Category: House & Garden

4 Reasons to Hire a Bathroom Remodelling Team

4 Reasons to Hire a Bathroom Remodelling Team

If you are on a budget, you may try to cut costs by handling much of your bathroom renovations on your own. While you may save money initially, there are many reasons why it’s both a good idea and important to leave such a job to the experts.

Save Time
If you have ever carried out home renovations on your own before, you likely know how long they take. The average person can spend months carrying out standard changes simply because they have to schedule them in around their full-time job and errands.

When you hire experts, making these changes in your bathroom and other parts of your home is their job. You can have the entire project taken care of in far less time than you would have managed on your own.

Save Money
Many people don’t hire experts to help with their renovations because they want to save money. They may not have the experience to tackle DIY tasks but believe YouTube can be their teacher every step of the way.

Your intentions may be pure, but the final result may not be what you had in mind. The installation of sinks, toilets and shower screens is more complicated than you may think. You may not have even carried out the renovations correctly, which results in you having to hire an expert to redo many of them. Rather than spend money fixing your mistakes, consider hiring someone to manage the entire bathroom renovation in the first place.

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Embrace the Art of Living: Unravel the Magic of Landscaping Services

Are you longing to transform your exterior space into an oasis of tranquillity, a sanctuary of beauty, or a hub for social gatherings? Welcome to the captivating world of landscaping services. Your home is not just about four walls; it’s an entire world that extends into the garden and beyond. With services including garden landscaping, landscape design, swimming pool design, and garden maintenance, you can bring your outdoor dreams to life.

Garden Landscaping: A Symphony of Green

The first facet of landscaping that often comes to mind is garden landscaping. It is an art that combines botany and design to create beautiful and functional outdoor spaces. From selecting the perfect plants to arranging them in a visually appealing way, professional garden landscapers have the knowledge and skills to help you create a garden that reflects your personality and lifestyle.

Think of layered flower beds, charming walkways, garden structures like pergolas, and strategically placed outdoor lighting. All these elements harmonize to offer a delightful visual treat. Garden landscaping is not merely about aesthetics; it also takes into consideration the local climate, soil health, and sustainable practices to ensure a vibrant and healthy garden.

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10 Tips For Landscaping Designs Suitable For Those With Limited Mobility

10 Tips For Landscaping Designs Suitable For Those With Limited Mobility

Gardens should be able to be enjoyed by all and that includes those with mobility issues such as the elderly or disabled. Given their natural surroundings, it may be that case that a garden has been poorly planned and access and mobility within it are poor. If you are thinking of having landscape architects recreate your garden and you wish to be accessible for all, there are specific aspects that need to be incorporated within your garden’s design.

If you are unsure as to what elements and features your landscaping design needs to include, then read on as we have ten tips to help you make your garden more accessible and usable by those who have mobility issues, including yourself if you, unfortunately, fall into that category.

Tip #1 – Include Lots Of Seating: This is a feature that will be welcomed by those with and without mobility issues. Seating not just gives them a place to stop and rest, but also provides opportunities to relax and take in the beautiful surroundings

Tip #2 – Avoid Large Or Curved Lawns: Lawns require a considerable amount of maintenance which may not be easy for those who struggle with their movement. If you must have a lawn make it a small one with a regular shape. Alternatively, replace your lawn with a wood or stone patio.

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How To Prevent Pet Urine Damaging Your Carpets

How To Prevent Pet Urine Damaging Your Carpets

Along with the rise of modern office culture, diversity, and gender acceptability, a new phenomenon has emerged in the form of office pets. Many offices these days are even adding their pets to their team pages or describing them as their team mascots. While this can be good for team morale, it can also keep the commercial cleaning team busy if the dogs aren’t proficiently toilet trained.

Your carpets can take more than their fair share of abuse, including mud, dirt, grime, and staining. Carpet cleaning is needed to get them back looking as they should, prevent further damage, and reduce their lifetime.

One type of stain found in many homes and (now some offices), given our love of pets, is staining from pet urine. Most pets are lovable creatures ranging from tiny kittens all the way up to full-grown giant dogs like Dobermans, and whilst they may all differ in size, they all share one natural function: the need to pee.

Of course, many adult pets will have complete control over their bladders, and the likelihood of their urine ending up on your carpets is negligible. However, even these pets may occasionally have an accident due to illness or simply getting overexcited. Obviously, with pups and kittens still learning that the place to urinate is outside or in a litter tray, the risk of urine on carpets is much greater.

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13 Tips For a Successful Landscaping Business

13 Tips For a Successful Landscaping Business

If you are tired of the 9-5 routine, you may have considered setting up your own business, there are many work-from-home opportunities available these days, and it can be quite easy to set up something to bring in an income when you use the computer and internet. But if you like being more hands-on, you might prefer something else, such as landscaping.

Professional landscapers, Intreeg Landscapes, provide us with a list of what you need to do to be successful in this area?

  • A love of working outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine.
  • A reasonable amount of muscle since you will be doing some lifting and other hard physical work.
  • A knowledge of plants and designing skills, so your work is amazing.
  • A friendly disposition so your clients feel they want to hire you. And so you can get them to tell you exactly what they want and you can suggest even better solutions.
  • The ability to work machinery. This depends on whether you choose small jobs or want to get into the larger landscaping of schools grounds, hospitals and other organisations.
  • Handyman skills so you can offer additional work such as concreting pathways, building retaining walls, fencing, installing a swimming pool or adding a gazebo. Unless you outsource that work, it will be more expensive for the client.
  • The ability to work for yourself. You may think that sounds easy, but your business will not be successful if you are not disciplined about showing up when you are supposed to and working a full day.

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5 Essential Tips For Weeding Your Landscaped Garden

Regardless of whether someone is tending a small window box or responsible for maintaining a vast landscaping project designed and built by a professional from a Perth landscaping company like Martin Cuthbert Landscapes, they will both face up to the same enemies, and those enemies are weeds. Whilst weeds might be considered by some to be part of nature and have as much right to exist as any other living organism on this planet, there will not be many gardeners who agree with them.

Instead, most landscape gardeners and those responsible for maintaining gardens would tell you that if they had three wishes, whilst 2 might relate to wealth and living a long life, the third wish would be eliminating weeds from existence. Unless you have been lucky enough to find a magic lamp with a genie inside, 3 wishes will unlikely come your way. Therefore, you must seek less magical means of eliminating weeds from your landscape garden, such as these.

Educate Yourself

There are bound to be gardeners reading this with varying degrees of knowledge in relation to weeds. Whichever level you are at it is essential that you can identify the weeds in your garden. Some will be obvious, but you might need to refer online or to a gardening book for others. Further to this, by identifying the weeds you have, you are better equipped to know how to deal with each one effectively.

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Choose Epoxy Floors

Why Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses Should Choose Epoxy Floors

There are many reasons epoxy floor coatings are popular with all kinds of business, which is why it is seen as an extremely versatile flooring product. You are as likely to walk on an epoxy floor at your local gym or cinema, as you are in your office, or works canteen.

Even domestically, there are many homeowners who use epoxy floor coatings to completely transform rooms or use it on a practical basis for the flooring in their garage or workshop.

Obviously, the domestic use of coat flooring is at one end of the spectrum, and many would consider the other end to be industrial facilities, which includes factories, and other types of manufacturing units. With these, the needs are completely different and many of the reasons for choosing epoxy floor coatings will differ too.

For example, one of the main advantages of using epoxy floors is that it is resistant to chemicals. While there might be some substances that we could classify as a chemical in a home such as bleach and washing-up liquid it is highly unlikely that anyone who is considering a coat flooring for their home has chemical resistance at the top of their list of reasons to buy it.

On the other hand, for an industrial facility, where chemicals will often be used frequently as part of their manufacturing process, the need for a chemical resistant floor coating is likely to be high.

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Create Indoor-Outdoor Flow

How to Create Indoor-Outdoor Flow

When you finally decide to come up with a new landscaping plan for your property, there’s one thing that may come to mind: indoor-outdoor flow.

You want your home and outdoor area to be comfortable in their own right, but what about together? If one seamlessly flows into the other, then you get even more bang for your buck.

It’s far easier to work on indoor-outdoor flow with new homes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve it with older homes, too. With the right landscaping plan or team, it’s easier than you might think.

It’s All in the Decking

One of the best ways to achieve indoor-outdoor flow is with decking. Building a deck that extends from your home to your outdoor space can bridge the gap between the indoors and the outdoors with ease.

As soon as you exit your home from one of your home’s exit points, you can immediately be in an area for entertainment. You can then start putting other features in place to enhance that feeling further.

A Door Do-Over

If you have a traditional entry door on your house, then you may like to look at other options to achieve indoor-outdoor flow. Many new homes built today have sliding, stacking, and bi-fold doors that open from the house to the outdoor entertainment area.

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Choosing the Right CCTV System

Five Tips for Choosing the Right CCTV System for Your Home

Using CCTV surveillance and security cameras is a great way to secure your home, but it can be extremely difficult to choose the right option. There are countless video security systems on the market, and every security company will try and sell you something that little bit different.

Because of this, it’s important to do your own research and make your own decisions to ensure you’re getting exactly what you need. In the rest of this article, we’ve outlined our top five tips for choosing the best CCTV system for your home and commercial property. They include:

  1. Don’t Make Cost the Be All and End All

To begin with, it’s important not to let prices dictate every aspect of your decision. On the one hand, cheaper isn’t always better (obviously), although there are plenty of quality budget options out there. However, the same goes at the other end of the spectrum. Just because a CCTV system is more expensive doesn’t mean that it’s better, and it’s a good idea to remember this.

  1. Think About Where You’re Going to Install Them

Different cameras are designed to be used in different places. For example, some systems are designed specifically with indoor use in mind. Others are weatherproofed and better suited to outside installation. The take-home message here is that it’s important to get the right CCTV equipment for the job.

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Why Should I Aerate My Lawn?

Why Should I Aerate My Lawn?

For the most part, homeowners shouldn’t need to dedicate too much time to lawn care. A little bit of TLC at the changing of the seasons is often all it takes to sustain its quality and keep it looking lush and healthy. However, if there’s one thing you should think about doing, it’s aerating your lawn. Why Should I Aerate My Lawn? Read on to find out.

What is Lawn Aeration?

Before you find out why lawn aeration is essential, it’s a good idea to discover what it is first. You can then decide whether it’s a lawn care option that can suit your property. Lawn aeration is the process of putting holes in your lawn to allow air, water, and nutrients to get where they are needed the most.

You can use a garden fork or even purchase special footwear with spikes to get the job done quicker. Lawn aeration is also a process that lawn care experts can take care of with the use of proper aeration equipment.

Compact Soil

One of the primary reasons why lawn aeration is necessary is due to compaction. Compact soil can be caused by one section of your lawn getting a lot of heavy use. For example, the kids might use it to play a game of rugby, or it might be a common foot traffic area to get to your washing line. Once rain falls, any air pockets that may have been there to aid in root growth are now filled.

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Top Tips For Maintaining A Sparkly Clean Pool Fence

Top Tips For Maintaining A Sparkly Clean Pool Fence

If you own a swimming pool in Australia or are planning a pool renovation, you need some sort of pool fencing. Pool fences are governed by a range of legal requirements throughout Australia, and you need to make sure that your fence meets these requirements, otherwise you might find yourself hit with major fines or other penalties.

Glass pool fencing is one of the most popular fence styles to surround your swimming pool, but it has to be kept clean and well maintained. Glass fencing experts clearazglassfencing.com.au advise that if your glass fence isn’t properly maintained, it will look dirty and worn, defeating the purpose of having a stylish glass fence in the first place.

To help you combat the dust, dirt, grime and bird poop that will seem drawn to your glass fence like nails to a magnet, we’ve put together the following list of top tips for maintaining a sparkly clean pool fence:

  1. Clean It Regularly!

The key to keeping your glass pool fence in sparkly new condition is cleaning it as often as possible. While you can get away with only cleaning your fence a couple of times a year in mild climates, you should try to clean it at least once a month if you live near the ocean, near an industrial area, or in a harsh climate.

Remember – you can’t hurt your fence by washing it too much!

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Creating Kerb Appeal

Creating Kerb Appeal

Make a Change

The kids are back at school, the holidays are over, a New Year has begun, and the beautiful weather is begging you to work outside and add a bit of change to the home. Freshen up the look of your home and add a bit of kerb appeal for 2018. Don’t worry too much about cost. You can add a new look for the year without breaking the bank and work with a landscape designer to add appeal to your property.

Grass Out

Many front yards are still looking like golf course greens. The grass requires ongoing maintenance and a lot of water during summer. If you eliminate the grass you will avail yourself of more time and save a valuable resource – water. Think of the area without grass as a blank canvas on which you can create something new.

Personal Courtyard

Older style houses had a front porch on which you could sit and enjoy the fresh air and watch the world go by. New designs provide just a small entry area now. By adding a small courtyard, you can recreate that welcoming entrance your grandparents used to love. Plants and a paved patio will help to make a private and relaxing setting. If you add a well-designed water feature then the sound of running water will greet your guests as they visit your home. If traffic noise is a problem, the water feature will help lessen the sounds from the street. Imagine yourself having a nice morning coffee in your courtyard or a cold drink after a day at work.

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How to Keep Your Garden Nice When You are Not There

How to Keep Your Garden Nice When You are Not There

Professional landscape design is a thing of beauty. If you are a keen gardener who is proud of all the lovely flowers, shrubs and other plants in their garden you might not be looking forward to going on holidays. Designing your own garden is beautiful, but require someone to work in them pruning, weeding, watering and planting to look their best.

So if you are planning that overseas holiday or trip around Australia, what will happen to the garden while you are away? You cannot depend on rain to water it, but even if you have automatic irrigation installed, things can go wrong. The sensors may not work or the pipes might get blocked up. Then your beautiful garden will shrivel up and be brown and bare when you get home. All that work done for nothing!

You may live in a climate where rainfall is plenty, or you may have good neighbours to look after the watering for you. But there is still weeding and pruning to be done. You might even have annuals or perennials waiting for you to plant them out. It’s almost enough to make you cancel those holiday plans and spend time in the garden instead.

But before you do that, consider having professional landscaping done on a regular basis while you are away. In fact, this is a good idea even when you are home as it will give you a better chance to relax or take up that hobby you never have time for. Your landscape design could even improve with professionals on hand to care for it or even add to it.

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Fence Designs for your Backyard

Fence Designs for your Backyard

Backyards, secured and private, and spacious are standard in Australian neighbourhoods. Australians use their backyards for all types of relaxation and recreation. Private means cannot be seen by the prying eyes of passers-by and sticky-beak neighbours. There are many different styles of fencing from which to choose. Securing your backyard can be done without costing a fortune, regardless of what material or design you select. Listed below are a few options available for residential fencing that will give you privacy and security at the same time.

Privacy Fences

These fences work as physical barriers between the outside world and your backyard. You need to check with your local council and your neighbour when planning height, cost and material. The usually acceptable height for backyard boundary fences is 1.8 metres. As well as being legally correct, it’s also about the right height to obstruct visual and physical access. The front fence is a different matter altogether. You have an extensive range of designs and materials to consider that can create a personalised appearance. As there are no limits, you can even have a custom-built fence to suit an individual taste. While most residential privacy fences come in wood, there are many other materials to be found. A popular alternative is metallic decorative strips that suit garden fencing.

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How to Get the Most Out of Your Swimming Pool

How to Get the Most Out of Your Swimming Pool

If you are wondering whether to put in a pool or not, it may be because you are not sure whether it will be worth it. Concrete swimming pools last a long time so there are many years for the pool to get substantial use, especially if you have children and a pool cleaner. Here are some of the ways in which you can use your pool to ensure you get the best value from it.

  • It is usually the children who use the pool most. They’ll run home on a hot summer day and jump straight in. Swimming and playing in the pool is an excellent way for kids to get healthy. They will lose weight as they exercise in the pool. They can swim laps and when they take swimming as a sport it will really help them to come first in races if they can practice at home every day.
  • When the children are old enough, you can host their birthday parties beside the pool. Pool parties make it really easy to entertain the kids. A few pool toys will help them have great fun. The food and drink can all be set up outside and this keeps your home much cleaner.
  • You can also entertain guests poolside. Install a barbeque and entertainment area, deck chairs and a table and you are ready to go. Guests can swim or not as it pleases them.

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Does Your Shade Sail Really Work?

Does Your Shade Sail Really Work?

If you are looking to shade your home or garden, it would be very frustrating to have one installed only to find the shade is cast in a different place from where you wanted it, or that it didn’t throw enough shade. If you’ve ever been to a park or other public place where shade sails have been erected, yet found there was very little or no shade, you may wonder if they really work.

Part of the problem is that you may have been there at a time when the sun was in a different position than the one chosen to give shade. For instance, early morning shade will be missing if the angle of the sail was set to provide shade at midday or later in the afternoon. This is why you need to give some thought as to exactly what you want your sail to do.

If a sail is to throw shade onto the walls of the house, the angle of it will need to be different from one that is to provide shade on the ground at noon. The shape of the sail must also be taken into consideration. In addition, you’ll need to ensure the sail is stretched in the right way to avoid wind shear and prevent water or wind-blown debris from sitting in the middle and weighing it down.

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Pro Golf and Pro Turf

Pro Golf and Pro Turf

When the US PGA, 2017 finished, everyone focused on the game the winners played, rather than the turf. The winner was an American golfer, Justin Thomas. The golf course was the famous Quail Hollow, and for those who don’t think watching golf on TV is like watching paint dry, they would have seen the way the course was prepared for a major championship. The pros of golf like Australia’s Jason Day, Adam Scott and John Senden play on the best courses.

When it comes to golf, the pros know their turf. And if you are talking about golf turf, then golf course superintendents аrе рrоѕ аt mаnаgіng golf turf. It’s their job to know their grasses. What are the best types for toughness and durability and grasses that make a golf course look so beautiful?

Course Maintenance

The job of maintaining the course is the responsibility of the course superintendent. They make sure it gets fertilised, watered, mowed and shaped so that the result is great looking greens and fairways. To be honest, a great golf course, properly maintained, helps even the golf hackers to improve their scores. Golf course designers and superintendents understand that there is the need a variety of different turfs to create the best surface for a particular part of the course. Taking care to choose the best kind of turf will ensure the golf course becomes a popular one.

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How to Avoid Problems with Your Renovations

How to Avoid Problems with Your Renovations

DIY renovations can save money and greatly satisfy those who love working with their hands.  Whether you love working with timber, painting, or simply planning it all out, working out when electrical contractors and other trades should come and fitting the different pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle, doing home renovations makes life worthwhile for many people.

If you are into home renovations and improvements, it is essential to know what is legal and what is not, when council permission is needed, and what all those other rules and regulations are. No one likes red tape, but it is a fact of life, and ignoring it can be costly. Here are some ways to avoid any problems with your renovations.

  • Cost out the job. If it is going to cost more than $3,300 you will need council permission.
  • Work with the council to determine what is needed in your state, as the rules and regulations vary by state.
  • Ensure you don’t do work that needs a licensed professional, such as an electrician or residential plumber, even if it looks simple.
  • Make sure all your tradies are fully licensed and have insurance.
  • Have your plans are approved by council and get the necessary inspections as the work progresses, even if it means a delay waiting for the building inspector to come.
  • Don’t attempt to do work you are not qualified for or skilled enough to do. It may seem like it’s going to save money, but in the long run, problems can pop up and be more costly to fix.

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7 Ways to Use Limestone Blocks in the Garden

7 Ways to Use Limestone Blocks in the Garden

If you are considering upgrading the landscaping around your home or commercial building limestone blocks are a good choice for many elements. Limestone is a durable material that is beautiful in its own right. It is strong enough to withstand being out in the weather all the time so is ideal for seating that does not have to be brought inside overnight to protect it from the weather.

There are many other ways to use limestone as part of your landscaping:-

  • Retaining walls. Most blocks that are on a slope will require retaining walls to ensure the soil does not wash away in a storm. But retaining walls can also be used as a garden edging where it needs to be that bit higher than a normal edging. Knee high or even hip high walls are often used to contain plants on a sloping piece of ground. Retaining walls can be used as a feature to enhance the garden or lawn.
  • If you have created a beautiful outdoor area for alfresco meals or entertaining, a wall of limestone can be used as a windbreak, for privacy or to throw some shade onto the area. This can be the ideal finish for your outdoor area to make it pop. It can take what looks a bit plain and convert it to something that is really different and pleasing.

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The Advantages of Good Landscape Design

The Advantages of Good Landscape Design

A lovely landscape design not only adds value to your property, it can transform your outdoor area into a beautiful place to sit and enjoy Mother Nature’s bounty. Most homeowners don’t have the training that professional landscapers have undergone, so their attempts at landscaping fall far short of what is possible. The result is they don’t get the best out of their block of ground and the value of the home is less than it could be.

Even if your block is not as large as you would like, there are many lovely garden designs that can make it look larger or in many other ways enhance your enjoyment of life. If you are lucky enough to have a large block, proper landscaping can really enhance your space and provide an outdoor area that is totally amazing.

A good garden design can –

  • Create small, private pockets that delight your heart
  • Give privacy from the roadway, public path, or the neighbours
  • Create a windbreak that enables more delicate flowers to grow well
  • Offer shade in an otherwise hot area
  • Provide a delightful, safe and shady spot for the children to play
  • Cover up an eyesore such as an old shed or fence or wall that is not on your own property
  • Lead you into other areas of the garden
  • Create a peaceful oasis in a busy cityscape
  • Provide an aesthetically pleasing area to entertain or to relax and enjoy some down time
  • Add value to your property
  • Make your property stand apart from others
  • Give your home street appeal.

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Who Will do Your Commercial Property Maintenance?

Who Will do Your Commercial Property Maintenance?

Property maintenance is more important than you may realise. When it comes to the look of a commercial property it is essential that everything is in pristine condition if you expect customers to come. If anything about the property looks neglected or run-down, potential customers will be turned off, because (a) they will think your business is run the same way as your premises look and (b) they simply don’t want to go into a building that does not look welcoming.

Statistics don’t lie

It has been proven statistically that people flock to a public or commercial area that is attractive and pleasant to be in, while they avoid those places that look neglected or ugly. This is because our surroundings affect our mood just as much as being with happy people makes us feel happier too.

So if there is no one to do your property maintenance properly, it will soon become run down and begin to look unattractive. You will then lose customers. The trouble is that when you hire staff it is to help run the business, not to do repairs on the building and make it look nice. So you actually have to hire help to do this, because your own time is taken up in running the business – as it should be.

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The Elements of Modern Kitchen Design

The Elements of Modern Kitchen Design

Regarding modern kitchen design, several elements may easily be missing in older kitchens, or in those flat-pack kitchens popular with many builders. To truly enjoy working in the kitchen, you need to have one that is more than just functional. Hotel kitchens are available, but that doesn’t mean they have all the elements a modern kitchen should have.

In fact, many kitchens, commercial or not, are poorly designed. They may not have good lighting, or the food preparation area may not be located conveniently to the sink or the stove. While they still work and the person who does the cooking gets used to the inconvenience, they could be much better.

Inconvenience in a kitchen is not only annoying and frustrating; it is also tiring. If you continually walk from one end of the kitchen to the other to get what you want, it takes longer to prepare the meal.  If you have to dodge doors that open into your standing or walking space, it can cause bruises when you bump into them.

Based on expert advice from Kitchen Professionals are some elements of modern kitchen design:

  • A workspace that is appropriately designed so the above problems are addressed.
  • Lighting that gives you spotlights for preparation rather than dark corners or working in your own shadow.
  • Plenty of storage is in the correct places so that everything you need is on hand. Many housewives dream of a walk-in pantry or storage area for things not used daily.
  • Enough bench space to prepare meals so cooking for a more prominent family or entertaining is not tricky.
  • A pleasant look and feel. If you love colour and your kitchen is plain white or grey, you may hate being in it, no matter how functional it is.

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More to Cabinet Making Than Meets the Eye

More to Cabinet Making Than Meets the Eye

Home handymen might think making a cabinet is an easy project. All you need is a few pieces of timber, some nails and screws, a tape measure and square. But professional cabinet makers such Colray Cabinets would tell you it is not as easy as you may think. First you have to think about the style of your kitchen cabinets.

For instance, do you want modern, contemporary or some other kind of style? Unless you know what style you are going to build you will not be able to purchase the right materials. Then again, once you settle on the style you want, will it actually look good in your kitchen, or will it stand out like a sore toe? You will need to be sure the cabinet suits the other components in your kitchen.

Getting the measurements right can pose another problem. You might measure the gap where that cabinet is to go only to find after the cabinet is built that the top measurement differs from the bottom one for some reason. Maybe the floor is not perfectly level or perhaps your fingers slipped when you took the measurement.

You will need to decide whether the cabinet should be a built-in, or if you will make it out in the shed and simply slot it into place when it’s finished – if it fits. Then you’ll need to fill in the gap between it and the wall if you don’t want it to fill with dust and things that fell off the back of the cupboard. And there are the gaps on both sides to deal with.

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Best Garden Pots for Balconies

Best Garden Pots for Balconies

Growing plants in pots on a balcony is even more difficult than having them on a veranda or in the back yard. Why? On the balcony there is very little else to catch the eye, so if the garden pots are not beautiful, or if the plants in them look jaded, it will be really noticeable and the pretty display you were aiming for simply won’t materialise.

Weighty matters

So the best pots for balconies are those that both look really attractive and have several other elements that help the plant to grow well. Pots with thicker walls offer a bit of insulation from the heat that many balconies suffer from. They are also heavier so can withstand winds that are often much more forceful on a high rise balcony than at ground level. However, they should not be too heavy as balconies usually have a maximum weight load owners must adhere to for safety.

Drain and stain

Pots for balconies should also have a saucer underneath or be designed so that excess water won’t run out the bottom and stain the cement on the balcony. Dirty water can drip off your balcony and fall or blow onto the one below. Not a good way to be friends with the neighbours. Pots should be chosen to suit the growth habits of the plant in them. If the plant is going to grow really tall, the pot needs to be larger and heavy enough to prevent the whole lot blowing over.

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How to Use Your Frameless Glass Showerscreens Safely

How to Use Your Frameless Glass Showerscreens Safely

It is not only aging people who have poor close-up eyesight; many younger people do too. So if you are thinking about installing frameless glass shower screens, or if you have recently upgraded your home to include them, it is essential to know how to use them safely.  Glass in the bathroom has many advantages in allowing the light to shine into every corner, visually enhancing the entire room and making it seem bigger.

However, the experts advise those with eyesight that is not as sharp as it could be might tend to bump into glass screens. To prevent this from happening all you need to do is place a sticker of some kind on the glass door of the shower screen. Place it at eye level or a little lower, but not so low that it doesn’t catch your line of sight as soon as you enter the bathroom

Once you can see where the door is, you’ll have no trouble knowing where those almost invisible walls are as well.  Older people may even appreciate having a sticker on each wall as well, because once they are in the shower without spectacles and with water running down their face, they may find it more difficult to keep track of where they are in relation to walls and doors.

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