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How to Coordinate Colors for your Outdoor Home

Sun, 01 May 2011 14:04:28 +0000

If you are challenged in choosing exterior colors for your home, join everyone else who thinks the same as you do! Unlike your interiors that depend on your mood, furnishings, and adjacent finishes, your outdoor home has many factors to consider as well. Factors like adjacent neighboring homes, natural habitat and surroundings, can be a challenge when trying to coordinate colors and choosing trim, accent and main colors for your home. While paint manufacturer’s and home improvement web sites may be helpful, don’t overlook observing the existing environment for helping you coordinate exterior home colors. Draw inspiration from nature: Walk around your home and see what colors occur naturally around your home. A house located in the mountains with evergreen trees in the vicinity will be a different inspiration from a home that’s situated on the beach with sand and water as the backdrop. Coordinate colors of your home to mimic nature, or to compliment it. Homes in the mountains do well with rustic tones of browns, deep burgundy, and greens. While homes near water do well with inspiring blues, sandy beiges and soft yellows. Get inspired by nature, it will never lead you astray when choosing coordinating colors. Get help from professionals: Depending on where you live, local paint manufacturer’s and exterior home designers can help you choose the perfect mix of colors for your exterior home. Most manufacturers websites will feature paint combination’s for your main home, accent colors for shutters, and trim, and even suggestions for color families that will coordinate well with the colors that you may or may not like. Decide if you want your exterior home to match in the same color families as your neighbors, or if you want to be a rebel and go totally opposite! Visit other neighborhoods: While you can get inspiration from your own backyard you can also get inspiration from visiting different neighborhoods, vacationing and searching the internet for inspiring exterior color combination’s. If you see a home you like, and you can talk to the owner, ask them what coordinating color combination’s they used. Many homeowners use resources from architects and designers that are pre-selected and are featured in designer lines and features. While some people come up with coordinating colors from their ‘eye’ of good home inspiration. Color your home with what YOU love: Whether you like the color of the setting sun or you enjoy the blue of a perfect cloudless day, color your home with inspiration from your life. Many of us get caught up in the latest trends from designers or what your neighbors are doing, instead, be original and love your home. Exterior colors should reflect your own personal style, and make you feel good every time you pull into your driveway. When coordinating your exterior colors, also consider coordinating them with your life! Whether you are building a home, or have decided to change the exterior colors on your 100 year-old home, coordinating exterior colors should be enjoyable and purposeful. Ask your family members and friends for help if you are having troubles deciding. Visit your local home improvement store and ask for trial size paint quantities in the shades you are considering. Go home, and paint a small area on your exterior home, and let dry, and observe the different shades. This will help you decide before you make a commitment. Go ahead, be bold and feel confident now in picking out your coordinating colors for your exterior home. Freshome readers do you find it a challenge to choose exterior colors? Do you have any suggestions for those that do? Ready for more amazing design ideas? Check below ! How to Choose Welcoming Walkway Elements for your Exterior Home Bayside Outdoor Modular Sofa Set How to Design your Room Decor around your Bold Area Rug How to Choose Modern Garden Furniture for your Patio How to Maximize your Interior Views with Outdoor Landscaping B&B Italia’s Crinoline Collection: Outdoor ecstasy Click here to connect with Freshome on or on

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How to Coordinate Colors for your Outdoor Home

Flower Arranging 101: Dress Up Your Home and Impress Your Friends

admin — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:08:34 +0000

Filed under: Crafts , Essential Skills , Know-How , Crafts & Celebrations With this five-step guide to arranging bouquets, you can skip the florist and head straight to the flower market (or better yet, your garden). My ideal self does a lot of things well. I speak different languages fluently, I never drip paint on the floor while doing simple touch-ups and I arrange flowers effortlessly and beautifully while wearing a lovely apron and telling some charming joke. Want flower arrangements like these? All photos: Amy Preiser And now, thanks to floral subscription company H.Bloom , I’m one step closer to my ideal self. As a preview of the new flower arranging classes they’re offering in their New York and Washington DC locations, they invited me and a friend to a tutorial with their experts — and wine and cheese. I can’t share the snacks (sorry!) but I can take you through the step-by-step guide. Flower Arranging Step #1: Pick your flowers. Pick your color palate. Choose flowers in groups of threes. We chose ours from a mix of big blooms like Yellow Spider Mums (yellow flowers with lots of skinny petals), Coffee Break Roses (dark roses), Free Spirit Roses (bright orange roses) and Esperance Roses pink-and-white roses) and then moved onto accents like Happy Romance Hypericum (red berries), Erica Pink Bliss Heather (fluffy pink/purple stems), White Hybrid Waxflower (small white flowers on branches) and Yellow Solidago (fluffy yellow stems). But when it comes to your bouquet, remember this: Just pick what you like, and what you feel goes together best. Flower Arranging Step #2: Clear everything off of the stem, except the good stuff on top. That includes the leaves. Toss all the extra aside and only focus on the long stems with beautiful leaves and flowers up top. Not only will this give you a healthier arrangement but it will look better and be easier to manage. Flower Arranging Step #3: Start with one flower in your hand and place the second flower’s stem diagonally across it. Slightly turn your hand, then add the next flower. This is really the key for arranging a hand-tied bouquet. You’re always turning your hand and “crossing” a new flower into the mix. This is the creative part — use your eye to continuously try to fill out the bouquet to make it look round and full, while keeping the flowers at similar heights. Make sure to alternate between the flowers to keep the mix interesting. And when it looks just right, use the leaves to surround your bouquet. Flower Arranging Step #4: Tie things off and cut the stems It’s easiest if you have a friend to help you. At H.Bloom we used Oasis wire , but if you’re doing this at home, try stealing a twist tie from a bag of bread. It has a similar consistency and gets the job done. Once your bouquet is secure, snip off enough of the stems so it will fit in your vase. Flower Arranging Step #5: Line the vase with broad leaves. We used Aspidistra leaves. See how only two leaves lined in there cover the glass so that you don’t see the tied-off, naked stems? It’s a tiny touch that makes things look super professional. I’m grinning here because I’m so proud of my first flower arrangement. Not bad, right? And check out the pro-level arrangement made by my friend Nicole! And now — more exciting news: For those of you who still prefer a florist’s perfect touch, H.Bloom has generously extended a special offer for DIY Life and ShelterPop readers: If you’re in New York or Washington DC, head over to H.Bloom and use the coupon code ShelterPop25 for 25% off any floral subscription’s first delivery! Still have flowers on the brain? Check out… America’s Most Fascinating Public Gardens Celebrate Spring at Home like Eva Mendes April Flowers: What’s Blooming? All DIY Info | All DIY Info | Linking Blogs | All DIY Info

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Flower Arranging 101: Dress Up Your Home and Impress Your Friends

High-Tech Cleaning Gear

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:19:24 +0000

Think beyond the broom. These high-tech spring cleaning tools deliver results (and yes, are perfect for getting gadget fiends to neaten up fast)! Check out this piece from our partners at Fox News Home & Garden ! Photo: Age Fotostock Spring brings with it sunshine, warm weather, and blossoming flowers. But it’s also time for the ever-dreaded spring cleaning. While this annual multi-task can be a drag, investing in a few cool gadgets can help cut down on some of the drearier tasks so that you can get back to enjoying the — hopefully — lovely weather. When it comes to prepping your garden’s soil in the spring, traditional hand tools are a back-breaking option, while motorized tillers are expensive, large, and difficult to navigate around trees and bushes. The Black & Decker Garden Cultivator ($203) is battery-powered tiller that is roughly the size of a weed whacker, making it easy to work around existing growth. Its spinning tines dig a few inches deep, perfect for breaking up compacted top soil and uprooting weeds. Few household tasks are as loathsome as cleaning the gutters. Scraping years’ worth of half-decomposed goop out of a trough while perilously perched atop a ladder is no way to spend a beautiful spring afternoon. Enter the iRobot Looj ($129-$169), an automated gutter-cleaning solution from the same company that brought us the Roomba vacuum cleaner. Running on a set of tank-like treads, the Looj blasts through leaves and debris with its spinning front paddles, meaning you only have to climb the ladder once, set it loose and you’re done in no time. If you were to cross a chainsaw with a pair of garden shears, you’d end up with Black & Decker’s Alligator Lopper ($95-$238), a power tool perfectly suited for trimming small to medium sized branches. The Alligator’s clamping jaws form a tight grip, while its 6-inch chainsaw makes short work of overhanging branches or overgrown shrubs. Want more ideas? Check out the full piece on Fox News Home & Garden ! All DIY Info | All DIY Info | Linking Blogs | All DIY Info

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High-Tech Cleaning Gear

Free Crafts: Nesting Dolls and Tea Towels

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:14:32 +0000

Filed under: Crafts , Unusual Uses , Crafts & Celebrations Antsy to get crafting without stepping foot in an art supply store? These genius ideas make use of things you already have around the house. Check out this great DIY project — one of our favorites from the brand new May 2011 issue of Country Living ! How to spice up wooden nesting dolls Make matryoshka dolls do more than sit pretty by turning a pair into fetching salt and pepper shakers. With a pushpin, pierce four to six small pilot holes in the top of each doll (from $8.95 for three; arussiansouvenirshop.com ). Then, using a 1/16-inch bit, carefully drill through each pilot hole. Fill the bottom half of one doll with salt, the other with pepper. Tightly twist on each top-and set about dolling up your dining table. Country Living Put tea towels to work as a market tote. Adapted from Clare Youngs’s The Perfect Handmade Bag ($19.95; Cico), this cute carryall requires little more than a pair of small wooden spatulas and two tea towels ($15 each; motherlindas.com). Step One: Cut six strips of fabric from one towel. Two, measuring 3¾”W x 14¼”L each, will serve as the decorative horizontal bands at the top of the tote and should incorporate the towel’s graphics (as shown, left). The other four, measuring 3½”W x 8″L, will form tabs for the bag’s handles.Turn under the long sides of each strip and press a ¼” hem. Step Two: To make a tab,topstitch one of the long sides of a 3½”W x 8″L strip near the edge. Then fold it in half so that the short sides meet, and topstitch the other, now folded, long side, sewing through both layers of fabric. Repeat with the other 3½”W x 8″L strips. Step Three: Lay the second towel on a flat surface, right side up. Align the long side of one decorative 3¾”W x 14¼”L strip horizontally with a short end of the towel (as shown). Topstitch in place. Repeat on other short end. Step Four: Flip the towel right side down. To determine where to place the tabs, center a spatula atop one of the towel’s shorter ends, and use straight pins to mark the spatula’s width. Place a tab at each pinned point, slightly over-lapping the tabs with the top of the towel. Make sure that each tab’s closed side lines up with the pins and that the open sides face each other. Remove the pins, then topstitch both tabs in place. Repeat on the towel’s other short end. Step Five: Fold the towel in half, wrong sides together. Pin, then stitch the sides closed using a 3/8″ seam; backstitch at the tops for reinforcement. Insert spatulas into the tabs, then hand-sew closed to secure spatulas. All DIY Infothe whole article for more practically free crafts at Country Living . Country Living And for more Country Living on Shelterpop, check out: Garage to Garden Shed Country Living Celebrates What’s Country Now All DIY Info | All DIY Info | Linking Blogs | All DIY Info

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Free Crafts: Nesting Dolls and Tea Towels

Build a Natural Privacy Fence With Trees & Hedges

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:50:04 +0000

Filed under: seasonal , landscaping , outdoor , Outdoors Forget the picket fence: These all-natural options can get higher, look better and make your neighbors jealous (while hiding your backyard from them). Here’s how to make it happen in your yard. CascadeAndSTAN , Flickr One of my favorite springtime activities is doing the neighborhood garden walk to see what new and wonderful things people are doing with their yards. It’s a great way to gather new ideas for my own home and a bit of eye-candy that’s not too out of reach. Recently, I’ve noticed that people are choosing privacy hedges and privacy shrubs in addition to or instead of fences. Instead of knocking on doors and asking people how they got the look, I turned to J. Mark White, ASLA, president of DC-based GardenWise for his expert advice on privacy hedges and shrubs. While we often think of fences as the standard way to create privacy, they are not necessarily the best choice. Fences are an expensive solution and are restricted in height by local codes — typically six feet which often isn’t enough to achieve the desired privacy or shield your view of unsightly surroundings. White suggests strategically placed hedges, trees and shrubs to create a privacy screen. Your privacy hedge will look different depending on the amount of time you have, your climate, housing situation and preference, but there are options for everybody. If you have a few years to grow the privacy screen, White suggests going with bamboo — which also serves as a sound barrier. Running Bamboo is one of the fastest growers on earth, reaching heights of 25-30 feet in just a few years. But before you plant, beware: Running Bamboo is highly invasive, and it will take over your garden space if you don’t control the spAll DIY Infoof its roots. Mark suggests installing underground barriers 24-36″ deep to successfully prevent the roots from traveling away from your bamboo area; rolls of thick plastic for this purpose can be purchased at any garden center.” A stunning bamboo privacy fence. If you need something less invasive, choose Green Panda Bamboo . Green Panda is a clump form of bamboo and has slow spreading roots. Plus, the clumps are attractive and can be used as a focal point. If you live in a colder climate, Black Bamboo is a strong option. Native to Taiwan and China, it can withstand temperatures to -4F. The new canes emerge green and turn ebony black within two years. Say you just don’t have a few years to wait and need privacy, now. Maybe one morning you wake up to find the cute home next door is being leveled to make way for a much larger home and your six foot high fence might not provide the level of privacy it once did. In this case, you’ll want to keep your existing fence and add height above it. White suggests the Upright European Hornbeam , which is a stately tree with gray branches and trunk. It has glossy green foliage and produces interesting strings of yellow-brown fruits in fall. It’s also a tough plant that will tolerate urban conditions. Tall trees that are pruned high are also great for small spaces — and leave homeowners the option to plant under the tree, adding more visual interest. Some other small upright ornamental trees to consider for a tight situation: Okame Cherry and the Japanese Snowbell . The Okame Cherry is one of spring’s earliest flowering trees, producing gorgeous pink blossoms. The Japanese Snowbell has dark green foliage in summer and turns mildly yellow to red in fall. Flowers are white; less than an inch wide and bell-shaped with a mild fragrance. With three to six flowers on a stalk, they’re extremely beautiful. Corbis If you’re thinking even longer term, upright evergreens will serve you well. Some good choices include the Emerald Green Arborvitae . White tells us that “They belong to the cypress family, grow to 14 feet high and three to four feet wide, and can be easily pruned in spring — before the new growth appears — to fit your garden space.” The Emerald Green Arborvitae has an upright shape and it stays dark green year round. If you’re not worried about space, the Red-tipped Photinia will provide complete privacy. It is a broad leaf evergreen that flowers in the spring. If needed, this beautiful tree can be pruned in the spring after it flowers, to accommodate tighter situations. When I was growing up, we had holly growing all along the back fence. White says that this is a great choice for small spaces and can be kept pruned tightly as a more formal hedge. A well planned privacy fence also functions as the backdrop to the rest of your garden, adding color, texture and new scents to your outdoor space. White recommends that, space providing, you stagger the shrubs, using different heights for a more natural effect. He explains that this is also a good strategy in case a plant dies because it is less obvious. “The back row should have the tallest plants — that will create the screen. The middle row should have medium-height plants, such as a smaller deciduous shrubs like the Annabelle Hydrangea, which will offer texture contrast and offer summer color. The front row should be composed of your shortest plants and evergreen ground cover, such as variegated Liriope, which is grass-like and has the added feature of a late summer spiky lavender colored flower,” explains White. “Another striking effect I like is to use the purple coneflower and the Russian sage against the pendulous white blossoms of the hydrangea. Unity in an outside space is the best way to quickly provide a stimulating visual.” Feeling excited about getting your own privacy fence up? Tell us what you’re planning in theAll DIY Info! Or if you still have gardening on the brain, check out.. Apartment Gardening: Turn a Filing Cabinet Into a Planter Spring Gardening: Get Your Garden Ready Slow Gardening 101 All DIY Info | All DIY Info | Linking Blogs | All DIY Info

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Build a Natural Privacy Fence With Trees & Hedges

Aerate Your Lawn For Better Growth

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:45:00 +0000

One of our favorite things about spring is how everything suddenly becomes green. Have you noticed that? It seems like one day you’ll notice small buds on the trees, and then a few days later, BAM – green everywhere! And that includes lawns–doesn’t a lush, green yard add a certain panache to your home? If your lawn could use a little more life, you might want to try aerating it. Home Construction Improvement has an informative article about lawn aerating. One of the top tips? Consider a plug or core aerator as opposed to a spike aerator. If you own a John Deere tractor, you can buy a plug aerator that attaches to the tractor. If you don’t want to shell out the money for one, though, you can also rent an aerator. Before you aerate your lawn, make sure it has some moisture, which will help the aerator better penetrate the soil. Wait until after it rains, or give your lawn a once-over with the garden hose.

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Aerate Your Lawn For Better Growth

Aerate Your Lawn For Better Growth

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:45:00 +0000

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Aerate Your Lawn For Better Growth

Increase Your House’s Value By Renovating

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:27:11 +0000

Filed under: Exteriors & Facades , Essential Skills , Know-How , Outdoors Before you list your home, try these renovation tips so you can up the asking price! Check out this piece from our partners at Fox News Home & Garden ! Want to increase your home’s value? Try landscaping. Photo: Corbis. When it comes to boosting your resale value, not all home renovations are created equal. Big-ticket items like hardwood floors, flagstones around the pool, or a water feature might be great for the homeowner, says Kris Anderson, a Re/Max agent in the Phoenix area, but these improvements do little to increase the asking price. Instead, homeowners should focus on more humble renovations and steer clear of the flashier upgrades. “The key when remodeling is to think in terms of ‘resale’ always,” Anderson said. “I find most homeowners overlook their front door and garage door and the windows. They get sucked in by the showroom at Lowe’s or Home Depot.” So which upgrades pay off the most? Curb Appeal Not all renovations need to be big, expensive undertakings. Tackling a few modest DIY projects can be a great way to add value on the cheap. Basic landscaping can cost less than a weekend’s worth of sweat and effort, but may dramatically boost your house’s curb appeal, that all-important first impression your home makes on a potential buyer. “Curb appeal is a very important thing to remember. When a potential buyer comes to see your home, the first impression is the front yard,” said Candice Cerro of Realtor.com. “Planting flowers and painting the front door can go a long way.” Similarly, a new coat of paint indoors and outside can give a house a fresh look. But before you run out to purchase a few gallons, heed a realtor’s advice: Keep it neutral. You may love lime green or pink, but that doesn’t mean your buyer will. “This is not about what you like, but what the buyer likes,” said Cheryl Bare, a realtor with Century 21 in the Washington, D.C., area. Sticking to neutral tones will allow a potential buyer to envision the space as their own, while minimizing the risk that they’ll be turned off by your color choices. Sweat the Small Stuff Many homeowners often overlook the nickel-and-dime stuff, like light fixtures, faucets and door knobs. While it won’t pay off to splurge on high-end fixtures and faucets, at the very least you want to ensure that the house has a uniform look and feel. So pick a style and stick with it throughout the home. Check out the other four ways to increase your house’s value over at Fox News or All DIY Infoup about… Finding the Right Flowers for Mom Cities Where $80,000 Buys a Real Home Or check out AOL Real Estate’s guide to increasing your house’s value through bathroom and minor kitchen renovations . All DIY Info | All DIY Info | Linking Blogs | All DIY Info

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Increase Your House’s Value By Renovating

Branches and Leaves Contemporary Sofa Design: Foliage by Patricia Urquiola

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:18:51 +0000

Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola designed a beautiful, nature inspired sofa, which she named “Foliage”. The sofa presented at Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan was created by the designer for Italian manufacturer Kartell . Featuring a leaf-shaped motif, the Foliage Sofa extends its beauty to any room chosen for display. A thermoplatic frame resembling tree branches supports the seat made from polyurethane foam padding with a quilted elastic fabric covering. As described by Kartell: “ Foliage is a sofa with great personality featuring a seat with top-stitched embroidery on four round legs. Cosy and soft, Foliage offers two roomy seats. The top-stitching runs over the entire surface and on the back too making the sofa a standalone piece that can be placed even in the centre of a room and seen from all sides .”Foliage by Patricia Urquiola is available in many colour combinations: red fabric – cream frame; cream fabric – acid green frame; green fabric – black frame; petrol blue fabric – hazelnut frame; sugar bag blue fabric – red frame; black fabric – cream frame; sand fabric – cream frame and acid green fabric – red frame. Ready for more amazing design ideas? Check below ! Log Sofa by Patricia Urquiola Garden Furniture by Patricia Urquiola “Outside the Box in Vancouver” by Patricia Gray Tufty Time Sofa Volant Sofa Urquiola’s “Night & Day” Seats. Click here to connect with Freshome on or on

Turn Your Crib into a Living Garden with Magnetic Pots [Video]

admin — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:43:58 +0000

Urbio Vertical Garden is a project aimed of transforming every urban home into a living garden. According to Kickstarter , “ Urbio is a magnetic system that will help us transform any wall or ferrous surface into a beautiful vertical garden. Each pot is made of eco-plastic and is equipped with large neodymium magnets that are strong enough to hold almost anything to the wall. The wall plates are modular, and can easily be mounted to any wall. Mount just one Urbio pot, or fill your wall with them. Alternatively, each pot comes with its own individual puck that can be used to mount to the wall. These pucks can also be used to attach pots together for a nice centerpiece “. At the present time, Urbio Vertical Garden in just a concept, but we are hoping this post will make a contribution to it being produced at a large scale. We are certain the video below will win you over and make you want to join our cause: Ready for more amazing design ideas? Check below ! Curtains with Magnetic Technology Magnetic Vases – Magically Standing on End Manny Pacquiao’s Home at MTV Cribs: Enjoy the Tour! [Video] Lights and Lumiers For The Perfect Designer Garden Romantic Garden Rearrangement for Outdoor Relaxation Magneto Shelves by Henry Julier Click here to connect with Freshome on or on

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Turn Your Crib into a Living Garden with Magnetic Pots [Video]