Category: Exterior Design

Home is a place where we relax, spend time with the kids and essentially, spend most of our time away from work. Opulent furniture is the ultimate in luxurious living. Just as important as what is on the inside, it also pays to get the bets door for your home.
Your front door is the first thing guests see when they come over to your home. It’s also the first thing that greets you when you come home from a long day from work. Whether it’s impressing your guests or giving your family the best, installing high quality doors to your home is like the icing on the cake!

Purpose

Aside from the aesthetic purpose, high quality main doors are also very durable so they can withstand extreme weather protection and protect your home from the harsh elements. Moreover, luxury doors can provide homeowners with a sense of self-fulfillment. Owning them can show other people that you’re a successful person who has accomplished a lot in his life.

Materials

Luxury doors come in various materials. They can be made of mahogany, wrought iron, customized and carved western doors. Choosing the correct type will usually depend on what best matches the style of your entire house. Traditional paneled doors are still very popular in the market. However, most door manufacturers recognize the increased demand for contemporary doors. One of the most popular types of doors is composite doors.

Composite doors are single-leaf doors made of materials such as UPVC, fiberglass, and aluminum. These doors are filled with high density foam and may come in either solid or glass. These are not only elegant looking but are also made of to last for years because each door is composed of extremely durable materials. In fact, composite doors can withstand strong impacts and the threats of damage caused by the natural elements. If you’re going with an aluminum composite door, you can be sure it’s rust-proof and eco-friendly as well. Modern composite doors come in numerous designs and colors so you can definitely find one that’s specifically matches the style of your house.

Use

The use of composite door is not limited for exterior use. You may also install composite doors as your bathroom and bedroom doors. If you decide to go with a solid color like white, gray or black, you can make your door look even more appealing with the help of stylish doorknockers or knobs. Pick those that come in chrome, gold or black colors for a classic look.

For your main door, you may use one which has a glass on the upper half of the door. This is a practical option for people who want to be able to see the people who are knocking on their doors. This makes it safer for the homeowners as it will allow them to decide whether to open the door or not. The glass can be stained, glazed or patterned to make the door even more attractive. For your house numbers, choose matching colors with your doorknockers and knobs.

 

Unlike luxury wooden doors, composite doors are not prone to termite attacks. They are also resistant to weathering so you can be sure that they will last for years. Composite doors require minimal maintenance and attention. They may seem expensive at first but if you look at the long run, composite doors will save you a lot of money.

It doesn’t take much to care for composite doors. Because it’s made with very durable materials, composite doors are one of the strongest types of door styles there is in the market today. So the next time you are shopping for elegant yet hard-wearing door for your home, why not consider composite doors? It’ll make a perfect addition to your stylish home.

Jove Arthur is fascinated with beautiful doors. He believes that it takes great dedication and love to attain beauty in one’s craft d. He strives for perfection in whatever he does. That includes his work as Online Sales Manager at Door Emporium, which sells high-quality interior wood doors such as knotty alder doors and mahogany doors.

Here’s a different kind of traffic circle envisioned by Ljubljana-based architectural firm ENOTA , something that you don’t see everyday. Built on regional road in Podcetrtek, Slovenia, this interesting 380 sq m project, completed in 2012, is a distinctive concrete structure that marks the entrance points to the two main destinations for visitors: the municipal sports hall with open-air sports grounds and the  thermal spa centre with numerous swimming pools and hotels.

With an angular design composition, the roundabout has the main purpose to slow down the traffic because it’s a very busy area in Podcetrtek. Large, dark concrete cubes form an irregular arrangement suggesting a tectonic shift that happened somewhere beneath the Earth’s surface which made the road surface to bloat and belched out the massive blocks. Their heavy nature calls to mind the appearance of the monolithic volume of the sports hall, and the sporadically water that rises the surface between the clefts reminds of geyser-strewn basalt strata, also making reference to the spa complex. Quite unusual, isn’t it? What do you think about this traffic circle idea?

Photos © Miran Kambic

 

Project details:

Location: Podcetrtek, Slovenia
Architecture: ENOTA
Project team: Dean Lah, Milan Tomac, Alja Cerne, Tjaz Bauer
Budget: 33.000 EUR
Client: Terme Olimia

 

As the spring season will officially arrive in couple of weeks, we thought to share with you guys, bird lovers, some modern and appealing birdhouses, that will surely bring life to your outdoor space. Probably most of you are already thinking at the beautiful spring days to come when  the enchanting chirping of birds and their newly hatched chicks create the perfect morning atmosphere ever.

Birdhouses are awesome accessories to take into consideration when preparing your garden, backyard or porch for the spring, that not only will add color and interest enriching your outdoors, but also will attract birds and will provide a shelter for them from season to season. These days there is a vast selection of birdhouses available on the marketplace with different shapes, sizes, materials, themes and designs, which can often rival the architecture of full-sized homes, being really functional and decorative works of art that will compliment any outdoor landscape and architecture.

Photo © Digs

They can be both functional and decorative, with traditional, eclectic or modern designs and you definitely have to choose it according to your purpose, taste and style so that it really enhance the décor of the space while offer a nice habitat for your feathered friends. As it is said, there are those little details that make a home look complete. Here are some features to look for when buying a birdhouse:

• Ventilation and drainage holes. They are important aspects to consider when looking for a birdhouse, because drainage holes ensure the safety of the birds and their chicks, while ventilation, preferably in the roof, allows air circulating throught it and helps maintain a dry house. Be aware that metal birdhouse overheats, so if you choose one like that, make sure you hang it in a shady spot. Wooden birdhouses are ideal because ages well and stands up under various weather conditions.
• Solid Construction: You want a birdhouse that last in time, to be used for more seasons, so choose qualitative items. Quality craftsmanship is bound to be more expensive, but they will certainly pass the test of time and we think in terms of design will as well.
• Non-Toxic Materials: Although it will be a decorative garden accessory, it’s also very important to be made of no harmful chemicals or substances to protect the birds.
• Easy to Clean: A clean nest is more attractive than a messy one and make nesters return to it, so opt for a birdhouse that allows you to do this task easily. Don’t forget to add a bidfeeder near their house with some seeds and fresh water each day to keep them coming by.

Take a look at these 10 cool birdhouse designs and inspire yourself for your next project this coming spring!

Photo © Etsy

Photo © Etsy

Photo © Anthropologie

Photo © Oryx + Crake Design

Photo © Etsy

Photo © Connox

Photo © Neoshed

Photo © Imake Studio

An artful garden design may be something that anyone who has a beautiful house would love to have. There are plenty of fresh outdoor landscaping ideas everywhere in magazines, on the Internet to inspire you, so if you’re looking for ideas to put them into practice this spring, we’re showing you today some conceptual gardens or how to delight the imagination and engage the senses by using patterns.

Why patterns? Because as a decorative additions to the composition of a garden, patterns are a celebration of precision concerning the more fluid shapes of nature, and they really create spaces with lot of charismatic and engaging attitude. By coming up with such brilliant landscape solutions, landscape architects are showing us that gardens can be more than outside spaces with utilitarian advantages; they can be real works of art, which contribute remarkably to the aesthetic value of our outdoor décor and our home as well. They should be regarded as an investment, as they are eventually cost effective: if you want to sell a property that you bought it with such landscaping designs be sure that people will appreciate that you’re selling them a place for soul, not just a simple house.

Photo © Hallmark Interior Design LLC

Rennaissance-inspired geometric forms with contemporary twist, rectangular pavers which creates simple an repetitious design, horizontal models linked sympathetically to the house like in the fifth picture or structural shapes like spirals, integrating patterns into the whole landscape design not only delights the eye, but also creates texture, something lasting and of unique beauty, that some classify as modern art. Even though such landscaping proposals may seem more decorative than utilitarian, these days contemporary garden designs make use of patterns as an intrinsic component of the whole scheme.

So, they are ingeniously integrated even in the most minimalist of gardens showing pure delight, especially patterns that are made to fill an open space like in the last photo. Outdoor lanscaping of this type can be achieved with the help of a professional landscape architect and can be expensive, but if you want to do something you can enjoy for many years, it certainly worth it. Take a look on some example of conceptual gardens and maybe you’ll find inspiration for your next landscaping project.

Photo © Brion Jeannette Architecture

Photo © W. Christian Busk Landscape Architect, Inc.

Photo © Stefan Laport Landscape Architect IFLA

Photo © Christopher Yates Landscape Architecture

 

Photo © Christopher Yates Landscape Architecture

Photo © Ecocentrix landscape architecture

Photo © Kettelkamp & Kettelkamp

If we were to decorate a dream garden for our children, we’ll definitely want the new Kids furniture collection designed by colorful designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada for Vondom, a Spanish premium brand, which manufactures and markets avant-garde indoor and outdoor furniture, planters, lighting and outdoor rugs. The Kids furniture collection, AGATHA, is gorgeous, having a charming and eye-catching design that captures the ingenuity, imagination and vitality of the kids in a truly original manner.

Simple yet fashionable, these flashy pieces features a funny, optimistic and creative composition expressed by the characteristic icons of the designers: hearts and flowers, perfectly to meet children’s needs. The two basic elements that compose this playful collection, one flower-shaped mini table accompanied by two heart-shaped stools, are made of a highly resistant material, so they are suitable for exterior spaces allowing kids to enjoy them everyday.

Source &photos @mydecos.com

 

Part of a series of experiments for a new brand campaign of Volkswagen, the piano stairs are a funny yet genuinely brilliant idea that came to mind to those from The Fun Theory, an initiative of Volkswagen. They think that the easiest way to get more people to take the stairs over the escalator it by making it fun to do, so they turned the 54 steps in Wulin Plaza in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, into keys of a piano that let pedestrians play a melody while they walk up and down. Black and white, just like those of a real piano, these interesting and attractive stairs are even able to make different relevant notes when people step on them, so until they go up or down, they can actually create their own melodies.

Encouraging people to choose the healthier option of walking up the stairs by making stairs a lot more fun is an amazing idea, if we think that walking up stairs isn’t the most exciting of activities for most of us. Although at some point could be more annoying then funny sound like when 10 people are on the stairs on the same time or when some of them like the stairs too much and start clambering up and down, the piano stairs project seems to have achieved its purpose since 66% more people than normal chose the stairs over the escalator, according to those from The Fun Theory. Their fun theory applied to change people’s behaviour for the better is obviously working. What do you think about it?

 Photos © english.news.cn

Piano Stairs