There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you move into a new house or apartment. You spend hours daydreaming about what your life will be like, now you’ve moved to a new pad, and you think about all the opportunities and possibilities open to you.
But within a month or so, you get into a groove, and soon that early excitement wanes and your attention moves on to other things. All of a sudden, everything seems so … normal. Rather like a frog in a slowly warming pool of water, you get used to your surroundings and stop thinking outside of the box. All of a sudden, you don’t know what you’re missing.
Here are some of the things you need in your home.
A Kitchen With A Glass Ceiling
Whoever came up with the idea of a kitchen with a glass ceiling sure had a sense of humour, as well as a sense of style. Having a kitchen with a glass ceiling is a lot like when Hillary Clinton booked out the Javits Center to celebrate her election victory, but without the hubris. Sure, you might be in there cooking a meal for your five kids, but at least you’re doing it in style, and since it’s your kitchen, you can smash its glass ceiling whenever you want.
Patterned Flooring
Kia Designs Blog recently covered the rapid rise of patterned flooring, something that seems to be making a bit of a comeback of late. Patterned flooring is a welcome break from the monotony of white or, worse still, beige carpets that seem to infest modern family homes. Where is the personality in these “landlord specials?” Where is the passion? Where is that Italian sophistication and that wild American West spirit of freedom? If you’ve got a regular, boring carpet, it’s nowhere to be found. Get a patterned floor, experiment with different styles and colours and make your home interesting again.
A Soaring Bookcase Wall
If you’ve ever seen the cartoon version of Beauty and the Beast, you’ll know what a library should look like. “Books, books, books as far as the eye can see. Mountains of books, seas of books” as Cogsworth so eloquently put it. But if you’re living in a stale house without much personality, you probably haven’t thought much about the arrangement of your books – if you still use real books of course. Anything you do have is probably stuffed under your coffee table with your stash of painkillers and your kids’ toys. Not ideal.
If you happen to live in an open plan barn or home with a large cavity around the stairwell, try out your own soaring bookcase wall. Not only will it look great, but it’ll also be a magnificent spectacle for the kids.
A Nook
Sometimes it’s nice to have a part of the house where you can just run away and hide for a while, out of sight and out of mind. Build yourself a nook with a bed/sofa where you can read, lounge about and play on your Gameboy.