Elegant House Design Plans

Making A Plan For Your Home Decor Project
Your house is a place to keep your stuff, while you go out and buy more stuff.
- George Carlin

Over the years, George Carlin's words have taken on a weighty truth. We just seem to accumulate more and more stuff! Then we have to buy storage containers to keep all of that stuff. Sometimes we even rent storage spaces outside our home and pay a monthly rental fee to store all of that extra stuff that no longer fits in our home.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by all of your stuff, perhaps this is a good time to sit down and take a look at your living environment. Do you see unnecessary clutter? To decide what's really important and what's not, begin by sorting everything into 3 categories.

Category 1
Which things do you use every day or are necessary to your daily existence?

Category 2
Which things have so much meaning that you must keep them?

Category 3
Which things do you see and wonder why you still have them? Quick, put them into catagory3!
Then divide them into two piles:
A. usable for Goodwill or local second hand shop
B. trash to go out with the next trash pick-up or taken to the dump

Once you've cleared the clutter from your life, you'll notice how much lighter your world feels. Now it's time to create your plan.

Make a rough plan sketch of the room you'd like to re-do. If there are several areas, begin with one room at a time so you don't get overwhelmed by the process. Start with the room where you spend most of your time each day. Draw in the features of the room that are unchangeable like windows, doors, closets and any other architectural details. As you do this, notice the "bones" of your room. Are there any unique features that could become the focal point of your room; a fireplace in a living room for example? What is it about this room that you like? What do you want to change?

Next, decide what you like in terms of interior dcor style. One way to hone in on your specific tastes is to create a "Beautiful Home" file, according to Ann Rooney Heur in her book, Creating the Peaceful Home. Tear out magazine photos of interiors, furniture, artwork and color schemes that appeal to you. Magazines like ELLE Decor, House Beautiful and Metropolitan Home or Country Home are good places to start. Once you have a small collection of images, you can see which style you want to create. Are you more French Country or Cottage Design? Do you prefer a solid, Classic Design theme or sleek Contemporary? Once you know which style you want to create, it will be easier to decide on furniture and color schemes to enhance this style. You can also add paint chips, fabric swatches, even strips of gift wrap for unique colors and patterns you find interesting.

Now that your plan sketch is complete and you know what design styles you like, make small sketches of the furniture and artwork you want to include. You can draw these from your existing furniture or work from the photos you've collected in your "Beautiful Home" file. Cut out your drawings. This will allow you to move the pieces around to find the most pleasing arrangement. Im sure youll agree that moving around tiny pieces of paper is so much easier than moving and repositioning large pieces of furniture!

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Elegant House Design Plans

Space Saving Colonial House Plans For Elegance

Of the many types of luxury home floor plans available, the colonial style is currently enjoying a Renaissance. With their rectangular look and their formal, symmetrical design, Georgian style homes are rooted in both the classical architectural styles of ancient Greece and Rome as well as the Italian Renaissance style. Colonial homes often feature centrally located front doors and evenly spaced, double hung windows beneath a simple side gabled roof. The style arose from the wealthy American colonists' attempts to reproduce the architecture of their native England. The Georgian style can be found almost everywhere in colonial America, but Colonial Williamsburg is the most notable example of an existing community in this style. A famous example is the house of the president of the College of William and Mary, which was completed in 1733. Located in Williamsburg, it is a stately brick structure with the typical Georgian look of balance, symmetry, and formality. Southern colonial homes were usually made of brick but towards the north wood frame construction dominated.

The distinguishing features of space saving colonial house plans is their square and symmetrical shape. Both the interiors and exteriors are arranged according to a strict proportion and symmetry. A front porch and centrally located main entrance open onto a straight hallway giving access to the downstairs rooms, with a stairway leading to the upstairs sleeping areas. Front doors often featured flattened columns influenced by Greek architectural style. There are usually five evenly-spaced windows arranged across the façade and the windows are rectangular and made of nine- or twelve- panes each. Windows in the Southern states featured louvers which allowed warm breezes to enter; whereas in the cold Northern states windows could be tightly shuttered to protect from cold winds, snow and sleet. Roofs often featured pedimented dormers with dentil (tooth-like block) moldings along the eaves. Usually the older houses had better the roofs, since slate and wooden shake roofs were designed to last forever, whereas modern asphalt shingles require replacement. However, all roofs, even slate or shake roofs, require regular inspection, and corresponding maintenance.

Maintenance on colonial style homes, especially older ones, is considerably more expensive than a cabin cottage home plan vacation. Wood clapboard always needs periodic repainting or staining (masonry exteriors are low maintenance since they only require occasional tuck-pointing). When examining older colonial homes check out all brick and mortar walls for cracking, which may indicate foundation settling problems. Also, old multi-paned windows are not energy-efficient, so panes must be examined for cracks or breaks. Old windows require occasional re-glazing to maintain the putty soft and ensure a good seal.

When considering a luxury home floor plan, you might take into consideration space-saving colonial house plans. While by no means as economical to build or maintain as cabin cottage home plan vacation, their stately grandeur makes them a perennial favorite.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alice_Lane

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Elegant House Design Plans

A house can never turn out to be a home if the owner of the house applies no personal touches. It is possible to revolutionize the house to a home only by preparing custom home designs. This is in fact the best way of bringing a personal touch to any house.

By taking a contractor's help, you can tailor each part of the house and suit your need to reflect your own personality. If you're new to home design plans and aren't sure of ways to draft them, then it is essential to hire a professional contractor. Furthermore, even if you are convinced about drawing, designing and setting up a successful Dwelling Place designs plan, a professional's help will still ensure you that the progression is standardized and that results are more rewarding.

Few things need to be considered when opting for house design plans. The considerations need to be followed when choosing the architectural designs of the house. Here are some points that need to be considered by the house owners while planning to decorate their house.

· It is important to decide the budget before starting the new household designs plan. This is an absolute necessity.

· You must contact a reputed and experienced dwelling place design contractor for helping you out in the designing plans.

· It is essential to consider the details of household designing plans and its requirements. However, if you feel that you are not too sure about the luxury home designs, you can pretty well have a close look at home and house books and can also make a quick search on the Internet to form an idea about the aesthetic designs. This is in fact the most thought-provoking part of the entire process because you will have a large number of options to select from. After finalizing the designs you can start outlining the dwelling place design plans.

· Before the custom home designs plan gets finalized, you can opt to change and revise them any time. Changing the design becomes a difficult affair with start of the building process. Thus before starting the building work, ensure to be comfortable with your new home designs.

· There are many home designing services that provide pre-designed house plans. Availing for these services will save much of your time and money. They are ready-made home design plans. However, these designs might not always be appropriate for your house and some minor changes might sometimes become necessary.

Raymond Baresh is a architectural home design enthusiasts.He has traveled the world documenting designs from traditional to ultra-modern home designs. You can learn more about Raymond on his Home Plans blog.

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