Dec 12, 2013

Make Your Home Look Smart with Smart Home Technologies



Many products in the market are now becoming ‘smart’ from microwave, refrigerator, dryers and much more. Whether you live in a rented flat or in your own home, it is not difficult to adapt to the modern technologies and make your life an amazing living experience. This article throws light on smart home technologies that you may use in your daily life.

Replacing the old and traditional appliances with the new and smart home technologies is a move to make your life more convenient and give your home a different look. Nowadays, many developers in big cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai are offering residential apartments that include smart home technologies. Washers, dryers, showers, etc. use smart home technology to give a positive impact in your life.

If you are planning to buy a house or moving to another rented house in Hyderabad or Mumbai, adding new smart home technologies is not difficult. However, the selection of technology will depend upon your need and liking.

What is Smart Home Technology?
Smart home technology is a technology, which is used to make electronic devices used in daily work at home more automated or ‘smart’ to work efficiently. It is a technology that makes electronics and appliances more useful and convenient to use. Whether it is kitchen, toilet, living room or entertainment devices, such smart technology products give a new definition to comfort living.

Common Smart Home Devices
There are many such devices in your home that consume a lot of your precious time. What if you get some smart techniques that save your time and money? Sound interesting! Take a look at some of the common smart products that use modern technology to make your life convenient. These include:

  • Light Fittings and Switches: The networked light fittings, power sockets and switches can be easily dimmed, switched off or on by using a central timer. These automatic switches or fittings can also be automatically monitored by motion sensors.
  • Automatic Blinds and Curtains: Curtains and blinds used in your home are now available with a smart automation system that controls them as per lighting and weather temperature. This feature offers several advantages such as automatically opening the curtains on a sunny day, protecting from bright sunlight, reducing energy loss, climate control, and protecting your empty house from outside prying eyes.
  • 24X7 Security System: This is one of the biggest advantages of smart home appliances. You can ensure the security of your flat by fitting security sensors, alarms or CCTV camera and keep an eye on all visitors.
  • Kitchen Devices: The smart technology has made cooking part easier than ever before. The automatic features in refrigerators, coffee makers, dishwashers, and microwaves have made it possible to finish the work quickly.
  • Automatic Door Locking System: The smart features also offer central locking system for doors and windows. With motion sensors attached that can detect any unauthorized entry into the house is a unique feature.
Smart home appliances have all the features to make your life more convenient by allowing automated tasks. Imagine, not spending long hours of cooking in kitchen, remembering whether you switched off the light and kept the door open is no more going to bother you. It is the time to adopt the new and smart techniques to save on your time.

So, are you ready for progressing style of living that makes you enjoy the ultimate comfort of custom-tailored smart home devices?


Swati Srivastava is an experienced writer who has been writing about the Indian real estate sector for over four years. Her articles on real estate sector enable the readers to get relevant information about the realty market in India.
 



Remarkable Cellular Shades



Cellular shades from Payless Decor offers tremendous insulation properties, look spectacular, and provide superior light control as well. These shades are otherwise known as honeycomb shades. The cell structure of the fabric provides insulation between the window and the rest of the room when the shade is down. This can help reduce heating and cooling bills even as it keeps your room more comfortable. These shades come in a wide variety of colors ensuring that you can use them with any color or décor scheme that the room has.



Controlling Your Environment

Cellular shades can be used in kitchens, dens, offices, living rooms, dining rooms, breakfast nooks, and bedrooms. They come in a top down and bottom up model as well as only top down model. The combined model ensures that you can open the shades from the bottom or window sill or form the top, offering greater flexibility in light and privacy control. Whether you need to control light to minimize glare on your TV or computer screen, or want to control the amount of light filtering into your kitchen, these shades are the best option for you.

Automatic Controlling Capabilities
The cellular shades offered by Payless Décor can either be controlled using cords or remotes. When you choose a shade that is operated using a cord, you need to be careful about young children endangering themselves with it. On the other hand, a remote controlled shade is ideal for hard to reach windows as well as in homes with small children.

When picking cellular shades you also need to decide on the degree of privacy and light control you need. These shades also provide some degree of sound proofing. There are three types of cellular shades, those with a single layer of cells, those with two layers, and those with three.

While even a shade with a single layer of cells can provide some degree of insulation, sound proofing, and light control, the three layers of cells are recommended if you require a greater degree of privacy, insulation, and light control. Many people prefer to use the three layers of cells in their shades when covering windows in bedrooms or rooms facing the street.

So Many Fabrics
These shades come in many fabrics, ensuring that you have plenty of décor choices for every room in your home. These shades can also be used to cover French windows and other large windows.

Payless Décor offers the cellular shades in a variety of sizes to ensure that every window in your home can be properly fitted. The cost of the shades depends on the size of the windows, the layers of cells required, and the type of cord used.

Sound Control
One can use cellular shades in both homes and offices to enhance the looks of the room while also improving the energy efficiency. The superior insulation provided by these shades can help keep rooms warm in winter and cool in summer without increasing your energy bills significantly. Additionally, the sound proofing abilities of these shades make them ideal for use in busy, industrial, and many residential neighborhoods.

Dec 11, 2013

Reliable Source of Flooring Options in Melbourne, FL



Being able to purchase a house in good neighborhood always brings great excitement.  Though the house isn’t a new one, it won’t reduce the joy. Before planning a housewarming party for relatives, friends and new neighbors; you may think about doing some home improvements that need to be done without delay. As your aim is providing the whole family with comfortable and functional home, you desire to have the finest home it can be.   Nothing’s wrong with that.

When renovating a property, every homeowner may have a long list of improvement projects that they want to have to their homes. But since flooring is the most used surface in every home, improving or installing new flooring should become your priority. Make sure that you already have good floors before you place furnishings, curtains and other decorative items. Flooring is actually the base of your home’s interior design that you should consider at the start. You may choose whether carpet, hardwood, laminate, vinyl or tile flooring option to be installed in your home as long as you purchase the finest materials that you can afford.  

Let’s say that you want to renovate your kitchen first as your family love to spend times inside the kitchen area. Not only for preparing and having daily meals; today’s kitchen can also be a place for kids to do their home works, for the whole family members to meet and discuss as well as to entertain guests with fine food.  


Kitchen improvement can be costly but replacing the worn-out floor with new vinyl flooring would be a great and cost-efficient decision. Water-resistant vinyl floor will function as it should be in wet and heavy-traffic areas like kitchens and bathrooms. At www.southeastflooringamerica.com, you’ll find out a wide variety of vinyl flooring option in different styles, colors and designs.

Choosing vinyl tiles with five stars rating at a reputable flooring store such as Great Southeast Flooring America will allow you enjoying optimal advantages.  In this case, Melbourne, FL homeowners are fortunate as they can rely on the great price, huge collection and comprehensive service that offered by floor specialists and skilled installers at nearby Flooring America store.

Kitchen vinyl floor is a sort of floor cover that offers cushioning effect and improved durability; moreover it only requires simple maintenance. So, installing vinyl –tiles, sheets or planks- in kitchens can be the right decision for many active homeowners. You may enhance the charm and value to your kitchen without paying much and having troubles in cleaning.

Bathroom Shower Screens Vs. Shower Curtains – Weighing the Pros and Cons



Many people start their day with a cold, quick shower to give them that jolt that will make them ready to take on the challenges of the new day. Others choose to cap off their day with a warm shower, washing away the dirt, grime and troubles of the day gone by just before retiring to bed. Whatever your routine may be, everyone wants to start and end his or her day in a clean bathroom, no matter how luxurious or simple it may be.

In many homes, the shower and the toilet are housed in one space. Although this greatly saves space in the home, it is inevitable that the whole room gets wet after someone finishes showering.

The traditional way to keep water from splashing all over the bathroom is to utilise a shower curtain. It may look deceptive, but the humble shower screen can more than adequately keep the whole bathroom from getting wet. They're available in various designs, making it easy for homeowners to find one that suits their bathroom's design. They're easy to install and remove. Simply hook them on the shower curtain rod and you’re done. Some models out in the market are also machine washer-friendly.

However, there are some caveats to using a good old shower curtain. For one, it can stay wet longer than is necessary. As such, it can be a potential home to unwanted house guests, especially moulds which are harmful to all the occupants of the property. Also, some people feel claustrophobic using shower curtains.

As such, many homeowners have used bathroom shower screens in lieu of shower curtains. Instant shower screens, Adelaide homeowners may say, are considerably more expensive than shower curtains but they offer greater returns on investments.


Optima shower screens can keep shower water confined in a single area as effectively as, if not more than, a shower curtain can. On top of that, a shower screen can instantly update the look of the bathroom with its clean lines. Apart from that, shower screens can give the illusion of space because they utilise glass. The use of glass in small spaces is a well-known trick used by seasoned designers. Also, shower screens can dry faster than shower curtains. That means that they're easier to clean and moulds will not thrive on them. They'll also outlive shower curtains by years. Available in various options like bi-fold and sliding doors, shower screens, simply put, are the better investment for your home.

About the author: Kenneth Lawrence is a passionate "handyman". His craft involves DIY concepts and he would like to share guidelines and tips about stuff on home improvement. He writes articles about DIY concepts by visiting helpful websites like http://instantshowerscreens.com.au/

Smart Ideas for Small Bathroom Design



Small bathrooms have been the bane of many homeowners. Modern condominiums and old houses alike can suffer from this characteristic, which impacts the comfort, efficiency and privacy of your home. The bathroom is ideally your place of retreat, but when it’s cramped instead of cosy, it can hinder the quality of life you have in your very own abode.

What every homeowner should know is that small bathrooms can be a good problem to solve. You don’t need to spend a huge amount of money and sacrifice the time and convenience of your household by breaking down walls to add much-needed square feet to your bathroom. You can actually leave the space size as it is and yet still be able to enjoy a smartly functioning space. Making your bathroom bigger actually starts in your mind – with some creative bathroom ideas, you can make a space look and feel larger than it actually is, and even enjoy some additional space for movement while you’re at it.


Bathroom renovations need not be a full-scale construction and plumbing contract. There are a few tweaks you can do – replacing a fixture here, transferring another there, changing the scheme – that will achieve unbelievably wonderful results. Here are some tips from the experts:

Scale down what you can. Modern bathroom fixtures now focus on the efficient use of space. Downsize at least one major element, such as the toilet,the sink, the bathroom, the faucet or the shower unit and you’ll immediately see a significant improvement. Go for compact modelsthat are also often designed to be friendlier to the environment than their old-fashioned counterparts, and you’re hitting two birds with one stone.

Tweak the layout. Another mark of smart small bathroom design is a well-implemented floor plan. Sometimes, better placement is all you need to get the improvement you’re looking for. Try moving the caddy to another area, putting the counter to a corner or clustering objects together.

Check the color scheme. Going for solid colors is the safe and traditional way to make a small space look more spacious. Depending on your strategy, you can also use stripes, patterns or artworks to create negative and positive spaces that will make the room look a little bit roomier.

Clean up and organize.Nothing can make a cramped room look stuffier than the presence of clutter. Find a way to organise your toiletries and knick-knacks. Follow regular cleaning schedules. A clean, tidy, tiny bathroom is definitely better that a big but grubby one.

Author: Kenneth Lawrence- a passionate "handyman". His craft involves DIY concepts and he loves to share guidelines and tips about stuffs on home improvement. http://www.smarterbathrooms.com.au/ is one of his resources.

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