Your Home's First Impression

Have you ever heard the expression, “You never have a second chance to make a first impression.”? Well, it’s true. This is why it may be so important to keep the entrance to your home visually pleasing. But, the foyer or entryway into your home can be the most challenging area to keep organized.

When someone walks into your front door, their brains are busy formulating their first impressions. Our instinct depends on our ability to decide many things within the first three seconds of entering a new place or meeting a new person. Surprisingly, our first impressions are extremely accurate. Our brains can pick up on the tiniest of visual cues and let us know if we should feel threatened, intrigued, frightened or included. Utilizing the biological and psychological facts surrounding first impressions, we can decorate to make the first impression that we want to make.

The first thing that your brain notices about a person is their smile. This positive and inviting image tells the brain that it is safe to approach, especially if the smile is produced quickly and genuinely. We can use this phenomenon to decide how your foyer should look. Dark, gloomy and oppressive will tell visitors’ brains to watch out or make them feel like they are not welcome, setting them up to have a self-conscious and paranoid experience at your home.

But, dark isn’t always bad. Sometimes dark gives a feeling of relaxed. Take a log cabin feel, for example. Fluffy couches decorated with dark colors and rich woods can be very comforting. Decorating in this style means that you need to be careful not to cross over that fine line between cozy and oppressive. Use a few white or cream colored accents to accentuate the dark colors. This tells the brain that the colors chosen were “on purpose”. The brain perceives the white colors as clean or safe.

You can portray the foyer’s “smile” in other ways, too. Candid pictures of people smiling are great. Posed family portraits really give a feeling of fakeness and insincerity, so reserve those for other places in the home. Pictures of things in nature are also great for this area. Nature gives people a sense of belonging and freedom. Even using natural woods can give people this feeling.

Keep the foyer organized so that it is usable. It doesn’t have to look formal to look clean. As long as it’s orderly and organized, then it won’t give off the impression that you are too busy to have people over. Cell phones charging and unzipped purses in the foyer give off the impression that you are a busy person who may need them to leave before long. Try not to give off the impression that you don’t have time for company.

To do this, include things that will give a signal to the visitor that you want them to stay. A hat rack, umbrella stand or a place for coats will make a person feel as if they are welcome in this place. Even a simple welcome sign or cozy floor mat can give off this impression. If you install a hanging bar for coats in your foyer, try to keep it close to empty. This gives the impression that there is plenty of room for company. Use wood hangers as opposed to other kinds of coat hangers to keep the area looking nice and inviting.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Optical Illusions to Create Space

Whether you’re remodeling for fun, to create more usable space, or to prepare your home for selling, you can always benefit from adding some roomy touches. If you don’t have the money to add on rooms or do a major remodel, you can still create the feeling and the look of extra space by following these guidelines.

1) Use colors that open up a room.

Color is the easiest thing to change in a room. Designers use the concept of creating space with color all the time. Small rooms are cramped and uncomfortable. The right colors give a room the feeling of spaciousness. To understand how it works, think of dark colors closing in on you, creating darkness and oppression. Light colors make it hard to distinguish exactly how far away they are. Using light colors that mimic natural light will make this effect even more prevalent. Light blues, gentle corals, and hints of lavender are good choices. To make a wall seem even further away, paint trim and crown moulding white. Decorate with white picture frames, throw pillows and rugs.

2) Utilize natural light.

Replace drapes with light, airy sheer curtains. You want natural light to fill the room, creating the feeling of being outside. If you have blinds, open them up. If you are replacing windows, go for ones without the grates. This gives the room an uninterrupted view of the outside. If there isn’t enough natural light in a room, consider adding in some recessed lighting. You can add lights to the room that have a pink hue, simulating the warm light that is normally produced by the sun. The more feelings of outside you can incorporate the better.

3) Use appropriate furniture.

Furniture can quickly fill a room and seem oppressive. Choose furniture that is light in color, or that is almost the same color as your wall. Choose items that are as short as possible. If you have a tall armoire or bookshelf, add some light around it. You can install small lights on the bookshelves or small spotlights from the ceiling to help down-play the oppressive effect. Use glass tables and cabinet doors whenever possible to keep from cutting off the eye at the front of the furniture piece. Tables and couches that sit on legs allow the eye to keep moving when it meets the furniture. Skirts on couches and tablecloths make a room seem smaller.

4) Position your furniture well.

A general rule of thumb is to put furniture on your longest walls. Don’t put couches and chairs diagonally in corners or in the middle of the room. The shortest walls in the room should be as empty as possible. Also, if you have a choice, put furniture near a window. This will help keep the area open and airy, despite the big piece of furniture.

5) Don’t neglect closets and corners.

Closets should be pained a lighter color than the rest of the room. Corners should be kept empty if at all possible. Install extra lighting to keep these areas from seeming dark and cramped. Spruce up your coat closet with some white wood hangers. Coat hangers that all match and stay spaced out on the bar keep your coat closet looking orderly and uniform.

Follow these rules and you can add the illusion of square footage to any room, without spending a lot of money.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Green Home Improvement

Tackling home improvement projects can be a great learning experience, profitable, and fun. You can also help the environment, air quality in your home, and cut down on energy costs by making some environmentally friendly choices. Incorporate as many green options as you can when beautifying your home. Here we will discuss ways that you can make your home more energy efficient.

Let’s take the master bedroom, for example. Do you have crown moulding? If you didn’t install the crown moulding yourself, you may want to take a peek behind there. Some drywallers have been known to install drywall flush with the floor instead of lifting the piece up to the ceiling. They can only get away with this if they know that crown moulding is going up to cover the laziness. You could have as much as a two inch gap between the ceiling and drywall, making your heating and cooling bills through the roof, literally.

Painting a room is the fastest way to give it a facelift. Regular paint produces dangerous chemicals called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. VOCs are chemically similar to smog. They linger in the air of rooms painted with ordinary paint for months. A more environmentally friendly option would be to use a “low VOC” or no “VOC paint”. Be aware that when you add a color to the low or no VOC paint, that you are adding more VOCs to it. Some paints are colored with a dye powder, like “Freshaire” brand paint, and stay truly VOC free after colorization.

Replacing old windows with energy efficient ones can save a lot on energy bills. You can caulk around the window to ensure that it is properly sealed. You may have to remove the window facings to do this. Energy efficient windows insulate as well as reflect radiant heat from the sun.

Also, check behind your light switches and electrical outlets. Contractors and builders are only required to meet minimum standards for air draft control around outlets and switches. It may seem insignificant, but this could be equivalent to leaving an exterior door cracked open three inches all the time. Turn off the power, remove the covers, and replace them with insulated ones.

Replace incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent or LED bulbs. This will cut down on energy usage and radiant heat. Install a ceiling fan if you don’t have one already. They use minimal energy and can make you feel 3 degrees cooler in your bedroom.

When you are done, accessorize and decorate your new master bedroom. Get rid of plastic and wire hangers, replacing them with wood hangers. A more environmentally friendly option would be to choose bamboo hangers. You can buy furniture made from renewable resources, like bamboo, or from reclaimed and recycled products.

You could be eligible for a tax credit of up to $1,500, or 30% of your purchase price for energy efficient home improvements. The stimulus covers things like good energy rated air conditioning units, hot water heaters, energy efficient window and insulation. Families in a low income bracket can also get money for weatherizing their homes. This money can be applied to energy efficient heating and cooling systems, air filters, energy efficient windows and insulation, up to $5,000.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Personalized Closets DIY

Getting that custom closet that you dream of can be a lot cheaper and easier than you ever imagined! There are a lot of closet systems on the market today that are both sturdy and adjustable, making it easy for you to buy and put together an organized closet that is designed with you in mind. If you don’t want to buy an entire closet system, but your closet definitely needs some updating, consider a weekend DIY project and do it yourself.

You may think that you need an entire organization system, but you may be surprised how little you actually need to organize what you have. Take inventory of what is in your closet. This often means dragging everything out, but you need to do that every now and then anyway. When you get everything out, go ahead and clean all of those musty, ignored areas. Vacuum the floor, dust the shelves, take down boxes, get everything out.

Go through storage boxes and see if you actually need to dedicate your precious closet space to these items. What are you storing? College books? Board games? Photos? Sometimes we store things that we really could get rid of. We just don’t want to waste things, so we store them.

Getting rid of things does not necessarily mean that you have to throw them away. It means that you should use it, give it away, sell it, recycle it, or throw it out. Some people make themselves feel better about getting rid of things by selling them and using the money to invest in their new closet. You’ll be so happy about the space that you created that you won’t miss that box that was taking up half of your only shelf for five years.

Okay, so you’ve gotten rid of all that you can stand. Now on to determining your needs. What do you have that takes up the most space? Is it coats, shoes or craft projects? Determine what will take up the most room and design around it. If you have a lot of sewing supplies, you might want to start with a series of adjustable shelves for storing fabrics, bins of materials, yarn, your sewing machine and your sewing kit. Decide what size and type of shelves you will need. You may also decide to go with drawers. Drawers keep things out of sight and also keep dust off of your projects.

Shoes can be stored in a variety of ways. If shelves seem to take up too much space for shoes, then consider using space that is normally ignored. The back of the door is a good spot for keeping shoes in an organizer. The interior walls may be better for you. You can install a series of hooks all over the front walls of your closet and hang your shoes there. Just because you have a lot of something doesn’t mean that it has to take up the most space.

Be creative and design the closet that meets your personal needs. Update your closet hardware with sturdy coat hangers for heavy items. Choosing wood hangers will not only keep your clothing from getting misshapen, but will also be sturdy enough and stylish enough to last you for many years. Once your closet is done, you can be proud that you did it yourself.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Feng Shui Closet DIY

Yes, you can Feng Shui your closet. Feng Shui is based on the belief that we are affected by our surroundings. If your closet is in disarray, then chances are, your life is also a mess.

Just think about how much your closet affects your mood. You get up in the morning, shower and then go straight for the closet to get dressed. You open the closet door and you will feel something about it. You’ll either feel like you are ready to select an outfit for the day, or you’ll feel like you just can’t find anything to wear. Worse yet, you may find it, but it’s wrinkled from being crammed in, or it has fallen to the floor. Having a disorganized closet definitely puts your day off to a lousy start.

It’s time to Feng Shui your closet. The principals of Feng Shui allude to the fact that we can either be swimming upstream against life, or we can live in harmony with our surroundings and lead peaceful, productive, happy lives. Dealing with a messy closet every morning definitely gives you that “swimming upstream” feeling.

The first step is to rid your closet of clutter. For a free and spacious mind, you need neat and organized spaces. This means making space. You want your closet to appear accommodating. Having room in your closet for new things to come in, influences your way of thinking. If you are prepared for new things to be welcomed into your home, then you are also free to welcome new people and new experiences into your life.

To be true to the Feng Shui principals, you can’t just hide clutter in a bunch of bins or baskets. You will still subconsciously know that it is there, hiding just beneath the surface. Organize drawers, baskets, bins and shelves so that each thing has a specific place.

Feng Shui principals are very strict about separating your surroundings to correspond to different areas of your life. Your workout clothes, shoes and bags should be in a different area than your work clothing, shoes, stockings, ties, etc. Casual clothes should be kept separate as well. If you would like to focus on work when you open the closet, then your work clothes should be in the center. If you want to be inspired to go running every morning, then your running shoes should be the first thing that you see when you open the door.

Organizing your closet in this manner will help you to focus your energy and use it to your advantage. Remember to update your closet tools, like your hangers, so that your clothes are not getting bunched up, overlapping or ending up in a pile on the floor. Using hangers made from natural materials will help you stay in harmony with the earth. Use wood hangers or bamboo hangers. They will also make your closet look nice and keep your clothing perfectly separated on the bar.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Coat Closet Woes

When you organize your home, don’t overlook the coat closet. The coat closet is an important central area that should not be ignored. If you think about it, your family’s day can be impacted by the state of your coat closet every day.

We use our coat closets to keep the entrances to our homes inviting and clear. With kids coming in and out with backpacks, sports equipment, shoes, coats, gloves and so forth, we really need to have the coat closet prepared. Besides holding the kids’ things, we also stow our brief cases, laptops, purses, jackets and tote bags in the coat closet. So, you see, it gets a lot of traffic. The average family member probably visits and uses the coat closet about twice a day.

Getting the coat closet organized can keep your home in working order. There’s nothing worse than starting out every day behind schedule, searching for important items, and not being able to find the things that we need to get our day moving. Additionally, if everyone comes home and throws their things down in the entryway, then it can quickly become a heap of junk that is impossible to keep under control.

Make a list of everything that your coat closet needs to hold. Start with the bulkiest items and work your way down to gloves and mittens. Coats, of course, are usually number one on the list. You will need to make sure that you have room to keep your coats from being crammed together. Coats need to have space between them so that they can dry after being exposed to snow, rain or even just humidity. A good rule of thumb here is to not keep every coat that you own in the coat closet. Keep the coats that you wear every day in the coat closet just so you can find them easily when you need them. This will help keep space clear for all of those other daily items that you need handy.

The next big thing to organize is back packs, brief cases and laptop bags. Most people can just install heavy duty hooks up the sides of each closet wall. But, if you have room, you can put in shelves that are deep enough and tall enough to hold your bags. If you do use shelves, then you probably still have room for hooks where you can hang your purse, totes and other smaller items that need a place to go.

For really small items, consider an over-the-door organizer. One with moveable baskets is great for dividing up items by type or by who owns them. The lowest basket can be for the youngest family member and the highest for the oldest or tallest family member. Baskets make great ventilated storage for hats, scarves and mittens. They’ll be easy to grab and go if they’re not all crammed in a box or thrown in a pile.

Keep baskets and bins for each family member’s personal small items. Use sturdy wood hangers to keep coats from ending up on the floor or misshapen at the shoulders. Get your coat closet organized and your family mornings will be much more pleasant!

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.