Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Some people forget about faucets when remodeling the kitchen. They get distracted by all those shiny new appliances, countertops, and floors they’re installing. But a faucet can be a fun and stylish piece to shop for too (and it’s kind of important to have one).

If your appliances are stainless steel, then you may want to add that element elsewhere in the kitchen too. Stainless steel cabinets and metal countertops may be a bit of an overkill for you, unless you want that professional chef’s type of food preparation area, but a stainless kitchen faucet such as the one shown here is easy to keep clean and looks good as well.

The Camarro faucet is from Graff’s Contemporary Collection. The company specializes in “cutting edge design for modern kitchens and bathrooms,” and this faucet has simple sleek lines that you’ll appreciate if you’re like me and hate cleaning dirt and grime out of nooks and crannies.

Graff

When you’re shopping for hardwood floors, the salesman will probably ask you what species of wood you want. Do you like oak? Cherry? Maple? Perhaps something more exotic like Brazilian teak or zebra wood or tiger wood (all the really fun woods are named after animals)? Ultimately, you’re supposed to pick one. But if you’re having trouble deciding, maybe there are ways to integrate more than one species into your flooring outlook.

While you probably wouldn’t want to alternate boards, you could do something like the hardwood floor shown here. Different inlays highlight different species of wood. This is actually a flooring company’s showroom floor, but it demonstrates a bit of what you can do to create interesting contrast.

You may also want to check out past posts on hardwood floor inlays and hardwood medallions.

Like the look of an etched glass shower door or shower surround? If you’ve thought about sprucing up your bathroom with such a design but found the price on the high side, you may be a candidate for cling art.

It’s a sort of faux etched glass product, a “static cling film which provides elegance & privacy for any smooth glass surface.”

It installs quickly, and it’s supposed to last for years. Since it’s applicable in indoor and outdoor climates, it should be able to weather the moisture of a shower stall. There are several designs on the company’s site, and they also have films for doors, windows, and anywhere you might want a bit of privacy glass.

Gardening can be hard work, especially on your back. So why not take a load off while you dig, plant, and prune? A garden stool can be a handy back-saver.

Sure, you could just upturn a bucket and sit on that, but isn’t it more fun to have something with wheels? This “Garden Hopper” mobile garden stool lets you move up and down the lawn or walkway without moving your tush. There’s also some handy storage space inside where you can keep a few tools.

Just don’t let the kids get a hold of your stool-on-wheels, or they’ll be giving themselves rides all over the backyard.

Available at Amaon:

Garden Hopper Mobile Garden Stool

We’ve peeked at some of the carpet tiles from the Flor folks before (such as their outdoor carpet tiles used to create a patio rug), and they’ve got a growing variety of colors and designs. These floral lace tiles are available in black and white.

The fun thing about carpet tiles is you can mix and match them to create your own patterns. Get enough to do a whole room or just make a little throw rug.

“Use flor tiles to create your own modern carpeting, area rugs, runners – whatever floor covering you need. Featuring an adhesive backing, they’re easy to cut, install and remove. Plus, they are easier to maintain than traditional carpeting. Each tile stays smooth under traffic and vacuuming, and is easily spot cleaned. Best of all, each tile is removable for rinsing or, if necessary, replacing.”

The lace carpet tiles are $12 each from Chiasso

If you’re tired of going to the furniture store and dismissing piece after piece of faux wood tables because they’re made from chintzy particle board, then here’s a bit of solid wood for you. Extremely solid.

The Beam Coffee Table is made from reclaimed timber beams. Yes, the wood that began its post-axed-down life supporting barn and church roofs can now be a part of your living room.

The coffee table is available in fir or walnut, and you can order custom sizes.

Alas, those solid wood beams don’t come cheaply, and the table shown runs $4,200. Start saving your pennies!

From Furniture Seen

When shopping for nature-inspired decorations for your home, you may (naturally) think of art that is made from organic materials. It is, however, entirely possible to evoke the peace and serenity of the outdoor world using materials you might not expect, such as metal.

The “Roots N’ Shoots” wall art shown here is made from “organic brushed steel panels that are hand cut with a plasma cutter, then meticulously finished for a soft flowing feel.” The artist is Bernard Collin who has been creating beautiful nature-inspired pieces from metalwork for more than 25 years.

There are actually three panels in the triptych, so take a peek at the site to see all three.

The set runs $2100.

So, you’ve always wanted a waterfall in your living room. Who hasn’t?

And a water feature can actually be a practical addition to your home if you live in a noisy area. The flow of water is not only calming, but it does a nice job of drowning out street traffic, airplanes landing, and the neighbor’s kids playing in the yard. Also, waterfalls act as humidifiers in dry climates, and even humidity levels are supposed to lower the transmission rate of disease causing bacteria, reduce static in the air, and to provide higher levels of overall comfort.

Any old waterfall or fountain will do, but if you want to impress… Well, this Napoleon freestanding see-through wave top waterfall, aside from being a mouthful to say, is sure to widen the eyes of your guests.

The stainless steel frame with textured glass behind the falling water lends a modern look to the home, but that luxury doesn’t come cheaply. At HomeClick, you’ll pay $1,000 for this pretty piece:

Napoleon Freestanding See-Thru Wave Top Waterfall

Remodeling a small bathroom may not allow as many options as updating a luxury-sized 5-piece master, but you can still have fun selecting toilets, sinks, tubs, showers, and the like. There are quite a few manufacturers making space-saving pieces that are attractive as well as functional in a small bathroom.

If you like the nature theme in a big way, this small bathroom sink in the shape and color of a leaf may make you smile.

The green LA Leaf sink is from Enviro Bath, the same folks that created this bathroom faucet in the shape of a tree frog (perhaps it would be a good match for this sink). Both would be fun in a children’s bathroom (or if you put the sink in the bathroom for grownups… well, we won’t tell).

Not only do home addition costs tend to be high but adding onto your house is a time-consuming process that seriously disrupts your life. You may like the end result, but getting there will probably be a real pain, since it involves opening up and building onto your current home, something that will doubtlessly take weeks–and probably months–even if there are no snafus.

Is there a way to lower the costs of adding a room or rooms onto your home? And is there a way to make the process go more quickly?

Well employing prefab construction may be a way for you to answer yes to both those questions. According to Prefabulous: The House of Your Dreams Delivered Fresh from the Factory, it’s possible to not only build a house from scratch using prefab, but you can also add onto your existing home.

With prefab construction, the main work is done in a factory, and then the pieces are assembled on your site, often in a manner of days instead of weeks or months. And just because a home is factory-built doesn’t mean it is of poor quality (actually, since the building environment is controlled, quality is often better than in stick-built homes erected fully on site), and it doesn’t mean there is any lack of variety. You can work with designers to have your home addition custom built to your specifications.

If you’re at all interested in prefab construction, you might want to pick up that book, as it’s got a lot of nice pictures and is a good reference piece:

Prefabulous: The House of Your Dreams Delivered Fresh from the Factory