Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Need a storage box that will do more than just hold your knickknacks? This stained glass piece is sure to get visitors to comment. I’m not sure it’s exactly my cup of tea (I can say that about stained glass in general), but I’m impressed by the work that must have gone into it to create the stained glass flowers, leaves, and even those dragonflies perched on the tips.

The glass is hand-cut, hand-copper-foiled, and soldered together. If you like hand-crafted pieces, you might appreciate this colorful storage box.

It’s the work of an Etsy artist named Beck who goes by “Rat” (hey, we don’t ask, we just talk about products.), and she’s got a number of decorative stained glass pieces in her shop. The prices are quite reasonable (actually, without knowing anything about the work involved in creating something like this, I’m inclined to say too low) so check her out:

Scrap Art by Rat

Oh, and the little glass storage box is $25 if you get there before it’s gone.

If you’re looking for a cute tealight holder or two, this campfire version might be fun. I doubt you can actually roast marshmallows over it (though you could try), but you can pretend.

“The white porcelain dutifully captures the dents in the rocks and the knots in the firewood. And it may not be roaring, but the soft glow of the tea light off the white porcelain will create a warm and cozy atmosphere.”

The little tealight holder will run you $20 at Uncommon Goods:

Porcelain Campfire Tealight Holder

If you enjoy decorating with candles, you may dig this interesting wall candle holder:

The Enchanted Forest Voltive Chain.

“The luxurious artistry of candlelight amid graceful boughs of bronzed leaves creates a fairyland setting that is utterly captivating.”

The wall candle holder consists of a number of candle sconces linked together in a line. Each piece is hand-fashioned from wrought iron with an antique gold finish. You can get vertical or horizontal sets, and they can be linked together to give you lots of decorative possibilities.

“Compose the inviting doorway garland shown here, or construct a foliage frame that washes a bare wall with flickering silhouettes of light and shadow. The sconces dramatically illuminate a hallway, foyer or stairwell, transforming dark areas into spaces that are alive with warmth.”

$40 gets you a set of two horizontal or two vertical candle chains at Illiminations.

There are all sorts of shows on tv that will teach you how to decorate your home in a mature, sophisticated matter. It’s all about curb appeal and home value these days, but if you’d like to buck the trend, you might prefer to put your personal stamp on your outdoor decorations. Let’s take the doormat. There’s just no better place to announce your geekiness to the world (or at least that part of the world that visits your home).

Here are a few doormats for geeks that might suit your fancy:

This is one for the true computer geek. The doormat spells out “welcome” in binary: “This stylish looking mat is really just the phrase ‘welcome’ encoded in binary. So, in a way, it’s a dual purpose device. Your UPS delivery guy is going to think it’s just a cool, funky, retro pattern. And he’ll be right. But your uncle from NASA will see that pattern as a collection of seven other patterns at which point he’ll quickly decode the message, chuckle, and slap the knocker on your door.” $40 from ThinkGeek

And now we have one for the science fiction fan, a Darth Vader doormat. And if other Star Wars characters are more your cup of tea, you can also get doormat-sized headshots of Boba Fett or a Stormtrooper (I guess you’re not supposed to want to wipe your feet on the good guys from the movies). £14.99 from Forbidden Planet

Here’s another one from ThinkGeek, and it’s also targeted at the computer nerds out there. Just about everyone will be able to read between the liners, er, dots and realize this means “there’s no place like home” but only the geeks will truly get what that IP address means. Also $40.

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

Room dividers can be a must in a loft, studio, or otherwise wall-challenged space, but one of the downsides with most is that they block out light as well as breaking up the space. If you’re dividing off a bedroom or area where you might want to change clothes, blocking the view can be important, but if you just want to give some definition to different areas in your home, then a solid divider may not be necessary.

For example, this hanging room divider is made from bamboo rings. The divider helps create the feeling of different “rooms” within a larger space, but it allows plenty of light through–something that can be important if all your windows are on one side of an apartment or condominum wall.

$300 from Fusion Home

If you’re looking for the proper tiles for a bathroom in a tropical climate (or one you just wish were in a tropical climate), perhaps something from the Hawaiian Islands would do.

This “Lanikai Moonrise” is a 12″ x 12″ tile mural that can become a focal point in any tile project, such as bathroom walls, a kitchen backsplash, or the bottom of a swimming pool. Of course, you could also just mount the mural on wood or frame it to hang it on a wall.

The murals come with a paper or cardboard pattern that matches up with the tile pieces so you can easily assemble the finished picture.

$235 from Tropical Spaces

When you think of tile mosaics, you may think of images and patterns that have to be custom installed by an artist who comes to your home to do the work from scratch. While you can go this route, you can also find colorful mosaics made from glass tiles that are attached to square sheets. You install them on the walls in a repeating pattern, which gives you a finished look that’s as vibrant as many custom jobs. Also, if you don’t mind a do-it-yourself project, you can easily lay the tiles on your own.

The wall shown here was done with tiles sheets from the Saix Fantastix line from Hakatai Enterprises. The sheets have dimensions of 12.875″ x 12.875″, and there are 26 designs to choose from in this line of “hand-cut, hand-aligned and exquisitely stylish glass mosaic repeating patterns.”

Hakatai

If you’re tired of wearing a watch around the house because there aren’t enough clocks around, that is a situation easily remedied. Just buy some clocks!

Of course, you could buy your standard wall clock from Ikea, but if you want something that lets you get creative now and then (or lets your kids get creative), then how about a clock you can write on?

This “blackboard” clock made from Pennsylvania black slate and comes with a piece of chalk and even a little tray for it to rest in.

Yu can write shopping list items, notes to family members, or just let your kids have a piece of furniture it’s OK to write on. I imagine a downside would be that it’s possible (probably easy) to bump the hands when you’re scribbling away with the chalk, so this might not be the most accurate time piece in the house.

$80 from Eco ArtWare

If you like wood and wouldn’t mind adding a touch to your walls here and there, but you’re not looking to go 70′s style wood paneling (who is?), then here’s a nice alternative:

These “wood weave” tiles make unique wall coverings and are available in a number of species such as maple, cherry, and red oak. You might not want to do the whole inside of your house with wood weave, but it could be an interesting way to create an accent wall.

Prices run about $14 per 12″ x 12″ tile (the tiles are square but there’s a puzzle piece look to their edges, so they fit together while maintaining an illusion of one solid, woven wall covering).

From Architectural Depot