Tips For Maintaining Hardwood Floors

Wooden floors are not only beautiful and long-lasting, but they are also easy to clean. They never seem to go out of fashion, therefore, they always remain a smart investment. But just because they are easy to clean, does not mean that negligence in its maintenance can be ignored. EXIN Magazine brings for you a couple of tips to help maintain your hardwood floor.

To start with, one must remember the golden rule of vacuum cleaning the floor at least once a week.  Using an attachment with a brush that runs along the floor is a good idea.

The two things that can do a lot of harm to the wood are hairspray and furniture polish. Both of them can cloud the floor’s finish. They must be wiped with a damp cloth immediately.

Water can not only ruin the finish on a hardwood floor but can also penetrate deep into the wood and stain it. Therefore, it is utmost necessary to make sure that the windows are kept close during rain and potted plants are kept over a tray. Water should be immediately wiped away.

Walking across an area several times a day eventually wears down a wood floor’s finish. Tough throw rugs are the easiest way to reduce the wear. Vinyl or rubber backing traps humidity, which can ruin your floor’s finish and stain or damage the wood. They must be avoided as much as possible.

Another clever idea is to use an extra-long ‘walk-off’ doormat. The longer the mat leading up to the door, the more people will rub dirt and moisture off their shoes as they walk in, even if they don’t stop to wipe them.

So, as we see, just by executing some simple steps, and without doing a whole lot, the wooden floor can be maintained with utmost ease.

These Colors Will Definitely Make Your Room Look Bigger

Small places are neither easy to maintain, nor are easy to plan for the most suitable colors. However according to interior designing experts, a small room can become a jewel-box if colored and textured properly, with the best suitable color, trending patterns and space enhancing designs.

Expert designers throughout the globe are of opinion that experimenting with bright and bold colors will definitely add that zing you wanted in your small space. Using colors like orange, yellow, lime and any jewel toned hue will definitely add picturesque tone to your room. Depending upon light penetration, open area and the room you want to add space into will differ from choosing colors.

Using deep, dark blue allover is suggested to create a spell in the room and make your room more inviting. Try yellow in your small library and see the place glow. White and its different tones are effective in disintegrating the edges of a small room. Combining these with black and ash camouflages that the house itself or the room is small.

Blue, greens, grays, browns, lavenders, blue and green undertones are the color that makes walls draw away and a small space seem larger. Conventional wisdom holds that pale colors expand a space visually by making the walls recede, and it's true. But white can feel mild and pastels can lack fine distinction. There's also a huge range of pale shades, both in terms of color intensity and temperature.

Working With Marble For Home Designing

One of the most chic elements in the world of interior designing is marble. Although difficult to execute, marble has been extensively used by mankind over the centuries to create some of the magnificent architectural structures that we see today.

When it comes to designing for home, if both the walls and floors were covered in marble, the space might end up looking too stark and cold. However, by just choosing one, the chances of blending a classical look with modern architecture increases.

Adding marble to the backsplash of kitchen, bathroom or dining room can do wonders to the aesthetics of the place. Though it may seem cold and uncomfortable at first glance; when paired with the correct pieces, marble makes an excellent material for furniture. It is strong, sturdy, and will last a lifetime. It can withstand a lot of wear and tear while still looking high-end.

When looking at accessories, it is a great idea to add one or two marble pieces to the room. A pair of marbled lamps or marble candleholders and a soap set can add a romantic touch to the bedroom and bathroom respectively. A marble center table instead of a wooden table brings with itself a feel of grandeur.

In India, the two most famous types of marble are Makrana marble and Bidasar marble.
Marble designing should be executed with proper planning as it can go terribly wrong when it does not compliment the other elements of the interiors where it is used.

Re-Modeling Your Bedroom

A bedroom should feel comfortable and cozy and this can be achieved with simple designs that are a combination of comfortableness and aesthetics. All items in the bedroom should function well enough for you to be at ease. Everything in a bedroom is placed according to the position of the bed. EXIN Magazine brings for you tips to re-model and re-furnish your bedroom.

Follow the hotel architecture. Keep the circulation to one side of the room. This will help in creating more space in your room.

A window is the first thing that one sees when they enter a bedroom. Try to focus on the view. Whether you are designing a new bedroom or redesigning an old one, keep the view in focus.

Get a balcony or connect with the outdoors, whichever is possible. This will make your bedroom look bigger in size. Adding French doors will give the room an edgy look and make it a visual delight.

More light and ventilation will make your room lively. Thus, locate your bedroom at the corner of the house to avail the windows. The added benefit of this is that you will get natural light and fresh breeze.

Great bedroom will take time to be devised. It need not be an expensive one. A bedroom which functions better and is cheaply built is much better than the one with expensive furnishings. So, proper execution of simple steps can lead to appreciable features in your bedroom.

Kitchen Garden 101

For everyone who thought kitchen garden is fancy, and thought this needs heavy work, EXIN is happy to help you out! Exterior & Interior magazine brings for you the basic rules of Kitchen gradening!

In its simplest form, a kitchen garden produces fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs for delicious, healthy meals. A kitchen garden doesn’t have to be right outside the kitchen door, but the closer it is the better. The best location for a new garden is one receiving full sun (at least six hours of direct sunlight per day), and one where the soil drains well. If no puddles remain a few hours after a good rain, the area is perfect. Building raised beds is a good idea if your soil is poor or doesn’t drain well, and if someone likes the look of containers made from wood, stone or corrugated metal. This approach is usually more expensive, however, and requires more initial work than planting in the ground.

Whether you’re going with raised beds or planting directly in the ground, you’ll need to decide what to do with the sod. One can remove it or compost it, both of which require hard work. It has to be ensured that grass and weeds won’t come up in the garden. For removing grass from a larger area, renting a sod cutter is always a good idea. One of the easiest and most rewarding kitchen gardens is a simple salad garden.

When the time comes to planting, one has to decide which plants to start from seed and which to buy as transplants. Many gardeners choose to plant all of their crops from seeds for a variety of reasons, including lower costs, greater selection, and the challenge and satisfaction of seeing a plant go from seed to soup bowl. Doing so increases the chances of success, especially with crops such as brinjals, peppers and tomatoes that require a long growing season. Fruits and vegetables are made mostly of water, so one has to make sure the plants are getting enough to drink. 

And no discussion of kitchen gardens can be completed without mentioning flowers, which should be added from the start. Flowers add beauty and color to the garden and they also helps to attracts beneficial insects.

So, the base of kitchen garden stands on the above mentioned pillars and it is up to an individual as to how he or she wants to improvise it.  

Kubuswoningen, the Cubic House

EXIN Magazine is all set to present you a different and unique architectural design that is no less than a wonder of the world.  Kubuswoningen, a lesser known fact, is a combination of cubic houses is designed by Dutch architect Piet Blom in the 1970s. By orienting the cube of a conventional house to 45 degrees, and resting it upon a hexagon-shaped pylon, Blom created high-density housing with sufficient space on the ground level.

Blom divided the housing development into three distinct projects: Blaaktoren, a 13-story hexagonal apartment tower that resembles the shape of a pencil; Spaanse Kade, a complex of terraced buildings that surrounds an inner courtyard; and the Kubuswoningen, a succeeding exploration of cube houses on a larger-scale grid. The entire development contains 270 dwellings, 1000 square meters of catering and shops, and parking for 300 cars.

The unique design of Kubuswoningen, in fact is a practical and innovative design directly proportionate to spatial maximization.  The houses inside are divided into three floors or levels. The lower level, a triangular area, is to be used as a living area. The mid-level houses are bathing and sleeping area and the upper level is ideal for spare use, if not possible, to be used as another living or bathing area.

According to Blom the triangular top represents a tree and when the houses are placed together they combine to make an abstract manufactured forest. Inspired and fascinated by the developments of urban planning, Blom tried and emphasized upon the fact that the urban population should feel like they are in the villages. Eventually, he developed the experience of living in trees and therefore collectively represented a forest with his designs. 

Adding Space To Your Bathroom

Small bathrooms can be a dreadful thing, but seldom are we left with a choice to make it look bigger than what it already is. When bedrooms and drawing rooms are in themselves small, much less space can be expected for the bathroom. They may seem like a difficult design task to take on; however, these spaces may introduce a clever design challenge to add to your plate. Creating a functional and storage-friendly washroom may be just what your home needs. Every design element, even the smallest ones, should have a purpose and be functional in some way or another to create a space-saving sanctuary.

One of the wisest choices to add space is to add storage. Instead of stuffing them in large cabinets, showcase your colorful, textured towels in open shelving. This will add warmth and playful colors to your space and eliminate unwanted large furniture pieces. Functionality is the key for a small bathroom. Small rooms can easily leas to unwanted clutter, so make sure you are adding only design elements that are functional. Don’t add knick-knack objects that don’t serve a purpose. When it comes to painting, one has to make sure that one plans the color palette.  Keep in mind that painting a wall an accent color takes time. Use neutral colors to make your bathroom feel calm and aesthetically pleasing.

An alternative to painting is to add pos of secondary color by showcasing colorful hand towels, bathroom tiles, rugs or robes to create an individualistic ambience and flair. This can be done by hanging vibrant and bright colored towels or robes which would help to add color and personality to your bathroom. Make the shower stand at a higher level. Don’t even bother trying to move around under around a tiny shower head to rinse off. Swap it out for an overhead rain. Hanging two shower curtain panels instead of one (or cutting the one in half and cleaning up the edges with short trim) makes it easier to get in and out of the small space. Hanging a few sprigs of fresh herbs to the shower, like eucalyptus or rosemary, will release beneficial oils when it comes in contact with the steam – and just like that, you will have your own spa at home every day.

So, as we see, with just a few changes, even the most cramped and tiny bathrooms can become spacious, airy and luxurious.

Are you the right candidate for interior designing?

Do you have an impeccable taste when it comes to decorating the living room or bedroom? Do you love rearranging the furniture or changing the décor? If the answer to these questions is yes, then interior decoration is definitely up your alley. Career choices are extremely important and should be driven by instincts and inborn talents in order to let you make the most of it.

But before starting, get your concepts right! Playing around with the décor and furniture can make you a good decorator. But to become an interior designer pursuing a course from an accredited organization like EXIN is necessary because it teaches you the concepts associated with designing the interior of a property. It also involves understanding a bit about the history of designs, structure of buildings, spatial concepts, ethics, psychology and computer aided drawing (CAD).

As a potential interior designer it is important to have a flair for colors, designs, spatial arrangements, textiles, and architecture. It apparently seems like fun but the designing part calls for an amalgamation of everything you had learnt while studying the course. In addition, you will have to keep in mind the client’s choice since you will be working for them.

Successful interior decorators need good people management skills because not all clients have a clear concept of what they need. It helps to be a good mind reader and people pleaser as well when it comes to getting the final nod on the designs. People can be finicky while decorating their homes and it is part of the interior designer’s job to convince them. It is not a cakewalk but the paychecks make up for the hard work.   

Deck up Your Kitchen with Heart Collection Apparatus This Valentine!!

We are so excited for Valentine’s Day. With the romantic mood everywhere, why leave the kitchen alone without any lovely addition to it? EXIN Magazine presents you a range of heart shaped collection for your kitchen from leading designers and talented artisans who will help to support you for better way to celebrate this festival of love.

This heart shaped kitchen container is perfect for you to serve the guests with delicious chocolates and cookies. A unique item to reflect your affection for details.

This heart shaped wooden plate has a charming finishing touch. Fill the plate with cheese and crackers for a beautiful appetizer display.

Make these heart-headed spoon and spatulas a statement in your Valentine’s party. Serve the food using these spoons and amaze your guests.

Heart shaped chocolate and cake mold are well known option to show your love to your beloved.

EXIN Magazine recommends starting you day all through this loving season with a pair of heart-shaped coffee cup!!

Enjoy  Valentines’ Love-birds!! Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

House Renovation: EXIN Magazine presents you The Most Eco-Friendly Ways to Try This Valentine’s Season!!

It’s the valentine’s season! Plus we are going through a time when the season is changing and so are the germs, bacteria and the diseases. It’s the time of the year when love and disease equally prevails the air. Therefore EXIN Magazine presents you ways to renovate your house in an eco-friendly manner that will also go with Valentine’s theme.

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House paint

Experts recommend that painting your house with eco-friendly colors always have healthier benefits. Architect-duo Mamta Khubani and Mankeerat Singh from Delhi say to EXIN Magazine that “eco-friendly colors are less costly than other colors. Plus using these colors is equivalent for avoiding illnesses as the paint is odorless with low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) that are carcinogenic and may also cause memory loss.”

And with this cupid-stroke atmosphere around, you can use eco-friendly colors perfect for this season. Opt for red, pink or mauve coupled with grey or violet and this will essentially bring you home an eco-friendly and romantic renovation!

Lights

EXIN Magazine suggest you readers that rather from the usually more power consuming lighting options, go for LED lights and solar powered lights. These lights come in white and colored variants, offering you options to use them to highlight and create an ambience according to your mood.

A 29 year old housewife from Gurgaon says that "Whenever I have guests over, I light up the blue lights when we are chatting to create a soothing, yet classy ambience and change it to yellow or white during dinner. These LED lights are not only eco-friendly and cost efficient but have impressed all my guests."

Green area

EXIN Magazine is a great fond of plants and using green in the house. Each article you go through in our portal, we insist to use container plants or if space permits, opt for more green. We all know that using plants and more green within the house is the same to decrease carbon footprint and go eco-friendly.  Recycling old and used things, bottles and containers to place small plants are sure to make your house envied by your neighbor.

To suit best with the valentine’s theme, you can easily replace the containers or paint them by yourself with suitable colors. Interchanging the places of inner plants is another great way to go eco-friendly and provide a fresh look to the house. With the multicolored lights perfectly matched with the romantic mood of this special Valentine’s week, you can highlight the walls or places to notice your guests without you spending a single word for it. 

Playing With Black For Your Home Design

One of the most risqué colors when it comes to interior decoration is undoubtedly black. Not only it is difficult to execute a design with the black theme, but it also brings with itself the chances of becoming overbearing for the home, post designing.

To start with, black is not a color, it is a shade. While its counterpart, the white is a tone. When it comes to use a black theme for your home design, the first task is to choose a secondary color to compliment the primary black color. The most widely used colors to go with black are red, violet and yellow. The classic choice would be white to create a monochromatic effect. Whatever the secondary color may be, the tertiary color should preferably be grey, as this would help the black theme to shine even further. In order for the room to feel big and bright, one has to keep in mind that we allow light to bounce around the walls by choosing a stark white paint, followed by introducing black accents via furniture and accessories. The use of color yellow brings the much needed warmth in the rooms. These types of designs introduce a combination of old charm and modernity.  Keeping the ceiling jet black or grey and the floor, curtains and rugs grey justifies the black theme.  This has the appeal of exotic, sexy, and glamorous. Violet gives vibrancy in the room, while red gives a radiant and a sensuous vibe to the rooms. Going for magenta or pink is also a bold choice which will give the tenderness to substitute the dominating black theme.

A black themed design is always regarded as a classic and at the same time is modern and trendy. This is one theme which never ceases to amaze people and is never out of style. Since this design is highly complicated to execute, therefore it should be undertaken meticulously otherwise it can make the home ambience dull and damp.

When it comes to furniture and accessories, keeping them on the same shade as that of the secondary color is a wise choice as it would highlight black even further. Modern and gothic art as well as renaissance paintings suits wells on black walls if you happen to be an ardent fan of those.

When worked out correctly, the black theme décor is economical and stylish and would be the reason of envy for all your guests.

Home Decor For Spatial Illusions

Now, since we all do not live in a mansion and have to do the most of our modest two or three bedroom apartments or home, we can start creating more space to our place by just simply working on some tactics for our interior decoration which are effective and economical. What we would all need is a strategic use of color schemes which create the optical illusion for having more space than what we have originally.

The classic rule of creating more spatial value to a room is the usage of monochromatic schemes, which are not only peaceful, but also allows for accentuation of accessories and furniture lines. Dark colors tend to eat up space as they are more claustrophobic in nature and works well for a personalized room or studio, or when one can afford a place with large spatial value.

Avoiding contrasting colors on the floor can be another factor for creating spatial illusions. When the ceiling, floor and wall colors are different, the area seems more disjointed than it already is, further reducing space. Moving away chairs and couch from the wall adds depth to the wall. Preferring different types of floor for different room in a home will only make the space worse. Maintaining uniformity on the floor is always a wise choice. The color of the rug should be of similar shade as that of the floor. This helps to visually open up the space. It is always a good idea to stay away from patterned rugs in such cases.

Another simple thing which works wonder for small spaced areas is hanging mirrors from ceiling to floor. Mirrors help to reflect the light back, making the room more brightly lit up. In case of lighting, having lights on floor and eye level eradicates the chances of having unnecessary shadows in the room.

Another clever trick can be extension the curtain rods beyond the actual windows. This makes the window appear larger and the ceiling taller than it already is.  In case of bathroom, going for glass shower over shower curtains helps in breaking the visual barrier in the already close-knit area.

So as we see, with some strategic plans in place, even a small spaced room or home can do wonders in creating optical illusion of having more spatial value.

No More Gender Wars in Home Décor

Blue or Pink? Serene or Edge? Floral or Classic? It is about time one get to stop worrying about ‘Gendering’ their rooms and home. For all those who get anxious over the fact that their home or room is only a representation of their spouse than them, dread no more! There is a way out to cater to both the gender simultaneously. Yes, you heard it! With more and more demands, gender neutral home décor might as well just become the next big thing in interior designing.

But before we unlearn about gender stereotyping when it comes to interior designing, let us try to breakdown our understanding of how masculine and feminine décor works in the eye of conventional interior designing.

Masculine rooms tend to follow dark color schemes, very often following solo color, and avoiding patterns. The furniture line is more streamlined than their female counterpart. There is an underlying preference for modern art here, and of course, a touch of leather is bound to be found. When it comes to the feminine rooms, they tend to follow multi color or bright color scheme, which are louder than the masculine rooms. Their furniture consists of a more velvety touch, which are clubbed with a quintessential vase and flowers. And there are more chances of finding patterns here than in the masculine rooms.

Now that we have touched the base of classifications, here is a guideline to create a gender neutral space. Since feminine pieces are louder than the masculine ones, one must make sure that the base, that is the wall color and furniture line should be masculine. Following this with accentuated pillows and patterned rugs, the feminine touch is brought that the room needs. A wooden centre table with a dash of bright color on top of it flowing though a single line diagonally helps channelize the gender neutral theme further. Vases with flowers are welcome only when they are clubbed with more masculine elements like a steel or iron accessory.

Experimentation and presentation of this genre can be very subjective and limitless, which justifies the breaking of gender norms in interior designing. Correct balance of both the feminine and masculine elements meticulously results in both of them complimenting each other instead of overshadowing one another.

Exin Magazine Guides to Consider Simple Vaastu for Home!!

In the present day, the number of Vaastu experts in our country is second only to the number of cricket experts and just like the latter; they have strongly differing opinions on what rules and principles one must follow to ensure Vaastu Shastra compliance. Given this information overload, what rules you should follow and what rules you can choose to discard are entirely at your discretion.

EXIN Magazine wants to make your life simpler and therefore, we have put together a list of five things that are an Absolute Must when you’re looking for a house.

1. Pre-construction

It is recommended that one performs a Bhumi Pooja (worshipping the earth) before starting the house construction. This is considered an auspicious beginning and heralds a good start to the proceedings.

2. House entrance

East is the most auspicious direction for the entrance of a home. This is because the sun rises in the east and is said to bring in positive energy and light into the household. The other acceptable direction that the house entrance can face is towards the North East.

3. Kitchen location

The South-East corner of the house is the most ideal one for the kitchen’s location and cooking supposedly should be done while facing the East, as said by famous Vaastu Shastra expert to EXIN Magazine. However, please bear in mind that the kitchen should not be located directly in front of the main door of the house.

4. Master Bedroom

The Master Bedroom should be located at the South West corner of an East-facing home. From our perspective, if you follow (2) and (3), you will ensure that you can sleep soundly without having to let the aroma or the noise accompanying the cooking to wake you up. Square and rectangular shaped bedrooms are recommended, so that you can leave the avant-garde construction to the other sections of the house.

5. Toilet location

The toilet location is another vital aspect, both from the perspective of Vaastu as well as from a general health and aesthetics angle. Toilets are to be located in the North-West corner of the building or the North-West corner of the rooms. If this is not possible, South East toilets are allowed. It is also recommended that the toilets, kitchen and Pooja room in the house should not be adjacent to each other.

There are numerous other terms and conditions that one must apply to get the perfect Vaastu compliance in the house.EXIN Magazine had offered you the very basics and giving you all the information necessary and having you find a home that meets the parameters perfectly might add a couple of extra years to your house purchasing process.

Small Kitchen Ideas to Inspire You!!

EXIN Magazine believes that your kitchen is the heart of your house. It is a place where the family meets, cooks and shares food. It is the place that stands for your personality, style and taste. When redecorating a kitchen, there are four aspects to consider. First, you should focus on storage in the kitchen.

A kitchen has a lot of utensils, pots, pans and gadgets to store in it. Therefore, a well decorated storage with easy access is important for a kitchen. Second, a proper plan to access to all the power points of the kitchen is not only essential, but it is a need to develop a perfect kitchen. Power points of a kitchen are the sink, the gas oven countertop and the refrigerator. A triangle setup and accessibility to these three zones of the kitchen sets the temperament and mood.  Third and lastly, a dollop of green in the kitchen. Green is good for eyes and so is for your interiors and exteriors. Placing container plants in the widow or beside the sink is appropriate to soothe the whole atmosphere of the interiors as well.

A convenient way to think, as we think in EXIN Magazine, of kitchen design style is to start by dividing the many styles available into two main categories: traditional or modern/contemporary. Each of these categories contains many subcategories but by first identifying which of the two appeals most to your personal style, you'll go a long way towards narrowing the list of styles you'll have to choose from.

Conversely, we at EXIN Magazine would prefer to you modern and contemporary kitchen design styles that often incorporates up-to-date, present-era materials such as metal, glass, wood or laminate. And their design is often fairly unadorned, sleek and simple compared to their traditional counterparts. Angular cabinet styles, simple and straightforward hardware, and flat, efficient surfaces are common in modern kitchen designs. Additionally, these styles may feature bold colors as an opportunity to express a bit of style personality, whereas traditional designs tend more toward muted or historical color schemes.

EXIN Magazine has seen some kitchen design styles that resist categorization as simply modern or traditional. They may include references to nostalgia, or specific historical periods of the not-too-distant past. Another unique kitchen design style inspired by rural traditions is generally categorized as rustic or country design. Extensive use of natural woods and colors brings the outdoors inside in these designs. Exposed beams and wood grain are other common features in country or rustic kitchen design.