Cool breeze is a precious commodity as things outside begin to warm up this late Spring and early Summer.
One strategy in getting your fair share of it is by the simple and stylish addition of the screened in porch. The reason that many seek to find out how to install a screened in porch is because it solves a few issues when it comes to an outdoor living space.
One big one is gaining that precious breeze that defines late Spring and early Summer seasons without the presence of flying insects. Another is that a screened in porch lends itself to a wider range of design possibilities; reading areas, interior container gardens, outdoor dining spaces, and all-around indoor and outdoor continuity.
To help outline some of the practicalities, and frankly some eye-popping designs, of screened in porches, here are 8 examples of how a screened in porch can be a defining element to any outdoor living space.
Source: BuildDirect, By CATE MORGAN-HARLOW
Ready to add a fabulous screened in porch to your home? Contact Bruzzese Home Improvements at 914-576-2572 or by Email: bruzzesehomeimprovements@gmail.com. We specialize in room additions and screened in porches!
Areas we service: Westchester, NY, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Scarsdale, Eastchester, Larchmont, Tuckahoe, Bronxville, Mamaroneck, Rye, Harrison, New Rochelle, White Plains, Lower Westchester New York.
Having an outdoor room is like getting to have your cake and eat it too. Furnishing a protected outdoor space — whether that’s a covered terrace, a pavilion, a loggia or a cabana — lets you enjoy the fresh air with all the amenities of home. Whether your idea of the perfect outdoor room includes a place in which to dine with friends or family, a lounge area in which to kick back and take in the view, or a comfy spot for napping, this roundup of dreamy outdoor rooms shows luxurious places for relaxing in spectacular surroundings. Read more…
Bigger isn’t always better in the real estate world, and what’s more, it’s not always possible. With more baby boomers downsizing from McMansions to smaller, more manageable houses, and a growing number of people opting to rent rather than buy, many families are looking for new ways to decorate, design and work with smaller spaces.
Kitchens sell homes, but this most-used room in the house hasn’t escaped the “less is more” trend, either. Interior designers, decorators and home product makers are responding to the growing demand for practical, beautiful options that make sense in smaller kitchens.
If you’re looking to make a big impact in a small kitchen, here are a few ideas to get you started:
Work the walls – You may love your cozy kitchen, but that doesn’t mean you want to make it look or feel any smaller than it already is. Lighter wall colors can help a little kitchen feel more open and airy. One winning decorating technique for small kitchens is to paint the majority of the wall space in a light neutral tone, like a pale cream or taupe and then add a pop of brighter or darker color to one accent wall or area. You can edge up the excitement of this technique by using a mural for kitchens on the accent wall, rather than just a different paint color. Have an oddly shaped niche in your kitchen? You can turn that problematic space into a design statement with custom, repositionable wallpaper that can be custom-sized and custom-colored to fit your specifications. This unique product can be adhered and re-ahered hundreds of times so you can take it with you to your next house if you choose.
Smart-size your appliances – Sure that 30-cubic-foot stainless steel refrigerator is beautiful in the showroom, but how much will you love it when you can’t fully open the door in your small kitchen? Refrigerators come in several sizes, so you should be able to find one that will fit your space. The same is true for stoves, microwaves and dishwashers. Choosing appliances that make size-sense for the space you have not only improves the livability of your petite kitchen, it can improve your efficiency as well.
Get creative with storage – One of the biggest challenges of a small kitchen is finding space for everything from pots and pans to flatware, dishes and foodstuffs. Small spaces call for storage creativity. Whether you hang some pots and pans overhead, replace traditional cabinet shelves with pullout drawers or use special racks to store plates vertically, you can find plenty of creative small-kitchen storage solutions.
Liven things up with light – Often, a small kitchen will have just one window – or no window at all. Yet light is an important way to make a tight space feel more expansive and inviting. Task lighting is essential for work areas in small spaces. Pendant lights can create ambiance and provide practical illumination without sacrificing any wall space. And if you crave natural light for your windowless kitchen, consider installing a skylight. Tubular skylights can bring sunlight into your ground-floor kitchen even if there’s a second floor above it.
Small kitchens are here to stay, whether as part of the trend toward smaller, more efficient homes or the reality of rental unit life. With some decorating creativity and practical design tactics, you can ensure your small kitchen yields large benefits – both in terms of enjoyment and resale value.
Bruzzese Home Improvements specializes in kitchen remodeling and kitchen renovation. Please give us a call at 914-576-2572 or send us an email to bruzzesehomeimprovements@gmail.com for your free in home design consultation.
My dream house has an open wall with a door made of glass. It opens to a deck and a pool and some sort of sunny, spectacular view, preferably with the Pacific Ocean in the background.
But, truth be told, I’d settle for a garage door that opens onto my own work-in-progress backyard.
Open walls are the ultimate embodiment of indoor-outdoor living, blurring the lines (well, getting rid of them actually) between the two. They are a fresh-air fanatic’s dream come true, and there is something about them that is just positive and friendly. They are the ultimate invitation. Read more…
Source: Samantha Schoech, houzz.com
Call us at 914-576-2572 or send us an email for all your home improvement needs.
Window boxes overflowing with blooms, decorative pots lining the driveway with striking colors, and even a flowering vine climbing up the mailbox – the growing season has arrived, and it is time to decorate the landscape.
The latest gardening trend is growing your own produce, so incorporate edible plants as a beautiful compliment to the typical annuals and perennials. This year, spice up the landscaping decor with some tasty options.
Edible plants – whether herbs, vegetables, fruits or flowers – add a creative variety of interest to your landscape, and also produce a delicious bounty for your dinner table come harvest time.
Here are some ideas to help incorporate edible plants into your landscaping:
* Decorate an arbor in the garden, along a walkway or near the house with grape vines. These vines can help shade an area and also can produce grapes good for eating, juicing, making into jams or jellies, or even wine. Different grapes thrive in different areas of the country, so research your region first before attempting to start some vines.
* Switch to edible flowers like nasturtium, violets, chamomile, dandelion, hollyhock, honeysuckle, and pansies in your window boxes and decorative pots. Do not eat flowers grown for ornamental purposes, instead, start edible flowers as seeds and grow them yourself. These flowers work great in salads, teas, summery drinks like sweetened tea, mocktails, and lemonade, and also can be crystallized to decorate cakes. To crystallize flowers, separate the flowers from the stem, and wash and dry the bloom. Heat up an equal parts water and sugar until the sugar dissolves, and the liquid becomes an amber color. Let the syrup cool. Take flower blooms and quickly dip the pedals into the liquid mixture, turn back over and let dry blossom face up. Stronger petals with form and shape work well.
* Mix an herb or two into container gardens. Lavender, rosemary, thyme, oregano and lemon grass are just a few that grow extremely well in containers, and mix attractively with other blooming flowers. Not only are the herbs edible, but also emit delicious scents when picked or touched, making a great choice for window boxes or path plantings.
* Pot a tomato plant right in the front yard. Or, the backyard. Tomatoes grow well in full sunlight, and are decorative when the vines drape along a trellis or arbor. Tomatoes also work well as a natural screen along a porch or patio. Also good for use on an arbor or trellis are cucumbers, smaller melons and squash, beans and peas. Inter-plant vines with containers or landscaping, and your small vegetable garden will get a pop of interest to make it stand out – and provide a great harvest for your family.
* Create a hedge with berries. Try blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and even gooseberries to make a unique hedge along the edge of your property. Just remember, your family will not be the only samplers of the fruits. Consider covering the hedge with netting to help keep birds from stealing all the berries.
Combining beautiful landscaping with delicious foods to serve at dinner is sure to create many compliments – both from visitors enjoying the front and backyard views, and from dinner guests enjoying the produce harvest. Follow these tips and this year your garden will look good enough to eat.
Water and the summer months tend to go hand-in-hand – water skiing or fishing at a lake, taking a dip in a swimming pool and watering home-grown plants with a garden hose are among the season’s most popular activities. Recent summers have also been some of the driest on record, prompting grass fires, drastically low lake levels and water utilities having to implement water restrictions on their customers.
According to the United Nations’ Water for Life campaign, around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world’s population, live in parts of the world where access to clean water sources is extremely difficult. Additionally, water around the world is unevenly distributed, taken for granted and wasted, polluted or unsustainably managed.
So how can you positively impact water usage inside and outside your home? Here are five simple tips for the summer months:
* Start with smart landscaping decisions. Adjust your lawn mower to a higher setting – longer grass shades the root systems and holds moisture in soil better than shorter grass. Also, consider composting kitchen scraps, lawn clippings and garden waste to retain more water, reduce erosion and even decrease weed growth.
* Water your yard responsibly. When summer temperatures heat up, water your lawn in the mornings to reduce water loss from evaporation. You can also set your sprinklers to a lower pressure. Why? Higher pressure creates a fine mist that evaporates faster or will blow away, thus wasting water.
* Start your day by showering with a low-flow showerhead. Low-flow showerheads limit the water flow to around three gallons per minute as compared to twice that for a normal showerhead. Pick one up at a local home improvement or hardware store. If you’re remodeling a bathroom, you can look at other water- and energy-saving gadgets like tank-less water heaters or low-volume flush toilets.
* Reduce the amount of water that runs down drains. It’s estimated that 95 percent of water that flows through a home runs down the drain, but simple steps like turning off the running water while brushing teeth or washing hands until it’s time to rinse decreases water waste. Consider collecting some of this water when there may be another use for it, such as watering a plant. Also, rather than running cold water from the tap until it’s cold enough to quench your summer thirst, refill and store a pitcher of water in the refrigerator.
* Save water and energy in the laundry room. Reduce water waste by running a washer only when it’s full. Using cold water also reduces the amount of energy used and conserves hot water for other household needs that require it. Need a new washer? According to ENERGY STAR, the average American family washes almost 300 loads of laundry each year, but can significantly reduce energy and water usage by purchasing ENERGY STAR-qualified products. For example, a full-sized ENERGY STAR qualified washer uses 14 gallons of water per load, nearly 50 percent less water than a standard machine.
For more information on water savings tips this summer and information on incentives or rebates in your area, check with your local water utility.
Add Old-World appeal with these custom-designed and fabricated stonework elements.
Bruce Birkl, owner of Distinctive Granite and Marble loves a challenge: “We say to our customers, if you can draw it, we can fabricate it.
”While buyers entering the 14,000-square-foot Holbrook facility may initially be wowed by the thousands of stone slabs and the state-of-the-art computer-aided fabrication facility, Birkl reminds people that most designs start with a simple sketch. From there, a mock-up is crafted by hand—not machine—and shown to the customer. Then, adjustments are made to determine how the element fits the function of the room.
One room where custom work and materials can really be explored is the bathroom. Because certain areas of most bathrooms see less wear-and-tear than kitchens, some exotic stones can be considered. These include onyx, certain types of marble and limestone, which in general have softer colors than granite. Read more…
Via Today’s Renovation
Ready to update your bathroom? Give us a call or send us an email for your free in home design consultation.
Lighting is possibly the most powerful tool you have when it comes to interior design. It does not make sense to invest in beautiful furniture, rugs, paintings and accessories if they are in the dark. The perfect light fixture not only illuminates a space – it is also a beautiful, decorative design element.
“When looking for a light fixture, think of yourself as a curator looking for a perfect piece of art,” says interior designer Laurie Smith, known for her role as a featured designer on the hit television show Trading Spaces (2000-2008). Smith says, “Like art, a fabulous fixture can make a strong design statement, as well as provide illumination for your space.”
Often consumers do not realize the difference updated lighting can make in their homes. Smith suggests finding one special piece and building a room around it. “In design school, we learned that lighting is the most exciting and mysterious medium in design. Lighting is sculptural; it’s textural, it’s exciting,” she says.
“There are so many varying styles and designs in lighting today that the possibilities are endless. Different materials and shapes are just part of what goes into determining that perfect fixture,” says Smith. “For instance, do you want the shape of your piece to contrast with your room’s schematic or coordinate with it? Taking a traditional fixture and placing it into a modern setting creates interest through contrast, while taking a sleek modern fixture and putting it into a traditional setting infuses new vitality and a sophisticated accent.”
With so many choices on the market, the task of selecting a light fixture can be difficult and overwhelming for many homeowners. It’s just a matter of developing a plan or one idea. To help consumers get started, Smith talks about the importance of lighting to interior design in a new video series. Each minute-long video, created by the American Lighting Association, focuses on a different aspect of lighting and ways to incorporate it into every homeowner’s design plan.
Videos in the series include:
* Choosing the Right Lighting Fixture
* Find an Object of Inspiration
* The Impact of a Single Lamp
* Lighting Fixtures as Art
We love a good challenge and we love our customers (like Linda Pallini & Arnie Fleischer)! Linda & Arnie were kind enough to take some pictures of us remodeling their kitchen and send them our way. They were also kind enough to say this about Bruzzese Home Improvements:
“Thanks again to you, your guys and Richie for going above and beyond to solve a tough issue! Genius does not depend on the school…experience and “smarts” count for more!” L & A.
Thank you Linda & Arnie for the kind words and thank you for choosing Bruzzese Home Improvements for your kitchen remodel project!
Day 4: hood issue being resolved by carpenters, plumbers, cabinet guysDay 4: hole above range hood to be fixed!
Day 4: fridge/pantry almost doneDay 4: sink areaDay 4: bake center doneDay 4: range hood complete at last!
One strategy in getting your fair share of it is by the simple and stylish addition of the screened in porch. The reason that many seek to find out how to install a screened in porch is because it solves a few issues when it comes to an outdoor living space.
