ArtaBerryHome Improvement Blog..

Let’s face it – nobody enjoys receiving unexpected high bills, often causing a great deal of frustration. Many people tend to underestimate their level of energy usage by not being aware of the amount of energy certain products and appliances use. A lack of knowledge in energy efficiency significantly increases your annual energy and gas expenditure.

Small and simple changes to when and how you use power is the foundation to saving money on your energy bills. Below are 5 ways you can reduce your energy bills:

The household/office – Everyone needs to be onboard when wanting to reduce your electricity and gas bills. There is no point when an effort is made by only certain members on the premise. In a household, call a meeting – present a simple cost savings document highlighting that money saved can be used on other household treats. In the workplace disseminate information to employees and utilise signage where possible.

The labels – Make sure you make use of Energy Rating labels that are clearly visible on new products. They enable us to compare the energy efficiency of domestic appliances on a fair and straightforward basis. The higher the star rating, the more energy efficient the appliance is.

In and around the home/office – Switch lights and appliances off when you are not using them, use energy efficient light bulbs, replace old or damaged fridge seals, turn off the hot water system when not in use and utilise your wardrobe to its full potential by changing your outfits instead of turning on the heater or air-conditioning unit.
Shifting Power – Many energy suppliers reward their customers who are able to shift their energy use to off-peak periods and weekends. Doing laundry and chores that consume a larger amount of electricity during off-peak periods can save you money. Speak to your energy provider to find out what packages they provide.

Go Solar – Solar energy offers a limitless supply of clean, safe, renewable energy for heat and power. Consider implementing solar solutions for your home. Solar energy is affordable, reliable and very efficient

By implementing some or all of the above you can increase your energy efficiency, saving you money on your electricity bills and helping to ease the burden on the environment.

There was a time when stairs was considered just an obligatory passage for passing to the upper story of the house. But now beside this, it got much importance for interior designers while decorating the house. So we can say that it is one of the major decorative elements inside the house. As we can see, in most of the latest home designs, it is built at the center of attraction. Like somewhere between the drawing room, dinning & entertainment area. Since staircase is a key element inside the house that influence the layout of your home, so take your time while sketching different stairs designs before implementing any particular design with a given decor plan. Depending on the size & design of your house, understand your requirements before answering to the questions like, which design of stairs, are suitable for you. Like Straight or angled staircase? Which material to use among different wood & metal designs? However, I suggest you not to hesitate from asking the advice from an experienced builder or architect if necessary.

Here I want to share some tips that can help you choosing your stairs up to your tastes and the style you want in your house. Remember choosing a stair design all depends on the shape of your house. However I must say, if the total area of your site allows, I always recommend building a single storey house, however, if you want to own a house in one or more levels, then consider the stairs. Now you have two options, weather opting for custom staircase solution or going to make a conventional industrialized kit staircase. Keep in mind that compromising on quality at this stage can lead you to a lot of hassles in future. So the custom-tailored stairs is recommended if you seek durability, elegance & convenience in a long run.

In case you are buying a stairway kit, Contact a professional who can justify your requirements according to the design of your home. He can take action by assessing the direction of movement in the room and recommend different types of staircases available for your configuration spaces. I also advise my clients to always go to someone with the type of staircase chosen. This helps to realize what the stairs and actually confirm or deny his choice. On the other hand, Most of the people are intended to save space with a custom staircase. The best choice in this case is the suspended staircase. You can use any material, The wood is however mostly used for stairs, possess the advantage of being silent in contrast to the metal. You can use timber such as beech, oak, ash, cherry. It is all a matter of taste. For security, install a security fence of wood, size depending on the width adjustable your steps. to avoid any incidents with young children & aged people..

Besides many hidden benefits, one of the well known usefulness of insulating your home is energy saving & protection from extreme weather effects. In winter, it helps in reducing the flow of sun heat directly to your house. While in winters it didn’t allow cool air to directly affect the building. So as a result you get a warmer house in winter and a relatively cooler house in summers. I believe if the insulation of your house is done in the best way then it is sure that you will save up to 35% of your energy costs. All you need to do, is to make sure that the installer understands the process of insulation at an expert level. It is the best way to protect environment as well. The insulation of home can helps in cutting the usage of fossil fuel which destroys the process of greenhouse effect.

One the other hand if you want to cut cost of home insulation due to limited budget, I suggest that didn’t go for insulating the whole of your house. another good option is wooden blinds, by which you can reduce the extreme effects of heat & cold from outside. Moreover i suggest you to choose those portions of the house for insulation which is used quite frequently. For instance! You can ignore the laundry & store. similarly the guest room which is not regularly accommodated. You can also leave it in your insulation plan..you can buy memory foam mattress from the saved money. By doing this you can save up to 40% of your total insulation cost, you can easily save few bucks from your budget that you can later utilize for buying home accessories..

Winters is approaching and we cant neglect the importance of heating in the house, it is a very essential to made necessary arrangements to make your house warm in winters & cool in summers. So as a matter of fact, to cope with cold, fireplace plays an important role to heat up the atmosphere inside the house. There was a time when wood stove have been a great hit for interior designers & was used extensively for heating purpose in a room, but thanks to the invention of electricity & advancement in electric appliances for home. You can easily set a fireplace inside your drawing room, bedroom or living room provided with gas, electricity or even solar energy. Most of the people still love to have a wood fireplace, I believe they are good if you use it occasionally, say once in a month just to satisfy your interest. Wood smoke are risky & cause several problems that includes cleaning problem for the stove & allergies from the smoke.

A central fireplace concept, this fireplace has the capacity to heat sitting & dinning area at once. Simply placed on the ground & suspended from the ceiling. A perfect example of combine entertainment and heating, you can choose this model for your home, its simple, elegant & convenient.

If heating performance is not your priority. But you seek to make some deco work with the fireplace; many manufacturers also propose models that take into account the decorative aspect, without forgetting the good heating capacities. Try locking the catalog of some famous fireplace contractors & your will find what you are looking for.

If the house where you are living is not provided with fireplaces, instead of investing & getting into the hassle to make fireplace, you can get a custom fireplace from the market that is ready to use in your bedroom or drawing room, these fireplaces can also be used as a decorative objects. Combining the performance of the fire performance of a closed fireplace, these kinds of stoves is a great way to warm up in a timely and independent way. Moreover, its very easy to clean & it does not require heavy labor, can easily be removed and may even be moved when moving. Best investment for future.

It is not always easy to obtain permission to create a chimney in urban areas and some condominiums are opposed to the use of an existing duct. If you are facing this problem, or have limited budget to invest for fireplace. A pellet stove is the best choice for you. The pellet takes the shape of small cylindrical rods packed in bags. Easy to store. for ease of installation and low power consumption. A masonry heater (ceramic or soapstone ) accumulates heat, then releases it slowly with a yield of up to 90 %. Drawback: the weight ( up to 1200 kg for some models). A convection stove cools more quickly and therefore has a lower yield (80 % maximum). But it is lighter and often equipped with two combustion chambers, thereby improving its performance.

Home is all about having a place where you can relax & feel comfortable that you cant get any other place. Apart from the architectural design, area & location of the house, things like furniture & decoration plan is the essential element that needs to take care for marinating a pleasant & comfortable environment inside the house.

You should try the color theme of your house for mandarin embellished with yellow and cream. Most of the designers use this color combination for an inviting abode. This is best for spacious feel, so to evoke feelings of spaciousness, the living room can be kept in simple in design with little decoration tools. For example! A relatively small side table can be used in a place of a coffee table. The simple TV console can be kept in the side to ensure unobstructed traffic flow. This is helpful to free up the living area.

For flooring, I would suggest the use of beechwood. Speciafically! The sandy colored one for design consistency. This can also be used in kitchen & dinning area. You can set up for sliding doors if you want to increase the space. You can also separate the dinning area from the kitchen by sliding the glass doors without causing claustrophobia. However a part of the kitchen can also be dedicated to dinning area. Here you can use floor tiles in a little different shade then cream. Besides the kitchen & dinning area spatial layout for the bedroom can be considered, keep in mind here that a cosy living does not necessarily mean lots of cushions, knick-knacks for tight special areas. With the right use of materials, colors & some proper planning any home can be made cosy & beautiful.

The advancement in lifestyle, continuous rise in population & the domination of industrialization, now it is very necessary to take care of nature while constructing buildings, manufacturing furniture & home appliances. Eco or green concept is therefore considered as the future of modern architecture. with materials and manufacturing techniques of green design, The buildings are respectful of nature that surrounds them.But however, Eco building was erected into a business world where French manufacturers have to catch up , compared to the situation in Germany or Austria. Among these economic considerations, it is not just about competition and turnover. The eco-construction sector is developing in light of the demand for more and more important, weather individuals or private companies, everyone is now more aware of the ecological argument.

Without any doubt it is our primary responsibility to preserve the environment, so therefore customers related to the products of home improvement & construction becomes more demanding & knowledgeable. from installing a rain water collector in garden and put up with its housing lambda with sorting and compost. Green Building is construction of a new genus.

So if you are more concerned about making your home a Eco friendly house. you can get the services of Eco friendly home contractors. just give it a try & find out ways where you can improve your house. I believe a general assessment will not cost you more. but you will get a wonderful idea in return. this is just a step before equip your house with various renewable energy equipments like wind, solar thermal, geothermal, wood heating, bio- gas,water & so forth.

At first sight, door handles may not look like something noticeable or something that plays in an important part. However, it is important to put away these misconceptions and realize how even small things can be vital to our daily lives. The way they look, their very accessible location, the way that they have been thought out in a systematic way all contribute to the fact that these things are actually important.

For example a door handle (especially internal) can indeed help to complete a project, such as a restoration. A typical example of this would be a Suffolk latch which is a very traditional looking handle.

Today, markets have advanced, and technology has increased to a brilliant level. These handles can be found in various types and these types can all have a variety of functions and complex as well as technical aspects associated with them. The different types of handles include the ones used for entrance doors.

These have an extra element in the sense that since they are most commonly used for doors that lead to the outside area of the house, their knobs will have an inbuilt security system to go along, for extra security and assurance. These kinds of handles can come quite in handy.

Door knobs used for closets often do not come with a locking system since they are usually placed in the hallway and the knobs are only for pulling and placing back the door. There are even things called dummy handles which can be used for that extra sense of aesthetic beauty.

These are most commonly found on electric doors, spinning doors and the likes, which of course don’t need handles, but these are placed anyway to enhance the way they look. A variety of materials can be used for making these kinds of handles and stainless steel is not only the most popular but also the most durable material for such a use, as are brass and chrome. All in all, not only is there a great variety, they also increase the aesthetic quality of your surroundings.

You have bought your new home, you have stripped out the old dated decoration plan of the previous owner, you have had new windows fitted and a new damp proof course, you have painted the walls, fitted cupboards in the kitchen, bought new carpets and put up some vintage wallpaper in the living room… Now what’s next? The furniture of course!

The furniture you add to a room can be the finishing touch to transform it into the designer home of your dreams. There are a few key rooms in the home to think about when looking to buy new furniture, the living room, the dining room and the kitchen. The furniture for the kitchen is important but often practicality is the key concern so I am going to focus on the living and dining rooms.

The Living Room; It is surely a favorite room in the home, the room you go to relax and unwind. So your furniture decisions should reflect this… think about large leather sofas to sink into, luxurious soft furnishings and thick curtains. If like me you like to unwind with a strong coffee and dark chocolate in the evening you might want to think about a solid pine coffee table, these look great in a natural colour or in white. The fireplace is often the key feature of any living room, and I like to try and keep the original fireplace surround when possible, if this has already been removed though you can take the opportunity to be bold and look at some modern examples of fireplace surrounds.

The Dining Room; This is a room of elegance, a place to enjoy fine food, expensive wine and the company of friends when hosting dinner parties. This room is all about the dining table, it will be the focal point of the room and the choice of table and the way you decorate it will be crucial. My personal choice is a glass dining table but you can get some beautiful oak tables from the finest craftsmen. Keep an eye out for dining table and 6 chairs sets which you can buy online and get some great furniture at even better prices! Of course there are other rooms in your home such as bedrooms and maybe even a study room, so remember not to use your entire budget on three rooms!

Among different types of print designs and fabrics, choosing the best curtains is not always easy if you want to make something unique & elegant in the interior of your house.  it is  relatively a heavy investment if your house is big,  Ask yourself a questions about the usefulness of the curtains in the room.  always check the direction of sun then choose the type of cloth that best serve the purpose.  are they just decorative precisely, do they protect you from the outside, light? Once your needs are identified, take your measurements and go store to choose rods and curtains.

Choose the rod depending on the width and type of tissue for your curtains.  for instance! there are many types of rods such as, the Flat rods to fix the walls, this is  ideal for light curtains or draperies, one the other hand the round rods made up of Wood, plastic or metal is mostly useful for rooms where the curtains are heavier.

Now coming toward the curtain designs,  some  curtains were hemmed in their own end or a single node in which we move the rod inside. these finishes are not always very practical if you need to open and close the curtains regularly, also ideal if you want a decorative effect.  in grommet finish, the curtains are torn at their end to get a round bead. The opening of the curtains is simplified and they are quite decorative & appealing. There are actually many techniques of finishes, including those using a braid.

Measure the width of your window (including frames): add 30-50 cm for the length of the rod. To find the width of curtains, allow a width equivalent to two to three times that of the rod, depending on the effect desired pleated (depending on the fabric used as so. To measure the height finally, remember that the rod is raised 10-15 cm above the window. Know then that, generally, it leaves a space of an inch between the curtains and the floor. But the effect of a curtain falling on the ground can be so beautiful (it increases the feeling of headroom). Allow then 10-15 cm tall curtains and more. Finally, keep in mind that some fabrics can shrink when washed. When in doubt, always leave more tissue than necessary in the hem for a touch up possible.

Now the question is what  fabric best suits your requirements?  And what is the best cloth for liner? Select the fabric not only meet the need to hide the light of sun but also suits the desired decorative effect you aimed to make at your house. for better results doubt, ask for a sample in curtains shop and put it on the furniture in your room for a better analysis. If you want to put a liner in your curtains, opt for shades or close the curtains chosen for a beige uniform, mat.

Majority of the real estate agents got the opinion that remodeling the kitchen and bathroom increase the value of the house. I agreed with them up to some extent. So if you are aiming to sell your house in near future. You needed to give special attention to specific areas for cleaning & renovation, this will ultimately increases the value of your house & you can bravely quote a good price to home buyers.

One area that is considered most important & use frequently by the occupants in the house is surely the kitchen. Your ideas of renovations should start from here. Starting from little things in given budget, try to improve the quality and overall appearance of the kitchen. If you have good budget for renovation, I suggest that you should go for installing new tiles over the walls & floor. Buy new appliances & replace every old & rusty looking material from the kitchen. This seems quite costly but believes me this will give you a good return.

You can consider making a playroom for kids or adults with a corner allocated for bar from the store (if any) in your house. You can get the services of professional contractor to complete the remodeling job you aimed to do. They better assist in the planning and process of your home renovation as they have greater experience to build a better home. Try to fix & clean every part of your house, including hvac cleaning. the more you work the more is will be the profit while you are out to sell your home, so focus on many small things that add value overall.

Purchase some new deco accessories & replace the old sofa with the new one at your drawings room; it will help in making an elegant appearance of your home. When it comes to your house decoration I suggest, you should keep it simple and classic, as each person has their own taste. However! At last I would like to advise that don’t spend more money if the area where you live didn’t have much potential for home buyers.