Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Older homes have a lot of vintage charm. They also tend to have some less appealing features like clunky radiators sticking out of the walls. Many people like to hide them with radiator cabinets, which are wood or metal covers designed to look like furniture. Vent holes still allow heat to escape and warm the room. The Central Radiator Cabinet Company has several models of each available with prices starting at $575 for 0-36″ wide and 0-26″ high maple covers.

http://www.eradiatorcovers.com

Decorating the walls is a fun part of adding your personality to a room, and paintings aren’t the only way to go. If you have an affinity for nature, check out the metal wall sculptures from the Class Act Gallery based out of La Conner, Washington. Much of their work features northwest wilderness themes, including animal and bird sculptures. This great blue heron by Lee Emmons is hand-forged from steel and bronze, and it can be had for $3,800.

http://www.aclassactgallery.com

Radiant floor heating is nothing new, but how about radiant heating from your windows? The Engineered Glass Products company says that huge windows may be great for views, but they’re not energy efficient because heat escapes through the glass, and regular windows also create cold drafts and get fogged up because the glass surface is colder than the inside air temperature. At least, that’s how it used to work. Their Hot Glass technology turns the inside pane of the window into a heated surface, which is supposed to stop fogging, and eliminated drafts or “hot and cold spots” in a room. Worried about the cost? The company says their heated windows will actually save you money on energy costs, because “when a room is evenly heated, the air can be up to 5 degrees F cooler without having any effect whatsoever on the comfort of its occupants.”

http://www.egpglass.com

What’s a Bio lamp, you ask? (points to picture) That’s a Bio lamp. Designed by Snowlab, the sculpture-like light fixture is made from non-enameled white porcelain and showcases “organic forms wrapped in a constellation of openings from which thin rays of light escape,” which seems to be code for it has little pricks of light that come out and look like stars. The interesting lamp uses a 40-watt incandescent bulb and comes in two different styles: bio 1 (20″ x 12″ x 9″) and bio2 (12″ x 12″ x 5″). Expect to pay about $350 for the unique lamp.

http://www.megatron.net/snowlabdesign/

Where does one seat party guests by the six? Why in this clump of petal chairs, of course. This plywood chair from Sublime American Design is available in a number of colors and finishes. According to the company’s web site, the measurements are 17″ W x 20″ D x 42″ H per chair. It took me a while to realize the price of $2,895 is for each chair, so you have to order them individually, and then you can arrange them as in the picture. Or you could just order one, but I don’t think the chairs would be quite as snazzy standing by themselves.

http://www.sublimeamericandesign.com/

I can’t say that I’ve ever run into the front wall when parking my car in the garage, but I suppose it might be a problem for people with depth perception problems (whether naturally or, ahem, artificially produced by a night at the bar). If you’re worried about someone in the family taking out the drywall in the front of the garage, here’s a gadget for you. (I suppose it could also be helpful for people who don’t pull in far enough and have a tendency to endanger the garage door with the prongs from the bike rack.) This park stop light gets mounted on the wall, and as you drive in, motion sensors direct it to turn from green to red. That way, you park in the right spot every time.

The park stop is available from Everything Home for $40:
Garage Park Stop Light

If you’re looking for a rocking chair that doesn’t remind you of grandma and her fourteen cats, check out the Sleepy by Autoban. Made in Turkey and available at Ray20, the chair comes in either a birch plywood or walnut body with wool or leather upholstery. The dimensions are 23.5″ in length, 29.5″ in depth, and 31.5″ in height.

http://www.ray20.com/

Available from Manhattan Loft, this funky table lamp reminds me a bit of a high school science class, where the teacher always had weird diagrams and pictures on the wall. Designed as an the icosahedron, this arrangement allows for 20 lights around a central point. It has a brass housing with stainless steel legs and comes with a dimmer control. The table lamp will run you $325.

http://www.manhattanloft.com/products/bulbohedron_light.html

The neon chandelier look probably isn’t for every home, but you’ve got to give New York City’s the Lite Brite Neon Studio points for originality. They sell and rent all sorts of neon signs for businesses, but this piece can be had by the average homeowner (well, the $2,400 price tag might put it out of the “average” homeowner’s means), who can then install it over the dining room table or anywhere else in the house. Since neon is low maintenance and has a long lifespan, this may just be the perfect chandelier for anyone who hates changing light bulbs. And, of course, it’s available in a number of different color combinations.

http://www.litebriteneon.com

Wood doors can rot and decay as they’re barraged year after year by the elements. They need to be sealed or painted annually, and they tend to look like a good snack to termites. Fiberglass, on the other hand, is nearly maintenance free (as well as being unappealing to bugs), and it’s becoming more popular, since it can mimic the look of real wood. Jen-Weld’s fiberglass doors are engineered for strength and durability; they’re certified to withstand hurricane-force winds and other extreme climate conditions. On top of all those perks, fiberglass doors tend to be less expensive than wood.

http://www.jeld-wen.com