Creative Ways to Add Privacy to Your Yard

Discretion is not always a given in the modern world – especially if you have a large open garden and a handful of nosy neighbors with a special weakness for spying, snooping and rumor-mongering. Still, there are some simple ways to remedy this common contemporary problem and protect the privacy of your home and backyard without having to move house, file lawsuits or endure lengthy neighbor-to-neighbor arguments.

Time to drop the curtain: Outdoor drapes

If you can’t fight the feeling that your neighbors are often minding your business instead of their own or that the passers-by are glancing over the fence straight into your backyard just a tad too frequently, maybe it’s time to put up some curtains in your garden. Although commonly associated with interior design and indoor areas, drapes can be used out in the open as well – just choose the right suspension points like porches, cabanas, gazebos, balconies or heavy-duty non-rust rods, pick the materials that are both durable and pleasing to the eye and get some long outdoor curtains to frame your garden and ensure maximum sun protection and privacy all year round. When selecting the outdoor drapes, it’s best to go with weather-resistant flowy materials and natural colors that filter light – and nosy looks – without appearing too tacky or distracting.

The inner artist: Panels and walls

Always felt you had a flair for painting but never got to work on it? Now you can use your talents and skills to design a creative and original panel or wall and divide your backyard dominion from your neighbor’s garden empire. In addition to protecting your secrecy, decorative panels and fences also offer an interesting focal point in your outdoor area and embellish the garden with your personal artistic touch. Use wood, concrete, bricks or stones and build the barrier, then grab some cans of permanent paint and let your inner artist out to play – or, if you don’t really feel like getting all covered in multicolored stains and blots, check out home improvement stores and purchase some ready-made decorative panels to keep your yard stylish, pretty and free from nosy looks.

The bird’s eye perspective: Tents and shade sails

Sometimes privacy pests don’t lurk on ground levels only – for example, your neighbor snoop may be dwelling on one of the upper floors of the multi-storey building next door and there are no panels or drapes high enough to ward them off. If you want to do away with unwanted garden onlookers from above, you can try and set up a portable tent, pavilion, arched trellis or some shade sails in your yard. Apart from protecting your privacy, these pieces of outdoor furniture will also provide optimum sun protection and create a pleasant shade in your garden on hot summer days. In case you opt for pergolas with waterproof roofs, you will also get a secluded dry spot for outdoor fun and joy even on rainy days – now that’s a neat way to kill more than two birds with one stone, wouldn’t you say? And if you’re looking for even more out of your garden kicks, go with tents with zippable mesh windows and removable side panels to create a genuine indoor feel and a cozy secluded room in your backyard.

The big screen: Shrubs and hedges

In case you’re not a big fan of garden decorations and outdoor furniture, you can always go with the gifts of nature: instead of putting up various visual barriers in your garden, you can get some seeds to plant along the edge of your plot of land and create a leafy screen to keep your backyard business solely to yourself. Or, if you don’t want to wait for a year or two for your thick hedge to grow, you can purchase various potted plants, creeping vines or climbing shrubbery and place them along the perimeter of your yard to build a natural green screen. In case you’re not so confident when it comes to your spatial planning skills, you can hire a professional landscape artist to carry out a comprehensive garden overhaul, plant some trees, decorate the perennials with unique flower additions, install some natural overhead waddle or put up a vertical garden in your backyard. Custom garden designs will probably give your neighbors a good reason to show some awe, envy or even competitive spirit - before you know it, you neighborhood may turn into a small landscape oasis of a kind.

We all love our neighbors, for as long as they know the limits of our courtesy, patience and temper. Nevertheless, privacy is sometimes a privilege of a kind in big cities and in case arguments with your fellow citizens who are a bit too curious about your outs and abouts don’t produce the desired results, you can always pull out some outdoor drapes, decorative screens, natural foliage, potted plans or weatherproof pavilions to keep your backyard safe, pretty and out of nosy looks’ way. You can experiment with garden furniture and props, have some landscaping fun, use your green thumbs, or even hire pros to revamp your yard – just whatever you do, make sure you don’t shoot your neighbors.

Property Buyers Makes a Simple Claim ‘We Buy Any House’- Do They Really Do That?

Are you a homeowner who is interested in getting someone to buy your house quickly? You might have various reasons to to sell your home, including; relocation, getting a new home, repossession or facing a divorce or separation. In such situations, you don’t have too much time in your hands. You need to sell your house fast and hence you really can’t rely on a real estate agent to sell your property as they would require months to complete a sale. A lot of pre-sale procedures are involved when you sell your house through a real estate agent. If you are in a hurry, then you need to find someone who claims ‘we buy any house’.

Now, who makes such claims like ‘we buy any home’ ? Such claims are made by property buyers like Fast Sale Today. They are cash buyers who will buy your house directly from you and give you a 100% cash offer. While this is a good deal that you are getting, you may still have some doubts. The question whether property buyers like Fast Sale Today making claims like ‘we buy any home’ really can do so? You can rest your doubts by checking their credentials and testimonials. Make sure that they are genuinely cash funded, and not simply brokers. You can also carry out research to determine the credibility and reliability of the house buying companies. Also, since a house sale involves paying all kinds of fees, get a clear idea of what fees you may have to pay.

However, with companies like Fast Sale Today making you an offer there is very little scope for doubt. Companies like Fast Sale Today have years of experience in buying houses in the UK and they have a good track record of completing sales within 7-28 days. When house buying companies like them decide to make an offer, they will almost certainly close the deal if the seller is happy with the offer. There are no prolonged negotiations. The initial offer is made on the basis of the details you provide to the home buying company. The final offer is made only after a representative of the company visits your property and inspects it. To companies like Fast Sale Today, your reason for selling the house or the condition of your property is not a concern. If they like your house, they will make you an offer and make the process quick and easy.

A handful of other advantages make home buying companies a great choice. Since they claim to close the deal within a short span of time, much of the hassle of the paper work is taken care of by them. The homeowner has nothing more to do. Once the sale is finalised, the seller simply has to sign the paperwork and hand the keys over. The legal fees are taken care of by property buyers like Fast Sale Today too.

Homeowners in the UK in the need to sell their home fast therefore do not need to spend troubled days or sleepless nights over their property. They can simply get in touch with companies like Sell House Fast and request a competitive offer. 

What Does Your Front Door Say About You?

When driving through the streets around your home, you might have noticed an increase in the popularity of painted front doors. No longer are we restricted to a handful of neutral colours that will blend in with the rest of the façade; you can choose any colour of the rainbow. Actually choosing a colour for your door, however, can be quite a hard decision; after all, you’ll be living with it for many years so it is important to ensure you really like it.

Did you know that many cultures actually assign particular meanings to the colours we choose for our home (and particularly the front entrance)? It is thought to be the “mouth” of the home and the entry point for energy, abundance and opportunities. We thought we would take a moment to explore some of these meanings in the hopes it helps you choose a colour.

White door

• Blue – Throughout history, blue has often been used to represent sky, water and abundance. Feng shui practitioners also consider it a great colour. If you want your home to embody feelings of abundance and prosperity, this is the front doors colour for you.
• Dark Blue –A darker blue, however, is believed to create a sense of calm and peace for your home and, in turn, to your family and guests. It is also thought to bring positive energy into the space.
• Yellow – This is a colour that has long been believed to induce mental clarity, perception, understanding, wisdom, confidence, curiosity, humour and merriment. This makes it a great colour option for doors, as it is said to lift the overall atmosphere of your home.
• Green – This is often thought to be a great choice for front entrances, as it represents balance, peace, compassion, growth, renewal and harmony. It could support your family through troublesome times.
• Purple – This is actually one of the most popular colour choices for front doors, as it symbolizes energy and is said to invite opportunity. In feng shui, it is believed that a purple door facing a particular direction will improve your opportunities in that life aspect.
  
• White – Whilst this is classic colour for doors, it is more commonly used today in cottage-style homes. Throughout history, white has come to represent purity, serenity and virtue.
  
• Red – According to feng shui, a red door means “welcome”. It means something similar to many cultures, faiths and religions. Fun fact – in Scotland, homeowners will actually paint the front entrance red to signify that they have paid off their mortgage.

If you are a follower of feng shui, we did want to point out that there is one exception to the purple rule outlined above – if the door faces the northwest, you will be much better off painting it gold, white, silver or grey. So, what is your favourite colour for a front door? Is there any particular reason why you have chosen this colour or do you just like it? Are there any other representations that haven’t been shared above? Share them with us below!

The Everlasting Lawn and the Aesthetics of the Artificial

The image of artificial grass has, for most of its history, not been one associated with aesthetics. Rather the product,which was first commercialised by the Astroturf Company as a playing surface for sport in the 1960’s, has long been a byword for crude fakery; the sort of product one expects to see lining the windows of their local greengrocer.

But times have changed and with major advances in the artificial grass manufacturing process, the plastic greens of the sports world have shed their old image and are now making serious inroads into our very own English gardens. With our sales up 40% year on year and many others in the industry reporting similar growth, fake grass for the domestic market has defied the recession and steadily grown in popularity, thanks in no small part to a complete PR overhaul of its once gimmicky reputation.

Realism vs Perfectionism

The takeup in the domestic market has been driven largely by the product’s perennial appeal of low maintenance and durability. Of course key to artificial grass’s recent success is the product’s increased realism to both sight and touch. But could there be another element to this visual appeal? Could it be that realism isn’t the only aesthetic motivator here?

As human’s we’re drawn to symmetry and perfection in art but also in nature. Artificial grass’s level of realism has clearly crossed a boundary of aesthetic acceptability but at the same time there is a curious sense of perfection that a real grass lawn could never hope to portray? I think artificial grass’s visual appeal is in large part to do with the image of unobtainability it projects; a sort of idealised but ultimately dreamlike vision of what we would all like our real grass lawns to look like all year round, come rain or shine. Perhaps this also then explains the continued hostility to it. To some people, fake grass is simply cheating. But if we can’t obtain perfectly manicured evergreen lawns naturally, then surely it’s human nature to innovate and imitate.

Made in Chelsea

Fake grass’s slow trudge into social acceptability has born fruits in the most unlikely of places. In 2010 the Chelsea Flower Show allowed Easigrass and landscape designer Tony Smith to enter a display featuring artificial grass. Two years later we returned to win a Gold Medal with Tony and ‘Green with…’ Despite undoubtedly causing a fair few noses to turn upwards in the process, the display won plaudits from judges and the public alike.

As far removed as the Chelsea Flower Show is from the common English garden, it does represent a cultural turning point for artificial grass (our sales undoubtedly rose as a direct result). The aesthetics of the artificial used in Tony’s 2012 display, which showed tulips, orchids and ferns in a cage lined with artificial grass, created a stark contrast but also at the same time stark symmetry.

The flowers have all been seen as objects of desire and indeed envy at different periods in history. Perhaps the artificial grass of Tony’s display represented the future. Our gardens, like our homes, are projections of our tastes and our fashions and ourselves. For all the utilitarian advantages of artificial grass over the real thing, I wonder if there isn’t something deeper at play here. Could it be that alongside the natural life cycle of nature there’s something intrinsically human in our desire to evoke the enviable aesthetic perfection of an everlasting lawn.

About the Author: Anthony Gallagher is Managing Director of Easigrass Group, a network of award-winning artificial grass franchisees and international licensed partners. Under his stewardship Easigrass became the first artificial grass company in the world to exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show with designer Tony Smith in 2012 before going on to win a Gold Medal in 2012. You can follow Easigrass on Twitter, Facebook or visit their YouTube channel.