Dream Big With An Arlington Bathroom Remodel!
Are you planning an Arlington bathroom remodel and want your new space to feel bigger and more luxurious? We’ve got you covered. Whether you’re planning an addition or keeping an existing footprint, you can make your space feel bigger with a few time-tested tricks.
- Tile To The Ceiling: Taking the tile up to the ceiling makes any space feel bigger because it draws the eye upwards, taking advantage of the height of your room.
- Tile On Point: This is trade-speak for tiling your floors in a diagonal pattern. This detail draws the eye forward, making the room feel longer and bigger.
- Frameless Shower Doors: Shower doors with minimal framing and clear glass can make a space feel larger. Another option is to use a clear glass panel beside the showerhead as opposed to a door. This splash panel will keep water in without the space concerns of a swinging door.
- Less Contrast: While we love a vanity cabinet with a contrasting top, keeping all finishes in similar tones will make a space feel bigger. For example, a white vanity cabinet with a white Carrara marble top and dove gray paint is timeless, still has dimension, but won’t interrupt the eye.
- Floating Vanities: A floating vanity screws into a fully-reinforced wall. By lifting the cabinetry off the floor, your bathroom will feel more spacious, with fewer items obstructing the eye.
Hire A Professional Design-Build Firm To Handle The Details.
Design-build firms offer a one-stop shopping experience for your Arlington bathroom remodel. Schedule an in-home consultation with one of our talented designers. They’ll put together a game plan and connect with the carpenters to discuss a realistic design that works for you and your home. At Foster Remodeling Solutions, our perfect process provides peace of mind for an Arlington bathroom remodel you’ll love. Ready to get started?
Mudroom Renovations that Transform Your Space
/in Custom RemodelingMudrooms can be quite convenient, especially during wet weather when people enter the house to take off their boots. However, it’s likely your original vision for the mudroom, usually located off the garage or front/side door, has stood the test of time. Now, you may see more of a jumbled mess of coats, boots, backpacks and other miscellaneous items that just don’t seem to have a home. Here are some unique ways to transform your mudroom in an effort to add storage and keep it clean.
Roomy Storage Options
Even if you have a shoe rack or bins for shoes, chances are they don’t hold enough. Plus, it can be hard to find matching pairs when things are in a jumble. Instead, add large enough storage cubbies along the wall to fit two pairs of shoes together, and don’t be afraid to hang cabinetry higher up for larger items. Real Simple says door-free cabinets provide the perfect nook for bulky ski boots, while color-coded bins hide and unite by category awkwardly-shaped contents, such as flip-flops, sunscreen, and bug spray that you don’t need all year round. Shelves, while they may seem like an open-concept idea, actually encourage messes, as there’s no structure to them. You can still keep the shelving, but place brightly colored fabric bins with handles that are placed strategically so as to avoid dumping anything and everything in there. Incorporate wide wooden cubbies for each person’s stuff, such as hats and gloves, and label each one.
Colors
While you have more discretion with the mudroom than in other areas of the home and may feel more comfortable incorporating a bright cheery color, it may be best to go with a relaxing tone. Neutrals like beiges, pale grays, and light blues instantly put you at ease as you rush in the house from work, school or play. Just like you would do with a living or bedroom, go neutral on the walls and add splashes of color and patterns through photo collages on the wall and throw pillows on the benches.
Keeping Pathways Clear
Forget messy mats! To solve the shoe debate once and for all, install easy-access cabinets with drop-down doors to make it easy to place shoes in, then hide them so that traveling through the mudroom doesn’t become an obstacle course. This way, you can assign each family member his or her own cabinet and no one will lose another pair again. Hooks can also keep things off the floor and up where they need to be. There are some things that just need a hook for storage, such as jackets and backpacks, to be sure; but you also need a way to hang tiny items that tend to easily get lost, such as ear buds, and swim goggles.
Keeping it All Up
Once you get the mudroom makeover you’ve always wanted, it’s imperative you maintain it and keep it clean. That can be half the battle! Those messes will inevitably crop up again, which is why every member of the family has to be on board with keeping it neat. Display seasonal items down low in easily-accessible bins and cubbies so your kids can easily grab their snow pants and boots in the winter. However, once summer hits, place the winter stuff in bins up high and display all the flip flops and sun hats down below.
Mudroom makeovers can be as simple or complex as you want them, whether you’re looking to blow out a wall and increase the space, or maximize what you have.
If you would like to talk about ideas for remodeling or renovating your home in Fairfax, Mclean, Springfield, Woodbridge, Alexandria, Arlington, and Falls Church VA, reach out to us at Foster Remodeling. Call now for a free consultation!
Is Open Concept Design Still a Practical Design for Homes?
/in Custom RemodelingThe open concept as it applies to the home is a widely popular one – one that has been gaining in popularity in recent decades thanks to its clean, streamlined look. The basic premise of open concept is, well, open! Without constraining walls that mark clearly-defined spaces such as living rooms, dining rooms and kitchens, the open concept has been enjoying its time in the sun as more and more architects over the years have scrambled to create a feeling of open space.
Open Concept vs. Divided Floor Plan
It originally became popular because it made the home feel less cramped and defined, offering up more gathering space for entertaining where people could talk to one another no matter where they were in the living space. However, is the open concept still a practical one? Some say this design trend is on its way out. But why?
The New York Times reports that older buyers are starting to reject the open concept idea in favor of a divided floor plan, with the reason being that more and more people are entertaining at home with the desire to shut the kitchen out from the rest of the living space. The trend is still moving toward open living spaces, great rooms and combinations of family and dining rooms; however, older adults are gravitating toward the traditional floor plan perhaps because they’ve grown up with this type of layout.
Detractors of open concepts in homes have always stated that this type of modern layout leads to inefficient heating and cooling. Instead, they say, thermostats in each room can be adjusted to heat or cool just one small area rather than the whole house. While this can certainly be true in open concept homes with high ceilings and many hallways, today’s open concept home is designed with energy efficiency in mind. Designers strive to make the best use of space through a well-flowing floor plan that takes into consideration traffic patterns to eliminate so many hallways, utilizes several uses of space (such as doubling an office with a living room or kitchen with dining room), uses radius walls to make a space look larger, and enhances all the right angles with optimal lighting.
A Solution
What more remodelers and designers are seeing now is a blend between the two, with designated dining spaces that feature frosted glass or paneled sliding doors so homeowners can decide day to day whether to open it all up or keep it cozy. Many occupants still enjoy the open concept of the kitchen being part of the eating area. Why? The most popular gathering spot in any home is always the kitchen, so especially if you entertain a lot, you may want to keep it open so you can continue to interact with guests even though you’re popping appetizers in and out of the oven.
Bottom line is, Foster Remodeling Solutions can help you incorporate an energy-efficient, attractive and functional open concept idea in your home.
If you would like to talk about ideas for remodeling or renovating your home in Fairfax, Mclean, Springfield, Woodbridge, Alexandria, Arlington, and Falls Church VA, reach out to us at Foster Remodeling. Call now for a free consultation!
Family-Friendly Living Spaces
/in DIY Home ImprovementChildren need the space and the freedom to make messes, create, exercise, and be kids. Does this mean you have to sacrifice the beautiful home you always wanted? No! And you don’t have to. A family-friendly home is perfect for children and parents. Here are a few simple yet powerful tricks you can use to achieve your dream family living space.
Freedom to Exercise and Create
Never underestimate the value of providing children with a space to romp, explore, create, and go a little crazy. It is vastly important for their quality of life and invaluable for your own freedom and sanity as a parent. If you are lucky enough to have an outdoor space, consider introducing a trampoline, a tire swing, a tree house, or a sandbox. You can also leave concrete surfaces to decorate with chalk or space to paint without the fear of mess. If you have enough space and are so inclined, a children’s garden is a great activity you can share.
If you don’t have a yard, you can bring the fun into the garage or home. Consider installing an indoor swing in your children’s bedroom, keeping gym mats for roughing and tumbling, putting an art easel on the porch, or including a bean bag in your living room.
Develop Habits
One of the best strategies for cultivating a living space that is perfect for children and adults is to help your children develop good cleanup habits. Set your expectations, whether they are to put away one set of toys before taking out another or cleaning up before going to bed or going outside. You can incorporate routines into children’s chore charts and include a small reward for a task done particularly well or without prompting.
Convenient Organization
Go the extra mile now to make keeping your home clean and organized easy for the entire family. If toys tend to migrate onto the living room floor and stay there, introduce a basket to easily put toys into at the end of playtime (under the condition that the basket’s contents need to be put all the way away when the basket gets full). If coats and shoes are accumulating where they shouldn’t, keep a coat and shoe rack at the doorway.
Strong, Stain-Resistant Materials
Consider boycotting the cheap furniture and linens. Kid-friendly furniture tends to be high-quality, strong, and made with easy-to-clean, heavy fabrics. Even if the kids use it as a trampoline, a well-made couch or sofa will hold up for years and years. Plus, it is attractive, comfortable, and straight out of your dream home plans.
Shared Areas and Privacy
The ideal family-friendly home will have wonderful shared space where the family can come together, and space for adults and children to get some much-deserved time to themselves. The dining area should be inviting and the living room should be comfortable. As for achieving privacy, if individual children’s rooms aren’t an option, try including a secluded reading nook or a “secret” outdoor den.
If you would like to talk about ideas for remodeling or renovating your home in Fairfax, Mclean, Springfield, Woodbridge, Alexandria, Arlington, and Falls Church VA, reach out to us at Foster Remodeling. Call now for a free consultation!