Making Your Home Safe For Furry Friends

Making Your Home Safe For Furry Friends

America is a nation of pet lovers. In Illinois, 51% of people have a pet – and that’s the lowest in the country, according to the Daily Herald. There’s a good chance that any home you put together will one day have an animal in it, so it’s important to make sure your home is safe. There’s lots to consider when making the home suitable for animals. It needs to be sturdy, as animals do have an instinct to chew. It needs to be safe, with electrics and plumbing designed specifically to avoid damage and preserve animal safety. Finally, you need to be able to maintain it.

Making your home chew-friendly

Animals will chew, urinate and generally damage household items. It’s part and parcel of the ownership experience. The good news is that it’s very normal. The ASPCA note that when it comes to dogs, chewing helps dogs understand their world and that it should continue through life – with a little discipline. Your first stop should be to provide your animal with distractions to take them away from your valuable furniture. Aside from that, what can you do to help the house? First, in areas the animal is in, move away from ‘squishy’ materials – wood, and so on. In areas with exposed plumbing, ask your professional to use sturdier thermoplastic or metal pipes. This should make your animal lose interest quickly.

Ensuring home safety

There are many pitfalls and hazards in the home for animals. Something as simple as the stairs can cause injury to rodents, and gaps in floorboards can cause animals with small legs to become trapped and distressed. Make sure that your home environment is suitable for whatever animal you have and there aren’t pitfalls. Look at wiring and plumbing, too. A chewed wire is at best an annoyance and at worst deadly. The same goes for plumbing; outside grates can be dangerous for cats and dogs.

Maintaining the pet-friendly home

Pet-friendly homes attract dust, bugs and hair. It’s easy to maintain the home and make these changes permanent, but it’s important to keep your pets safe through it. Many common household cleaners are harmful to animals so do your research before choosing a cleaning product. It’s also helpful to have access to cleaning equipment. A hose tap in the kitchen is a great idea, especially with an extendable attachment, to clear up any accidents.

Making the home friendly for pets requires a bit of careful planning. Doing so will help to spare your nerves and wallet ahead of time. Most importantly, it’ll help your animal to flourish in his or her home.

Guest Contributor, Cindy Trillo

Why You Should Build a Duplex

Why You Should Build a Duplex

Building your first home is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it should be something you put a lot of thought into. There are usually three main ways to go: you can build a condo, a town house or a single family house.

However, there’s also an option of building a duplex, which often gets overlooked. It’s a mistake to do so. There are many advantages of investing in a duplex and you could find it worth your while later on, both in terms of money and comfort.

Mortgage Benefits

When you borrow money to build a home, there’s a difference if you’re building it to live in or to rent, sell or just keep it vacant. Homes that are built to be lived in get better rates since banks want to help people with purchasing their first property.

A duplex is, obviously, two properties in one, which means you can both live in it and rent it out without any inconvenience. When it comes to the bank, a duplex is seen as one property, which means that you get all the perks of building a home to live in, with the ability to also rent it.

Family Living

Building a home should be something that you do with your future family plans in mind. For instance, many decide to invite their parents to live with them as they grow older and require additional care. Young adults might also need a place of their own as time goes by.

Duplexes such as the ones designed by Meadan Homes allow you to do so without jeopardizing your privacy and remaining comfortable and independent in the process. This is something to be considered long before there’s an actual need for it.

Airbnb

For most people, Airbnb isn’t a regular source of income but something they could use when their home is vacant for a while. When you have a duplex, you could keep a unit open for guests at all times. This turns Airbnb into a full-time job and you need to dedicate more time and resources to keeping the unit presentable.

Even though a duplex could be rented for a while, it’s better to rely on Airbnb. While renting the room out for a while means more income, Airbnb gives more freedom if your circumstances change unexpectedly.

Taxes

There are different types of write-offs that you can get when building a home. One type of write-off is used when you’re purchasing a home to live in. In those cases, you can basically deduct your mortgage. When you’re renting a home, the write-offs are used to cover the costs of refurnishing and repairing things for new occupants.

With a duplex, you get to use both of these write-offs, which really comes in handy for a young family. However, you can’t easily switch which unit is yours and which one you get to rent out, but that’s not that much of a problem for most homes.

Building a duplex is a good investment because it gives you more freedom in the way you live and use your home. A duplex could be rented without inconvenience and you can also change it into a granny flat. There are also tax and mortgage benefits to think about.

Guest Contributor, Amelia Atkins

Best Ways To Prevent The Most Common Plumbing Problems

Best Ways To Prevent The Most Common Plumbing Problems

Plumbing issues occur all the time. The most common plumbing problems, however, are mostly preventable. More often than not, the most common plumbing issues are of our making. It could be neglect on our part, or things we actually do to our plumbing that gives us all these headaches.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common plumbing problems, and how we can prevent them.

Blocked or overflowing drains

A clogged drain is perhaps the most common plumbing issue of all. It’s also one of the most preventable.

To prevent drains from clogging, we must:

Avoid pouring used oil or food grease down the sink – Oil or grease poured down the drain will stick around and typically harden. Pour more of it over time, and all that grease will accumulate and completely block your drainpipes. If you have to dispose of oil or grease, then use the garbage bin.

Don’t abuse your garbage disposal – You can’t just chuck anything down the garbage disposal. Only chopped and soft foodstuff and liquids should make it down your unit. Fruit pits and bones are a no-no because you could end up blocking your drain and damaging your garbage disposal at the same time.

Install drain strainers – Drain strainers are quite effective at stopping hair and all kinds of debris from entering sink and bathroom drains. If possible, all your household drains should have strainers. They are inexpensive and easy to install.

Clogged toilets

Clogged toilets are a huge and disgusting problem, especially when they overflow after flushing.

Chances are, your toilet is clogged because a lot of things are regularly flushed down it, and not just human waste. Many people flush baby wipes, Q tips, cotton, sanitary pads, diapers, kitty litter, condoms, and cigarette butts down their toilets, without realizing that all these can block the toilet. These things should never make it down your toilet.

Leaking or broken pipes

Our water pipes are in heavy use at all times, and that means they suffer a lot of wear and tear over time. Eventually, they leak or break, which can cause much bigger problems like flooding.

Pipes will age and eventually succumb to stress, but we can do something to mitigate all of that. Conserving water, for example, allows your pipes to relax a bit.

Softening your water can also help extend the life of your pipes. Using methods like ion-exchange resin or reverse osmosis, you should be able to reduce the mineral and chemical buildup on your pipes usually caused by hard water.

The most common plumbing problems can be easily prevented using the tips above, but if issues still come up, you may need to call in a professional plumber for help.

 Guest Contributor, Victoria Brown

Commercial Boilers: A Comprehensive Selection Guide

Commercial Boilers: A Comprehensive Selection Guide  

Running a business is not only about managing the product that you sell or the service that you offer. If you are an involved entrepreneur, you are very familiar with the fact that running a successful business means that you need to juggle a number of factors and keep them in the air as long as possible. Some of these factors can be absolutely prosaic but undeniably essential. For example, every HQ building needs a reliable commercial boiler that will fulfill the needs of all employees.

While plumbing might not be your area of expertise, every self-respecting leader will want to be involved in setting up an office space as a home away from home. If you have never chosen commercial boilers before, don’t worry – here is a comprehensive selection guide that should give you all the information you need.

A Matter Of Size

The first thing that comes to your mind when it comes to installing a commercial boiler for the building is a matter of size. While smaller buildings and businesses such as salons, cafes, privately owned compartmentalized offices and community centers can deal with smaller, more compact systems, bigger establishments have an appropriately greater need for hot water and steam, and the boiler should have the capacity to fulfill those needs. Now, when it comes to the specific size of the commercial boiler based on the dimensions of the building, this can be calculated.

The capacity of the boiler is measured in BTU units, which is an abbreviation for British Thermal Units. As a manager or the CEO of the company, you should be familiar with the square footage of the building. Add up the square footage of all floors and multiply that number by 50. This will roughly give you a number of BTU units you require and this number directly determines the size and the capacity of the commercial boiler you need to seek out. In other words, one square foot should be accommodated by 50 BTU, and one BTU equates to 1055 J (joules).

Think About The Requirements

You should differentiate types of boilers depending on the requirements of your building. For example, if your business is something a bit more industrialized, you should consider purchasing a commercial gas boiler that turns water into steam, as it can fulfill a multitude of purposes. Primarily, it can keep the building warm in a very efficient way and they can also be used as generators to produce electricity. They have a wide range of applications in all types of industries that use steam, from food processing to agriculture.

The bottom line is – you should choose a type of commercial boiler system that will fulfill your needs, but which will also be energy-efficient. Thankfully, the sophisticated eco-friendly tech standards have entered this niche so one can easily look into products according to the grade system that has been established by the Energy Labeling Directive. As someone who runs a business, you’ll want the best possible performance of all energy-consuming apparatuses and devices for the lowest possible price at the end of the month, so select your commercial boiler according to this requirement!

Maintenance Costs

Now, if you want to have a commercial boiler that operates at peak efficiency, an apparatus that is as eco-friendly as it is impeccable in its performance, you will need to invest in regular maintenance. It does not matter what type of boiler system you have and the size does not matter, regular maintenance is obligatory for two reasons – safety and stable energy cost.  The boiler that is simply left unattended after the initial installation will surely break down, the costs of repairs will be steep (not to mention the potential damage to the building) and the price tag on the utility bills will spike.

When one takes these factors into consideration, the investment into the future through regular maintenance makes sense, plus – it is actually pretty affordable if you take time to find a professional with a sound reputation and a lot of experience. Of course, businesses can get opportune deals for maintenance plans, and the price of the package becomes more beneficial for you should you choose one that covers the longest time interval.

For example, a maintenance plan with the designated professional that covers the entire year is the most opportune. After you have signed it, you won’t have to keep this matter in the back of your mind throughout the year as the schedule and the maintenance itself will be taken care of for you. In addition, the entire maintenance team will be at your disposal in case of unexpected emergencies and malfunctions.

It is only natural that a task such as choosing the right commercial boiler for your business can be daunting and confusing as it is a part of a particularly specific niche, but it is definitely not an insurmountable obstacle. After all, it is not your duty to install this apparatus and connect it to the building’s pipe grid.

All you have to do, as someone who is intimately familiar with the nature of business as well as the number and habits of your employees, is to choose the right commercial boiler according to some basic info. A well-informed manager or a CEO of a company is much more adept at solving numerous problems and thus increasing the company’s chances for success. Even the most basic decisions matter.

Guest Contributor, Lillian Connors

Design Tips For Kids' Bathrooms

Design Tips for Kids’ Bathrooms

Too often, bathrooms get overlooked during the decorating process. Bathrooms are just as important a part of the house as any other room, though. They’re where we start and finish our day, and they can make a bold statement for guests who come to visit. What’s more, a newly revamped bathroom can add value to your home if you ever decide to sell. Remodeling the bathroom can be a fun family activity to work on together, and it only takes just a bit of time and money to create a whole new look for the room. Here are some tips on how to make the most out of your child’s space.

Choose Accents that Pop

Most kids want a room that’s bursting with color, and the bathroom is no different. You don’t have to paint over every surface, though. For a chic yet playful look, add in some bright and bold accents to liven up the room. These accents might be pictures on the walls, decorative candles on a shelf, or an arrangement of fluffy bath towels in an array of colors. This also makes it easier to compromise on a color palate with your kid. Even if they insist on mixing neon yellow and bright pink, you can find a way to make it work.

Pick out a Theme

Themed bathrooms are a fun way to coordinate decor and add a little bit of magic to the space. It’s essential that your child be central to the brainstorming process, though feel free to make suggestions if they’re having trouble settling on a single idea. You can deck the room out with dragons and princesses, take things under the sea with shells and starfish, or blast into outer space with planet mobiles and constellation stickers.

Keep Safety in Mind

The bathroom can be one of the most dangerous rooms in the house, especially for children. More than 43,000 kids every year in the U.S. sustain injuries in the bathtub. You can incorporate safety features for your kids into their bathroom decor scheme to help keep them safe when bathing, showering, and more. Colorful bath mats and shower pads help to prevent slipping on wet surfaces, while small stools with non-skid feet can make it easier to reach sinks and faucets.

A brand new bathroom can make things such as bath time and tooth brushing much more exciting for any kid. New colors, accents, and artwork can bring any dull space to life.

If you’re looking for a fun project that you can complete in a weekend, consider helping your child to redecorate their bathroom.

Guest Contributor, Cindy Trillo

Items You Never Want to Wash Down Your Drain

Items You Never Want to Wash Down Your Drain

Whether you are washing dishes, your hands or cleaning something up around the house, the sink seems to be a common way that people dispose of all sorts of dirt and grime and while many things are safe for disposal down a drain, it’s important to take precautions to prevent items you never want to wash down your drain from being disposed of improperly.

If you treat your drains like the garbage dump, you will soon begin to have problems with clogs, foul odors and even worse problems that can be expensive to repair. (Source: AnytimePlumbing.net)  Be sure to check this list to make sure you aren’t washing potential dangers down your drain.

Eggshells: Whether you have a garbage disposal or not, egg shells should never be dumped down the drain. When they combine with other waste, they can form major clogs that can be difficult to remove.

Produce Stickers: Those tiny stickers you find on bananas and apples are coated with adhesive glue and are often made of plastic that can get stuck in pipes and cause major clogs.

Grease: Grease is one of the most common substances that people haphazardly pour down the drain. This is one of the biggest mistakes that a person can make with their drain and should be avoided. Grease includes melted fats from bacon, sausage, poultry, hamburger and other meats and once it goes down the drain it can harden and cause sewer blockage.

Coffee Grounds: Coffee grounds, especially when combined with grease can be a horrible combination down the drain. Coffee grounds alone can cause serious drain blockage, so it is best to avoid washing them down the sink drain.

Oils: Whether it is salad oil, cooking oil or even mayonnaise, never pour oils down the drain.

Fat: Shortening, butter, chicken or turkey skin, milk and other fats should not be poured down the drain. Milk is not often considered a fat by people, but the fats in the milk can cause harm to your drains.

Condoms: Condoms are flushed down the toilet or even washed down a sink drain more often than people would believe. They should never, under any circumstance, be flushed down a drain. These items do not dissolve, and they will stay inside your drain or in the sewer for years. They will also cause clogs. The best place for you to dispose of a condom is in the garbage can.

Paper Towels: Due to their thickness, paper towels need to be tossed into the trash can rather than flushed down the commode where they have been known to cause clogs.

Flushable Wipes: Yes, they can be flushed, but take precautions because even flushable wipes have been known to clog a toilet. They don’t disintegrate like toilet paper does and they can wreak havoc on a sewer system.

Motor Oil and Other Fluids: If it goes in the car, it should never be poured down a drain. Motor oil, anti-freeze, transmission fluid and other car fluids can destroy a drain system, so keep them away. Contact your local landfill to find out where motor oil and other fluids can be disposed of in your city.

Paint: Let’s face it, the sink is a comfortable location to clean paint brushes and paint pans after you paint a picture, a wall or a piece of furniture. If you are painting your bathroom or other room in your home, the sink is also the last place you should ever clean your paint brushes or pans. Oil paint needs to be disposed of at a hazardous waste facility while latex paint needs to be disposed of away from drains or water sources. Check with your local city management office to find out what your local ordinances for paint disposal are.

Medication: Many cities today have return days where residents can go drop off unused medications. Many pharmacies will also take unused medications for disposal. Medications are unfortunately dumped down the drain where they eventually land in rivers and streams where they can contaminate water, kill fish and wildlife and even cause illness in humans. When you need to dispose of old medications, never flush them down the toilet. Instead, contact your local pharmacy or police department to find out where you can safely dispose of the medication.

Cleaning Products: Unless you are using 100% natural, safe for the environment cleaning products, steer clear of dumping them down the drain as they can be dangerous to water systems.

It’s a good idea to clean your drains with a mixture of distilled white vinegar and hot water once a week to help keep them clean and to remove buildup. Keeping your pipes clean by not dumping the wrong items down them and by maintaining them with a weekly cleaning regimen is a good way to help avoid an expensive plumbing repair and keep things running smoothly.

Guest Contributor, Tom Masters

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Tips: What are the Different Cabinet Doors? (Infographic)

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Tips: What are the Different Cabinet Doors? (Infographic)

          One of the most aspired projects that a homeowner wants for their house is renovating and refacing their kitchen. The kitchen is one of the most commonly used areas inside a house; it is only essential to renew or get rid of parts inside that occasionally does not keep the sanitation and prolongs the integral parts of some fixtures. One example of a portion of an installation that is easy to become frail is kitchen cabinet doors. Most of the time, cabinet doors are exposed to different levels of humidity inside the kitchen, and grease. It is not beneficial to only clean with towel and soap, because there are a lot of considerations to view when it comes to keeping the quality of cabinet doors.

    In this infographic, we will discuss a variety of kitchen cabinet doors designs to fit your kitchen interior and start a refacing project for your kitchen cabinets. One kind of cabinet doors that can meet your kitchen is flat panel cabinet doors; these particular cabinet doors are a perfect fit for minimalist kitchens because of its simple yet classy look, and also adapts with what kind of material that a homeowner can choose. Another is a louvered cabinet door; if you do not want to splurge on electric dish dryers, this particular type of kitchen cabinet door is for you. Louvered kitchen cabinets have angled horizontal slats wherein air can easily pass through, in this way, you can easily air-dry damp dishes and save a good steal of material than spending more from a dishwasher.

    It is vital that homeowners should be mindful of every fixtures and sanitation procedures when it comes to refacing their kitchen cabinets, to learn more, check out the infographic below created by KitchenCabinetRefacing.com.

Guest Contributor, Kitchen Cabinet Refacing

Renovation Tips: How To Make The Most Out Of Your Small Kitchen

Renovation Tips: How to Make the Most out of Your Small Kitchen

Your initial impulse might be to set up an unrealistic financial goal in order to renovate your kitchen. However, this only means that you are not in on the very devious secret of interior design – when it comes to redoing your kitchen space, it is not about big dollars, it’s about knowing how to stretch every little penny. If you want to learn more about it, here are some nifty renovation tips on how to make the most out of your small kitchen, and how to incorporate storage space and large appliances.

Go with glass

If you own a small kitchen and you want to glamour it up a bit, there is hardly a better tool at your disposal than glass. Glass makes any space look bigger, more sleek and elegant. You can fix up your kitchen with glass by focusing on two predominant areas. First off – renovate your windows, make them bigger if you can, and use the smaller framework made of eco-friendly materials that insulate well. The second area is the cabinets – your over the counter dish holders can be adorned with glass doors that will simply make the kitchen appear more luxurious. Glass, especially the recycled kind, is not as costly as it used to be and it will definitely do wonders for you.

More light

A part of this tip is covered in the glass section – the bigger the windows the more natural light you will let into your kitchen. This is the key thing: every area of the household looks better when it is well lit. You can perceive it as a universal “life hack” of course. If your small kitchen does not (and cannot) have window coverage, then you can invite your designated (and reliable) electrician to help you with adding more fixtures into your cooking area. These days, one can easily and cheaply install eco-friendly LED lights that are elegantly concealed within the kitchen space and which, appropriately, follow the contours of the cabinets and counters. Remember: Light is universally good. You only have to make sure that the rest of the kitchen looks attractive.

Appliances – stick to a theme

Making your kitchen look consistent in terms of style can be a tricky endeavor. Trends tend to change over time but there are a few things you can do if you want to feel as if you own an “eternally” tasteful room. First of all, consistency is important. The first step towards design consistency is to choose a color palette – usually two or three predominant colors that complement each other. Since your kitchen will be “adorned” with appliances, purchase the ones that will mesh well with the color and texture of walls and counters. The best course of action is to pick a quality brand like KitchenAid and stick with it in order to get that required consistency. The whole reason that this part is a tricky balancing act is that kitchen areas are, by rule, packed with elements and trinkets, so it’s easy to fall into garish traps.

It has to communicate comfort

A kitchen is a place that serves a very specific function – this is where your meals are being prepared, so it is important to own a kitchen that visually communicates comfort, pleasure and safety. Now, if you own a tight kitchen space, your renovation efforts should be aimed towards make it appear more airy. This means that you should replace your old counters and cabinets with more shallow variants.

Go with brighter colors and adorn your above-counter walls with tiles that are easy to clean and which will always look modern (tiles are a good stylistic hack in general). If you want a kitchen with a simple look yet a nice texture, choose smaller tiles instead of the bigger ones. Leave enough space for a charming little nook where you can have breakfast and adorn it with vintage, country-themed accessories for a warm and comfortable effect and voila – you have the broad strokes of a cozy yet elegant and spacious-looking kitchen and you haven’t spent a fortune on a renovation.

A small kitchen does not mean without ambition in terms of renovation. Believe it or not, you can do wonders with the tightest of spaces as long as you learn some practical insights into interior design. With this knowledge under your belt, you will have all the necessary tools to turn your small kitchen into something remarkable. 

Guest Contributor, Diana Smith

How To Clean Your Bathroom In Under An Hour

How to Clean Your Bathroom in Under an Hour

Cleaning in general can be the most dreadful part of owning a home, more so cleaning the bathroom. However, leaving it dirty for long is more disgusting than just tackling all the germs in there while it's not so obvious yet. We wouldn't stay in a bathroom cleaning for hours ourselves, so we're all here for the same reason: to learn how to clean a bathroom in under an hour.

The bathroom, being humid and dark most of the time, can be an appropriate environment for bacteria to grow in. Daily use can quicken their growth, added to your own filth that doesn't go down the drain. However, whatever's built up can be wiped out in less than an hour in a step-by-step process, focusing on every part of the bathroom one by one.

Clear Out Everything

As with any other chore, starting out is the hardest part. Clearing out everything that can be picked up can be a universal first step that applies to every bathroom. As you do so, take this time to also get rid of everything you've used up or don't use anymore. Set these things just outside by the door, so you have a clear room to work with and don't have to move things around as you go.

Spray Down Everything

Before you go on to specific areas in your bathroom, another universal task that anyone can do following the first step is to spray everything down with your cleaning agent. This includes the major parts of the bathroom like the toilet, tub or shower, countertops, and other surfaces, fixtures, mirrors, walls, and décor. Dust usual areas where it might settle like shelves and other storage spaces.

Scrub The Shower or Tub Area

The shower area is probably one of the dirtiest parts of the bathroom. You use it daily and apart from your own germs that might have settled on the tiles, there's also drops of soap water that dried on the floor or the walls.

Scrub and wash every nook and cranny until the water runs clear. For the tub specifically, it might be helpful to fill it up with hot water and then draining it first to melt or soften all the invisible germs. This makes sure the surfaces are almost clear after you scrub them. Do not forget to also clean the drain trap.

Scrub The Toilet

The toilet may be as grimy as the shower area but it's easier to clean because it's smaller in size and you can take advantage of the flush while cleaning it. Drop a fair amount of bleach on the bowl and leave it for a while before and after scrubbing, flushing it down when you're completely done and happy with it.

Wipe Down The Sink

With your cleaning agent, wipe down the entire sink area. You can make your own natural cleaner liquid using easy ingredients and essential oils. It can be an all-around bathroom cleaner that you can use in other bathroom surfaces as well. You've sprayed down before but as a final clean, wipe down surfaces you've already sprayed down awhile ago, including décor and inside cabinets.

Hand Mop The Floor

You might not notice the floor when you use the bathroom but it holds so much bacteria you're not aware of. You almost always are barefoot in the bathroom, so it shouldn't be left out of your cleaning routine. This should involve sweeping it and hand mopping it, which cleans better than using a regular mop.

Every step in this process should have cleaned almost all parts of your bathroom. All it should leave you with is putting and organizing everything back in their right place. These can be doable in under an hour, depending on your speed and the dirtiness of the bathroom.

As a last tip, don't wait for grease and grime to show before cleaning your bathroom. The cleanliness of the bathroom tells a lot about the person living in the house, and you wouldn't want to be the kind who survives taking a shower in a grimy one.

 Guest Contributor, Allen Michael

Bathroom Design Trends to Look Out For

Bathroom Design Trends to Look Out For

Long gone are the days when bathrooms were seen as nothing but places which you needed to have at home, deprived of almost anything which would improve its aesthetics. The only focus was on functionality, with little attempt at making such places pleasant to be in.

Whether we like it or not, things have changed a lot. Today’s bathroom is a potential place of luxury, which increases the value of your home like no other room except, perhaps, the kitchen. So, what are the modern trends in bathroom design?

Introduction of High-Tech

Built-in audio systems are pretty standard and there are many options for listening to music while having a shower or a bath. Some more advanced features make it possible to answer the phone from your shower booth, without interrupting your shower. Speaking of showers, the latest designs also allow us to regulate the water pressure and temperature, and select our favorite mood-enhancing color just by using an LCD screen mounted on the wall.

While having a relaxing bath, you may wish to treat yourself to a nice cool drink from a tub-side refrigerator. However, the innovative use of cooling equipment doesn’t end there. Apart from cooling beverages, some state-of-the-art medicine cabinets also keep your nail polish, organic skin products and medications cold.

Saving Water

The increasingly strict standards related to energy and water consumption have forced manufacturers to come up with ideas that would reduce the use, but provide the same or even better quality. Luckily, developments in various fields of industry have brought about many new options for your bathroom.

For example, low-flow toilets and faucets significantly reduce the amount of water used, thus lowering your utility bill significantly. Also, low-flow aerators can now be easily installed on both old and new faucets, which means you don’t need to change the whole fixture.

Another useful feature is an activation sensor, which is also supposed to contribute to reducing the water waste. Similarly, some contemporary shower heads can actually regulate water droplet size and speed, spray coverage and temperature, thus giving you the good old feeling with far less water used.

Furniture Design

The idea is to go for a minimalist look and conceal as much as possible. Sliding panels are used to hide various fixtures and provide new functions, such as those of a powder room bench or a surface to lay on and sunbathe.

Cabinets are designed to revolve 180-degrees in order to provide easy storage access, while shower seats, towel bars and walk-in tubs are no longer aiming to provide only functionality, but they are quite stylish, as well.

Finally, hand grips are designed not only to provide safety, but the materials used (chrome and brushed nickel) give them the contemporary look which suits pretty much any bath design, while more and more companies are producing foldaway seats for showers with limited space.

Tiles, Wonderful Tiles

Most modern bathroom designs are aiming to create a spa-like atmosphere, both in terms of the feeling you get and the aesthetic component. In order to achieve that, large tiles are used and the most popular look is metal. Some manufacturers combine traditional ceramic tiles with metallic granules and the result is a clean, industrial look.

So, as you can see, the trends are developing in two major directions. The first one is related to efficiency and environment-friendliness. Everything is done to minimize the unnecessary waste of energy and water, thus reducing your utility bill.

Another direction is the appearance. Clean, simple lines are used to create a minimalist look, while options to conceal fixtures that are not in use are fully exploited. The use of color and lights is there only to enhance the spa-like atmosphere, which is the ultimate goal of modern bathroom design.

Guest Contributor, Lillian Connors