Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

A window greenhouse or garden window is a compact and inexpensive way to gain the benefits of a greenhouse within your home. So those plants that would otherwise die outdoors when fall and winter set in can now thrive inside your home. Plus, a greenhouse is beneficial in any climate.

Greenhouse Windows by Tru-Frame come in vinyl or aluminum windows and can easily replace an existing kitchen window. To enable ventilation, these windows have side opening windows as well as fully adjustable tempered glass shelves. In addition, this design has a Low-E2 insulated glass roof, which reduces heat and ultra violet rays that can compromise your plants. Although stock colors are white and almond, other colors are available too.

These windows can also display other items such as vases, knickknacks and small pictures. So it can be a display case for people inside or looking from the outside of your home.

Bathing and dressing without having to worrying about who will see you is the ideal bathroom experience. Shutting the door can make the bathroom feel smaller, and if you enjoy hot showers, the mirrors are bound to fog up. There are ways to remodel your bathroom so you can have privacy and freedom.

Fitting a partially sandblasted shower glass into the bathroom wall will allow natural light to filter in and prevent others from seeing through. To give the room an open feeling, fit the piece of glass so it doesn’t reach the top of the wall. The gap of space will make the room less claustrophobic.

If you just want some privacy around the toilet, install a piece of frosted glass into the wall. This will create a separation between the toilet and sink or toilet and dressing area.

Another option is having two doors with frosted glass panels. The double doors can separate the tub and toilet from the dressing area, which can allow two people to use the bathroom at the same time.

There are four types of patio doors: sliding patio doors, center pivot door, in-swinging French doors and sliding French doors. Depending on your space restrictions, it’s beneficial to consider which type of door is right for your patio.

With double-wide sliding patio doors, only one door can open at a time. Pivoting doors rotate a full 90 degrees from the center, so this is a unique option. French doors can either open into a room or swing out onto another room. With swinging French doors, you need to account for the space taken up when the doors open. However, if you don’t want to worry about this, you can opt for the sliding French doors.

Marvin Windows and Doors has the Ultimate Sliding French Door, which is a space-saving version of the in-swinging French doors. Marvin’s design is ergonomic with mulit-point lock and the choice between a raised or flat panel.

What if the picture over your fireplace changed every day? During the winter, you could watch snowflakes gracefully fall into the fire, and in the fall, you could enjoy the jewel tone colors of the changing leaves while sipping hot cocoa near the fire. This ever-changing portrait over the mantle seems impossible, doesn’t it?

With the use of a solid masonry and invisible glass, a window can make your living space and mantle more interesting. From the outside, it breaks up the vertical chimney and adds a visual element to this structure. Also, the gas fireplace exhaust can be diverted through a small vent below the chimney.

Even if you’re trying to find a way to increase the natural light in your family room, adding a window can achieve this goal. There are only so many ways to decorate your mantle, but a connection to the outside world is sometimes just what you need more of.

Movable translucent or glazed glass screens can open the space of a room in an instant. If you live in a ranch style home, folding screens can transform the way a room looks and feels. Most importantly, they can serve as dividers, so you can get multiple uses out of your larger rooms without closing them up too much.

Another glass option is glazed folding doors. Adding these to the back of your house can give you more of a connection with your backyard. Instead of the patio being separate, it can be more a part of your home.

NanaWall makes glazed folding doors, which are perfect for homes near the water. They have three types of glazed folding systems: wood, aluminum and aluminum clad.

So what is the difference between the screens and the doors? Glass folding screens can create a large visual space while glass folding doors can provide large exterior openings.

How would you like to beat the heat this summer without paying ridiculous prices for your air conditioning?

Updating your windows to triple-glazed ones and blinds to solar screens can keep your home cooler.

Weather Shield’s Zo-e-shield 7 Triple-Glazed Windows can save you 15-30% on energy. These multiple panes prevent the sun’s heat from warming up your home, but during the winter, it prevents the heat from escaping. This design saves you money during both seasons.

Another option is to work with your existing windows and cover them with Low-E Films, which deflect the sun’s rays. Specifically, they deflect up to 70% of solar heat and 99% of UV radiation.

An additional way to stop melting away in your home is to use solar screens or shades. Hunter Douglas has a variety of styles from soft vertical blinds to modern Roman shades. These solar screens are PVC-free and made from recyclable fabrics.

In the old days, Dutch doors were popular since they let pleasant breezes into the house while keeping the livestock out (hey, I said it was the old days).

Today, though, you can still get this classic colonial look.  Jen Weld offers split Dutch doors such as this one, which is made from polyurethaned pine.

A large window brings light into the house, and for fresh air (or to yell at the kids outside), just open up the top part of the door.

While most of us don’t have livestock roaming around the front yard these days, a Dutch door could come in handy for homeowners with dogs or small kids.  You can have the door open–part of it anyway–without worrying about letting your charges escape down the front walk.

If you’re worried about the home security threat of having a big window in your front door, consider using hurricane-rated glass (it has an inner plastic layer that isn’t breakable).

Glass doors (or wooden doors with windows) can be great since they let light flow into interior rooms, but sometimes you want a little privacy.

Adding lightweight curtains or panels specifically designed for doors is an easy solution. Many are sheer enough that they still allow light through, but they don’t allow peeping Toms (or family members) to spy on you.

These semi-sheer french door panels “will filter natural light with the decorative color of your room creating an atmosphere of warmth and elegance.”

At $12-$15, they’re not going to break the bank, and they’re easy to install and machine washable to boot.

From the BedBathStore.

If you want a door that says superior custom craftsmanship and this-home-is-secure all at the same time, then here you go.

This exterior door, which is made from wire-brushed Incense Cedar, is sure to keep out the burglars and it doesn’t look half bad either! The wire-brushed texture, Spanish finish, and plank overlay make for a memorable entryway, especially if you’re a fan of solid wood doors and the Southwestern style.

The cedar door is the work of Architectural Traditions, a company that crafts doors, windows, and hardware in Southwestern architectural traditions. They’ll happily build you custom doors and windows, including custom finishes and distressed textures. Available woods are Incense Cedar, Knotty Alder, Select Alder, Cherry, Genuine Mahogany, Walnut, Vertical Grain Douglas Fir and Rustic Oak.

If you’re trying to hide a closet or laundry area, you don’t always have a lot of room for installing a full-fledged door. There just isn’t space to open anything inward or outward. In some cases pocket doors can work, since they slide into the wall when open, but if you want to close off an area without futzing around in the walls, then an accordion door could be a solution.

You may have memories of hideous accordion doors from the 70s. (In a house I lived in as a kid, we had a home office separated from the living area with a tacky off-white accordion door made out of… uhm, I’m not sure what it was made out of. Suffice it to say, we left it pushed open most of the time, so no one would notice it.)

Today, though, you can get custom wood and vinyl accordion doors that aren’t quite as hideous as the ones we remember from our parents’ homes. At a company called WoodFold, you can even get decorative inserts of textured glass or acrylic to add interest to these folding doors.