Design & Decoration of Specific Rooms (11)

Decorating a Patio Room
More and more people are treating their backyard like another room. They are designing their back yard like a room - patio rooms- furnishing with garden furniture and patio furniture, garden accessories, patio umbrellas, fireplaces and propane patio heaters. This article discusses making your own birdhouses, creating a window box, creating a patio room vignette, using patio stones to connect rooms, patio flooring, and landscape lighting. Your landscape and garden design will be as individual as you are, just like the interior of your home: in your style, your way.

Design an Outdoor Room
What better to create a room outside your home that you can enjoy in the warm months. An outdoor room is not just a garden or a yard. It's a cozy, inviting space that makes you want to sit and enjoy your environment. It's like taking your living room or dining room outside - in a weatherproof way, of course. Tips include creating a floor that defines the space, using stone, wood or other flooring. Possibilities are slate flagstones, brick, manufactured pavers, gravel, or any artful combination of these. Think about adding a roof to your room. A retractable awning can add color, interest and a great summery feeling while protecting you a bit from the elements. Or build a pergola over all or part of your space. Then train flowering vines such as wisteria over it for a soft, shady space and a lovely fragrance.

Outdoor Rooms
This website has a ton of links for great outdoor living. Tips and links include: hardware cloth luminaria, lawn games, outdoor party décor, summer entertaining, landscape lighting, porch swings, sleeping porches, creating a garden room, country porches, rustic porches, French-style verandas, brining indoors outside, decorated deck benches, terra cotta patios, tile-inlaid patios, charming brick patios, resurfacing patios, installing moon lighting and more.

Organize Your Garage by Good Housekeeping
While you may not decorate your garage, it’s always a good idea to keep it organized and looking cleaned up, rather then delegate the garage as a dumping ground for misplaced objects and miscellaneous tools. This article on the Good Housekeeping website show you how to reclaim the space and organize it with five simple ideas. One is to reclaim your parking space by utilizing the walls with a pegboard system. You can also mount shelves above the board. Another idea is to set up a work space for those DIY projecdt and repairs. YOu need a counter-heaight table, a rolling car with wheel locks (ideal), or a set of sawhorses that you can put a countertop on. Use loft-like stoarge or easily installed rack units to hold those seasonal items, such as holiday decor or outdoor gear. Put in a lockable, well ventilated cabinet to store dangerous chemicals. And finally, toss out stuff you're really not going to need.