Patio Layout & Placement Time: 02:54 Designer/contractor Scott Cohen takes you to several homes to show you ideas for patio placement and layout in your yard. One of the greatest mistakes I see made by novice designers is the tendency to place one large slab patio at the rear of the house. While this might be a traditional layout, in actuality it is rarely practical. For the best and most functional patio design, you need to consider exposure [...]
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You may not realize it, but how you place your furniture and the furniture you choose make a huge difference in your décor. No matter what size room your working with; we can help you create a look that is pleasing and functional. You can transform a room with the right furniture placement and create the atmosphere and ambiance you want. Whether you are opting for a formal look or a more casual atmosphere, you can create beautiful rooms, with the [...]
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Sitting between two properly-spaced speakers is like having the prime seat at your favorite concert venue. In a Nutshell Want to get the most of your stereo speakers? Follow these tips for better sound: Place your seat the same distance from your speakers as they are from each other. In other words, your chair and speakers should form an equal-sided triangle. Angle your speakers inward to focus their sound toward your listening position. Avoid placing [...]
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To determine the size of your new deck, consider how you plan to use it. If you like to entertain, you ll need a large deck with lots of seating. If you plan to grill out on occasion and perhaps dine at a bistro-style table with two chairs, then a smaller deck will do. A family of four that is comfortable dining around a 5-foot-long table will need twice that much space to push back chairs about three feet and safely walk around the table. You should [...]
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How to position your bed for good bedroom feng shui Because your bed is the biggest (hopefully!) and the most important piece of furniture in your bedroom, it is very important to follow a good feng shui bedroom layout. Positioning your bed in the best feng shui spot for your bedroom will create better energy in your space, and you will be the one to benefit from it! Let’s look at the 3 best feng shui bedroom layouts, understand what makes them so [...]
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The first task that should be done in any home theater design is choosing the number and type of seats. That’s probably surprising to most enthusiasts as they think that equipment is the first thing that should be selected! In fact seating choices end up dictating a lot of other things including room dimensions, acoustic treatment and subwoofer / speaker type and placement. There are two ways to go about designing seating: from the “outside in” or [...]
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Mirrors have a variety of uses in the home, such as reflecting light, opening up space and generally enhancing the decor. However, there are a few guidelines that you should follow when hanging mirrors around your house. We asked professional interior designer Vanessa Deleon, host of SpacesTV’s “Your Place is a Dealbreaker” and featured designer for Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible, ” for her expert advice on decorating with mirrors. DO use large [...]
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Jenn recently approached me asking for decorating help with her small, awkwardly shaped Living Room. She is tired of her hand-me-down furniture and is looking for something stylish, neutral and more modern. The first thing I always tackle whenever I start a new room design is the space plan. And, you’d be amazed at what a difference a new furniture arrangement alone, can make in a room. When I do a custom decorating plan for clients I would only every [...]
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Create a Focal Point Every room needs a focal point, an eye-catching spot that establishes a hierarchy so you don t see just a jumble. Many times, the focal point is the head of the bed, which you can amplify with an arrangement of bold pillows. When organizing small spaces, your eye might also be attracted to the window. Rather than let these two strong elements compete for attention, place the bed in front of the window to meld cohesively. Or, dress [...]
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Buying a rug is like buying a dress for your grandma – it can be kinda overwhelming, there are a lot of factors to consider, and if you buy one that is too small she just might wear it out of obligation and then you’ll have to live with yourself as the weird guy that bought their grandma a tube dress, that she wore to your cousin’s baptism. How to choose the righ t rug size for your space is difficult, especially when rugs are notoriously kinda expensive [...]
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Creating a furniture layout can be one of the most difficult parts of making an interior design come together. Maybe you already have all the pieces but you re just not sure how to make them fit together with the right floor plan. Or perhaps you re starting from scratch and wondering how to invest in the right furniture. One of the most important features of a well designed room is having a properly proportioned, well laid out floor plan. Digital [...]
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Ikea s new catalogue app allows customers to place 3-D versions of furniture in their homes. Image: IkeaThe physical catalogue acts as an anchor for the virtual furniture and a way to gauge the correct scale for the products shown on screen. Image: Ikea The hardest part about buying furniture from Ikea is not constructing it. It’s making sure it’s going to look good in your home. The truth is, most of us are not equipped with the trained eye of an [...]
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A fireplace can be an appealing addition to any room, home, or business. However, some people find that a traditional, flat-front style fireplace does not meet their needs. As a result, more people are installing corner space-saving wood burning fireplaces in their dwellings or businesses. Mason-Lite specializes in all sizes and styles of fireplaces, including smaller units that tuck neatly in a corner. Our team of fireplace experts can listen to [...]
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Following from our last article on Feng Shui bed guidelines, we now take a look at Feng Shui bed placement. Furniture positioning is one of the most important elements in Feng Shui. To place our bed appropriately we must first find the ‘commanding position.’ The commanding position is the area of the room furthest from the door that is not in line with the door. More often than not, this is the area diagonally opposite the door. This enables you to [...]
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Feng Shui involves many principles for the auspicious (or favorable) positioning of your bed. To take advantage of as many of them as you can, use common sense, along with the conditions of your individual room, to make the best choices possible. For example, Commanding Position concept shows you how to achieve the most powerful bed position according to one Feng Shui school of thought. If you see that your bedroom doesn’t meet these criteria — don’t [...]
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Tips and tricks from interior designers to make your family room design functional for the whole family. Next to the kitchen, the family room is the most occupied space in any home. Choosing a family room design that works for everyone in the house can be a challenge, but Kelly Edwards, designer and host of HGTV s Design on a Dime, suggests choosing the right design doesn t have to be such a daunting task. What makes for a great family room design? [...]
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Q: Where should I put my TV? —Deirdre H. A: Deirdre, ahh, the perpetual question about where to put the TV. Interestingly, this issue has become both easier and harder to resolve over the past years — here are some thoughts. This dilemma has become easier — I can still remember 15 or 20 years ago when one could always easily spot the oversized armoire looming over the family room with the poorly concealed purpose of housing the TV (as well as blocking [...]
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5. The Higher the Curtains, the Better Go as high as you can possibly go,Surmelis says. Sassaman agrees: In most situations, it s best to hang drapes from the ceilings to the floors—it makes the ceilings seem a lot higher and expands the room. If you go too small—either the curtains are too short or hung too low—they seem like an afterthought, Surmelis explains. You should also hang curtains 1 to 2 feet beyond where the casement ends to make the [...]
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Question: I want to position my bed according to Feng Shui. At the moment it directly faces the door which is not good, but on the other two walls are a window and a radiator so I cannot place it there either! It is a fairly small room. There is also no space between the bed and the door when I can place a piece of furniture to block the energy. Help! Answer: When the bed is in direct line with the door, it is referred to the coffin position. This [...]
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If you plan on burning a fire while watching TV, it s important that the place you ll be hanging your TV doesn t exceed the recommended temperatures noted on the unit s technical specifications. Too much heat adversely affects a TV s lifespan and creates a situation that may void product warranties. To check surface temperature, tape a thermometer onto the wall or fireplace face when a fire s blazing in the hearth. If the temp is higher than what [...]
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Recently a reader asked for my help with the placement of furniture in her 20 foot square living room after reading my blog post titled “Arranging furniture around a Fireplace in the Corner of a Room“. Initially I thought the … Continue reading → Throughout the year, taste-makers extraordinaire, Bunny Williams and her husband John Roselli graciously open up their Litchfield County estate to help a number of charities. Recently my friend Marguerite [...]
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Hi Jeffrey, My partner and I recently purchased a semi-detached house in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood. The previous owners renovated most of the main and top floor, making it the perfect space for us. However, we’re having trouble figuring out how to configure our living room furniture. Upon entering the front door we walk into an open-concept living and dining room. There is a three-foot long wall that separates the entrance from the living [...]
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Designer Kenneth Wingard helps you lay out your master bedroom in 5 simple steps. By: Kenneth Wingard Whether you’re in a new home with a large master suite or a one-bedroom apartment, there are both easy and challenging parts to laying out the bedroom. The easy parts: there aren’t that many pieces of furniture to configure and no one is really going to see it except family. The challenging parts: it includes the biggest piece of furniture in your [...]
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According to Benjamin Franklin, early to bed and early to rise was supposed to make us healthy, wealthy and wise. And Ben Franklin was right. He understood the importance of proper rest and being industrious and productive during our daylight hours. There’s no arguing that a good night’s sleep makes you feel like you can take on the world. Having enough sleep will make you less prone to disease, more effective in your job, a more pleasant person to [...]
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