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Summer Home Rentals

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Written by Administrator | 10 August 2011

Megan Gates is an active blogger and handles communications on behalf of Elliman.com. She provides written work to the blogosphere pertaining to New York Luxury Real Estate, Long Island Rentals, and the latest in architecture, design and fashion. Follow her on Twitter @ MEGatesDesign.

Even with the end of July in sight, there is still plenty of summer left for people to enjoy a vacation getaway. Renting a summer home is a great way to get out of town, live like a local and gather with a bunch of friends and family. Whether you own a property near the ocean, a lake, or a destination city, what sort of summer home are people looking to rent?

Summer homes are meant for people to enjoy time together. Having a house with an open concept, especially in areas like the living and dining room, are beneficial for achieving that goal. The negative aspect for having a house that is too open is that people also crave privacy, especially if they are sharing the space with a lot of other people. There lies the benefit of having more closed off rooms, privacy. The negative side of a more closed concept can make a property feel smaller than it is.

When it comes to functionality, no one wants to go to a summer home & fight over bathroom time like they do at home. Renters want something different than what they’re used to at home and usually more luxurious. Having a property with a lot of bedrooms makes a great vacation home to rent because people tend to vacation with friends and family. The housing trend for this year calls for bigger, more luxurious bathrooms. Having a lot of bathrooms or adding one may not be always be an option in a rental property. However, giving whatever bathrooms are available a face lift to give them a spa feel would be a must have for renters.

A hot trend of new homes is outdoor living space. This doesn't include your typical space of plastic patio furniture and pink flamingos in the garden. People want outdoor kitchens, living rooms and garden rooms. The outdoor space can now be created to be an extensive of your property's square footage instead of a separate area. In terms of flow, keep the outdoor kitchen close to the indoor kitchen.

When it comes to interior design, work with what you have. If you own a home on a beach, play up the beach theme by using inspiration but all the water and sand elements around you. If you have a cabin on a lake, use the natural elements and colors around you for design inspiration. Remember that renters are looking for luxury when they vacation so trying to incorporate a lavish feel into the rooms is a benefit.

With these design tips, your property will become as hot as the summer heat and rented just as quickly. Share any other summer home tips below!

Top 3 Interior Design Questions -- Answered

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Written by Administrator | 10 August 2008

Before starting any interior design or remodeling project, you need to think about the three biggest areas. Do you know what they are? You'll find out below along with some interior design tips on how to handle them

What To Do With The Walls?

This is perhaps the biggest question and the area that can make the most difference in the outcome of your interior design. Wall color can set the tone of the room, but many people are afraid to paint their walls with anything but white. One way to get around this is to buy small samples of paint that you think you may want on the walls and paint it on a section of the wall. You don't have to paint the whole wall - just a 1 foot square section. Live with it for a day and see how it looks in all different kinds of light. Be advised, however that many colors - especially darker ones - attain their true beauty from the look of the entire wall after being layered with several coats of paint.

Don't be afraid to go ahead and paint the walls - paint is cheap. If you don't like the way it looks you can always paint over it!


What To Do With The Furniture?

Should you buy new furniture? What if your old stuff is still good, should you have it re-upholstered? While budgetary concerns may dictate, you should evaluate the furniture for style and value versus the cost of the re-upholstering. If you are looking for a sleek modern style living room and your old sofa is a country style, you should probably consider buying new. If expense is a problem, take a trip to your local consignment store. You can buy like new furniture for a fraction of the cost and if your old stuff is still in good condition you can consign it and get some money for it to help pay for your new one.

What To Do With The Floors?

Decisions about floor designs should be based on your personal taste as well as your budget. Some flooring is extremely expensive and, although it may be the type that will look best with your design it may not be affordable, or even practical. When replacing flooring, you should always consider the use of the room and if the flooring will hold up well. A wood floor might be a bad choice for a kids playroom and will soon show the marks and wear of toys being slid across it. Carpeting might go well in the family room, but if you tend to eat in front of the TV you'll want to be sure to get a stain resistant type.
Lee Dobbins is a contributing author for Leisure Webzone where you can read more articles about your favorite leisure activities.

Interior Design Basics

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Written by Administrator | 10 August 2008

Much like the history of art, the history of interior design has had numerous styles, movements and the political and social developments that have informed or challenged its evolution.

Encyclopedias define interior design as: planning and design of man made spaces, a part of environmental designs and closely related to architecture. Although the desire to create a pleasant environment is as old as civilization itself the field of interior design is relatively new, this seems on target for most home designs.

Since at least the middle of the 20th century, the term interior decorator has been so loosely applied as to be nearly meaningless. Meaningless? Maybe since the word eclectic has become a household word.

Interior designers use their education, creativeness, and experience to help plan the space and furnish the interiors of private homes, public buildings, and business or institutional facilities, such as offices, restaurants, retail establishments, hospitals, hotels, and theaters.

Professional designers can tell you if a chair is a Greek, Roman, Byzantium, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Gothic, Moorish, Spanish, Anglo Saxon or Charlemagnes Chair. Does the average person even know anything about the colonial period, the revival of Directoire and empire furniture, the Victorian period or the periods of the three Louis?

This may be why a lot of creative people shy away from decorating there own special spaces.

In this modern day and age people can now use their creativity to create beautiful living spaces without caring that they may break a cardinal rule of decorating. Home decorating, is a conscious effort to improve the appearance and functionality of ones living areas, in many homes and living spaces.

This means that we can break out of the styles of the past and create our own areas of comfort and style. Really know what you want as a home, want it, and you can work out any scheme, provided you have intelligence, patience and perseverance.

What is eclectic? Eclectic is basically made up of or combining elements from a variety of sources, like mixing a Elizabethan chair next to a Queen Anne stool. As part of the ever increasing quest for individual expression in decor the eclectic style has emerged as a favorite among homeowners that want to decorate the world around them.

This gives us all freedom to decorate to our own taste and comfort level!

Acknowledging all schemes of interior decoration and insisting that what makes any scheme good or bad, successful, or unsuccessful is the fact that it is planned in reference to the type of person who will live in it. If you are to be living in it then you can do anything you want.

In planning your house after arranging for proper wall space for your various articles of furniture, keep in mind always that balance will be needed and must be at the same time conveniently placed and distinctly decorative; convenient for the individual along with the family.

I am often astonished to see how many times the careless placing of one piece of furniture upsets the actual balance of a room. One chair in the flow of traffic or a tipsy lamp next to a door can really ruin a good looking design. To help you make smart choices, look thru books on decorating that discuss traits, preferred room dimensions, available options for furniture matching, and other helpful decision making information. Often ebooks and other online resource can point out good hints and tips to really get you started.

With this in mind and ideas fresh, I suggest lots of thought and some research before starting out on this great endeavor, but with a plan in hand roll up your sleeves and get going!


john savage has a Blog which shows where you can learn the Insider Secrets to decorating success. Click Here to visit his Blog.

Building A Family Legacy Thru Interior Design

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Written by Administrator | 11 August 2008

After 40 plus years as a furniture restorer, it still warms my heart when a client brings in an old item for review, wondering if it might be possible to do something with it. There was a time long ago when if the item presented was not really worth the time, I would recommend against the restoration. As I have grown a little older I have begun to realize, there is a kind of value that defies appraisal.

The furnishings and other artifacts we have, and pass along to our kids and grandkids are more about preserving a family tradition and carrying on a pride in our family and loved ones than just a place to sit.
As I slow down and really listen to what my clients are saying, it starts to become more and more clear, It isn't really about the chair or end table or whatever on the surface it seems to be. The little thing they brought along for me to see. The thing they are trying to grab onto is really more a legacy than any thing else. It's a way to preserve what seems good about the past, and to bring that forth in their home today.

Maybe that thing lives inside the chair, where as a kid they remember Grandpa sitting on the front porch, smoking his pipe and telling stories of how it was when his daddy raised him. It's a reminder of stories from a time before people had electricity in the house, and chilly visits to the outhouse on a cold November night.

For example, not long ago, a client of ours named Barbara stopped by to drop off a family piece. My associate commented about a rocking chair, it was laying just inside the door of our shop in pieces where barb left it just a moment before, I think something like "why in the world, would anybody spend money on that?" At face value, it's a valid question. The chair wasn't that good. The cost of restoration probably was every bit or more what it would cost to replace the rocker, but there was more to it than that, he had totally, missed the point as so many do. The rocker belonged to Barbara's Mother whom had used it to rock barb and her little brother when she herself, was a young mother, it was a gift to her from her mom and in turn Barbs Mom had given to her just before passing away. I'm pretty sure that Barb had a lot of other chairs, and I'm sure she could have gone out and bought one just as nice for the money she was spending for the restoration, but knowing what we now know, that's not the point is it?

As time goes on, my hair gets thinner, and my belly gets thicker, and I see more and more, the importance of leaving a legacy, as individuals, families and even as a country. And the stuff we have in and around our homes, while it is so true that we can't take it with us, what we leave behind helps us to tell a story. The story of what we hold dear, the values we ascribe to and the example we set for future generations to model.

Christmas dinner on Grandma's dining set will always taste better, and a book enjoyed in front of a fireplace is more intriguing if you are seated in mom's rocking chair.
So, when taking inventory and planning what to do with potential heirlooms when they come your way think twice. Remember, it's not only about cost benefit analysis and replacement cost.
When you decide to keep that rocker, or table or dining set, keep this in mind, these things are heavy laden vehicles, vehicles that transport fond memories, important values and sometimes several lifetimes worth of identity. I believe, that if you plan your interior design projects with these thoughts in mind, you will develop a real beautiful and warm home, a back drop for all the things you hold dear, and an opportunity to teach the next generation what is good and true and praiseworthy in life.


John VerHines is a seasoned restorer and president of Gramco. With 40+ years experience in the craft of furniture restoration.  To learn more visit http://www.GramcoFurnitureRestoration.com Copyright 2006 Gramco Furniture

Interior Design -- Lighting How-to

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Written by Administrator | 06 August 2008

Lighting is the most important part to interior design. It can give the room atmosphere, from intimacy to enthusiasm. You do want to be sure that you are getting the look you are going for, and to do that it is important to know the four types of illumination:

Ambient lighting or general lighting, this is the lighting for the room as a whole. You can use the amount of light, the placement of light, and the amount of light in creating effects for every occasion.

Local lights, this is the intensity of the light. The amount of light needed for reading, doing crafts, cooking, shaving, or other household activities. It is the flow of light into a room, whether it is into the corner of the room, or the middle of the room. It has to be correctly measured so the eyes are not strained or exhausted when used for such activities.

Accent lights, these are the lights used to show off that special piece of art, or a particular area of a room. This is light used for "ornamental" purposes.

Natural light, this is the lighting that comes in through our windows and doors. This depends a lot on the season, time of day, and the weather. It can vary a lot in intensity and color.

You will need to do an analysis of your everyday activities, and know what you will do and where you will do it. Never hesitate in using different types of illumination. Creativity is a must. Illumination can create very interesting and different results and it is very difficult to get the same thing twice so uniqueness is practically guaranteed. Different lightning can appear to alter the dimensions of a room, meaning that it looks smaller or larger depending on the lighting.

The ways to apply lighting to a room may seem limitless so when deciding how to choose lighting think of them in two perspectives; esthetical and functional. In terms of functionality the lighting will serve the purpose intended, for instance will allow the person to see well enough to read or do their craft. So in this case, there will be enough light and the correct strength of light to fulfill that purpose. Creating the atmosphere is what fulfills the esthetical perspective.

For instance, when trying to choose lighting for your living room you may put a lamp behind every chair about three or four foot high. To highlight a painting you may put an accent light above it. You may also put one under the curio cabinet or bookshelf. Make sure that your general lighting is adjustable and that you have indirect light to cover the walls with light. You could place the indirect lighting in the floor in little spaces behind furniture, which would illuminate the walls.


Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as Tiffany Lamps, Desk Lamps and Floor Lamps at http://www.everythinglamps.com

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