Interior doors are the unsung heroes of our homes. It’s true they play many functional roles – they offer privacy, provide sound dampening, and (maybe most importantly!) hide messes. But, they are also a design element that allows you to augment your personal style. Often they are chosen by the contractor when he builds the home – sometimes with little forethought other than cost. If you are lucky enough to have a say in door selection – perhaps you are building a custom home or remodeling – read on to learn how to choose interior doors.
(more…)
In my job I see a lot of fantastic new construction homes and one trend that I’ve been eyeing is the shiplap fireplace. It comes in a lot of flavors: with a traditional mantel or with just a mantel shelf, full height shiplap or only on top, and so on. So, after seeing a fireplace in a model home that I just loved, my mind started to envision what this might look like in my house – so I searched for some additional shiplap fireplace inspiration to prepare for the redo.
(more…)
A few months ago, my husband and I spent a Sunday looking at new construction homes in a neighboring town. We were unsure where our oldest son would be attending high school in the fall and were exploring all of our options. The area of the country that I live in has some of the highest housing prices in the country – Massachusetts is consistently ranked in the top five of most expensive states to live in according to the Council for Community and Economic Research’s Cost of Living Index. We live outside of Boston but still within commuting distance (if you consider 30+ miles commutable) and the towns we were interested in had strong school districts, so we knew our housing dollar wasn’t going to go too far. But even I was surprised at just how little nearly $1M gets you these days.
(more…)
You’ve decided to remodel your kitchen – congratulations! In a few months you will be rewarded with your new culinary oasis. But, until the big reveal, you’ll be living through a kitchen remodel and you’ll need some strategies and tips for getting through it unscathed. (more…)
I have a huge case of mudroom envy. I live in a Colonial house built in the pre-mudroom era. It has one small hall closet that houses our family of five’s winter jackets and not much more. With three school age boys dropping coats, backpacks and shoes all over my kitchen every day, I’ve been desperate for a solution. This year I finally decided to solve my issue by creating a mudroom “area” in our front hallway – the main thoroughfare for entering and leaving our house. I appealed to my husband, showing him my ideas and inspiration. He was skeptical, knowing that building something would mean a new honey-do list for him, but reluctantly signed on for this DIY Ikea mudroom hack!
(more…)
