From the Floors Up

Understanding Masculine and Feminine Design

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Designing your space can have many outlets and options to help to tailor your home to your style.  Generally, homes are designed neutral or genderless to help with resell value; however, your home is a personal escape and designing it to your needs comes first.  If you are looking to make a man cave or a female hangout area, there are several ways to go about it.  To help, we broke down some great options to incorporate in your own home to help design these spaces.  

Masculine Design

While both masculine and feminine designs generally accept many of these options, certain elements and colors are traditionally used in masculine design.  Leather sofas and chairs are great additions to help create your man cave.  Colors like blues, browns, and blacks can be affiliated with masculine characteristics. Darker palettes are also typically used. You can give homage to rough or distressed look with natural elements like stones, woods, even metals.  Masculine design can also be associated with geometrical patterns.  Whether used on curtains, paintings, or decor, geometrical patterns are great for forming the space.

Feminine Design

Colors and shades can typically alter a room’s feel.  Lighter shades and pastel tones can be associated with feminine characteristics.  Pinks, whites, and creamy greys can influence a space to feel more feminine. Where hard lines and geometrical patterns flourish in masculine design, soft curvy furniture can be appreciated in a feminine style designed space.  Consider floral and damasks patterns in your feminine themed spaces.  Feminine design can also appreciate good artwork with meaning and portraying an image rather than just shapes. 

Harmony

While both feminine and masculine design can appreciate each other’s styles and no element is distinguished particularly for one over the other, some of these elements can help enhance a style.  Try using these in your own home or mixing and matching to create balance. Both features can help the balance of the other to create a stunning space. Limiting your space to gender-specific décor can hurt your atmosphere.

Allow both designs can be used to help one another. While both masculine and feminine can enjoy both design styles, it can be most beneficial to mix and match. Masculine and Feminine design styles are slowly fading away as we move along in Modern Era. Incorporating both to your space can be truly beneficial.

How to Capture “Zen” in Your Design

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Zen is more than the feeling tranquility and peacefulness. Today, we often find that chaos is the “norm.” Our hectic lives demand more from us than ever. The traditional work weeks have been growing longer and our personal time slowly dwindles away to mere nothingness, and we tend to get caught up indulging in the illusory aspects of the world but fail to enjoy the moment. Creating a relaxing environment in your home is one thing. Zen is wisdom that the cosmos is a harmonious system.

Minimalism

Let’s be honest; clutter equals chaos; therefore, you should eliminate what you do not need. It may seem like stressful at first but eliminating clutter and letting go of attachments will be revitalizing. An open space will feel refreshing without the heavy burden of clutter weighing down the room. Additionally, you will want to stick to a neutral color space. Colors can have psychological influences on the environment, and a neutral space will keep the mind from wandering.

Natural Elements

To achieve Zen, you will want to add natural elements to your room. Running water can be used to help alleviate stress. Water has a mesmerizing effect; perhaps, you would like to try having a fountain or even a fish tank with running water in your room. You can also use essential oils in a diffuser to give your space a peaceful scent like eucalyptus or lavender. Bamboo plants, rocks, and hardwood floors can all be influential on your space. Plus, you can even incorporate some of the elements of Feng Shui. Even natural light can help calm the room. All of these natural elements can be utilized to create Zen.

Spot to Reflect

Whether you choose to meditate, pray, or just unwind sometime during your day, your room should offer a spot to reflect. Self-reflection and time of solitude can help you gather your thoughts. You can have time to eliminate the stresses of the world and focus on yourself. You may want a chair, yoga mat, or stool in the room–just remember that this spot is essential to achieving proper Zen.

What are the properties of Zen most essential to your life? Acquiring true peace is more than having a tranquil environment. True Zen is a lifestyle; not getting worked up about the little things and the pursuit for knowledge. Do not end your journey of peace by just adding a couple of things to your room. Remember to reflect, unwind, and absorb knowledge daily.

How To Prepare For Guests and Be the Ultimate Hostess Part 2

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Part 2 – Kitchen, Guest Bathroom, Pets

Moving right along let’s continue with more guidelines as to how to be the best possible hostess when guests come to stay in your home. The goal is ensure that they feel appreciated, relaxed, and a little bit at home.

Kitchen

  • Set out everything your guest might need for morning coffee or tea. You’ll get extra points if you arrange it prettily. Fold a napkin, place a spoon on it, and set an empty mug next to it. In the morning set out the cream, sugar, and tea bags.
  • Ensure that your guest is comfortable and well taken care of by also preparing your refrigerator ahead of time. Before their arrival ask what they like to eat. Not just for a formal meal. Ask what they like to snack on. It will be much easier to keep them satisfied and save yourself excessive food prep time if tasty, easy-access food is in the house. Such as fruit, nuts, sandwich ingredients, etc. Plus, nothing says guest of honor like a spread of food that was clearly purchased with your guest in mind. 

Guest Bathroom

  • Prepare the guest bathroom by overstocking it with clean towels. Even if your guest only uses a few of the towels, there is something about extra towels that make a bathroom feel luxurious. Make sure to stock all the necessities of bathing. Even if your guest brings their own, they won’t have to ask for anything they forgot and they’ll realize how thoughtful you are. Things to include are shower gel/soap, razors, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, extra toothbrush, q-tips, cotton balls, and lotion.

Pets

  • If you are allowing pets into your home everyone will have a much better experience if you plan ahead. First, remove or block off anything in the home that absolutely cannot support the presence of an animal. Next, create a space on the floor for the animal’s food and water. By deciding ahead you can avoid the inconvenience of randomly placed pet dishes under foot. Give your guest an extra house key if they will need to leave for a short while to walk the dog when you’re not home. Provide doggy waste bags to ensure your guest doesn’t upset your neighbors. Last, ask you guest to bring along a pet carrier or crate if you aren’t comfortable with the animal running loose in your home when everyone is out for the day or night.

How To Prepare For Guests and Be the Ultimate Hostess

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Part 1 – Guest Bedroom

It seems that in nearly every facet of life society has become less formal. Day-to-day clothing has become more relaxed, our words have become less rigid (the word “jeggings” is now in the dictionary!) and we eat rather than dine, often in the car.

Some people are huge fans of this relaxed way of life, yet others miss the controlled and deliberate way of conducting one’s self. In either case, when guests come to visit your home, you have an excellent opportunity to excel in the area of good manners and conduct.  No matter how kicked-back you are, guests bring out our more formal entertainment skills.  No one wants their guests to wander aimlessly trying to figure things out.

Help your visitors by following this guide to being the most welcoming and thoughtful person with whom your guest has ever stayed. 

Guest Bedroom

  • Wash all bed linens. Even if no one has used the guest bed in a long time, at least rewash the pillow cases. Otherwise the bed may feel or smell dusty and musty. You want your guest’s olfactory experience to be pleasant and relaxing.
  • Speaking of pillows, spend a few bucks and buy new ones if needed. Replace them if the ones on the guest bed are poor quality older pillows that were banished from another bedroom. Pillows can be found at very low cost and a fresh bit of poof will feel lovely under your guest’s head.
  • Add extra blankets at the foot of the bed. People’s bodies operate across a wide scale when it comes to temperature. Even if you feel like you are always hot, a person who usually feels cold will really appreciate those extra blankets.
  • If possible, have a TV and/or white noise machine in the room. Some people fall asleep well while watching television, and others are very sensitive to sound and will sleep better with the hum of a fan or something similar.

Next read Part 2 – Kitchen, Guest Bathroom, Pets

The 60-30-10 Rule

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When you set out to decorate your home it usually begins with a million and one ideas about what colors to use, all of which can overwhelm you and leave you feeling like you have too many to choose from. This can make deciding on your final color scheme seem like an impossible task but there are great tools you can use to narrow down your thoughts and inspiration and channel it into the design you envision.

 

There is a golden rule when it comes to decorating a room and it holds true for any room, no matter what. This is the 60-30-10 rule and this is a great way to begin organizing your ideas and color schemes. What the rule means is this—about 60% of the space you are decorating should be the dominant color. This means that the dominant color in your room will be the walls, and a general rule of thumb is to keep this dominant color a neutral color. This way if you decide to change color palette elsewhere in the room, the walls will always match.

 

The next 30% of your room should be your secondary color. This will account for much of your upholstery on your furniture. You can get a little more creative here, but it is a good idea to not stray too far from the neutral color family for the same reasons you want your walls to be neutral as well. It makes it easier to reinvent your color schemes down the road if you don’t have to repaint your walls or replace your furniture.

 

Finally, the last 10% will be your accent color. This ten percent is where you get to play with your color scheme. Add a pop of color with a bright area rug or a statement piece of art on your wall. Choose a color family and stick with that in your accents throughout the room. The colors do not have to match, but they should go. For instance, you might have artwork hanging that contains varying shades of the red family. You might then use a coral throw pillow on your couch to add another touch of color to your room.

 

This golden rule of interior design is a great rule of thumb for those who are starting from scratch decorating a room. It is a useful and easy to remember concept that helps regulate color schemes and results in a balanced result.

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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