New at IKEA

IKEA must have hired quite a few talented designers lately as they are coming out with new and not so IKEA like styles. One example is the fabric of the Emmie bed linen and cushions. Very French and summery! Pictures are press pictures from IKEA.

The new Australian homes A whole new class of design

Australian Hhomes

The new homes coming on the market are a true departure from the “El Cheapo” designs of the past. These are real designer homes, excellent quality and they’re Big with a capital B. They represent totally different living spaces and environments from their predecessors and they’re built to provide a different lifestyle. The modern Australian home comes with a lot of smart features like a

retractable awning, high tech house control systems in big hybrid open plan and CAD-based partitioned interiors.

The new interior architecture and designs

The new interiors are really advanced designs, using a range of options to provide a good, well-insulated environment from the Australian sun and dealing with the issues of coastal design as well. This is a revolution in a way, because in the past the interiors were “conveyor belt” BV designs, not particularly original, using low grade materials and cost-based, meaning great for developers’ bottom lines, and not much else. The stampede to better quality housing is a clear indicator that the end of that type of building is here to stay.

The days of shoddy mass-produced homes are well and truly over, and the days of unfussy homebuyers are also gone, from the look of the housing market. Quality is taking over, and materials are now an essential part of Australian home design. The new interiors usually have extremely high quality hardwood or tiled floors, top quality carpets, best practice environmental management, and a stream of extras which didn’t even exist when much of urban Australia was built in the 70s and 80s.

The new exteriors- Designer materials and ideas all the way

It’s fair to say that the exteriors have also had a drastic makeover. Much of the technology creating the fabulous new sunscreen blinds also didn’t exist during the building booms of the past. That’s one of the reasons the new buildings are so conspicuously different. The other reason is that the new environmental control concepts now extend outside the building, using the big sunscreens to deal with heat and light much more efficiently.

The new buildings really are a different species. They’re geared to a different world. The modern home can be huge, containing many features which older homes simply didn’t have and some which didn’t even exist in theory before. Something as basic as air conditioning, for example, was previously a “turn it on and hope for the best” technology. Now, it’s a science, with programmable units saving megawatts every day thanks to better environmental controls built in to the design.

The big new exteriors are unprecedented in design terms. It’s a whole new class of design technology, reinventing exteriors as living spaces and simultaneously dealing with a lot of issues which have plagued Australian home design since the colonial era. Designer materials and much better approaches to environmental management have produced an entirely different type of building.

This technology, from the sunscreens to the interior design concepts, is only in its infancy. In ten years, it’s completely changed the face of urban Australia. The future definitely isn’t going to be dull.

Cass City MI New cedar deck and pergola

Hello again, here is our latest project. 16x24 Cedar deck with a pergola, way up into the thumb of Michigan. First I would like to Thank Mr. and Mrs. P. for hiring us for the project. We have never had any nicer customer then they were to us, a complete pleasure to work for!

Here is the design

Here a few framing pictures

Working on the decking and pergola

Railings in

Pergola rafter cuts

Stamped concrete walkway

Final pictures

Thanks for reading

New England meets Danish White

Together with one of the many interior design magazines I buy when I travel I got a brochure from the Danish furniture company Oliver Furniture. Their furniture is white, New England looking and the website great, saved in my inspirational file!

New House Design Ideas

Are you planning to do some house refurbishing? There are many new home designs today that you can choose from to make various areas of your house more updated. Whether youre going to have some minor touch-ups or a total remodeling, architects and interior designers today offer a lot of fresh concepts for the different styles of houses. Here are some suggestions that you can apply to various parts of your home.

The minimalist concept of open spaces is one of the most popular choices for home owners today. If youve got a good enough budget to refurbish your home and would like to add the feeling of serenity and freedom, having an outdoor room is a great idea. If your living or dining area thats right beside your garden, you can open up that area so it can lead directly to your outdoor area. Put sliding doors so you can close the area at night. You can have the Japanese shoji doors or the conventional sliding ones. If youve got stone tiles as your flooring material, you can choose matching tiles for the outside space so you can have an instant patio. If youve got wooden flooring inside, you can continue to have this material outside and have a deck where you can relax.

If you want a new house design, but arent planning to touch any part of your home, you can create a modern atmosphere through your furniture. Many homes today have limited spaces. These call for furniture with multiple functions. If you need some seats, look for a bench that also works as a chest so you can also have a storage unit. This idea works also when trying to find coffee tables. Other space-saving furniture items include sofa-beds and desks that you can fold up against the wall when not needed. You can also buy beds and couches with drawers underneath.

However, if youve got plenty of space in your home and would like to inject comfort and elegance into it, try getting oversized, extra-comfy chairs and sofas. Furniture of this type gives your home the appeal of a luxury hotel. For your dining room, one option you can do that will bring a big change is to bring in cushioned high-back chairs for your dining table.

Lastly, you can easily pick up ideas from the nice places that you go to. When you go to grand lobbies of buildings, rooms in hotels, and other modern venues, observe which items you like and try to bring those concepts into your home.

New Home Interior Design Ideas

Many interior design students want to get into new home interior design. It is a fun career with lots of interaction with people. When people purchase a new home, they immediately want to start on designing. This is where the educated interior designer comes in handy. They will instruct their clients that major re-design could affect your decorating for years to come. If you choose a bold color for the walls, will your furniture be coordinated? Alternatively, do you have to purchase new furniture? Many people will paint their walls a neutral color and then alter their design plans later. It is easy to get carried away when all you see are large open empty rooms. Try working on one room at a time, that way you can blend one room into another.

Students will learn all aspects of new home interior design such as wallpapering is not as popular as it once was as many people have found that removing wallpaper is not a pleasant task. Instead of wallpaper for your new home interior design, choose a creative wall finish such as faux finishing, sponging or stenciling. These types of finish will add texture to your walls. In addition, they are easier to change than wallpaper. If you really must use wallpaper, try using just a border.

New home interior design can involve simple tips and or tricks that all students will learn. Such as for a small room, try a light wall color. For a large room try contrasting colors and textures. When you are ready to accessorize try using accent colors to really make the room modern and pleasing to the eye.
Placing of mirrors and wall hangings such as pictures and art will go a long way in completing your new home interior design plans. However, do not over clutter the walls. Establish some key focal points around the room that will complement the overall design of your room.

The room sizes of your new home will likely be different from your previous home. Thus, it is important to plan the design themes of your new home. Get a tape measure, start measuring the dimensions of the rooms, and measure your furniture and even the doorways. You may find that the box spring will not go up the winding staircase thus causing you to create a main floor bedroom. New home interior design can be fun but also stressful and expensive for the client, so it is up to the designer to stay within the allotted budget and also provide an excellent service.

White New England Charm

The owner of what used to be one of my favorite shops and (lunch time past times) is selling her wonderful home. Inspiration for the interior is clearly New England but with a Scandinavian touch to it, absolutely lovely! First out the kitchen that mixes white, warmer woods, modern country (stove and handles) and industrial (pendant lights and tolix stools) with a stunning result!

New Lighting Eurolice Voltolina 2011

In relation to securities of the mobile exhibition in 2011, the company has developed a new line of Murano glass chandeliers. The glass is the color purple. Voltolina known company, which is the same Venetian glass lamps, furniture seems Euroluce Exhibition 2011 in Milan, offering a new line of subjects who developed a new and valuable chandeliers.

Cloud is a new range of Murano glass lamps and six lights and blown completely and exclusively presented on the International Exhibition lighting with new colors are hot and trendy as orange, black and violet leaves .

Reach a certain charm, but this time more on modern and contemporary design, the new series of chandeliers designed by Brian Rasmussen. This lamp is made? For Murano glass.

Medusa is a hanging lamp, which incorporates the historic masters of art glass with the latest trends and brightness are more suggestive. New products are made? In the form of a single color, two colors and colorful and come in shades of amethyst as glamorous green, emerald and black.

The color purple is much lighter and more modern trend, however, thanks to special treatment, and white glass, make a great shade and allows a natural white light.

A new walk out cedar deck

Sorry for not keeping up with the blog, It has been about a month since we have last updated the blog. We have been busy on a large project for the last 3 weeks, and that is what we are going to review today.

This project is up in Port Huron MI.  It is in a very hilly area, around the Black River, kinda feels like being up north in Michigan. There is extreme grade changes under the deck, one side is about 30" off of grade, and the other side is about 9 off of grade. On both sides of the deck there is 30 - 40 drop off cliffs, so site access was a challenge.

Here is a before picture   

The design pictures

We demoed the old deck in about 4 hours, it was all cantilevered framing from the house joist. There was only one support post on the old deck, we had to add 21 posts with post hole footings.



With the extreme grade conditions, and some Ivy ground cover under the new deck space, Digging the post hole footings was not much fun.

 

After day two we had the footings done and it took the rest of the week to complete framing portion of the deck, which was around 800 sq ft.

In week two we started by installing  the deck boards(all screws), on the upper level.  There is three seperate areas where the decking is running on 45 degree angles and separated by center seam boards to avoid butt joints.

Once we installed the decking on both levels we cut in the picture frame border

 The opposite 45 degree angles with the center seam board.

Next we went onto installing the two tiered fascia and rail posts

Finally we installed the 2x4 builders railings with posts caps and deckorators classic balusters. We also pre-stained the 2x4 rails and 4x4 posts with Messmers UV Plus natural cedar.

Now we are into week 3 where we built the stairs, and completly stained the deck

A few final pictures from the roof

Thanks for reading