House Interior Design Ideas

Most of the homeowners might not know how to decorate their house or could not decide which house interior design they should go for while decorating. There are various factors where people confused from the beginning like where to start, how much it would cost, which kind of furniture they should go for and will suit the most and the most frustrating factor for the really awkward space that how to layout them to make look good. The following article is mainly focused on providing some advices on basic interior design to help with decorating the house.

First of all you need to decide that how much budget you need to spend, the second thing is to decide which style you would like to go for. Well question yourself some simple things like:

    * Which area of the room you are going to decorate?
    * Which of the style you would prefer for that specific are of the house?
    * Which colours do you like and you want to use?
    * How would you like to layout the space in the room?
    * Which kind of furniture and accessories you will need as per your desire; do you already have some of them and if not how much would you like to spend on it?

Above questions are the best starting points to get you start developing your thoughts about how you would complete your house interior design project. You should divide the project per rooms and should focus on one particular area where you would like to start from. One thing you need to make sure while deciding the colour scheme you are going to use that it should stay attached to other area of the house.

Once you have decided which room you will start working from the next most important factor is to choose the colour scheme as this will set a track on making other choices. There are many resources for getting the interior design ideas like magazines; you can use sources from the internet. Keep on making notes in your mind about your likes and dislikes. While surfing through the sources like furniture stores make note of which kind of furniture you like and how much they cost which will help you determine the budget.

You need to get the exact measure of the room you would be working on to know what sized furniture you will need. As it could cost a lot extra and become time consuming if the furniture you bought doesn't fit.

Keep learning and take ideas from interior design magazines or other sources. One of the last most important things is to put everything on paper first and correct it where it has to be corrected as many time as you need rather than making mistakes while you actually decorating which will save you a lot eventually.

House with courtyard by Izquerdo Lehmann

The living and dining room is open on both sides along its entire length, with a pair of running windows. It captures as beautiful ocean views as views of plants in the courtyard. Placed on 350 square meter area the house has four bedrooms for children and guests besides the master bedroom. Courtyard is the centerpiece of the house with its own nature inside. It is connected to all house’s rooms and patio below the house’s level covering the full sea view from the horizon to the beach. This vacation home is built in rural farm in the town of Huentelauquén. It’s facing the sea at the edge of a windswept plateau, located 40 meters above the beach.

Cahndlelier Classic Modern Home

Cahndlelier Classic Modern Home by Kevin


At home a house designed classic but modern, chandlelier use will most likely be ignored. Chandlelier is a form of the chandelier on the ceiling of impressive luxury, which is generally installed in a classic home. Currently, it has been a lot made of modern chandlelier elegant but still nicely when used in modern houses.

Chandlelier first widely used in churches and conference hall in the Middle Ages. Its function is to illuminate a large meeting room. Chandlelier was originally made of wooden crosses and put some candles on it.

Entering the 15th century, the shape becomes more complex chandlelier. The form can be like a crown or a large ring. At this time chandlelier become one of the plural decoration found on the manor house.

After the more modern glass-making technology, chandlelier form can be made more beautiful with the addition of crystals to enhance the luminescence light. Chandlelier reputedly the biggest in Turkey, namely in Dolmabache Palace.
Chandlelier can also be placed in the void area in order to highlight the elegance of the room. Chandlelier which have ornate crystals are generally able to produce luminescence beautiful light throughout the room.

Chandlelier made more contemporary, have a more unique. Chandlelier not be white nodes, which are now in demand precisely because chandlelier black shades with black crystal accessories. Its use not only at home nuances of western classical, but also at home contemporary or classic shades of classic vintage and modern classics.

Nursing chandlelier not too difficult. Periodically we are pretty sure the balls of light. Then for small to medium sized chandlelier, can be cleaned with a soft cloth or flannel to clean corners.

For large chandlelier certainly needed a special time to clean up on certain sections in stages.

Motrad House - roof on, windows in

Its official, the roof is on, the windows are in, the interior work will now commence in earnest.

Seems like just yesterday we were trying to imagine what the house would look like when the roof was framed, and here is all shingled up, all those wall holes filled with windows, and looking all very housey.

Well we have some treats for you today, because if you follow the link below not only will you find the usual selection of further images of the progress of the construction, but also two wonderful videos that the owner has made of a short walk-thru of the house. Its still all just framing inside, but there is no better way to finally understand the collection of rooms and spaces shown on a floor plan than to take a little stroll through them. So click on dear reader..

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

USA New Wall - so called Advanced Framing

So called Advanced Framing has been promoted as a technique to improve efficiency and energy performance for house walls. But it also seems to have been designed to ensure that nobody adopts it.

First we should cover the basics - what is Advanced Framing? It is a "system" or practice of house framing that endeavors to reduce the amount of wood going into the wall, and as a result reduce thermal bridging and increase energy efficiency. It is also interchangeably referred to as Optimum Value Engineering or OVE which perhaps speaks more to the process that came up with this. Value Engineering has come to be a euphemism for cutting costs. In this case, cutting out everything but what is essential to frame a house.

Before we look at exactly how Advanced Framing accomplishes these goals let me just air my gripe. The details of the AF framing techniques are smart, efficient, and dare I say common sense. Yet taken as a whole "system" it is overly rigid, inflexible, and lacks resiliency. To follow a strict application building elements must fall on the proposed modular grid. This limits possibilities, and dooms existing house plans to significant redesign. Its lack of resiliency means its advantages can be quickly overcome by deviation from its strict use. And while it can save up to 20% in material, it really does not go far enough to create a high performance wall system. I feel this combination is a barrier to adoption that will prevent it from becoming the de-facto method for framing houses in the US. Yet many of the individual details are easy to implement, and many builders have already taken this hybrid approach. With the help of this diagram lets look at some of the key aspects of AF, the ones that are easiest to adopt.

Framing spaced at 24" on center. This is a common sense approach. As we put more insulation in our walls we move to larger studs. 2x6's are common, and I'm advocating for a move to 2x8s. These larger studs are strong enough to be spaced at 24"oc, rather than the 16"oc common with 2x4 walls. This wider spacing reduces the amount of wood in the wall, and increases the amount of insulation. Roof framing is easy to space at 24", and engineered lumber floor joists can span further than solid wood at 24" spacing. So yes, we can do this, easily, and it makes sense.

Lets look at the window and door openings. You will note in this diagram that there is a single stud at the side of the window opening. The window header, and the window sill frame are supported with metal clips mounting them to the single adjacent stud. In conventional framing there would be three studs here. A king stud that ran from sill to top plates. A jack stud which ran up to the underside of the header and supported it, and a similar stud for the sill called a cripple. By the time we reached the sill plate the jamb is three studs wide. A common hybrid is to simply remove the cripple studs and move to two studs, and for larger window openings with a bigger header this makes sense. This is easy to do no matter how the whole house is framed.

Insulated headers are another great practice here. Especially as we move on to 2x6 and even deeper 2x8 walls, we can now provide an insulation layer between the interior and exterior header members. This prevents the wall above the window and door openings from becoming a thermal bridge. There are even some products available that pre-assemble the header members with an insulation core.

Two stud corners are another easy to adopt practice. The AF wall has two studs at each corner, one oriented towards each wall panel that meets at the corner. Traditional framing would have a third stud which served to support the interior wall board at the corner. In the AF wall that is replaced by a metal clip, or a 1x nailer. This practice keeps the corner from bulking up with solid wood, and allows insulation to extend into the corner framing. Again, easy to do.

All that sounds good, so where is the problem? The problem is with the next element that AF seek to reduce. Instead of being easy to implement, it is difficult to implement, and instead of being a tidy self contained solution it is a solution that imposes on the rest of the entire house framing to pull it off successfully. I am talking of course about the "Single top plate". Perhaps the shortest note in that diagram causes the biggest trouble. Lets look at this.

The idea is simple. Walls are traditionally built with two top plates. That means in a 2x6 wall the studs are topped off by two 2x6s horizontal capping the studs and creating a bearing surface for floor framing and roof framing. Two studs are used because that gives the top plate enough strength to support a floor joist or roof rafter that does not fall directly above the stud below. But of course two top plates makes for a lot of solid wood through the wall - a thermal bridge. AF aspires to reduce that to a single top plate, cutting the size of the thermal bridge in half. But at what cost? In order to eliminate one of the two top plates we now have to ensure that the floor joists fall directly above the stud. In a two story house we also have to ensure that the studs of the wall above also align, as well as the roof rafters. Suddenly everything has to line up.

In concert with this AF proposes we eliminate the rim joist which is a solid piece of wood equal in depth to the floor joists that runs the perimeter of the wall. This rim joist aids in transferring mis-aligned loads from one floor to another. So studs in the second story wall need not align with the studs below. Without a rim joist, again, the studs above must align directly.

So how does this play out? Well its suddenly a great benefit to make all window and door openings fit within the spacing of the studs. Imagine if you have a window on the second floor that does not fall on the grid. This means a jamb stud will not be aligned to the studs below and some special care must be taken to support the load from its header. Another concern is engineered wood I beam joists. Without a rim joist hey are not strong enough to transfer the vertical loads by themselves and would require stiffeners. So either we return to using solid wood joists and the shorter spans they require, or we spend the labor to reinforce the ends of every joist. Lots of labor is rarely a good trade for a little material. We can add more studs to resolve these issues, but suddenly our 20% gain in material is dissolving.

What we are left with is an extremely rigid system for laying out a house on a grid. And all the flexibility we've given up is solely for the sake of losing one of the top plate members of the wall. This is simply not a well reasoned trade-off. In the end, its a deal killer. Designers find it frustrating and limiting. Builders are forced to completely redesign their stock of house designs. And in the end the return on performance is not that great. The wall studs still have no thermal break, and the performance is only slightly better than a conventionally framed wall.

Lets stop pretending that this is a "system". What we have here is a handful of helpful framing strategies, and one nearly preposterous idea about how to frame a house that nets a very small improvement in thermal bridging. Its time to stop patting ourselves on the back pretending we've really accomplished something with a claim of using "Advanced Framing" techniques. Some might call it "greenwashing", I just think its kidding ourselves. We need to do much more than this to build a high performance wall. We have better options.

0970 Lagom House - Design Prints for new northside Lagom House are ready

Today, on the occasion of the official introduction of a (sort of) new house plan design - the northside version of our Lagom House - I thought it would be worthwhile to review the design in its entirety to make clear how this relates to the Lagom House we've been looking at for the past year.

This new version of the Lagom House features the same smart plan layout. At just under 1500sf, and with 2.5 baths and 3 bedrooms, it delivers an open living/dining room with separate but connected kitchen, a small home office area, and a homework area for the kids. It is a very family friendly yet very compact home. This is a house that is small enough to be a first home, a "starter" home if we can still use that term in today's world, but lives large enough for a family of four.

read on for the complete history of this house design

A little history is in order. I had been standing on the sidelines of the green revolution in housing for many years, mainly because I was not convinced that any of the strategies I had seen forwarded on many fronts would be a true viable solution for building better houses in the US. No doubt many innovative things were being tried, but I also knew from my exposure to everyday builders that they were unlikely to adopt these practices until they were "standard". Thats the anonymous term builders use to mean "everybody is doing it" and essentially to the builder it means "risk free". I know there are plenty of builders out there marketing themselves as green, eager to try new building tech. Unfortunately their numbers are dwarfed by the legions of average contractors, builders, and small developers putting up untold thousands of houses across the country. We needed a solution that came to them, not met them half way. I just was not convinced that I had seen that.

Then in 2007 came the revelations of the housing industry in Sweden. Not only did we have an example in them of a mature prefabrication based housing industry, but their practices were to build homes that outperformed US houses by a wide margin. Energy efficient practices were deeply ingrained in their process, and everybody from customer to timber cutter had bought in to the process. Their houses were built in a way very similar to ours, and they lived in largely suburban settings just as Americans did. What we had in this was a proven model for green building practices that could be widely adopted in the US, albeit if properly adapted.

example of a typical Swedish house: Anabyhus Lygnern

A further inspiration was the kind of homes that Swedes choose to live in. If you are reading this you know our focus on modern, and yes, in Sweden modern exists easily alongside traditional homes with none of the stigmas that exist in the US. But aside from styles and taste the Swedes lived in remarkably well planned and efficient house designs. And by well planned and efficient what I mean is that their houses are a lot smaller than ours, and everybody from every walk of life seems to be happy with that. There is almost none of the "my house has to be bigger than that other guy" kind of mentality there. There are plenty of writers who could tear in to what is wrong with America on this basis, but from my modern stand point this just speaks to the desire for a simpler life, and a life free of the kind of baggage that comes with historical styles as a signifier of social position. As a state of mind, modern puts you free and clear of that. In Sweden style does not matter, because you are in fact free and clear of all that. And in such a culture home designs, efficient and smartly planned just flourish. Its hard not to admire it.

So fast forward to the end of 2009, a house design contest for green and sustainable homes were announced, and it felt like the moment was right to bring all these lessons together. Time to think about how we build better houses that builders will actually be open to building. And time to challenge our expectation of space and size. And what better way to do it than during a contest where we could make much publicity around the synthesis of these ideas. And so into that moment was concieved our Contest House - the Lagom House. The name is taken from the Swedish term "lagom" which means "just the right amount" or "just enough is best". And living up to this value our entry actually undershot the square footage requirements for the contest while fitting in the entire requested program of rooms. Why build more space when just the right amount is enough?

Part of the proposition of this house design was that the floor plan and massing of the house was easily reconfigurable to orient the the roof for solar collectors. The contest entry was based on the house configured for the south side of an east/west running street. Over the past year since the contest ended we've spent our time studying the wall construction from many Swedish factories until we felt we could make a more thoughtful proposal for how to build contractor friendly high performance walls. We feel we've reached that point this winter so now it was time to flesh out the Lagom house for the other side of the street - the northside Lagom House which we are happy to now to introduce.

Now we will move on to the Construction Prints for these two designs. This will be the first houseplan set we offer to be designed specifically for our new high performance wall system - our new wall for the USA. Moving forward all new house plans we develop will utilize this new wall design. And our existing stock of plans will be adapted on an individual plan modification order basis as requested by customers. In 2002 we offered the 0237 Pretender 4, our first house plan. Today in 2011 we mark a new beginning with the 0970 Lagom House. This is the way forward. This time you were there.

Motrad House - house shell all framed up

The framing of the shell of the house is now done. There is a little bit more of partition framing going on inside, but soon the Electricians, Plumbers, and HVAC men will be on the job installing the guts of the house. Finish work to follow.

I'm very pleased with the how the house is coming out. The progress photos line up very nicely with the design sketches which is very gratifying. And best of all its shaping up to be one very cool house!

And after the link we have a photo browser with more pictures - enjoy!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

0970 Lagom House - design print progress

Progress with the Lagom House lot visualization.

0970 Lagom House - northside version underway

If you recall any of the details of the 0970 Lagom House that was entered in a green house design contest last year, you may remember that there were to be multiple versions. The initial version posted to the catalog was configured to be on the south side of a street, with the roof facing south for solar exposure. Soon we will also have design prints available for the north side configuration.

The south side version faces the sloping roof towards the back yard, while the north side version faces the sloping roof towards the street.

Once this second versions design prints are ready we will move on to prepping the Construction Prints for this efficient house design. This will be the first plan set to be documented to use our New American Wall system for high energy performance.

MoTrad House - snow does not let up

And neither do the carpenters. The roof is way along now, the front more so than the back, but we can see the massing of the house now. Its no longer overshadowed by its neighbor.

And after the link we have a photo browser with more photos.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

A Sea Captain's Home Revamped for Today

When the owners of this Maine home purchased it, the house was in a state of disrepair. But they knew the house, built in by sea captain Ambrose Childe between 1855 and 1862, would be the perfect summer retreat for their bustling family.

They hired one of my favorite architects/designers, Linda Banks, to renovate and restore the home they called "Big Pink". Linda drew inspiration from the homes seafaring past. To honor the history of the house and its location, she chose an earthy palette of blues, greens and taupes and accessorized with Audubon prints and nautical items.

The salon above was filled with historic details like the intricately carved frieze over the door, gothic door panel and original mercury glass door knobs. These details were painstakingly preserved. Notice how much texture the jute rug brings into the room.

Through the salon you can see the dining room above. Linda keeps the old home looking fresh with a mix of armillary style chandelier and heirloom antiques like the lovely chest. The palette is neutral with soft wall color and jute rug. The scientific charts on the wall add to the nautical, sea captain feel.

Period features figure prominently in every room, like the original fireplace. It's presence is enhanced by the beautiful antique mirror hanging above.

The home is filled with nautical reminders of the sea captain who lived here before the family. Notice the ship model, water charts and Audubon print above. Again a neutral palette and jute rugs allow the many small rooms to blend together seamlessly.

The library is a soft pink. Chairs are upholstered in a fabric with a coral motif and sea inspired rug create a pretty oasis for reading and relaxing.

The completely renovated kitchen is wonderful mix of white cabinetry and soft blue/green island. The counters are honed absolute black granite. Large windows over the sink and a glass door from the foyer flood the space with light.

One of the smaller bedrooms is done in a soothing blue and white palette. Notice the wonderful moulding around the floor to ceiling window which Linda does not hide, but highlights with soft sheer curtains.

Two new bathrooms were created from one of the bedrooms. White beadboard wainscotting and Clarence House wallpaper in La Mere Beige add to the playfulness of this sea captain's home.

A small bathroom was moved to make room for a landing library with views of the ocean. Notice the book shelves built above the windows to increase storage space.

Special thanks to Linda Banks for a peek into another gorgeous ocean home which captures both the history of it's past with the updated features needed for a family of today.

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To read more about this home in Maine Home and Digest click here. To see more of Linda Banks' exceptional work read previous posts here and to tour her personal home click here and here. To visit Linda Banks' website click here and finally to visit Linda Banks' store Simply Home click here.

(all photos property of Linda Banks and not to be copied with out permission)

America's Mart International Home Furnishing Market -Part I - Bobo Intriguing Objects

What a fabulous time I had in Atlanta this past weekend. I traveled with my BFF, Diane who is a Designer in Virginia Beach. We just had so much fun!! "Di"and I also met up with Millie, my Designer friend from New Orleans, who is now the exclusive Designer for Tara Shaw, but more about that later in the week. (You can read all about my previous trip to New Orleans to shop with Millie HERE). We spent three LONG days visiting showroom after showroom and seeing the most recent products and trends for 2011.Over the next week I will profile several of my favorite stops. Today lets have a look at the amazing items from BoBo Intriguing Objects. You might remember that BoBo is the brain child of Mark Sage and Rudi Nijssen, the celebrated designers/manufacturers that have recently partnered up with Restoration Hardware. You can read a great interview with Mark Sage by Brooke at Velvet and Linen HERE. Mark also owns Love Train Antiques, but unfortunately I did not have time to go there this trip. Let's have a look at the Bobo Showroom. I was so charmed by these wine jug sphere pendent lamps. I loved the installation of several sizes hung together. Also notice the ceiling mounts, they were beautiful and a perfect compliment to the fixture. This is where Bobo always sets themselves apart; they do not skimp and have a wonderful attention to detail.

Mark is a master of "the collections", and these domes really caught my eye.

Also these wonderful copper pails - You can do so much with these - I envision them with plants and food, and silverware. Beautiful catch-alls in a boy's room or mud room - How about a set on bench filled with mittens and hats??? The table was also a find. I adored the metal detail that wrapped around the edges.

Another collection that really caught my eye was the mercury glass cake stands. Again these lend themselves to so many different uses. The wood carved angel wings really make a statement as well. Can't wait to find the right client's entry or console table to display these beauties.

I love all things with a Swedish flair and the Halo crowns remounted on metal stands really resonated with me.

Of course it wasn't all Home Decor for us - Di and I met a few celebrities as well! Here we are with Cat Cora from Iron Chef, who just launched a new line of cookware! She is a such a tiny little thing in person (remember I am only 5' 2"). Cat is on the right and that's Di on the left.

We also got a chance to finally meet and have lunch with Holly of Things that Inspire. Holly and I have been blog friends for years and it was such a treat to finally meet her in person. Her blog is one my favorites, you can read it HERE.

I have several other great finds to share with you, as well as some trends and other exciting things from Market, so keep checking back!