Interior design is no walk in the park. In fact, many people build their entire careers on their keen eye for making each room in a home flow beautifully. This is not to say that only professionals are capable of creating a breathtaking interior, but these tips from design experts may assist you in your next project at home.

Set Your Ground Rules: Before starting any big projects, it’s important to set some ground rules for your endeavor. You should decide how far you want to go with your project, whether that be replacing the furniture or tearing down a wall to open up a room.

Name Your Price: After you conclude how extreme your project will be, set a strict budget that will guide you through the process. Without a proper budget, you may get lost in your plans and overspend.

Find Your Inspiration: There’s no harm in consulting the opinions of others before starting a project. It may be useful to consult the prominent design blogs to see what trends are popular at the moment. Make sure to observe opposing design styles, such as minimalism and modern.

Trust Your Gut: Although it can be beneficial to learn about current trending design styles, there’s no reason to pay attention to them if they don’t appeal to you. Far too often, people adhere to design trends like it’s the law, but you should really trust your gut when it comes to design.

Move Your TV: It may not seem like a big deal, but oftentimes a TV can dominate a living room because it is placed at the center of the room. This points all the attention to the TV and away from conversation.

A recent survey from the National Association of Realtors® revealed that 77 percent of buyers’ agents said staging a home makes it easier for potential buyers to visual it as their own. That’s why staging is not to be overlooked! Here are some top tips.

Dress up your yard. First impressions count, and the first one your home gives comes from the exterior. Mow the lawn, clean up shrubbery, rake any leaves, clean the walkway and driveway, plant in-season flowers, and pull up any unsightly weeds.

Reduce personal items. Make it easier for buyers to imagine themselves making your house their home by removing personal photos and knick-knacks from shelves, walls, and counters. Instead replace them with clean, simple décor, such as abstract paintings, nature images, vases, plants, and more.

Organize your storage areas. Storage is a huge selling point. Tidy up and clear out the accessible closets and cupboards in the home and make sure to point them out during an open house or showing.

Appeal to the senses. Consider ways you can appeal to potential homebuyers’ other senses. During a viewing or open house, bake some fresh cookies or burn delicious smelling candles and play light, relaxing music in the background.

Consider turning to an expert. With their knowledge of current trends and great eye for design, professionally certified stagers can transform a home in a variety of ways and have a keen sense of what homebuyers want and expect in a home. Investing in hiring a pro may pay off in dividends.

Have you ever wanted to change the landscape of your yard by adding a tree or shrub? Whether you have a green thumb or are a green dud, with proper preparation and some good tips, you can successfully do it yourself.

The first step for planting a tree is to purchase a tree seedling from your local hardware store or tree nursery. It’s important to measure the width of your roots because this will determine the size of your planting hole. Your hole should be at least three times as wide as the root mass of the tree seedling. As for the depth, be sure to dig a planting hole that is deep enough for the roots, but doesn’t cover the base of the tree trunk with dirt. It’s important for the entire trunk to be above the soil and some experts even leave some of the root ball above as well.

Once your planting hole is dug, inspect your tree seedling to make sure the roots aren’t creating a bunched up circular pattern, as this may affect the tree’s growth. If you do see patterns forming, simply tear apart the roots from the pattern and don’t worry about lost soil. Place your tree seedling in the planting hole and make sure to eradicate any air pockets by lightly tapping the soil, hand-packing the soil, or spraying the soil with water after planting.

After you plant your new tree, make sure to water it every day for the first seven days. After the first week you can start watering your tree every other day for the next seven days and you can gradually decrease the frequency after that point. Then, enjoy the new addition to your yard!

Found a stunning, large painting to perfectly complement your home? It’s important to follow a few rules of thumb while hanging it to maintain the integrity of your wall and your painting.

The weight of your painting is the key factor in determining the proper hanging method, so before you start hammering nails or finding studs, weigh your painting on a scale and note the weight. If your painting weighs less than five pounds, you can simply use adhesive wall hooks or mounting tape to hang it. You don’t have to make any holes in your wall or use any nails for paintings of this size.

Paintings that weigh between five and twenty pounds should be hung with a drywall anchor. You don’t need to find a stud to install these anchors and all you’ll need is a drill to make a couple holes in your drywall.

If you want to hang a painting that weighs between 20 and 50 pounds, you will need to find a stud in your wall. The stud is another name for the wooden frame of your wall, which is the strongest part. After you find your stud, you can use a thin metal nail to hang paintings up to 20 pounds or you can use a threaded wooden screw for paintings up to 50 pounds. You can also opt for hanging hooks as an alternative.

The safest way to hang paintings over 50 pounds is to use a rail-cable. These large metal cables can be attached to rails on the ceiling to hang paintings up to 300 pounds.

By following these guidelines, you’ll have your new piece of art displayed beautifully in your home in no time!

We all strive to keep our homes clean, but dirt and grime always seems to build up in certain places. It may be impossible to keep every area completely polished, but it helps to know which places accumulate the most germs and are commonly overlooked in our cleaning routines.

Stove Knobs. One of the dirtiest places in the kitchen are stove knobs. These little knobs can gather a lot of old food from our pots and pans or from our fingers. It doesn’t help that many of these knobs are black and can hide stains easily.

Bed Sheets. We spend a lot of time in our beds, which makes our bed sheets a great place for germs to nest. It’s recommended that bed sheets and pillowcases are cleaned at least once a week.

Faucet Handles. The next time you wash your hands, check your faucet handles for soap scum and water spots because these handles are a breeding ground for dirty grime. Clean these once a week to keep them shiny.

Kitchen Sink. So many bits of food fall into our kitchen sinks and sometimes they can go unnoticed for days. The next time you do the dishes, make sure to give your kitchen sink a good cleaning!

Sponges. Although it may seem counterintuitive, the thing we clean everything with can be hiding a lot of germs. Sponges should be replaced every 14 days and you can minimize the germs in your current sponge by microwaving it.