Interior Design + Build: Details to Include When Planning for Your Home

Building your home is truly a milestone in your life. But, for you to turn it into that space that you’ve long dreamed of, you’ve got to be willing to go through each step of the planning process as meticulously as possible. When it comes to interior design + build, here are details to include when planning for your home.

Interior Design + Build

Contrary to popular belief, planning for your home doesn’t only require having the measurements of the floor space, the types of fixtures to be installed and the materials to be used. For your home to create a pleasant and livable environment, you should also pay attention to its interior design.

How your home looks and feels on the inside can significantly affect your mood, your family’s and the visitors you’ll accommodate in the future. You’ll want you home to feel as accommodating and comfortable as possible. After a long day out, this should feel like a retreat that you’re excited to go home to. Little ad-ons here and there can help elevate that overall relaxing feeling of your home.

A well-decorated home makes it very easy to relax while one which is chaotic and disorganized can lead to more stress. If you want to experience the former, be aware of the following details.

Purpose of the room

Designing the rooms in your home can get too overwhelming that you end up buying every furniture and art pieces you come across. Even when you’re excited about this process, give yourself time to think each detail through. Take time to window shop together with your interior designer.

To help you determine what you should and shouldn’t do with the interior design of your house, think about the purpose of each room and put this on top of your list. All other factors can follow suit later once the purpose has already been achieved and the budget still permits for these extras.

• All of the rooms in your home has different purposes. This means that how your living area looks like should be different from the bedroom and dining area. When it comes to interior design, the color scheme, furniture, layout and overall theme of the room should be based on what the room is mostly used for. This would also be dependent on the home designs that you’re looking for and trying to replicate.
• For example, all homes have living areas, but not all are used in the same way. Some use their living areas to host a weekly game night which is why board games, gaming consoles and storage furniture for gaming tapes and CDs are essential. For families who enjoy movies and sports, expect that their living areas will have widescreen TVs, soft cushions and tables for foods and drinks.
• Ask yourself how you will use each room in the house and focus the design around its function. Are you solely using your bedroom for sleeping or are you planning to work here, as well? A convertible and sturdy table can be handy. Do you love to cook different kinds of meals in your own kitchen? Make sure that you’re renovating a kitchen to be equipped with the necessary appliances and tools.

Research and budget when planning your home

Solely knowing the purpose of each room in the house isn’t enough for you to come up with a solid interior design. You should also have an idea of how you want your home to look like. How are you planning to change the space? Will you buy new furniture or use old ones? What theme do you want your home to have – modern or traditional?

• Take time to look for interior design inspirations from different sources. A handful of websites such as MOOD Design + Build, can give you an idea of the latest trends in interior designs and how you can copy these for your own home. Pictures from magazines and Pinterest boards can also help.
• Once you know what you want, it’ll be easier to know what to buy, as well. Based on the design inspirations you saw, start gathering paint chips, flooring samples and fabric swatches which you can use.
• During this process, you’ll be able to come up with a budget based on the details that truly matter to you. Are you looking forward to a bedroom which has the coziest linens, pillows, and carpets or are you planning to impress your guests with art pieces in your living area? Find ways to achieve the interior design that you want without spending too much. You don’t want to waste money buying unnecessary accent pieces and decors, while disregarding essential appliances and furniture.

Layout of the room

The layout of the rooms in your house is like a painter’s canvas – you’ll have to make the most of the available space to achieve your interior design goals. Check the sizes and scales of the rooms, the home’s interior and exterior architecture and the neighborhood around you. Don’t just take the measurements of the rooms but include the surroundings, too.

• Take a graph paper and start mapping out the layout of each room in the house. You can do this on your own if you know how or hire interior designers to do it for you. Use a tape and put this in different areas of the graph paper, as if the furniture or appliance. Doing this can help you organize the rooms better while making sure that you’ll only purchase items which can actually fit.
• Investing in expensive furniture or appliances and later find out that these only cramped up space in a room is the last thing you want to worry about. Preparing a layout can prevent this from happening, especially if you only have limited space in your home.
• All of the rooms also have physical limitations. This means that aside from the measurements, you also have to consider the electrical outlets, fireplaces, doors and windows. All of these things should be drawn in the layout, as well.

Free space when planning your home

Although it can be tempting to fill a room with the latest appliances and expensive furniture, don’t do it. Free space is also an important factor in interior design. When your room doesn’t have too much space, free space can trick you into thinking that it’s larger from its actual size. Free space can also reserve the room just in case you’re planning to add a few furniture over time.

• For you to become an interior designer (in your own rights), don’t aim to fill every space in your rooms. Appreciate free space because sometimes, less is more.
• Overcrowding can lead to stress – something you don’t want to experience when you enter a room. On the other side of the coin, free space can make you feel more calm and peaceful. It can even make your room feel and look cleaner.
• Aside from making your room aesthetically pleasing, free space can also reinforce the activities done in the room and improve the flow of traffic, too. More free space means more area to move around.

Features and Benefits of Interior Design + Build

When designing and building a home, you should take into consideration the features and benefits. Don’t just put in certain features in your home for the sake of doing so. Else, you’ll only be wasting money. Every corner of your room should have a purpose that should be beneficial to you and the rest of the family.

Working with one of the best home improvement contractors will help you attain your home new construction or renovation goals.

Here are the features and benefits you might want to consider when designing and building your dream home:

• Number of Bedrooms: The number of rooms you need will increase depending on how many children you have. Some parents want their children to share bedrooms, whereas others like separate bedrooms for better study habits. Also, you need to consider welcoming regular visitors so that you can designate a guest room. Also, an additional room can be used as a home office, playroom, or home gym.
• Number of Bathrooms: Do you need a single or two bathrooms? How about a bathtub or jacuzzi? Do other family members needs a handicapped accessible bathroom? The number of bathrooms depends on the size of your family, guests, and visitors who might be using the bathrooms.
• Kitchen Layout: The kitchen is the home’s center of entertainment and activity. That’s why the layout and size are important. When designing your kitchen, be clear with your contractor as to the space you need for your sink, storage, and counter space. Also, consider your cooking style and if you prefer entertaining a lot of guests or you have a large family to feed when designing your kitchen.
• Smart Home Features: Automation is not just a trend in interior design. Smart home refers to a home with tight security features and functions can be remotely controlled even if you’re not at home using automation via the internet. Consider installing home security features, automated window treatments and shutters, and other smart home features for security and peace of mind.
• Energy-efficiency: Design your room to be energy-efficient by constructing skylights and installing cool roofs. These skylights, for instance, may be costly at the outset since they’re made of glass. But, because it enables you to have the maximum natural light to come in during the day, you’re also saving up on electricity expenses in the long term.

Interior Design: Take The Opportunity when Planning Your Home

Planning for your home is like starting with a clean slate – you’ll have to start from the very beginning before you and your family can enjoy a fully-furnished home.

Just like any other thing in life, the best things always come in as a result of great hard work. So, if you want your home to be what you envisioned it to become, you’ve got to be willing to go through all the dirty work first. That means ample preparation.

Instead of looking at the situation as a difficulty, consider it as an opportunity for your home to have an interior design which suits your preference. Take heed also of all the wishes and opinions of every family member of your home. That way, you can truly make it a space to call your very own. Along with your patience and meticulousness, this article can help you build your dream house soon!

7 ways to stay focused as a SAHM blogger

In the nearly 6 years I’ve been blogging, I’ve found it relatively easy to stay focused as a SAHM (stay at home mum) blogger. When your blog is about homemaking, creating recipes, cooking, baking and living a frugal life, it’s easy for me to come up with content. My blog is about what I do every day. But sometimes it’s hard to find time to actually blog about what you do so here are 7 ways I keep focused and up to date with my blogging schedule.

Create a productive work space

I’d like to think my work space is ‘productive’. It’s continuously a work in progress but it’s a designated work space nonetheless. My office is space is right at the front entry to our downstairs rumpus room. The spot where we all walk in from the car. Notes from school, dance class fliers, mail, kid’s art work and who knows what else, gets dumped on my desk. It’s about having spaces for all those things so as not to get overloaded with the mess. I have an in tray for all the incoming and outgoing mail. 

Ikea KVISSLE Letter Tray

There are spaces for all those things that usually get dumped. It means I can come to my desk at any time without having to start to reorganise it before I want to blog. There are exceptions to the rule though. Sometimes you just get so busy dealing with an argument that might’ve broken out in the car on the way home and I do dump everything on the desk. These moments can’t be helped but having convenient spots for all your incomings and outgoings is one step to creating that productive space.

Have your tools of the trade handy

You don’t need to me to tell you hard it is to keep a pair of scissors or your nice set of pens away from your husband children. It’s a daily struggle with me but my kids know that what’s on my desk is out of bounds. They have an endless supply of pens, pencils, erasers, scissors in their own supply. I know it’s easy for them to just grab stuff as they walk past but this is a rule that’s been in place for a while. 

When you’re blogging, you really only need the computer but sometimes it’s good to have the following on hand:

• a notebook to jot down ideas
• your phone/camera for downloading photos or uploading photos to Instagram
• pens, pencils, highlighters, eraser, pencil sharpener, Sharpies in various colours, ruler, scissors etc.

Stay well fed and hydrated

I blog in fits and bursts throughout the week but there’s at least one day of the week when I plan on a full day at the computer, just like a job. I make sure I have on my desk a bottle of water, my coffee cup (we have a coffee station set up downstairs), a piece of fruit, snacks like dried fruit or nuts. 

Have regular breaks

Even if you are planning a long session on the computer, you should have regular breaks. I like to go for no longer than 45 minutes before I get up to stretch my legs and take a walk around the house.

If I’m blogging during my regular housework days, I blog around the housework. For example, my washing machine cycle goes for 54 minutes. I know that’s a great stretch of time to get a fair bit of blogging and other social media business completed before I have to hang the washing out. In the evening, I wait until the kids are tucked in bed (even though I can still hear footsteps and taps running for the last drink of water or trip to the bathroom) and I plan on doing a couple of hours blogging work until then, remembering to still factor in regular breaks.

Maintain Momentum

Having access to Facebook, Pinterest and all those other bright, sparkly things at your fingertips on your desktop/laptop computer is so tempting. I’ve installed an app called Momentum on my desktop. As I think I need to check Facebook, I open a new tab and a beautiful scene photo is displayed with all the things on my ‘to do’ list plus Momentum allows you to set your focus for the day. I love it. You know that saying “do the hardest job first”? Well, Momentum stops me from going off track until I’ve completed all the harder to do tasks.

Stick to your plan

I don’t have planners or schedulers of any kind when it comes to blogging. I do, however, have a weekly blogging schedule that I try to stick to. I’ve got plenty of content to post about. I’m usually weeks behind. Because I blog about what we do here at Domesblissity central as a family, what I cook, what I clean and things I make, I never struggle for content. Sometimes there just aren’t enough days in the week to blog about everything I want but I stick to this basic weekly schedule.

Edit

Monday	Recipe, Craft, Giveaway etc
Tuesday	Recipe, Craft, Tip (can be no blog post)
Wednesday	Recipe, Craft, Tip (can be no blog post)
Thursday	Thriving on Thursday Linky Party
Friday	Blogging tips
Saturday	No posts
Sunday	Podcast (if available)

I also have a monthly schedule for creating newsletters to send out to subscribers. This is usually done on the first of every month so I never can forget that date. I use ConvertKit (affiliate link) to schedule all my newsletters and subscriber lists. I’ve found ConvertKit to be the best email/newsletter scheduler on the market for ease of use. I do have a month to a page calendar that I can also use to remind myself if I have say a giveaway finishing on a particular day or some other event I’d like to blog about like Valentine’s Day, Easter or Christmas for example.

Allow extra time for other jobs

If you’re a blogger you know that’s it’s just not about writing a blog post. It also involves sharing and scheduling information on social media. You have to have your ‘finger on the pulse’ when it comes to these things to keep on top of your game. Always try and factor in time at the end of your ‘work time’ for scheduling, pinning or sharing posts or other information. 

It’s also a great time to organise your photos, files, programs and give your desktop space a tidy up. I’ve got a lot of fiddly little jobs like checking links in my blog, updating photos on old blog posts and other things since I moved to WordPress. I allow at least 15 minutes at the end of my allotted work time to do these things. If I’m up to date with my blogging schedule I might spend a bit more time on this.

It’s also a great time to catch a webinar or course you might’ve downloaded during the week. I know I sign up for all these different webinars and things I’d like to read. I reckon I could spend the whole week catching up on them. If I did, I’d never have any time for blogging. Having that 15 to 30 minutes at the end of your blogging schedule will help you remain focused on your ultimate goal of blogging and keep up to date with the other information.

Summary

Just remember to always have fun with it. I’ve always loved blogging so it’s never been a chore for me. I have had periods of months at a time when I’ve not been near the computer but when I was ready, I was straight back into it. If I miss a day on my schedule, no big deal. I make up for it the next week or I don’t. Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t stick to your schedule. It’s your life, your space. Good luck!

Planning a wedding

The last thing I’d ever thought I’d be posting about here at Domesblissity is planning a wedding. I’m so excited though. I do love organising things and especially events such as a wedding. We finally got around to setting a date. It’ll be on Saturday, 14 May 2016. We met in person on the 12 May 2014 so this was the closest Saturday around that time. It’s a very special day for us so we wanted to commemorate it. We will have been together 2 years by then.

So, what to organise? The biggest factor in our choices will be cost. Even though we probably could spend quite a bit on the wedding which is easy enough to do, we both just don’t see the value in it. We’d rather have a very informal ceremony and a coming together of family and friends in a very laid back, social atmosphere, celebrating our new life together as husband and wife. We’ll try to do that as cheaply and as stress free as possible.

I’ve been trying not to get too focused on it right now but I just can’t help it. I already had a wedding Pinterest board when we picked out the engagement ring but kept it hidden. It’s out in the big wide world of Pinterest now and a lot of people are following it. I love to pay attention to detail so I won’t be forgetting all the personal touches. One thing our guests can be assured of is that

http://cosm.co.nz/community/profile/paulsen

there will be a place to sit, some great food and lots and lots of love at our wedding. We would much rather spend our money on travelling and our future lives together. We are both pretty frugal and don’t want for anything.

Besides using Pinterest for inspiration, I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet with tabs for things like the reception, photographer, marriage celebrant and accommodation (wedding night) etc. We’re booked to go to a Bridal Expo here in Brisbane on 24 May this year and no doubt we’ll be inundated with a lot of inspiration (and brochures). We’ve got a pretty good idea of what theme we want but it’s not even really about a theme. It’s just about having a nice day.

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Damien has asked his brother to be best man and I’m going to ask my next younger sister to be matron of honour. Both of my children will be in the wedding party with my son walking me up to Damien. If Damien has his way, both of our dogs will be ‘dressed’ for the wedding and in the wedding party. (Did I tell you he’s a dog lover? Thank goodness.) I can see chaos reigning supreme. At least it will be a day to remember, that’s for sure.

Stay tuned for updates and progress along the way. We’re still over 12 months away from the day but if the way the years fly by lately, the day will be here before we know it.