Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Outdoor garden planters come in all sizes and styles, so it’s pretty easy to find something that fits your yard, but if you want to go the extra mile, you can get a personalized planter (just think how envious the neighbor’s shrubberies will be).

This faux stone (fiberglass reinforced polyresin, to be exact) planter from Seattle Luxe can be monogrammed or have up to two lines of information, such as your family’s name and address. The personalized section is a color-matched solid rustproof aluminum plaque that’s affixed to the planter and made to look like the whole thing is carved from stone.

You can pick up the planter for about $125, and it’s supposed to last a lifetime.

Seattle Luxe

I’m always on the lookout for those unique home and garden pieces, and this kitchen table I found on Etsy definitely falls into that category.

I’ve seen furnishings that incorporate logs, stumps, and driftwood before, but this adds an interesting element with a floral bouquet displayed inside the stump itself. The crafter says:

“This table is made of a pine stump that I turned upside down and carved out the inside to fit a floral display. The legs are cherry branches along with the legs and the back of the 4 chairs.”

Your kitchen table definitely won’t look like anyone else’s on the block!

$6,700 from CustomCreationFur’s Etsy shop.

Tired of that rusty, leaky spray gun on the end of your garden hose? Well, here’s an upgrade:

The Bon-Aire Original Ultimate Hose Nozzle.

The nozzle is made from sturdy stuff (rugged aluminum, stainless steel, fiberglass and hard rubber) and supposed to resist leaks and breaks. With five spray patterns to choose from, you can water your lawn and garden just the way you like. The nozzle fits your standard garden hose and includes an ergonomic rubber “comfort grip.”

Under $20 at Amazon:

Bon-Aire Ultimate Hose Nozzle

If you enjoy buying “green” furniture that’s made from recycled components, here are some hanging lights that might interest you.

The globes are made from recycled metallic bands that are interlaced lattice-style to create diffused, ambient lighting. They probably won’t be bright enough for task lighting, but a trio of them could look great in a high-ceilinged foyer or otherwise dead space.

You can pick them up individually or get a set with sizes ranging from small (12″ in diameter) to large (18″) and prices starting at $169.

From Viva Terra

For those who like their wooden stairs to feel a bit less plain and naked, you can consider adding custom carving details.

Go for intricate patterns or just add a bit of whimsy.

The owners of these stairs were obviously inspired by nature. The carved cub paw prints lead to a custom carved bear perched atop the center column.

The work was done by StairMeister Log Works, a company that specializes in custom stairs, railings, and fireplace mantels for log homes.

If you’ve been looking around the house and thinking to yourself there just aren’t enough cow-inspired furnishings, then here’s a chance to get the cow look and feel with your bed.

The base is made with your choice of stainless steel, wood, or plexi leg. Measurements run 89″ long x 72″ wide x 42″ high with an optional 6″ extension, and “custom fabrication on the platform bed to fit your needs.”

Hey, as long as you’re investing in the cow look, you might as well get it just right.

http://www.designlush.com

There are all sorts of ways to decorate your home, but you might not have thought about decorating your door before (aside from the usual temporary, tack-on holiday decorations).

What I’m talking about is installing unique kickplates or pushplates to spruce things up, AKA “door furniture.”

I’m not sure I’d care to have a tire track sprucing up my door, but it’s a pretty memorable example of this door furniture.

The “Tyre Track” is by UK-based Philip Watts Design, and you can order a piece that runs the full length of the door or a small version. It can also be run horizontally as a kickplate.

Great for any swinging doors you might have in the house that are in need of that race track touch!

We’ve looked at some fun ideas for green or eco-friendly kitchen countertops before (such as countertops made from recycled bio-glass, countertops made from recycled paper, and those snazzy “syndecrete” countertops that are like concrete but greener), and here’s another option:

The EcoTop counters from Klip Tech are made from a Forest Stewardship Council-certified 50/50 blend of bamboo fiber and recycled wood fiber salvaged from demolition sites. A petroleum- and VOC-free water-based resin formula holds the materials together.

The countertops can be manufactured in many different colors, such as Snow White, Jet Black, Thistle, and Pecan, so you can get just the hue to meet your kitchen decor needs.

A towel warmer can be a great investment for the bathroom. Not only does it allow you to step out of the shower to a fluffy heated towel in the morning, but it is also a spot where you can dry delicates or warm baby blankets and robes during the winter.

Installing a towel warmer can even save you money since they are relatively energy efficient and radiate heat to warm the bathroom itself while you shower. Also, if you know you have a heated towel waiting for you, you might not feel the need to turn on the heat in the whole house first thing in the morning.

Of course, if you’re getting some kind of fancy towel warmer, then you probably won’t be saving much money. This guitar-shaped one runs $3,000.

If that’s a bit out of your price range (or you just think it’s silly to spend that kind of money on a guitar towel rack), you can find a lot of other towel warmer ideas on the web

Prices start around $100 for basic units.

With most skylights, you only get sunlight beaming down into your house when the sun is overhead. These solar tracking skylights from Tracking Skylights, Inc. are a bit different.

Inside their plastic enclosures lie highly reflective mirror panels, which move to follow the sun’s position in the sky. “By aligning to the exact position of the sun, the mirrors reflect light down into the space that would be otherwise lost due to the low incident angle of the sun through much of the day.”

This would be especially noticeable for those of us living in northern latitudes where the sun is pretty far south in the winters. The only downside is that you’ve got a big bubble on your roof instead of your usual flat skylight window, but if you love daylight streaming into your house, then it could be a good trade off. You’d probably make back the installation costs over time by not needing to have lights on in the house during the day.