It is not always that we have the opportunity to see how Mc Mansions are not the only way to enjoy our lives at home. Here are some examples of how living in much smaller spaces might not be so bad (at least for a weekend).
Could You Live In A 161-Square-Foot House? Tech + Design: Details.com
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
10 Secrets toTransform Your Home During The Holidays
1. Not just green and red anymore: Green and red are the traditional colors of the holiday season. After seeing it in almost everything and everywhere during this time of the year, the two colors become kind of dull and unimaginative. Instead, make your home more sophisticated by using deep forest greens, rich burgundies, and dark cranberry colors. Use only one color throughout or use two or three main colors.
2. Some golden touches: Use metallic accent colors like silver, gold, and coppers to spark up the spaces. Accessories are perfect to use with these colors. Incorporate the metallic colors in your choices of lamps, napkin rings, planters, and candles. Email to me at info@LaneArchitecture.net if you would like to learn more about where you can buy one table lamp and get one free.
3. Setting your table: Create an elegant table setting with a new table cloth or table linens with these rich new seasonal colors. Place settings and plates could be a solid color while using a patterned fabric for your napkins.
4. Accent pieces: Use your selected shades of the seasonal colors and accent colors with pillows, throws, vases, and decorative bowls filled with interesting color matching items.
5. Liven up the guest’s powder room: The powder room will be seen by your guests, so don’t overlook it. Bring life to this often dark cubby with artificial plants that look great and don’t require a green thumb.
6. Swap decorations with family members: Trade decorations with family members who cannot travel the distance to your home during this holiday. Having a small dear piece from their home will help you sense their presence and you will be sharing yourself with others far away.
7. Decorate with heirlooms: Allow the memory elderly family members that passed away to touch the hearts of your family during this wonderful time of the holidays by using their costume jewelry as part of the decoration on the tree or as part of the table setting. This is a much better use of those sentimental items than to leave them as forgotten items stored away in a box somewhere.
8. Create interest with an area rug: Painting walls will immediately transform your home faster than any other decorating tip. But, let’s face it, our holiday season is packed with enough “to-do’s” and we don’t need the extra stress of clearing out a room, repainting it, and then redressing it again. Instead, select an inexpensive 5 ft. x 8 ft. area rug. You will be surprised to find how quickly it will add color and life into your old worn out living room.
9. Get new bedding sets: What is the biggest item in your bedrooms? It is probably the bed. The bedding on tops of your beds are the largest things that people will notice when they enter your bedrooms. So, pick a comforter set with matching pillows that will make your beds an eye pleasing focal point.
10. Toy with this idea: Toys can be great decorative accents for the holiday season that bring back pleasurable childhood memories.
Special Offer for Homeowners
If you are a homeowner then you will benefit from a checklist that is one of several free bonus gifts for signing up for our complementary e-zine titled, "My Designed Home." All you need to do is fill out the form to the right or go to The Designed Home website
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
October brings some tricks to use in your home
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My younger son became a big close up magic trick enthusiast earlier this year. He was mainly learning card tricks and has a YouTube channel where he performs and teaches others what he learned. This YouTube channel has a growing list of subscribers. Some of his videos have attracted over a thousand viewers. I guess he is not alone with his interest in magic.
Earlier this year for his birthday present to him, I took him – along with my older son – to a magic convention, to Manhattan to view the Houdini exhibit, and to a magic shop that even the professional magicians love to hang around.
While at the magic convention, my son interviewed another magician who was planning his own magic convention and gave my son VIP tickets for promoting his event on YouTube. Two of the key magicians at this more recent magic event are world famous. My son interviewed both and will share what he learned in a future YouTube episode.*
Why am I sharing this with you?
Magic is all about perception. So is the design of our homes. There are techniques that we can use to help us feel more comfortable, make small spaces seem larger than they are, to reflect our own personalities and much more.
As my son was able to learn the secrets that made these famous magicians successful, so will this newsletter and the ones to follow share secrets to design a home that will better enhance your own lifestyle. Let’s look at three tricks that you can do this month to treat you and your family.
1. Create a special bedroom for your kids.
I met a wonderful mom with her precious young daughter in the store the other day. They were shopping for a new bed for the little girl. She was growing out of the baby furniture and the girl needed a bed. The little girl was such a sweet young lady. A real princess. They selected the Alyn upholstered bed. The cutest thing happened, when they were leaving, I offered a tape measure to the little girl. Holding it stretched out in front of her, I urged her to accept my gift. Instead of grabbing the tape, she just walked into it. Her mom explained that she misunderstood me and thought that I was going to measure her for her next princess dress.
2. Add dramatic lighting for the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving dinner is filled with food, family, and fun. A lady that I helped select a new dining table told me about how she feeds at least 75 family members on Thanksgiving. There is a dining table that is new to our showroom that has crackled glass surrounded by a wooden top. While this table will not seat 75 people – heck, King Arthur’s round table is even too small for that many people – she intends to use it for a service table for the holidays and a dining table for the rest of the year. Here is a cool trick that she taught me, put a battery powered fluorescent light underneath the table and allow it to shine upward through the crackled glass “window” in the wooden top. This light will cast cool designs upward on the ceiling. How’s that for a dramatic center piece for a Thanksgiving meal to remember?
3. Create a private place for you.
During the rush of the school week, Halloween howls, and with the upcoming holidays creeping up, we all need time to relax and get our thoughts together. Find a place to meditate and read like another customer of mine who meditates before starting her days and during the evening. She needed a special place made just for her. You don’t need to spend all that money to remodel a private room or a man cave, just do what she did… Choose a chaise that you can escape to. The chaise acts as a perfect accent to a study, bedroom, or to a living room. A word of caution though, you might have others who will want to use the chaise when you do.
*By the way, if you would like to see my son’s YouTube channel, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrMagic204 . The two internationally famous magicians that my son interviewed are Dr. Lennart Green (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_oa8m5Oq00) who is known to be the master of misdirection and Wayne Houchin (http://www.waynehouchin.com) whose magic seems to appear supernatural.
My younger son became a big close up magic trick enthusiast earlier this year. He was mainly learning card tricks and has a YouTube channel where he performs and teaches others what he learned. This YouTube channel has a growing list of subscribers. Some of his videos have attracted over a thousand viewers. I guess he is not alone with his interest in magic.
Earlier this year for his birthday present to him, I took him – along with my older son – to a magic convention, to Manhattan to view the Houdini exhibit, and to a magic shop that even the professional magicians love to hang around.
While at the magic convention, my son interviewed another magician who was planning his own magic convention and gave my son VIP tickets for promoting his event on YouTube. Two of the key magicians at this more recent magic event are world famous. My son interviewed both and will share what he learned in a future YouTube episode.*
Why am I sharing this with you?
Magic is all about perception. So is the design of our homes. There are techniques that we can use to help us feel more comfortable, make small spaces seem larger than they are, to reflect our own personalities and much more.
As my son was able to learn the secrets that made these famous magicians successful, so will this newsletter and the ones to follow share secrets to design a home that will better enhance your own lifestyle. Let’s look at three tricks that you can do this month to treat you and your family.
1. Create a special bedroom for your kids.
I met a wonderful mom with her precious young daughter in the store the other day. They were shopping for a new bed for the little girl. She was growing out of the baby furniture and the girl needed a bed. The little girl was such a sweet young lady. A real princess. They selected the Alyn upholstered bed. The cutest thing happened, when they were leaving, I offered a tape measure to the little girl. Holding it stretched out in front of her, I urged her to accept my gift. Instead of grabbing the tape, she just walked into it. Her mom explained that she misunderstood me and thought that I was going to measure her for her next princess dress.
2. Add dramatic lighting for the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving dinner is filled with food, family, and fun. A lady that I helped select a new dining table told me about how she feeds at least 75 family members on Thanksgiving. There is a dining table that is new to our showroom that has crackled glass surrounded by a wooden top. While this table will not seat 75 people – heck, King Arthur’s round table is even too small for that many people – she intends to use it for a service table for the holidays and a dining table for the rest of the year. Here is a cool trick that she taught me, put a battery powered fluorescent light underneath the table and allow it to shine upward through the crackled glass “window” in the wooden top. This light will cast cool designs upward on the ceiling. How’s that for a dramatic center piece for a Thanksgiving meal to remember?
3. Create a private place for you.
During the rush of the school week, Halloween howls, and with the upcoming holidays creeping up, we all need time to relax and get our thoughts together. Find a place to meditate and read like another customer of mine who meditates before starting her days and during the evening. She needed a special place made just for her. You don’t need to spend all that money to remodel a private room or a man cave, just do what she did… Choose a chaise that you can escape to. The chaise acts as a perfect accent to a study, bedroom, or to a living room. A word of caution though, you might have others who will want to use the chaise when you do.
*By the way, if you would like to see my son’s YouTube channel, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrMagic204 . The two internationally famous magicians that my son interviewed are Dr. Lennart Green (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_oa8m5Oq00) who is known to be the master of misdirection and Wayne Houchin (http://www.waynehouchin.com) whose magic seems to appear supernatural.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
How to save on your commercial utility bill
Check out my latest podcast that shares ways you can put more cash into your pockets while saving on your business' utility bills. Listen to my intereview with an expert in the commercial real estate energy profession and learn what you need to do right now to increase your bottom line at
Click here to hear how you can keep cash in your pocket while paying your business' utility bills
Click here to hear how you can keep cash in your pocket while paying your business' utility bills
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Did You Know that Doodles are a Sign of Intelligence?
One of the brightest people that I have ever met was John Morrison. John was an architect and a professional engineer. He was a chain smoking Camel (non-filtered), down to earth, practical, Texan to the core, and brilliant man.
He was my 2nd boss out of college.
If you are also named "John", on my LinkedIn list, an architect, and past partner of this truly unique person, then you know who I am writing about.
I don't know if John Morrison is still alive. I hope so. But, it is possible that the Camels finally stampeded over his ability to dodge the inevitable. Like John, I also have double who has my name and is a professional wrestler. But I digress...
John was always doodling. He would doodle when he was listening intently to a conversation in person or on the phone. Sheets and sheets of paper were filled with his doodles. I only wish that I pocketed at least one to show you. Each on looked similar to the other. They all had thin lines drawn in curves that radiated out from themselves in various concentric fashion. I often wished to know what was going on in his mind while his hand was steadily etching out the next episode of his concurrent swivels.
No surprise to me, there now has been proof that doodling is a sign of higher intelligence. Check out this video to learn more about how you might also be a genius like my early mentor and doodler was.
Just click here to get your copy of My Designed Home
Click on the "ReTweet" button below and follow me on twitter. I am LaneArch there.
Check it out and let me know of your thoughts on my Facebook Fan page. Please "Like" the FB page while at...Click Here to Comment
He was my 2nd boss out of college.
If you are also named "John", on my LinkedIn list, an architect, and past partner of this truly unique person, then you know who I am writing about.
I don't know if John Morrison is still alive. I hope so. But, it is possible that the Camels finally stampeded over his ability to dodge the inevitable. Like John, I also have double who has my name and is a professional wrestler. But I digress...
John was always doodling. He would doodle when he was listening intently to a conversation in person or on the phone. Sheets and sheets of paper were filled with his doodles. I only wish that I pocketed at least one to show you. Each on looked similar to the other. They all had thin lines drawn in curves that radiated out from themselves in various concentric fashion. I often wished to know what was going on in his mind while his hand was steadily etching out the next episode of his concurrent swivels.
No surprise to me, there now has been proof that doodling is a sign of higher intelligence. Check out this video to learn more about how you might also be a genius like my early mentor and doodler was.
Just click here to get your copy of My Designed Home
Click on the "ReTweet" button below and follow me on twitter. I am LaneArch there.
Check it out and let me know of your thoughts on my Facebook Fan page. Please "Like" the FB page while at...Click Here to Comment
Monday, August 29, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Hurricane Irene aftermath 2
What are you doing with your home to protect it from floods, bugs, and other uninvited threats? I will share tips that you can use in the upcoming home improvement magazine editions.
Just click here to get your copy of My Designed Home
Click on the "ReTweet" button below and follow me on twitter. I am LaneArch there.
Check it out and let me know of your thoughts on my Facebook Fan page. Please "Like" the FB page while at...Click Here to Comment
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