Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

If you’re looking for a way to add some color and cheer to your tool shed, or even your gardening area, this spring, then check out these bright “pipe dream” watering cans.

“This quirky character is designed to be left out so that the plants will always get their drink. Balanced perfectly with water in it, pipe dreams looks deceptively small, with a large capacity of 2 litres.”

They’ll certainly catch your eye when you’re looking for them, so no forgetting to water the plants because you couldn’t find the cans.

from Top 3 by Design

Nobody really wants a trash bin hanging out in the kitchen, but it tends to be a trash-making kind of place (even if you’re just tossing your carry-out containers). And unless you’ve got a newer bank of cupboards, you probably don’t have a fancy cabinet with slide-out racks that’s dedicated to hiding the garbage can. If you’re not planning a remodel any time soon, there are still ways you can conceal your unsightly trash (which, if you’re a dog owner, is as much about necessity as decorating savviness).

For example, this trash bin cabinet is a free-standing piece with a handy tilt-out door. It doesn’t have to be installed; it just sits in a corner. The cabinet has a couple of shelves as well, so if you can spare the floor space, you can get a little more storage in the kitchen while hiding your garabe or recycling bin.

$130 from Home Visions:

Trash Bin Cabinet

If you’re looking for a way to child-proof your kitchen and bathroom cabints (and any place else small hands might delve), then you may want to check into magnetic cabinet locks.

Unlike the ones that allow cabinets to be opened an inch or two before catching, these keep the door completely shut until the magnetic key is applied. Just keep the key out of reach, and you won’t have to worry about babies and toddlers getting into dangerous cleaning supplies and the like.

The KidCo Adhesive Mount Magnet Lock can be installed without tools or drilling, so there’s no permanent damage done to your cabinets (although screws do come with the lock set, in case you want to make sure the installation is extra sturdy).

$29 from Amazon:

KidCo Adhesive Mount Magnet Lock Set

If you think wallpaper is for girls, and it’s all flowers and frills, then it’s probably been a while since you checked out the collections of wallpaper and borders available (either that, or you’re just having awful flashbacks of childhood visits to grandma’s house). There are indeed plenty of manly choices out there, whether you’re a bachelor looking to cover up stains on the walls of your pad or a husband looking to pimp out the “mancave” downstairs, there are wallpaper choices a plenty.

Shown here are “Stag Creek” borders and wallpaper from the Livin’ Lodge collection at Chesapeake Wallcoverings. This is just one of the many masculine decorating themes available from the company. What’s your pleasure? Old West? Hot rods? Wolves and bears? Animals playing poker? (You really will keep the women out of the mancave with that one.) There are lots of men’s wallpaper choices out there.

And if you’re worried about the hastle of sticking it up on the wall, these wallcoverings come pre-pasted, so they’re easy to put up. They’re also a lot easier to take down than wallpaper from ye olden days, so it’s not a big deal if you change your mind down the road.

The Chesapeake wallcoverings are also environmentally friendly, since they’re made of nothing questionable, just synthetic fiber, paper pulp and a laytex resin binder.

So, no excuses guys. Decorating isn’t just for girls!

Chesapeake Wallcoverings

If you’ve always dreamed of a log home in the mountains or on some pristine wildnerness lake but aren’t ready to give up the convenience of that house in the city, you can get into the spirit with log siding or–perhaps even more practical–steel log siding.

This faux wood steel siding from Karst Builders can make your home look like it’s made from logs without the required maintenance that comes with actual wood. But can steel fool anyone? Here’s what the company says:

“We run the steel through several stations on the machine that not only round the panel to look like a log but also textures the steel to make it look more like a cut log. Your home will look like a log home at a fraction of the cost, and lack the maintenance needed for a real log home.”

If the picture is any indication, it looks pretty realistic to me. Only the woodpeckers will know the difference…

Karst Builders

Need some new beer, wine, or drinking glasses? Then consider getting ones made from recycled materials. What sort of materials, you ask? Why old automobile windshields of course.

“Handmade in Colombia of recycled glass from old car windshields, these pilsner beer glasses are sure to add “dangerous curves” to any bar collection. Sturdy and strong, these heavy glasses have a slight green tint due to the dye added to the original windshield glass to lessen sun’s glare.”

Both beer and wine glasses are available from Uncommon Goods, starting at $20:

Recycled Beer Glasses

Candles are a pleasant way to light up a party or just add a bit of ambience for the evening. Wall candle holders keep tables free, and they can be decorative elements whether used in a room indoors or in your outdoor living area.

These simple but handsome wall candle holders are made from clay tiles that go nicely with Southwestern decor. Each sconce curls a bit around the candle, so that should help protect the flame from the wind if you hang them outside.

The candle holders are available in pumpkin, lime, or eggplant.

$42 from Tranquility Valley

If you need more room to display knickknacks, plants, and the like, then it’s hard to go wrong with corner shelves. Some perks are that they don’t take up a lot of room, ones like these are mounted on the wall (so no hogging floor space), and when they’re located in the corner it’s not likely anyone will bump them and knock things off.

These stylish floating corner shelves come in three different sizes, so you can stack them to create a little additional interest on the wall.

The wrought iron frames on the bottom can be decorative, or they can also be used to rest the shelf on a table or other flat surface, in case you decide not to mount all of them.

From Tripar

The garage is probably the number one area in the home for storing things (and we’re not just talking about the car). But it’s easy to run out of floor space pretty quickly. Fortunately, you’ve got all those walls to look to, so think wall shelves.

And if you’re looking to keep a manly vibe in the garage (or just want something sturdy), it’s hard to go wrong with diamond-plated aluminum.

Speaking of sturdiness, these all metal wall shelves can hold up to 150 pounds each. You can install multiple units side-by-side to create one long shelf that runs along the wall, or you can stack them vertically to create a dedicated storage area.

$68-$96 from Texas Garages

Garden gates can be simple and utilitarian, but they can also be ornamental without losing any of their functionality. Wood and wrought iron are among the most popular materials, with iron being a bit easier to keep looking good over the years. Wood tends to look warmer, but wrought iron can be inviting too.

The gate shown here is from Turret Art Metal, and they’ll work with you to design a custom garden or entrance gate.

I like the free flowing curves of this one–great if you have a free flowing “natural” garden (that’s code for you don’t get out there to trim things back as often as you’d like).