Renovation Tips For a Small Apartment

renovation projectThere are many reasons why many people choose to live in a small apartment. In most cases, the reason is economical in nature. These days, big apartments cost a lot, whether you’re buying or just renting.

Because of their size—or lack of it—small apartments tend to get a bad reputation, particularly in the space department. In all honesty, small apartments do tend to be cramped, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it through the wonders of renovation. Yes, you can make the place seem more spacious and comfortable with a few tweaks here and there.

If you’re willing to go down that route, here are some renovation tips for a small apartment to help you get started.

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Lawns That Require Minimal Maintenance

lawns that require minimal maintenanceIt’s nice to live in a home with a beautiful lawn, but lawns can be a lot of hard work. Unless the area you’re living in has adequate rainfall all throughout the year, maintaining a lawn and keeping it as green as possible can get really tough, bothersome and eventually, real costly.

If you live in an area with low rainfall or periodic droughts and you still want a lawn, you might want to consider alternative lawns that require minimal maintenance. Here are some of low-maintenance lawn options for you.

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Tips For Decorating Your Child’s Room on a Budget

decorating your child’s room on a budgetWhen you decorate your kid’s room, you need to understand that it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. More often than not, you can decorate your kid’s room on a budget. You can still transform your child’s room with just a little money and a lot of creativity. Here are some tips for decorating your child’s room on a budget.

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6 Easy Ways to Boost The Efficiency of Your Home

ways to boost the efficiency of your homeAnyone can make their homes more energy efficient. However, those who are building a new home have the upper hand in this regard, since they are bound by the Building Code of Australia to meet a minimum level of energy efficiency.

Granted, the law requirement could mean additions to the total construction budget, but those additions are generally a pittance compared to the savings such energy efficiency measures will give you.

In any case, whether your house is new or old, there are a number of things that you can do to make it more energy efficient and in effect, a little friendlier to the environment. Here are some of them.

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Why Ventilation Exhaust Fans Are So Important

why ventilation exhaust fans are so importantMore often than not, we home owners don’t really give much thought about those ubiquitous little fans that spin somewhere near the top of our walls or on our ceilings. They are, however, extremely important not only for the home itself, but also for the health of the people who live there.

Here are some reasons why ventilation exhaust fans are so important, and should be treated as such.

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How to Choose a Good Painter in Sydney and Australia

finding a good painter

Are you planning on painting your home?

Finding a good painter in Sydney and Australia is not always an easy thing to do. Especially in the painting industry, where many (lets say) “shonky” operators exist that take shortcuts, comprise job quality and value, and basically leave you with an unpleasant experience.  

So when looking to find local painters to perform a painting job for you, you need to ask the right questions. Below are some of the questions we use at Tradebusters when interviewing recommended painters for our exclusive network across Sydney and Australia. We hope they may help you find a quality and professional painter for your next home renovation or improvement project.

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Tips For Preparing Your Baby’s Room

preparing your baby's roomCongratulations! In a just a short while, you will be welcoming the newest addition to your family. By now, you should have already prepared his or her room. If you still haven’t, we’d like to share some tips for preparing your baby’s room to help you make sure that your baby’s room will have everything that it needs.

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Planning to sell your home? These tips will help!

The decision to sell your house and plan a sale is not an easy one. Also considering for many Australian’s the successful sale of property can be highly profitably.

To help prepare you for what what’s ahead, here are are some expert tips by Lou Cooper from McGrath Estate Agents in Sydney.

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Interior Lighting: How to Brighten Up The Darkest Areas of Your Home

interior lightingThere are a lot of reasons why we sometimes feel cranky and so not in the mood even when we are just sitting idly in some corner of our house and in some cases, that dark mood may have something to do with the interior lighting or the lack of interior lighting to be precise.

It has long been established that we humans respond, act and feel better in a home that has plenty of natural light. That is the very reason why we need to let natural light in as much as we can. However, brightening up the dark areas of your home is not just all about finding ways to let natural light in. It also has a lot to do with how a certain room is finished, or its current paint colour scheme.

To help you get started, we’d like to offer some tips that will help you brighten up the darkest areas of your home.

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Quick Home Improvement Ideas for the New Year

home improvement ideasThe new year brings a fresh start that more often than not inspires new home improvement ideas. Nothing spells “fresh start” better than to get home improvement projects up and rolling . These projects don’t even have to be big ones. They can be quick, simple and should not cost you that much.

Here are some quick home improvement ideas for the new year to get you started:

1. Do some painting

Whether it’s done in a high-traffic area or a barely used room in your house, painting adds a pop of colour and a fresh clean feel to your walls. If you’re painting newbie, don’t hesitate to ask for tips from people working at the paint store, from colours to do to painting techniques that will make the job easier and faster for you.

2. Put up wallpapers

If painting is too much work, then perhaps putting up wallpapers might do the trick for you. Many of the wallpapers available in stores today are very chic, and they certainly would make amazing accent walls. Plus, the choices are simply amazing. You can get wallpapers with texture, wallpapers with retro patterns, metallic wallpapers and many more.

3. Change your drapes

Changing your drapes is one great way to greet the new year. Sure, everyone wants brand new drapes every single time we change them, but there are less expensive ways of changing them. One such way is to recycle your curtains and drapes to another room. The drapes you had in your living room, for instance, could be switched with the ones in your bedroom, and vice versa.

4. Give your cabinets a facelift

When you give your cabinets a facelift, it  does not necessarily mean you have to change a lot of things about them, although that could be an option. Giving it what we call a “spa treatment” will do. Dust the cabinets inside out, then wipe them down with a soft, damp cloth. If your cabinets have nicks and scratches, get a soft cloth and dab those areas with just a tiny bit of wood stain. When the wood stain is dry, wipe lemon oil onto the whole cabinet using a soft, clean cloth. All these will enhance the natural colour of your cabinets and give them a newer feel.

5. Change door handles

Your door handles are perhaps the most worn-out among all the fixtures in your home, and the coming of the new year is the perfect time to replace them. To spice things up, you can actually replace them with handles that are actually different from the last ones. Just make sure that they look perfect for the door and that they don’t end up looking out of place.

6. Organise your home

With the holidays just a few weeks in the past, it’s safe to assume that your home has to deal with a lot of clutter, especially when you have children at home or when you’ve had people come and go for the entire holiday season. The new year would be the best time to organise your home. You can start with just putting things back where they actually belong. If you’re up to it, do some segregation, like keeping the things you still use and deciding which ones you can actually throw or give away. Organising your home may not be as simple or as quick as other home improvement projects, but it’s one of those home improvement ideas that has to be done, whether it’s the new year or not.