From the Floors Up

The Right Tile for Home Exteriors and Patios

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Tile is a timeless and beautiful floor and wall covering. It has been being used in homes for centuries and continues to stay a staple in home improvement. Plus, there are hundreds of options available when it comes to shopping for tile. Different constructs of tiles will work best in different environments. However, no atmosphere is more demanding than your home’s exterior. In fact, the outside your home will experience extreme temperature changes and water exposure. These factors can make choosing the right tile a little more challenging. That being said, have no fear. This versatile flooring option can work in almost any environment! If you are looking to tile a patio, walkway, driveway, or anywhere else outside your home, here is what you should know:

Best Tile Option

When it comes to choosing tile for outside, you need a more durable option. While ceramic is excellent, it is not as durable as porcelain. For instance, when you install it over concrete outside, moisture is a considerable concern. Moisture can travel up through the concrete and underneath your tiles; therefore, you need to invest in a polymer-modified mortar to waterproof your concrete. This factor will give you porcelain tiles much longer longevity.

Slip-Proof

When looking for slip-resistant tiles, natural stone is your best bet. This factor makes sense because natural stone already endures nature daily. However, porcelain is still another great option yet, quarried marble, granite, or limestone are all excellent options. Do remember that some of these options will need to be sealed to protect their natural-looking finish. There is no completely slip-proof tile option, though. Remember, just because a type of flooring may be extremely slip-resistant to your bare feet, does not mean it will react the same if you are wearing heels or nonslip resistant shoes!

Grout Reminders

When choosing your outdoor grout, it is best to go with a sanded grout! Your grout lines will be traditionally larger visually with this option. It would help if you also looked into getting a grout sealer to help protect your grout from the harsh outdoor conditions.

Picking tile for outside comes down to its longevity and durability. Natural stone and porcelain are excellent options to explore. Just make sure you do not neglect your grout when preparing to invest in your patio tile or outside tile projects. For more insight on flooring, make sure to subscribe!

Choosing a Theme Style for Your Home

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Now that you have a new home, you can officially begin designing it. However, you may quickly realize that there are hundreds of design themes. How do you choose the right one? Rustic, Contemporary, Mid-Century Modern, and Shabby Chic are all great styles. Yet, choosing the right one can be hard. There are several great tools to help you narrow down the right choice for your own home. Here are the best ways to help guide your theme selection:

Personal Touches

Cabinets, flooring, and countertops are already tailored to the look you want! Instead of dwelling on what style will work best, simply add your own personal touches. Vases, pictures, throw pillows, wall art, and décor are all great ways to make a house your home. Interior design is expressive and a chance to individualize yourself. Take advantage of the opportunity and embrace your internal design desires.

Architectural Features

Another significant guiding factor in designing your space can be complementing your architectural influences and home’s surrounding environment. For instance, many homes in Arizona are designed with southwestern design themes. This factor is a great design style to emphasize your own design and help bring to life. You would want to try to incorporate rich textures and earthy tones into your atmosphere. Woven fabrics, suedes, and leathers can also be facilitated to amplify this effect. These are some great tools used to create a Southwestern atmosphere.

What You Already Own

You should also allow your current furniture and belongings to help guide your theme. What kind of preexisting furniture are you bringing into your new home? What colors, fabrics, rugs, pictures, and décor did your old design have? If you did not have a very balanced design, you could begin to look for what works together and creating a design. Perhaps, you have had a very eclectic design but notice many earthy tones in half your furniture. This factor is a great start in transforming your space into a Rustic design theme. You can slowly replace the odd and unmatching décor and furnishings to create a new theme.

Designing your space should be fun and expressive. In fact, it is the best part of making a house your home. What design tricks do you plan on using in your new home? We would love to hear from you! Let us know below in the comment section.

Feng Shui: An East-Facing Front Door

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Achieving Feng Shui in your home is done through many tricks. This belief is to slow down the energy from the outside world and help bring it into your own home. Feng Shui maximizes the elements of nature by finding a balance to bring qi into your home. We can start mastering Feng Shui in our interior design simply by applying different colors to our front doorway entrances. If you have an east-facing front door, here is what you should know:

Creating Feng Shui

In Feng Shui, there are five elements of nature. These elements express the energy we look for in our homes. However, having the wrong energies next to each other can create bad energy. Bringing that energy in from the outside starts at the entrance of our homes. Even the color of our doorways can make an impact.

East Corresponds with Wood Element Colors

Feng Shui has many intricate ways of incorporating elements into interior design. There are eight directions in which a doorway can face. Each doorway has a corresponding element in which it thrives. East facing doorways correspond with wood elements. True east will read between 67.5 to 112.5 degrees on a compass. Therefore, it is best to paint these doors green or brown. Having the correct color can allow energy easily to enter the home.

Avoid

For every corresponding element, there is a counterpart. Wood can be damaged by fire or metal energy. So, it is important to stray from having certain colors present at these entrances. Avoid metal colors like gray or white. You should also stay away from fire colors such as red and orange. Avoiding these colors can make the energy most prevalent at these doorways. It is also suggested to test out paints during different times and seasons of the day. Certain paints can look different in certain lights.

Adding this element of Feng Shui to your home is just one more way to master your design. There are so many diverse ways of bringing positive energy into your home. Do you use Feng Shui philosophies in your own design? Let us know in the comment section, and for more insight on design, make sure to subscribe.

Feng Shui: A South-Facing Front Door

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Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese philosophy that incorporates bringing positive energy from the outside world into our homes. This positive energy is referred to as qi. There are several elements of energy the outside world provides in which can be facilitated in our homes. Water, fire, earth, metal, and wood are all elements that help balance our home’s energy. In order to master Feng Shui, there are thousands of techniques that can be used in your home. From the color of your doors to where you place your furniture in your home, these factors can all have an influence on your home’s qi. If you have a south-facing front door, here are the colors you should consider painting it:

Creating Feng Shui

Doors can be crucial factors used in Feng Shui. Each direction can have an influence on Feng Shui. South is read on a compass 157.5 to 202.5. There are eight directions in which a door can face. South means the best energy for your door is fire energy.

South Corresponds with Fire Element Colors

South doorways are in correspondence with fire or flame energy. Fire energy is revitalized by wood energy as well. With Fire energy, warm-tone colors like red, orange, and yellow can be very impactful. You can also evoke energy from the flame energy by using purple or deep pink. When trying to captivate the energy from wood, consider using colors like green or brown. Your best options are to go with the fire energy, but wood energy colors can be great accents for the doorway or as your second option if needed.

Avoid

Flame energy does not do well with north-facing energy. North energy is water energy. Keep away from using watercolors such as blue or black. Earthy tones as well can be destructive to the powers of fire. Keep away from earthy tones as well.

Learning to master Feng Shui is a great and fun way to incorporate this ancient Chinese philosophy in your own home. There are hundreds of methods for mastering Feng Shui. For more insight, make sure to subscribe!

Feng Shui: A North-Facing Front Door

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Feng Shui is used while creating a layout in order to best interact with the surrounding energy. This ancient Chinese philosophy studied how qi or the energy in your home would directly affect your well-being. Elements from the earth, such as wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, should be brought into our living spaces to help revitalize them. Each element can pursue different moods, yet you want your home to be balanced and never too influenced by one or another. In this manner, Feng Shui has become a very in-depth set of principles to bettering the happiness of our home.

Did you know the color of your front door can influence the Feng Shui of your home? Well, it most certainly can! If you have a north-facing front door, here is everything you should consider for a balanced and flowing home qi:

Creating Feng Shui

Doors are the gateways to our homes. Since Feng Shui is about bringing positive energy from the outside into our homes, they are considered very crucial areas. There are eight directions in which a door can face: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, and northwest. With a door facing north, the compass will read from 337.5 to 22.5. This direction means your front door’s element is water or Bagua energy.

North Corresponds with Water Element Colors

Bagua or water energy can also be nourished by metal energy. So, colors that are good for either element will work for your door. Water energy is represented by blue or black. Metal energy can be represented by using white or grey. Any of these colors are excellent choices for a north-facing front door.

Avoid

Yet, with invoking positive energy, there is also negative energy, which should be avoided. Do not use colors like deep pink, orange, purple, red, yellow, or brown. These colors are used to represent other elements like wood, earth, and fire. Using the wrong elements can influence negative or destructive energy in your home.

There is so much that goes into Feng Shui. The philosophy has many ways in which the environment can affect the energy of your home. If you are interested in learning more about qi, Feng Shui, and positive energy for your home, make sure to subscribe.

From the Floors Up

From the Floors Up blog was created with the goal of providing a destination for consumers, designers and those interested in the flooring, design, and kitchen and bath industries. Here you’ll find, current, accurate and informative information that is always just a click away!

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