Put book shelves and frames on empty walls

dezignhome.blogspot.com If you have a wall in a house that felt empty, and until now there is no plan to do anything with that blank wall, perhaps this idea can help you. Blank wall can be wall decoration in the form of various kinds of ornaments, especially of the easiest is to place a variety of frames with pictures, photo memories, photo scenery, and so forth. Way; prepare a lot of frames, you can order through the frame maker, or buy ready-made. In this way we can make old photos to be functioning again as a decoration or a reminder of family happiness.

Another way is to create a shelf of books with the possibility of placing the book in a way as if it is an interesting book gallery. The books can be arranged like an art gallery where these books can be placed in the living room so easily read by the guest.

 ________________________________________________
by Probo Hindarto
© Copyright astudio international. All rights reserved.

The kitchen cabinets as a workshop for food

dezignhome.blogspot.com The kitchen is actually a workshop, mostly for a woman. She starts ‘out with raw material—groceries—and ends up with a finished product—a meal. How fast the job goes depends, as in any shop, on readily accessible supplies and proper tools. The cabinets should be designed to speed work by working smoothly themselves—and to keep working for years to come. Supply areas are grouped around the major work centers, such as range, refrigerator and sink, so that an entire operation can be completed at each point before moving on to the next, saving steps.

Shelves are just deep enough to hold one pan or one dish, so there’s no reaching over something in front to get at something else in back. Doors and drawers, built to take abuse, opeii and close at a touch, eliminating jams that jar even the best cook’s good humor. The cabinets are designed as self-contained units. The frame-type construction for the counters insures lasting strength, and the notched joints can be easily cut by hand. A single center runner for each drawer, unusual in kitchen cabinets, not only does a better job of guiding than ordinary side rails, but is actually just as easy to make.

For the upper cupboards, use the rabbeted and dadoeci joints shown. Plywood, a bit more costly than solid stock, will ‘pay off in its resistance to splitting and warping in an area where heat and moisture levels arc always high. Whether you’re building new cabinets or reorganizing old ones, you can adopt many of the ideas shown here to custoiiitailor the kitchen shop to a real smooth- flowing production line.

 ________________________________________________
© 

Week-end House on the Coast By Le Corbusier

dezignhome.blogspot.com Week-end House on the Coast By Le Corbusier

Spatial Planning

a) Site: The week-end house is situated about 31 miles south of La Rochelle in the Department of Saintonge on the west coast of France. It lies at the mouth of the Gironde estuary. The house Is about one third of a mile from the sea. Between house and sea there Is a magni. ficent stretch of sand. The plot on which the house stands is sandy and lies on the edge of a sparse fir wood. The nearest village is Lea Mathes about 2,5 mIles away to the north-east. The long axis of the building is placed north-south and the rooms face east so as to be protected from the strong midday sun. The area of the plot of land is approxImately 1,436 square yards.

b) Programme: The climatic conditions have been taken Into account in the general planning of the house. The rooms are arranged so that they stay as cool as possible and there are covered spaces on the east and west sides which are in shade during the afternoon and morning respectively. All the rooms and covered spaces are cross ventilated. Ground floor [21: covered terrace (5) with way down to small cellar (4), open access way, kitchen-living room (3), combined bathroom and laundry (2), maids’ room with two beds and guest room with two beds (1). First floor [3]: covered terrace (9), open access way, parents’ bedroom and living room (8), bathroom with shower and W.C. (7), daughters’ bedroom with two beds (6), son’s room with one bed (6). The house Is occupied only during the holidays.

The house was designed so that it could be built entirely by local labour with materials from the district — wood and natural stone. The methods of construction selected conform to the structural demands of these two materials: external weight-carrying walls and an internal framework of timber. The returning of the masonry walls gives resistance to wind pressure. The timber frame was erected after the completion of the walls. The rest of the construction is of wood, plywood, asbestos sheeting and glass. Cross ventilation is arranged as follows. Ground floor: each room has a small window in the wall opposite the large glazed surfaces. First floor: the rooms have a continuous narrow band of window at ceiling height In the west wall. These windows are centre-hung. The covered terraces on the ground and first floors are also cross ventilated.

The inward pitch of the roof helps the warm air to escape easily from the first floor rooms [12]. The temperature in the rooms Is kept down by the 1’—6” thik masonry walls and by the setting back of the glazed surfaces so that they are in the shade. Fenestration:

The panels below the windows and the lower parts of doors to the covered access ways are of asbestos sheeting. The doors are divided horizontally Into two parts so that the top half can be opened for ventilation while the lower half remains closed [10). On the west elevation there are the centrehung windows at ceiling height and the large fixed windows of the kitchen and parents’ room looking out over the view. 

The majority of the windows are fixed. It was necessary to provide roller type sunblinds to the large windows on the west side. When the house is unoccupied the wIndows are protected by wooden shutters. These are kept In the cellar when not in use. Floors: ground floor — slabs of porphyry set on concrete: first floor — deal parquet. Internal finish of walls: all masonry wails neatly worked to natural finish without plaster. The Internal partition walls are timber framed and faced with plywood left natural finish. The roof Is insulated with granulated cork placed on top of the ceiling boards. The undutations of the corrugated sheeting of the roof allow sufficient air movement round the roof timbers. Roof: sheets of corrugated asbestos with undulations of wide pitch laid to fall toward the middle of the house. The down pipes are internal and the gutter Is provided with an external overflow at either end. 

The house has electric light. The drinking water Is pumped from below ground by an electric pump placed In the ground floor laundry. The pump supplies a 45 gallon tank in the bathroom above. There is also a hand pump for emergency use. The sewage Is disposed of in a cessplt placed about 16 feet from the house.

________________________________________________ 

Balance for good interior design between space and furniture

dezignhome.blogspot.com
The basic rule of good design is first to get the framework of a space right and only then to look after the contents. It means first assessing the space available and then making decisions about how to manipulate it. whether cosmetically, by purely decorative means, or structurally— to its best advantage.

Design is also about understanding how scale and balance contribute to making a mom look comfortable and inviting. It is about handling light, whether natural or artificial; the way a color is chosen and mixed, matched or contrasted to its greatest effect; and the way mixtures of texture and pattern can be assembled and built up. These are the essential ingredients which are dealt with in this section. All must be taken into consideration if the design of a home is to be given a firm basis and create a lasting impression.

Good use of space

Lack of space, tack of rooms, lack of wherewithal to expand, these are perennial problems shared by almost everyone. Yet a curiously large number of people seem just to accept them. To alter the feePing of spaciousness in a place you do not necessarily have to change its basic structure. And the feeling is what most space is about, not the actual footage. Ironically, people who actually have too much space find it just as awkward to arrange comfortably as those with too little. With personal experience of both, I have found it far easier to sit people sensibly in a small sitting room than in a very large.

Multi-purpose rooms

At the simplest level, a home that is owned, as opposed to a rental, could be improved by the elementary expedient of changing the functions of various rooms, or by altering the layout. APmost any room can be made multi-purpose. A kitchen, if it is large enough, can also be used for a general eating and family room. A dining room or a guest room can also double as a study bedrooms can always be made into bed! sitting/work rooms just by adding appropriate furniture. It often happens that in the reshuffle you gain an extra room.

In every house, there is usually space being wasted somewhere that can be utilized: landing and corridor space; the area under the stairs; blank walls, odd corners. Used with imagination, these spaces can often relieve congestion elsewhere. The secret is to be flexible, to question convention and to have no rigid ideas when it comes to the function of a room.

________________________________________________

Use of Aluminum sheet flashing for gutters and other parts of the house

dezignhome.blogspot.com In house construction, the sheet metal work normally consists of flashing. gutter. and downspouts, and sometimes attic ventilators. Flashing  often provided to present wicking action by jonts between moisture.absorhent rnaterials. It might also be used to provide protection from wind.driven rain or from action of melting snows. For instance, damage from ice dams is often the result of inadequste flashing. Thus. proper installation of these materials is important, as well as their selection and location.

Gutters are installed at the cornice line of a pitched roof house to carry the rain or melted snow to the downspouts and away from the foundation area. They are especially needed for houses with narrow roof overhangs. Where positive rain disposal cannot he assured, downspouts should be connected with storm sewers or other drains. Poor drainage away from the wall is often the cause of wet basements and other moisture problems.

Materials
Materials most commonly used for sheet-metal work are galvanized metal, aluminum, copper, and stainless steel. Near the seacoast, where the salt in the air may corrode galvanized sheet metal, copper or stainless steel is preferred for gutters, downspouts. and flashings. Molded wood gutters, cut from solid pieces of DougIas-fir or redwood. are also used in coastal areas because they are not affected by the corrosive atmosphere. Wood gutters can be attractive in appearance and are preferred by some builders.

Galvanized (zinc coated)  sheet metal is used in two weights of zinc coatings: 1.25 and 1.50 ounces per square foot (total weight of coating on both sides). When the lightly coated 1.25ounce sheet is used for exposed flashing and for gutters and downspouts. 26- gage metal is required. With the heavier 1.50-ounce coating, a 28-gage metal is satisfactory for most metal work. except that gutters should be 26.gage.

Aluminum flashing should have a minimum thickness of 0.019 inch, the same as for roof valleys. Gutters should be made from 0.027-inch-thick metal and downspouis from 0.020-inch thickness. Copper for flashing and similar uses should have a minimum thickness of 0020 inch (16 oz.). Aluminum is not normally used when it comes in contact with concrete or stucco unless it i protected with a coat of asphal. turn or other protection against reaction with the alkali in the cement.

The types of metal fastenings, such a nails and screws. and the hangers and clips used with the various metals, are important to prevent corrosion or deterioration when unlike metals are used together. For aluminum, only aluminum or stainless steel fasteners should be usrd. For ropper flashing, use copper nails and fitting. Galvanized sheet metal or terneplate shouId be fastened with galvanized or stainless-steel fasteners.

Flashing
Flashing should be used at the junction of a roof and a wood or masonry wall, at chimneys, over exposed doors and windows, at siding rnafrrial changes, in roof valleys, and other areas where rain or melted snow may penetrate into the house.

________________________________________________

How to fix bathroom storage

dezignhome.blogspot.com/ Bathroom storage, in what is usually the smallest room in the house, is all too often left out of the general budget, with the result that towels, washcloths, tooth brushes, tooth mugs, soaps, powders, essences, toilet waters, shampoos, medicines and cleanign implements are either scattered all over the place, or crammed into one small cabinet and left to oberflow onto the bathub and basin edges. However restricted the space may seem, there is usually room for more open sheving. Bathrooms are periodically damp and steamy and the most practical shelving is therefore melamine-covered or veneered wood.

The shelves can be placed up the wall along the length of the bathub, or at ahigher level along the perimeter of the room. By combining shallow shelves with large pigeon holes you will be able to accommodate most items, from small bottles to bath towels. Hanging bangs with alternatives for storing small objects, and bulkier items like toilet paper can be placed in wire baskets similar to those used in kitchen storage. Instead of always buying new cabinets, shelving or containers, think about adapting small chests and old drug store jars from junk shops.

________________________________________________
by Probo Hindarto
© Copyright astudio international. All rights reserved.

Make an old home having a 'new look'

A note: Making an old house having a 'new atmosphere' is a challenge. Biggest problem is the fact that we already have a lot of old furnitures, and may be difficult to change the old space we live, with an atmosphere that we already enjoy. Or the room might not be so special anymore for us, but the objects in it have been there for so long, the paint also had not been changed, and perhaps, the paintings or photos displayed are too long to be there that makes it harder for us to replace.

In this case, we need to ask ourselves, whether we still need these things? Or we can make a change in the interior design by changing some aspects, such as paint color, a little extra indoor plants, or changing paintings or wall hangings?

Think again the atmosphere of a room, what can be done in order to become more comfortable home to live, more effective, efficient and economical place. There are various ways to improve the quality of an interior room even though we do not change drastically the room, but only with small design touches on what already exists. The possibility also, we need to think about whether a room or house will have to be changed to make it better.



At home, there maybe a lot of cabinets or other storage, but most storage systems needed to be organized and planned are in the kitchen. The kitchen has to include a place where many objects scattered when no proper storage space. Cabinets in the kitchen need to split apart in a separate category, considering the number of tools and stuff. The model of kitchen cabinet with lots of drawers may help us manage where certain stuff are stored. For example: the dishes are stored in separate drawers, spoons, spices, food ingredients can also be put in place a special for faster and more efficient kitchen.

________________________________________________
by Probo Hindarto
© Copyright astudio international. All rights reserved.