Posts Tagged ‘wall’

Major Garage Transformation

One of the most commonly encountered questions when thinking about converting your garage for a new use is the warmth of the floor. Whether you are choosing to convert your garage into a spacious home office or to convert it into a gym room, you have to take into consideration some improvements for your floor.

Since the garage has a concrete and uninsulated floor you should focus on making it warmer and more resilient. Furring up the floor with wood and plywood can accomplish both tasks. As a warning, you should use pressure-treated wood or protect the wood which is in contact with the concrete by placing a layer of felt paper between the wood and the concrete.

First of all measure and determine how much you want to raise the floor. All garage floors have some amount of slope from the back wall to the wall with the garage door in it to allow the water runoff. To achieve a level floor you will have to adjust the joists, for this if you are placing the joists perpendicular to the slope in the floor each of them would have to be ripped down or shimmed up and if the joists are parallel to the slope, you can rip them on a taper or use shims to level them.

Ok, you finished remodeling the floors, now it’s time to examine your walls. You might be surprised to find out that your walls are not even with the foundation they sit on. They may be set back from the foundation or maybe overhang it in other areas. Only one step will solve these problems: selecting a lumber size that is deep enough to extend the framing past the concrete. By notching each end of the furring strip and attaching one strip to the face of each wall stud will result in an even wall that completely hides the foundation. Also it will be deep enough for the R-21 wall insulation, this type of insulation being the most common code requirement.

When remodeling the walls and the floor several obstructions may appear. Obstructions like pipes, ducts, wires and other impediments to smooth walls may exist. For small obstructions such as wires or small pipes you could adjust the furring strips enough to accommodate them. The solution for larger obstructions is to box around them. If the obstruction is a water heater or something that you will need access to, you can frame it in and enclose it on three sides and then provide a removable access panel for the fourth side.

A building permit may be required for a garage make over. Of course all the methods presented here are purely theoretical and only for guidance. All garages are different and some adjustments to the used methods or materials may be required in order to accommodate to your garage.

How To Use Bathroom Accessories To Fill In Empty Corners

Many bathrooms have a lot of empty space, which can be filled in. Bare walls make the space seem empty, which one can add a few bathroom accessories to fill in the gaps. With this in mind, we hope that you will learn how to make your bathroom more then a bathroom. Perhaps you will enjoy it more then any other room in the house. I also understand that the bathroom is most of the time the smallest room in the house. Even though it is small, you still can make it very enjoyable for one to take a bath or for whatever the reason maybe. For most of us, we have to fill in the empty space the best we can.

What can I do with my old chair? Chairs are nice, since a person can do many things with the item. For instance, you can turn the chair into a flower stand and place it in a corner. To get started you would cut the bottom out and place your favorite plant inside the cut area. The chairs are easy to make and look very nice in a corner. Creating the chair will inspire your guests, since they will have something to talk about. In addition, you may want to add a clothes hamper. The hampers come in different sizes, styles, etc. The hampers are idea for storing laundry, keeping the clothes out of the floor. If you have a family like mine, you will want a clothes hamper. You can find hampers that suit your needs online, or at any local department store.

How can I fill up a bare wall? When covering a bare wall, you may want to consider re-painting the walls and adding a few colorful bathroom accessories to offset the area. On the other hand, you could hang up some pictures of outdoors items. Perhaps hang a few candles on the wall, which will add a more comfortable setting for your bathroom. Remember candles are a relaxing source.

How can I paint my bare wall? When deciding that you want to paint your bathroom wall there is many ways to do this First you have to decide what design you want and color that will match your style of bathroom. For an example if you have fish patterns in your bathroom you would not put roses in the room, rather the patterns and colors should all come together. So maybe some blue greenish color or even maybe some yellow. You can go to your local store and get some stencils and design or design your own creation on a marrow on the wall. You can also purchase many kinds of patterns. That will help you out. They have everything you might be looking for, from wild life to flowers. You again have to decide what you want and that will go with your design.

What else can I add to my bathroom? You can add many things to your bathroom to fill in empty spots. To fill up a bare wall, you might want to add a towel hanger to the wall in that way you can put directive towel on it to add contact it the bathroom.

You may want to go on the Internet and get some ideas or maybe go to your city library if you can’t make up your mind. Sometimes looking in a book will help you decide if you like the patterns, colors, style, etc. Books are always great, since the material will give you new ideas.

How To Create Shelves For Bathroom Accessories

What do I need to know about putting up my shelves?

When looking for the right shelves for your bathroom, you need to decide what you are going to use the storage for, then decide what’s going to work for you.

Why do I want to put in shelves in my bathroom? Shelves are used for a variety of reasons. Shelves are wonderful creations, which you can use to store towels, cosmetics, appliances, etc. The shelves come in handy for my home, since I can store many items. The shelves provide the most efficient methods of using up empty space.

How should I use my shelves? You can use your shelves for many things like plants, towels, and washcloths Perhaps you want just to put a candle or maybe something nice on the shelf to offset your environment. You can put anything on the shelves that depends you.

How do I know how to pick the best shelf for my needs? First, you want to decide what you want to use the shelves for, and what you want to store in the shelves. Next, you want to consider what kind of shelves you want. Once you reach your decision, you need to consider the strength and rigidity of the shelf. Estimating the load of items you want to put on the shelf is ideal also. +How do I choose woods? When picking out materials, such as wood for your new shelves you want to consider a few questions. When picking out the wood for your shelves you have to decide what you want to use the shelves for therefore you want to consider thickness of the wood to be sure. It will help you to decide what kind of wood you would like. You have many options to choose from, including pine, oaks, maple, hardwood, redwood, and so on. Glass shelves are available as well.

How do I choose the categories? On the market, you will find bracket shelves, which can hold a variety of items. The shelves are sturdy. In addition, the shelves will provide you sufficient support. In addition, you want to consider track systems, which is common for adjusting height.

The tracking systems give you the option of adjusting the heights to suit your needs.

How do I mount my shelves to the walls? Before you mount your shelves, you want to consider where you want to put your shelves. Use a craftsmen pencil to mark your holes, preparing it for drilling. Once you have it marked, you want to put in an anchor, which will provide you support. You will need to adhere to the same rules on the opposite side to make sure that you have your holes leveled. You may want to use a leveler, which you can purchase at any hardware store. The leveler will help you to straighten your shelves. Once you have the shelf aligned, you can place your brackets on the wall. You will need to line up the brackets, so that it fits into the holes. The screws will hold the brackets in place, attaching it to the wall.

Once that is done you can lay your shelve on the brackets using a leveler to make sure that you are all lined up straight. You may want to use a few smaller screws to secure the shelves to the brackets so they don’t move, or fall. Now you are ready to enjoy your shelves in your bathroom. ++In addition, you can set off to choose a few other bathroom accessories to make your new shelves stand out more so.

Decorating Your Home Theater On A Budget

If you are fortunate enough to be building a room in your home that is dedicated to the purpose of watching movies or as a home theater it only makes sense that you would like to decorate the room in a manner that is completely befitting of its purpose. There are amazing options available within this growing market of decorating and generally, there are prices that are designed to match. The good news is that while art often imitates life, there is no reason that we can’t imitate some of the great art we see in the movies or on televisions shows in our homes-at a fraction of the cost.

First of all, a really good home theater is an investment, particularly those that are generally used in private rooms. With that being said you will want to decorate your room in a manner that will not distract from your movie watching experience. There are many ways you can do this and many of them come at rather hefty costs for the average consumer. You do not have to purchase special lighting at $500 a pop when you can go to your local lighting or home improvement store and find excellent wall sconces that will be perfect for your home theater at a fraction of the cost for which you will find them at specialty stores catering to those building home theaters. For more low lighting options you can use inexpensive strings of rope lighting or even Christmas tree lights in order to provide some light without risking a glare on the screen.

Rather than hanging expensive drapery on the walls in your home theater you can apply textured paint in dark colors in order to avoid distracting glares. Your local retailer may encourage you to soundproof your walls and you are the only one that can really decide if that is necessary. I personally would pass, particularly if your home theater is going to be in a basement, which is typically somewhat removed from the rest of your home and your family area.

As far as flooring goes, darker carpeting is a good idea in most areas though possibly not the best in a basement. Cork makes a good flooring option for basement floors as is works to muffle sound from escaping the room in addition to a natural resistance to moisture related problems that may occasionally arise in a basement. It is also a very inexpensive flooring material that is highly underrated.

I also recommend dark furnishing for your home theater. A good choice might be darkly colored sectional sofas if you want the family to enjoy the space together. I also recommend beanbags or other special seating for the little ones who may enjoy your home theater as well. This gives them their own seats and helps eliminate some of the bickering and squabbles that often arise over premium seating space.

The point is that you do not have to spend a fortune in order to create a great atmosphere that is totally conducive to an overall pleasant movie watching experience in your home theater. While I do not recommend a great deal of clutter along the walls in this particular room you can do great things with plastic popcorn boxes and flameless tea light candles along the floor. Let your imagination present creative options to the big-ticket items you see in the specialty shops you’ll be amazed at some of the neat things you come up with.

Create Your Personal Home Theater

We often spend a great deal of time contemplating the various components of our home theater systems but rarely give much thought to how the decor of the room affects our ability to enjoy our home theaters and movies without the added distraction of the walls in the room or other decorating features. In order to get some great ideas, go to the experts when it comes to designing the best possible viewing experiences. Take a night out at the movies and check out the way the room is decorated before the movie begins and pay attention during the movie to the things that distract you most.

Theaters make a lot of money by creating an experience more than for the simple showing of movies. The first thing you will probably notice is that most theaters do not allow outside light into the room. As a matter of fact, most theaters have very little in the way of artificial light either. You may spot some wall sconces and some running lights (that can be brightened or dimmed) along the sides but rarely will you notice any overhead lighting turned on even before the movies play. For this reason, basements or interior rooms with no windows are the best choices when it comes to selecting the location for your home theater. If that isn’t available be sure to try to find blackout curtains or drapes for your windows in order to keep the most possible sunlight out.

The colors they chose for the walls and the types of lighting they are using are carefully selected in order to enhance that experience. I’m sure you will find that most theaters use darker colors for their walls. Many use fabric to line the walls so that shiny paint doesn’t reflect the light from the screen. In your home you can opt for textured paints or mattes in order to avoid potential reflections. You should also make sure that you aren’t using shiny floor surfaces that might also reflect the light back onto the screen. For this reason carpet makes a good flooring choice for your home theater.

Another thing you will want to make sure that your home theater includes is nice comfy seating. By having appropriate seating where you and your family can spread out and enjoy watching television or movies you will find that you are spending much more time together enjoying your investment than you would if you found the seating stiff and uncomfortable. I also suggest special seating options for smaller children that allows them a special place to sit and no room for doubt over which seat belongs to whom. Not only do you want a nice comfy spot for your little ones but also a nice area for the grownups to enjoy and feel comfortable as well.

I highly recommend that you also keep a nice supply of snack trays available for those times when the situation merits and many people include mini fridges and microwaves (for popcorn of course) in their home theater so that they do not have to travel very far in order to enjoy some great refreshments during commercials or breaks in action on the big screen.

While there is no one size fits all home theater, there are many touches you can add that will enhance the theater experience in your home and make it that much more enjoyable for all involved. Take the time to decide what features you can add that will make the space work better for your needs and that of your families movie and television watching preferences and go with those touches rather than trying to conform to a ‘norm’ that doesn’t really exist when it comes to home theaters. The most important thing you can do is create a space in which you feel comfortable watching movies and television as a family. If you achieve this particular goal you will have a home theater that is likely to be the envy of others around you.