will likewise to help conserve the heat inside of your home, which will make your home more energy efficient and also help you to cut your expenditures on your monthly bills.

Installing Solar Shades

Our solar shades the only great window treatment option? No, but they definitely are among the most technologically advanced window treatment options available, and are an excellent way to improve your home without spending a ton of money.

Top Tips for Renting Out Your Spare Room

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If you’re looking for some extra cash, you might have considered renting out your spare room. This is a great idea that works well, but it is important that you consider everything before letting someone move in. We’ve put together a list of some things that you should consider when deciding to rent your room out.

Get References

If you are going to let someone move into your home while you are living with it, you want to make sure that both you and your property are safe. By asking prospective tenants for references from previous landlords, you can figure out who is the best tenant for you. Perform a few of your own background checks, have a look at their public online presence if you possible to understand what sort of person they are!

Providing Facilities

There are some rules when it comes to renting a room. You need to consider that you will have to include a bathroom and access to your kitchen. Although you may not want to share your space with them, it is not as simple as letting them sleep on your spare bed.

If you’d like to make some extra cash but don’t have the space, you could always use the space in your garden to build somewhere. You can buy all the custom-made parts from Armstrong Steel and have them ship it to you. This way you can build a steel building for your new tenant and give them more space!

Advertising the Room

If you’re going to rent a room, make sure that you advertise it in a safe place. You don’t want your message to reach the wrong people and you also don’t want to be only getting responses from time wasters! Using a trusted website such as Easy Roommate to advertise your room will make sure that everything is using the right channel. You don’t even need to pay to list it here so take a look at our advice on listing rooms.

Set Rules

People who rent out their spare rooms often have issues with their tenants doing things that they don’t want them to. This is why it is important to set out some ground rules before the tenant moves in. If you don’t want them playing music at 1am or having people over, make sure to tell them before they sign anything. This way you can avoid any problems and be happy with your tenant. Although even if you set rules and get references for the tenants you can still run into problems.  For that reason it's best to purchase cheap landlord insurance so that you are insured for damages to the home caused by renters.  

Inform the Right People

If you own the house you live in, you cannot simply just rent out your room. It is important that you inform both your mortgage provider and your insurer just in case something happens. By doing this you will cover your tracks and ensure that everything goes to plan.

Summary

Overall, we think that is important that you make sure to consider everything when you are thinking about renting out a room in your home. Being a live-in landlord is different to one that is not present so make sure to do your research!

The Do's and Don'ts of Good Landscaping Design

Creating a lovely yard requires more than a shovel and a few potted plants. It takes a lot of design, planning, and elbow grease - all in that order. Once you’re through with the design, you have to carefully plan how to implement it. However, in every stage, you must know what to do or not to do if you’re to succeed. Let’s look at some of the do’s and don’ts of proper landscaping.

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Do Keep Some Grass

Are you tired of digging deep into your finances to maintain the lawn? Then replacing the grass with a deck or brick paving seems like a good idea. But as far as aesthetic appeal and feet-friendliness are concerned, having a fully-paved yard might not be such a bright idea. So how do you strike a compromise between cost and yard appeal? Simply mix the natural and artificial. By all means, install the paving, but also retain some grass.

Don’t Mix Landscaping Styles

About the styles to use, what’s the secret to effective landscaping? In one word, it’s “consistency.” When you pick a theme, stick to it from one end of the yard to the other. And as tempting as it might be, avoid throwing in any beautiful style that you see on your drive home. Doing so only turns your backyard into a cluttered, embarrassing mess.

Do Create a Centerpiece

Looking out over the yard, do you see any feature that draws your eye? Or, do you see only grass? Now picture the same yard with a small pond, elaborate fountain, or cozy fire pit. Even in your mind, you immediately notice the effect such a centerpiece would have. So, install one, but don’t go overboard. Remember, the idea is to create an affordable, eye-catching focal point, not an overly-fancy, expensive one.

Don’t Plant Non-Native Species

This can’t be repeated enough: Never install a plant that isn’t native to your climate or location, no matter how beautiful it is. But how much harm can it do, anyway? It can do a lot of harm, especially if you start with your pocket. For starters, plants that can’t adapt to the local climate soon wither, leaving you with another landscaping bill on your hands.

And just like weeds, they can turn invasive and spread uncontrollably from your yard and into the neighborhood. So how do you know which species are best suited to your location? You consult a professional, of course.

Do Consult a Professional

So, you have no clue about landscaping? Then know this: there’s no such thing as an accidental masterpiece in either landscaping or anywhere else for that matter. An appealing yard is always the result of detailed planning and extensive know-how, not of shifting things around hoping for the best. So instead of making a mess of things, consult landscaping teams like Architectural Landscape Design, and let them design the yard for you.

Don’t Plant Trees Close to the House

Despite being native to your area, trees have no place near your house. In fact, the farther away from the house you plant them, the better. And here’s why. During winter, snow-laden tree branches often break and fall onto your roof, costing you thousands of dollars in repair bills.

So how far from the house should you plant a tree? For short trees, make that no less than 20 feet. But for tall trees, the minimum distance increases to 50 feet.

As you landscape, remember to compromise between beauty and cost. Install stand out elements that catch the eye but without clashing with each other, damaging the environment, or destroying the house.