The Best Home Improvement Shows You Need to Watch

Do you ever find yourself staring around your house and wishing you had the money or the time to make some renovations? You're not alone. So many people love learning more about home improvement projects that there are now multiple television shows dedicated to those projects and dozens of shows on television. While some of those shows focus more on higher end and upscale projects, others give you useful information that you can use in your own home. Find out which shows are the best and most entertaining before you sit down and watch.

The Vanilla Ice Project

Have you ever wondered what happened to former rapper Vanilla Ice after he quit rapping? After a stint on a VH-1 reality show, the rapper moved back to Florida, married, had a few children and started his own renovation company. The Vanilla Ice Project spends 30 minutes following the rapper and his crew as he works on local homes and helps his clients. The show also spawned a spinoff that sent the rapper to Ohio to work on homes owned by the local Amish. The series is entertaining and offers some ideas for things you can do in your home.

Holmes on Holmes

Though Holmes on Holmes is no longer on the air, you can pick up a lot of tips from reruns. Holmes is a licensed and professional contractor who meets with clients in their homes to inspect the structures and find solutions to the problems he uncovers. He gives them tips on what to ask contractors before hiring one, how to ensure contractors are doing the best job possible and how they can repair the mistakes that contractors made in the past. The show often featured electrical and plumbing problems.

This Old House

This Old House is the oldest home improvement show on the air today. Launched in 1979, the show featured legendary and iconic expert Bob Vila as its host. Though Vila retired in 1989, the show carried on with various experts taking over the hosting duties. This Old House focuses primarily on the problems found in older homes, including roofing damage, plumbing problems and cracked foundations. If you have an older home and enjoy the show, you can pick up more tips through the show's magazines or on its website. The website offers detailed tips on making repairs and doing DIY improvements.

HGTV Caribbean Life

Watching real estate shows is a great way to get some inspiration for your own home improvement and renovation projects. HGTV Caribbean Life is a show that started in 2014 and focuses on the real estate market in the Caribbean. Each episode shows the host taking buyers on tours of local homes and helping them find a new place to live that fits with their budgets. Use the show to find ways you can incorporate the Caribbean lifestyle into your own home, and check Jason Hanold's IMDB page for more details about the show.

Watching real estate, home improvement and renovation shows can help you decide what you want to renovate or change in your home and give you some ideas for the future. Kick back and have fun watching one of these shows, which feature famous faces like Bob Vila and Vanilla Ice.

Innovative Ways to Use Upholstery Fabric in Your Home

When most people think of upholstery fabric they automatically think of sofas and chairs. This is only natural because that is where we normally see these fabrics used. However, you can actually use these luxurious materials for far more than re-upholstering your chairs and sofas.

Curtains and blinds

The quality and thickness of upholstery fabrics means that they are actually a great option for curtains and blinds. This kind of material is heavy enough to hang well, and dense enough to keep the light out. Velvet is a great example of an upholstery fabric that works really well for curtains.

However, you do need to be careful about using this type of fabric in this way. There is a danger that it will fade quickly when exposed to direct sunlight.

For this reason, you should experiment by leaving a small piece of the fabric on a sunny windowsill for about a month then compare it with a swatch that has not been exposed in this way. If the piece from the windowsill has already changed colour noticeably it is probably not suitable for use as blinds or curtains.

For the table

Upholstery material makes great runners, tablecloths, napkins and tablemats. However, if you are going to make these, it is important to use the right type of material.

The first consideration is how easy it is to keep these items clean. You do not want to have to send your tablemats, napkins and tablecloth to the dry cleaners to get them hygienically clean. This is not quite so important for table runners, but you still want to be able to get any stains out easily.

It is best to choose smooth fabrics for this type of project. They not only look better and are much nicer to use. Nobody is going to feel comfortable using a napkin made from a bobbly fabric.

Throws and covers

It is easy to make attractive throws and covers from upholstery fabrics. This kind of material is easy to work with and produces good results. The covers and throws are ideal for use in the living room or conservatory, but also work really well as top covers for beds.

Again, you need to choose materials that can be cleaned easily. Machine washable fabrics are ideal.

Fabric walls

It is even possible to use this kind of fabric as an alternative to wallpaper. This is not a job for a complete beginner, but once you have the technique down it becomes easier.

The best approach is to stretch the fabric across a batten frame, which is attached to the wall. A good way to determine whether the fabric you want to use is right for the job is to make yourself a scaled down version and use it as a picture. Just make up a picture-sized frame and stretch the fabric you would like to use across the frame and staple it in place at the back.

Hang the picture on one of your walls for a few weeks. This gives you the chance to find out how easy the material is to work with, determine whether the fabric stretches and goes slack, or fades, and to know for sure that you like the fabric enough to cover an entire wall with it.

Bring a room together

All of these decorating ideas are great ways to add a touch of luxury and pull a room together. Importantly, most of them are easy to tackle.

4 Simple But Brilliant Home Security Ideas

Nothing is worse than returning home from work, a day out or a vacation to find that your living space has been ransacked. Not only do you have to face the issues of replacing all of your stolen property, but you have to deal with the psychological impact that accompanies any burglary. It’s an unpleasant experience, so you should be doing everything you can to ensure it doesn’t happen to you and your family. Here are some very simple ideas that will help you protect your property from thieves.

Locks and windows

Let’s start with the very basics. Good habits can often bring about the best results when it comes to home security, so always make sure you are keeping your doors and windows locked whenever possible. Burglaries are usually spontaneous crimes, so the least encouragement a potential criminal has, the better. Open windows and doors will invite trouble eventually, so try and keep them shut as much as possible.

Tidy gardens

Another simple home security idea is to keep your garden tidy. If you leave tools or heavy objects lying all over the place, they are easy to pick up and put through a window. The same goes for bulky children’s toys. Make sure that you clear up your garden as soon as you have finished using it if you don’t want to encourage a break in. If you have a shed or garage, use them to store your equipment away out of sight, and also make sure you have an effective lock. Garden storage locations are particularly vulnerable. Many a thief has made a few hundred bucks from selling on expensive tools that kept in unlocked or poorly secured sheds.

Motion sensor lighting

Put yourself in a burglar’s shoes for just a second. It’s pitch black, and you think you have a lot of cover up a long driveway. You get closer and closer to the window that you intend to break in, and all of a sudden a motion sensor triggers off the lights. Do you carry on? No, of course, you don’t. Outside lighting increases the chances of being seen, and the sudden contrast between dark and light will be a shock. Sometimes, that shock is all you need to scare off all but the hardiest criminal.

Modern security technology

Most houses these days have some kind of alarm system installed. But modern technology is providing some amazing upgrades that are affordable for more people than ever before. You can pick up voice recognition locks for you apartment, for example, or completely wireless video systems. Not so long ago these kinds of security systems were only available for the very wealthy or corporate businesses, but now things are different. Your local electrician union should be able to talk you through some of your options. If you want peace of mind and a more secure home, then technology really is offering you the chance to make it so.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look at some very simple and affordable ways of making your home more secure. We’d love to hear from you if you have any other tips - so don’t be shy and let us know.

Make Your Home Look Modern With These Style Tips

Homes are just like any other belonging because eventually they start to look out of date. Think of your house like an outfit you buy from the store. You wear it for a couple years and then eventually it falls to the very back of our wardrobe, until one day you give it to the charity shop. Now, you are not going to give your home away or even have to move to another one, but eventually you will need to update it. This can be as simple as buying some new furniture or as complex as a complete home redesign. Here are some tips on making your home look modern and new again.

Repaint

A fantastic place to start is having a wander around each room in your house and seeing if you still like the colour of the walls. You may find they have grown dull or worse the paint looks faded and patchy. If this is the case, we suggest drawing up a plan to match the right new colour to each room. For instance, you may want to paint a conservatory a lovely bright colour so that it matches the sunlight, shining into the room on hot summer days. If you have a room with a home entertainment system, we suggest a darker colour, to get the best possible picture quality on your films and TV shows.

Refloor

Flooring is the common culprit to blame for a house going out of style. The reason for this is that people think changing the flooring is quite a difficult and tedious process, so they rarely ever bother. This leaves houses with tiles in the bathroom that went out of style in the late seventies. You can check online what alternative flooring styles  are in fashion this year and get a company to organise the installation for you.

Refurnish

Buying new furniture is the easiest way to modernise your home because all it takes is a shopping trip and who doesn’t love a good shop? This may be expensive, but the effect a beautiful, new and stylish three piece suite has on your living room with be worth the cost. We guarantee it. You may want to think about adding new accessories to your home as well such as curtains. The right style of curtains can have a tremendous effect on the way you perceive the different rooms in your home.

Rebuild

Your final option is to start a renovation process and be warned; this is the most expensive modernisation choice. We suggest you decide on a fixed cost before you begin and stick to it. Renovation may seem like an exciting prospect, but a project like this can grow out of control and unless you are very handy, you will need to hire a professional. You will also have to get permission from your local council before you start to make any big changes to your home.

But the long process may be worth it because by the time you are finished and you will have a new home without the stressful experience of moving house.

5 Things Every Great Garden Needs

Summer is here, so it’s time to get out in the garden. But does your garden have each of these 5 things?

1. Seasonal Plants

If you’re not an enthusiastic gardener, you might not realise that different plants are needed throughout the different seasons of the year. This is because some plants aren’t suited to extreme heat or extreme winter weather.

During the spring and summer months, you should go for the kinds of plants that are generally associated with summer. That means plants with bright and vibrant coloured flowers are usually the best to go for. Hydrangeas, begonias and fuchsias are all good options at this time of year.

2. Wildlife-Friendly Features

Gardens should be authentic and natural, and it can only be that if it’s friendly to your local wildlife. If you don’t make the garden wildlife-friendly, you could actually be damaging the creatures in your garden. There are lots of ways to attract wildlife to your garden though.

Start by adding bird boxes and a bird bath. You should then think about hedgehogs and how your garden can be made compatible with them. Don’t make your garden too closed off, gaps in the fences are needed for them to move about. Finally, you should make sure you have enough plants and flowers to satisfy insects.

3. Practical Furniture

You can’t enjoy a garden unless you have somewhere to sit and bask in its glory during the summer months. Visit Outdoorfurnituresuperstore.com.au to find the best range of chairs and other garden furniture items.

Make sure you have enough seats and a big enough table to have all your friends around for food and drinks when the weather is nice. You don’t want to have to move the party inside when it’s so nice outside!

4. A Shed

Over the years, we amass a lot of equipment and items that are used in the garden. This is especially true if you have children. But where is all that stuff going to be kept? You don’t want it in your house, and if you don’t have a garage, the only option is a shed.

Sheds are great for so many reasons. Not only are they the ideal storage hub for all your garden equipment, a shed is also somewhere to get away from the rest of the household and indulge hobbies.

5. A Well Maintained Lawn

The first thing you see when you step out into any garden is the lawn. That’s why it’s so vital to keep the lawn well maintained and healthy all year round. This takes a lot of effort, but it can be done if you ‘re willing to work at it.

The climate in your local area will influence how you look after it. If it’s relatively warm and you don’t get too much rain, you should be watering the lawn each and every day. And when you’re cutting it, don’t let it get too short, or you risk killing the grass.

If you ask me, the most important part of your home at this time of the year is the garden, so make sure yours has these 5 things.

Where to Find the Ideal Flooring Restoration Orange Country

Proper maintenance of floors is quiet challenging because water problems such as flood or pipe burst occurs in each and every household. Nowadays, such problems have become common in Orange Country. This is where flooring restoration becomes a necessity. However, you need to trust only the best professional capable of tackling all water damages in a quick and efficient manner.

If you a resident of Orange Country who is in a lookout for apt water damage services, you have indeed made the right click. OC Restoration Pros is a leading and reputed water damage service provider who is well-known for its floor repairing techniques.

Why the need for professional help? This article communicates 3 valid reasons.

• Better experience and knowledge- The expert is well aware of the different kinds of methods to restore a damaged floor. There are varied kinds of floors such as wooden, marble, granite and concrete and so on. The skilled staff at OC Restoration Pros knows exactly as to which clean up method is to be utilized for different types of flooring. Along with such information, they are also rich in experience. You can always the visit and check out the services on offer.
• Advanced flooring restoration technique- If a pipe breaks or if there is a leakage in the washing machine and if the floor has some cracks, the water automatically gets soaked there. An amateur will not be able to solve such problems. It is indeed the job of the professional water damage service provider to clear out such stagnant water off the floor.
• Safe and secured- The root cause of mold growth as well as bacteria and fungus is water stagnation on the floor for a long period of time. Such microorganisms are harmful and cause varied diseases. The professional conducts the apt flooring restoration method for permanent removal of microbes, thus ensuring a complete safe and secured environment for you and your family.

Aptly referred to as a popular flooring restoration company, this Orange Country based professional provides a wide range of services. Some of the main services are

• Emergency Water Removal – Trough the application of advanced methods, the expert removes water within the specified time.
• Water Damage Cleanup- Whether it is a major water problem like flood or small issues such as basin leakage, the professional is readily available at your service.
• Water Damage Restoration and Repair-The team is engaged in cleaning the water and then stabilizing the damage.
• Water Mitigation-Using specialized equipments and advanced methods such as structural dying, the expert dries up the floor within no time at all.
• Mold Removal- For this, the skilled staff conduct a thorough inspection of your house and then clean up the mold affected areas as soon as possible.
• Mold Remediation- The core function of this service is to identity the root cause of mold growth. In this way, it facilitates to remove mold permanently.

Thus, the next time you need flooring restoration service, OC Restoration Pros is the one to opt for.

Three Ways to Maximize a Minimal Space

Regardless of the size of your home, there’s a ton you can do to maximize your home. With some smart decisions about your choice of furniture, arrangement, and design, you can achieve a look that belies that actual square footage of your apartment. Check out these three ways to maximize a minimal space!

Establish Zones

One of the key factors that you can do to make your space feel larger is to delineate different zones. For anyone that’s lived in a studio apartment of loft space before, they’re familiar with the importance of distinguishing between different living spaces for cooking, dining, living, and sleeping. While a single open space might seem airier and large in theory, creating different “zones” in your home will give you the sense of a large space.

Wondering how to set up your zones? Invest in a few small area rugs to begin, and arrange your furniture in clusters to indicate the purpose of each area. Using bookshelves and other tall pieces of furniture as dividers is another good way to set up visual boundaries between spaces without adding walls or other obtrusive divisions.

Go Multipurpose

Small spaces inherently require fewer pieces of furniture, and that means certain items need to play double duty and fill more than one role. We’re all familiar with the pull-out sofa, but there are plenty of other pieces you can use for more than one purpose in the home.

Take an extendable table for instance. There’s no reason to hold onto a dining table that takes up half of your living space if you’re only having dinner on it once a week. Opt for an expandable option with sides that fold down when you don’t need the surface space. When you need it, the extra space is available. When you don’t, it disappears. It’s a simple solution that gives you some extra breathing room in an otherwise crowded area.

Items like ottomans and benches are perfect for multipurpose design, providing opportunities for seating and storage that fits under tables when they’re not in use, it’s like having an extra set of living room furniture that slide into place whenever it’s most convenient for you. Sites like Lumens have great options like Gus Modern designs that fit the bill. The Mimico Storage Ottoman from the Toronto-based design firm is perfect for supplemental storage that doubles as sleek, attractive seating.

Optical Illusions

Your décor has a lot to do with how you and others perceive the size of your living space. If you have a bright apartment with lots of windows and tall ceilings, it’s always going to feel spacious. While there’s often little you can do in terms of adding windows and changing ceiling height, you can make sure that your apartment is brightly lit and well designed to feel larger than it is.

You might be tempted to max out your wall space with frames, but gallery walls tend to make a room feel smaller, more compact, and potentially overcrowded, the last things you want in a small living space. To make a room feel larger, go with Spartan wall décor to emphasize empty space and a sense of openness. For surfaces like cabinet doors, backsplashes, and alcoves, adding a mirrored surface will help to reflect the light and make the room feel visually larger. It’s a great way to decorate your home to feel more spacious, illusion or not.

Similarly, transparent designs work well in small spaces, minimizing the visual impact and keeping the room feeling light and open, without sacrificing any style or functionality. It’s a win-win for all involved parties.

Follow these easy space-saving strategies to get the look and feel of a spacious home regardless of your square footage!