The sofa and ottoman are covered in a fabric and accented with leather, while the chair itself is in solid leather. If you look closely, you can see how the bright, graphic pillows on the sofa pull the slight blue hue out of the background painting. The coffee table has a completely different color of metal than the furnishings, but works nicely with the black leather. When living in small spaces it is critical to select the right furniture that can make use of the space well while providing the needs of you and your guests. The Trinus sofa bed is a small footprint piece of furniture that begins as a chair and winds up a sofa bed. Many sofa bed models on the market are bulky and before their transition look like a normal sofa or couch. (more…)
Perfectly manicured, emerald green lawns flanked by floral beds. Acres of granite counter top and gleaming stainless steel appliances. And everywhere you look are surfaces clean enough to eat off — that’s the appeal of the model home.
There’s a reason why model homes look the way they do. Builders know that everything they do to make a house look visually appealing amounts to actual dollars, and often thousands of dollars, added to the sale price. The same principal applies to your home.
Whether you’re planning on selling, or just sprucing up your house to make it more enjoyable to live in, mimicking the ideal appearance of a model home can yield impressive results. Here are some tips and trends to help make your house a showplace: (more…)
Arclinea San Diego, a full-service kitchen design firm and distributor of the Arclinea Collection of contemporary Italian kitchens, is pleased to announce enhancements to the company’s long-standing commitment to the design and manufacture of environmentally friendly kitchens.
Having historically utilized non-toxic paints and lacquers, free from heavy metals and low emission, Arclinea recently fully converted to a water-based finishing system. The result is an even cleaner manufacturing process that surpasses standards set by local and global environmental legislation.
“Considering that the kitchen is the heart of the home, both philosophically and practically, it is increasingly important that this living space be a healthy, ecologically intelligent one,” says Lisa Wilson-Wirth, president and owner of Arclinea San Diego. “Arclinea kitchens reflect a spirit of design that respects our living earth and the people who inhabit it — our company continues to lead the kitchen industry with its commitment to environmentally friendly materials and green manufacturing strategies.”
In addition to utilizing water-based paints and lacquers, Arclinea’s environmental commitment includes (more…)
Tearing down is becoming so passé.
Once a trend, it has become almost required in American building that old houses be demolished to make way for homes that are bigger and grander.
But The New American Home at this year’s International Builders Show makes a big statement of its own, that just about any house can be saved — if the owners are willing to pay to move and renovate it.
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When developer Will Hicks and his family moved to Seattle, they couldn’t find a home with living space that promoted family interaction.
“We had two young kids then,” Hicks says. “We found it very challenging to find the configuration we wanted. We looked for almost nine months and finally found one that was three bedrooms down and one up. It was a significant effort.”
About the same time, architect David Neiman was beginning to remodel his home with the same desire — to create a space that enabled the family to connect. He began thinking about a house that was built uniquely for Seattle’s weather and families. (more…)
