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Knock on Wood: 5 Nifty Ways to Use Sleeper Timber Indoors

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When people mention timber, we often think of the outdoors. After all, we use them to decorate our gardens, from plant beds and planters to garden steps, to even the pathway as well as furniture for our garden. However, did you know that these sturdy pieces of wood can also be used indoors?

Timber sleepers are a great addition to your home, providing your interior with a touch of charm, character, and natural balance. For example, having wood furniture in a modernised home adds a touch of nature to the interior, right? The rustic effect that the timber provides to your interior makes you feel refreshed and still in touch with nature.

Image credit: Edgar Castrejon | Unsplash.com

The functionality and style that sleeper timber furniture adds to your home interior make it an appealing design to many homeowners. If you’re one of them, here are five nifty ways you can use sleeper timbers for your home.

  1. Plant pots

There’s no doubt that houseplants are a great way to decorate your home. Plants provide your home with greenery, enough to refresh your eyes and mind. It’s also proven that houseplants have a positive effect on our health, reducing stress levels and improving the air quality at home. Houseplants can become a great way to spend time with your kids and family, too!

However, growing indoor plants will require plant pots, which can cost you a lot as they grow bigger! You can save on expensive plant pots by using timber sleepers. It’s the same as using sleepers for your garden’s plant beds, the number of sleepers you use depends on the plants you have indoors. Just remember to use a waterproof membrane to line the inside of your sleeper before filling it with soil to prevent any water leakage!

  1. Mirror frames

If you have little space at home, using a mirror will create the illusion of a bigger space. But what would look better if the mirrors had beautiful frames to it?

Generally, frameless mirrors are less expensive than those with frames. You can use timber sleepers to add style and life to these mirrors. Not only that but because of a sleeper’s length, it won’t be hard for you to find the right dimensions for your mirror!

  1. Shelves

A growing family will need more storage spaces to place their stuff. Using sleepers as shelves can be an inexpensive way to create more storage space for your home.

Despite their bulky appearance, timber sleepers are ideal for shelves. These pieces of timber make sturdy sleeper shelves, allowing you to place items from books to toys to even your precious collection of CDs and vinyl records. 

Also, you can adjust the size of your sleeper shelves to the dimensions of your space. You can cut timber sleepers as big or small as you want, making it fit to your home!

  1. Kitchen island

Whether it’s a kitchen island or an indoor bar, using sleeper timbers in your kitchen is a budget-friendly way to upgrade your kitchen.

Kitchen islands made of sleeper timbers add a natural look and feel to your kitchen and also fit in perfectly with a wide range of kitchen styles. Not only that, using sleeper timbers for your kitchen island will cost a lot more than using typical materials such as marble. 

DIY-ing your kitchen island with sleeper timbers can be a great family project, and you can use complementary accessories and lighting to add your personal touch to your kitchen island!

  1. Wine rack

Who doesn’t love wine? And the experience makes it better when you get your wine from a great wine rack! It feels a bit fancier, right?

Creating a wine rack with sleeper timber is a great DIY project. It adds a bespoke touch as well as a personality to your home. Sleeper timber wine racks can also be great personalised gifts for friends during special occasions!

There’s no limit to creating a sleeper wine rack— whether you cut holes in the sleeper or attach pegs to the timber, the design possibilities are endless!

Upgrade your home today

Over the years, homeowners have noticed the possibility of using sleeper timbers for their homes. It’s not only for outdoors and gardens anymore, rather, it can also perfectly fit indoors! You can use sleeper timber to create a wide variety of accessories and furniture for your home— it’s not only limited to what we’ve mentioned here! You can trust a sleeper timber’s sturdiness to create functional furniture and add a unique and bespoke touch to your home.

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5 Effective Ways To Increase Your Property Value

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Image Credit: Jacques Bopp from Unsplash.

Your home will be the most expensive thing you ever buy. At a certain point, however, you mightn’t want it anymore. You might want to sell-up and find something else. That doesn’t mean you’ll get the same as you paid for it, though.

In fact, you could end up getting a lot more for your property. As appealing as that is, you’ll need to put some effort into it if you really want to increase your property value.

You shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time and effort into this, though. It could just be a matter of focusing on the right areas. Once you do, you should see a decent hike in your property value. You could even end up launching a bidding war once your house goes on the market.

It’s worth diving into some of the more notable ways you can do this.

Increase Your Property Value: 5 Effective Strategies

1. Add A Lick Of Paint

One of the more obvious ways to increase your property value is to give it a paint job. As quick and easy as this is to do, it’ll have quite an impact on your house. It’s well worth putting the time and effort into this. You wouldn’t even need to spend much money on the paint, and you can do all the painting yourself.

The return on investment you’ll see with this will be well worth it. Go room-by-room, and you shouldn’t have a problem increasing your home’s value. Stick with neutral colors, and you’ll see a decent hike in value.

2. Redo The Floors

Potential buyers will look at all aspects of your property before they decide whether they’ll buy or not. You’ll already know that, but you could overlook a few areas. The floor is one of the more notable, except when there are some major and obvious flaws.

It’s worth taking some time to check the floors and get them updated, even if they’re not run down. Even something as simple as some hardwood floor refinishing could be enough to help with this. You’ll end up making your floors more appealing, adding more value to your property.

3. Upgrade Outside Doors

Curb appeal makes the first impression on potential buyers, so you’ll need to put a bit of time and effort into it. While you’ll have to look after this, you shouldn’t have to put too much time and work into it. It could be as simple as upgrading your exterior doors, and you’ll enhance your overall curb appeal.

Go with some modern and sleek, and you shouldn’t have a problem getting this done. It could also be worth adding some accessories to the entranceway to help with this. Some flowers and similar options can be well worth adding to this.

4. Improve Energy Efficiency

A property’s energy efficiency plays a large role in how much it costs to live in. You’ll see this in your energy bills every month. Going out of your way to improve this makes a large impact on what you can get for your house. Focus on this from the start to help generate buyer interest.

Insulating the property, sealing any cracks or holes in the property, and multiple other strategies can help with this. Get what you can done, and you shouldn’t have to worry about your home value increasing.

5. Update The Kitchen

Quite a few potential homebuyers will pay attention to the kitchen when they’re considering buying your property. It’s worth paying some attention to this when you want to sell. It’ll end up increasing your property value more than you’d think.

Giving the kitchen an update is all you’d need for this. You wouldn’t even have to go for a complete renovation. Instead, it’s just a matter of making sure everything looks nice, and you’re all set. Since potential buyers will focus on it, you should, too.

Mistakes You Could Be Making

If you want to increase your property value, it’s likely because you want to sell it. Once you’ve done each of the above, you might think you’re all set. That mightn’t be the case. Instead, you’ve more work to do.

You’ll have to actually get through the sales process. If you’ve never done this before, it’s natural not to know what you’re doing with this. That could lead to mistakes, and some of these could harm your property value.

Some of the more notable of these are:

  • Poor Photography – You’ll need to list your home on real estate websites, and these listings need photographs. If you don’t have high-quality pictures, then it’ll reflect poorly on your property. You’ll get less attention from potential buyers, harming your chances of getting a sale.
  • No Staging – Just because you like how your furniture is laid out doesn’t mean potential buyers will. You’ll need to stage your home so you can get more interest and potentially drive up the buying price.
  • Not Pricing Properly – How you price your home is vital to the sales process. Going too high means you’ll drive away potential buyers. Too low, and you’ll be low-balling yourself. Make sure you get this right.

By avoiding doing these, you should make sure you don’t harm your property value. You’ll get more for your house than you would’ve thought.

Increase Your Property Value: Wrapping Up

If you want to increase your property value, you’ll need to spend a decent bit of time and effort into it. Fortunately, it shouldn’t have to take nearly as much work as you could think. While a lot of this depends on your property, some strategies are sure to help.

Focusing on them from the start should help you get more for your house than you’d think. Once you do, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

Your house shouldn’t have a problem getting attention from potential buyers and getting a decent asking price. While the overall market will end up dictating the final value of your home, you should be able to drive this up significantly.

Accessorizing

Getting Quality Jewelry Cheaper than You Should

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CC0 Licensed Image Courtesy of Pexels

You can get quality jewelry cheaper than you might think. This depends on a few things, and you must play your role. Learning about stones and metals will help. And it never helps to be shy about your budget, as good pieces don’t need to be expensive. So, here are a few suggestions.

Know the Off-Peak Sales Times

Like most products, there are good times and bad times when buying jewelry. Of course, there are the obvious times of the year, such as Christmas, when jewelry sales increase. But the off-peak times for jewelry are usually January, after Christmas, of course, April and July. However, you can also shop around the top jewelry destinations in your area to find competitive deals on sought-after pieces. You never know, so dealers may even price-match your items.

Learn About Stones and Metals

You can’t really buy well if you don’t know what you are buying. Jewelry is a complex subject by nature, and diamonds can be a nightmare for a beginner. But it can be a massive help to learn a little about the materials you are buying, as these can often dictate the price. But it will also help you determine the quality of a piece when you know what it is to look for. Additionally, you can use your knowledge to get dealers to come down on the price a little if they know you know.

Get Quality Jewelry Cheaper Online

You can buy pretty much anything online these days, and this includes jewelry. Online sales are often a good alternative because there are lower costs sometimes, which are passed on to the consumer. And people may be taking notice since the online jewelry industry is worth $9 billion per year and growing. You can even buy diamonds online, as well as other precious materials and watches. But be aware that there are also some jewelry companies just ripping people off.

Don’t Be Shy About Your Budget

Good delivery doesn’t have to be expensive, and there is more to it than just the price tag. For the most part, the meaning of the piece is what makes it special, like giving an engagement ring to show commitment. Any good dealer will work with you to a budget and won’t ever turn you away or snub you. If you feel like a dealer is less than willing because you don’t have thousands to spend, then just leave. There are many others who will welcome your business politely.

Ask About Clearance Items

Further to your budget, don’t be afraid to ask about clearance items. Like any other kind of store, jewelry stores always have clearances when they are at the end of a stock or when an item doesn’t sell well. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t right for you. A good dealer will expect you to ask and is happy to sell clearance items to make room for new stock. However, you need to be aware that some clearance items, including diamonds, can often not be returned later on.

Summary

Learn the off-peak times to buy items so you can get quality jewelry cheaper. You can also shop online for great deals and always ask about clearance items when you visit a reputable dealer.

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How To Make Your Kitchen More Aesthetic

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If you love spending time in your kitchen only where you want it to be convenient and functional, but you also want it to be aesthetic.

Using these tips, you can guarantee to make your kitchen more aesthetic and feel more proud of your space.

Photo by Dmitry Zvolskiy: https://www.pexels.com/photo/chopping-boards-near-oven-under-hood-2062426/

Research new features to ensure they fit your vision

When it comes to choosing new features for your kitchen, it is important to research them as much as possible to ensure that they will fit your vision along with the rest of your kitchen interior.

France and You might wish to add a runner rug to make the floor warmer and add more depth to your kitchen.

You can look into 13 of the best runner rugs for your kitchen to seek inspiration for your kitchen update. Instead of heading to the store and choosing the first one you see, you can prefer the results when you do your research and understand what the best addition to the space will be. It will ensure that every new feature serves a purpose and ties in well with the rest of the interior.

Paint the cabinets

Another way to make your kitchen look better is to re-paint the cabinets instead of leaving them in their original color.

Whether you enjoy a minimal interior or a vibrant interior, you can benefit from painting your cabinets in whatever color you like. You can change warm wood cabinets to an aesthetic white. Or you can repaint them with vibrant vinyl paint to make your kitchen pop.

Grow herbs indoors

Although you can grow herbs outdoors, you might not have a lot of space, or you might not wish to go outside much during the winter. Either way, growing herbs indoors can make your kitchen more aesthetically pleasing.

Adding her parts to the windows and growing your own herbs is not only satisfactory, but it will also add some character to your kitchen space.

Add plants

Another thing to add to your kitchen to enhance the natural aesthetic is plants.

Whether you wish to add plants to the window sills or the kitchen side, plants are a great way to enhance the natural look and feel of your kitchen. Certain plants also help to eliminate odors and regulate the airflow, which will help your kitchen smell and feel fresher.

Add more natural materials

Speaking of making your kitchen look and feel natural with plants and herbs, you can also enhance the natural aesthetic of your kitchen by adding more natural materials.

Instead of using a plastic splashback and a stainless steel sink, you can replace these with natural materials. You can replace both of these with marble or stone to enhance the aesthetic of your kitchen. 

Making your kitchen more ascetic will not make it more convenient, however, it will make you feel more proud and comfortable when spending time there. Therefore, follow these tips to enhance the aesthetic of your kitchen.

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Quick Tips For Lowering Your Electricity Bill

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Electricity bills have seen a steep rise in the last few years, and it has been, for many people, almost unaffordable. Saving money in as many ways as possible can lighten the load and leave you with a little extra in your pocket. 

Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash

Here are some quick ways to save cash on your energy bills: 

Audit 

You need to know how much you use, when you use it, why you use it, and how much it costs. An online auditing tool can help you make a list, check it twice, and work out if you use too much. You can also check out your last month of bills and see if there are any significant differences. 

Energy providers

While many energy providers are roughly the same, many offer special packages for the elderly or the vulnerable. These packages, if they are applicable to you, can make a significant difference to your outgoings. A comparison website can help, but it might not tell the whole story. Make some calls to different providers and see what they can offer. 

Old electrics

If you have an older home that has an older system, you might find that you need to get an electrician in to check the wires and the outlets. Your bills might be much higher than they should be because you have an outdated system that isn’t built for modern electrical usage. 

Hot Water

You might not realize it, but depending on your system, your hot water usage could be your second-highest expense. And. a few adjustments to how you use your hot water could make a significant difference. Shorter showers, even by as little as two minutes, will use 23 fewer liters per shower! 

Laundry 

You need clean clothing, and if you have a busy household, the chances are your washing machine and tumble dryer are never empty. A few key things are only to run the washing machine with a full load, opt for a cooler temperature, and, whenever possible, hang the clothes out to dry. 

Air leaks 

If there are air leaks around your windows or doors, you are going to be losing both money and heat at a rapid rate. Go through the whole house and check to make sure all of the frames and sealed points are sealed correctly. Some styles of windows and doors, particularly older ones, may have a gap around the area where the window touched the frame. Invest in some pressure-sensitive weather strips and give yourself even fewer air leaks. 

Clothing 

Yes, wearing a cardigan or a sweater instead of turning the heating up is one of the most effective ways to keep your energy costs down in the colder months. Bathrobes, thick socks, and thermal layers make a significant difference in how much people spend keeping warm in the winter. 

If the wintertime is where your concern lies when it comes to costly bills, here are more than a few helpful ideas about how you can keep warm this winter: Smart Ways To Keep Your Home Warmer This Winter. 

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Remodel or Move – Tips for Choosing

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Homeowners whose lifestyles might have changed or be changing might find that the house they thought would be their forever home needs a big upgrade or it is time to move. 

It can be a difficult decision to make because most of the time, when you move, you are behind a lot of memories: first steps, first Christmas, cozy nights on the sofa, and more. But by moving, you can get a house that is more suitable for your needs. 

A home remodeling can give the home you love more space and mean you can stay there for longer. Not to mention, you can often see a better sale price if you do sell it at a later date. 

Photo by Ernie Journeys on Unsplash

Here are some things to consider when trying to decide between the two. 

The real estate market is too expensive.

For those who have a home in a location that has seen a steep price rise and don’t want to move to a new neighborhood, it can be smarter to invest in the property you already have.  

Investing in the current home and adding more space will bump the pierce up. 

Moving costs

Much of the decision is between whether you should be moving home or adding an extension remodeling. Mortgages are expensive, and moving house is costly, too. With all of those starting costs adding up, they can be more expensive than remodeling. 

One of the biggest benefits of the renovation and remodeling process is that you can work within your budget. 

No matter which one you decide, you’ll need to save up, but saving can be tricky when you don’t know where to start: How To Save Money When Moving House. 

The remodeling cost is too high. 

At a certain point in the cost of a remodel or renovation, the price is high enough to make moving to a home that doesn’t need extra work more of a viable option. The situation may also be that the remodel won’t add any value to the home you currently live in because the rest of the home, or the area, has seen a significant drop in the home value. 

What is most convenient 

Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how much something costs; what matters is how you feel about it. The convenience of moving into a home that already has everything you need (and hopefully a little bit more). The construction of a remodel can be tough for people with young children and pets – and something that you aren’t prepared for. 

A good way to get around it is to factor in a few nights at a hotel or an Airbnb to the overall price. 

The decision between moving home or remodeling can be difficult, and it is unlikely to be one that you will make in a short time. Many things go into it – and finance might not be the main reason. Think about what your family will be or look like in 5 years time and how your current house will feel.