FreeGreen: Bringing Green Design to the Masses!

Solar Decathlon blew us away, but we were particularly fascinated by a stunning Solar House from Cornell University. This team brought a beautiful zero-energy home to the mall in Washington, D.C., and had just launched ZeroEnergy Design, a home design firm focused on zero-energy design. Continuing their momentum as green home design gurus, two of the Cornell Solar Decathlon team members have just launched a new endeavor aimed at bringing custom green design to the masses through an innovative business model called FreeGreen. Started by David Wax and his partner Ben Uyeda, FreeGreen is making green home designs free to everyone!

FreeGreen provides a selection of green home designs for free, with a range of styles from traditional to modern. While the basic designs are free, homeowners can take the process even further and customize their designs for an additional (and very reasonable) fee. The cost of the design process, and of the free home plans, is kept to a minimum through partnerships between FreeGreen and green building product manufacturers – paid placement from product manufacturers.

As homeowners consult with FreeGreen for customized designs, they are introduced to healthy, energy-saving, sustainable products that are sponsors of FreeGreen’s eco-enterprise. It is a win-win-win collaboration that introduces people to green building principles and products and allows consumers on any budget to own a custom designed, green home.

Ultimately, FreeGreen is about providing people with the options and knowledge to make informed decisions. Green building products are widely available but sorting through the myriad choices, or even knowing where to look, is a daunting task for most new homeowners. Freegreen is solving this problem by offering excellent green building consult at little cost to the consumer. According to the founders, “The goal at FreeGreen is not to produce the greenest possible home but rather to provide a variety of different home plans that allow people to create homes that fit their lifestyles in a responsible and equitable manner.”

FreeGreen is launching this month starting with several great designs including our favorite, The Suburban Loft, a modern home suitable to all climates. Characterized by open floor plans and high ceiling loft spaces, this design will be available in a range of sizes to fit many lifestyles and landscapes.

We think FreeGreen is a great idea and a wonderful way to bring information, innovation and green design choices to everyone – “because green design should be accessible to all.” We are thrilled to announce the launch of FreeGreen!

Hillside Residence is a Sustainable Gem in the Marin Hills Read more: Hillside Residence is a Sustainable Gem in the Marin Hills | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

For almost as long as they’ve known each other, Scott and Tracy Lee have been designing and building the Hillside Residence, a sustainable gem in the Marin Hills. The house represents their personal merger — or marriage — as much as that of their professional talents. Scott is the principal at SB Architects and Tracy is vice president of spa development for Auberge Resorts. Their house, which was featured in the AIA San Francisco’s Marin homes tour, blends modern and green architectural influences with a spa’s love affair with wood.

Built into a hillside, as the name implies, the house consists of four small stories, totaling just 2,116 square feet. There’s a basement, a floor with a guest bedroom, a child’s bedroom, and a tiny nursery. The master bedroom gets its own level, and capping it all off is the living area, whose height earns it an exquisite view of woods and the San Francisco Bay.

A porch swing greets you at the entry to Hillside Residence.

Then again, it’s hard to say where the house’s square footage ends, because it moves so seamlessly between airy indoor spaces and partially enclosed outdoor spaces — which include a patio, a couple of outdoor showers, and an almost entirely enclosed porch, complete with a fireplace for weathering Marin County’s coolfoggy nights.

Did I mention the wood? If you’ve ever doubted that recycled wood can be lush, and even alluring, the Hillside Residence will banish that thought. All of the home’s abundant exposed wood is Douglas Fir, salvaged from a single seed plant in Idaho. It’s the DNA of the house’s character, and links it to its surroundings, connecting it visually with the redwood porch swing in the portico to suggest Mill Valley’s logging past.

Shaped K house Holiday Beach design

This is Australia’s Ashton Raggatt McDougall Architects accept advised this amazing anniversary bank house, abundantly dubbed the K Abode for a ancestors whose name begins with the aforementioned letter. It's a cogent attribute for the design, which is shaped like the letter “K,” cut and rotated in bisected – a air-conditioned agreement that affords it both architecture acme and the best views. Inside, the capital attic houses a barn and an alfresco active area, covered to acquiesce for all-weather al adorn entertaining. Also on the arena attic are a sound-proof home theater, two bedrooms, a bath, apartment and storage. The absolute account pieces in this avant-garde abode are the kitchen cabinetry and pantry, a massive sliding aperture and the floor-to-ceiling K-shaped bookshelf that houses the homeowner’s 5,000-book collection, which are all splashed in an arresting adumbration of bright red. Ashton Raggatt McDougall Architects

Shaped K house Holiday Beach design

Luxury Bedroom Designs | Bedroom interiors

Are you need modern bedroom design for your interior home. bedroom as place for relax and spending much time on it we have to make our bedroom as comfortable place for sleeping.These are few modern bedroom which may inspired you to get your imagination.This modern bedroom design with variegated wood furniture and furnishings for a pleasantly mixed aesthetic experience. At the opposite end of the spectrum, how would you like to have your bedroom be in the middle of your pool room? You would have to loving swimming to be willing to deal with the moisture issues and harsh lighting that would come with this design strategy.

Luxury Bedroom Designs

Luxury Bedroom Designs

12 Ideas For Small Bathroom Design

Every person that has a small bathroom is interested in ways of making their bathroom appear larger.  Remodeling the bathroom is not always an option and in many cases, remodeling the bathroom would be very expensive.  There are a number of ways that a person can use to make their small bathroom seem larger without having to undertake any heavy construction. Pedal Sink, Mirror, and Lighting to Enhance Small Bathroom 1. Soft Color for Walls One of the easiest ways that a person can alter their small bathroom design to make it appear larger is to choose light soft colors for the décor of the bathroom.   2. Accent with Color Bright, bold colors can be used in small bathrooms, assuming you reserve them for accents only. Going overboard with bold or dark colorstend to make the bathroom appear tighter and more intimate.   3. Visual Accents If your bathroom has wallpaper, avoid using large prints or busy pattern. Instead, choose very subtle wallpaper patterns. Better yet, keep one wall free from any pattern at all. Consider making the largest wall in the small bathroom into a mural of an open space.   4. Light Tones of Bathroom Flooring Just like light colors on the walls, light colors on the flooring of the small bathroom will help make the bathroom appear roomier and more open.  The most popular colors for a light bathroom floor are tans, light grays, and light blues.  By incorporating these colors into the flooring of your small bathroom design, you will have the basis for a light colored decorating scheme that will make your bathroom appear more open. 5. Pedestal Sink Another small bathroom design that can be used to make a bathroom appear larger is to replace a large vanity or countertop with a slimmer, pedestal sink.  A pedestal sink can be found in many different styles, colors, and materials, allowing them to be matched to any décor.  By placing a pedestal sink in the small bathroom, you can open up the bathroom space by another ten percent. 6. Classic Fixtures When selecting fixtures for your bathroom, keep in mind they are going into a small space. Choose simple designs made from smooth surfaces, such as ceramic and marble, and opt for light, neutral tones.  Additional Lighting Opens a Small Space 7. Additional Lighting Fixtures Additional lighting in a small bathroom can make a world of difference in the way the space in the bathroom is perceived.  Consider adding additional light fixtures or using higher wattage bulbs, as appropriate. By making the bathroom brighter and more inviting, it seems that the space has opened up and the walls are farther apart.   8. Increase Natural Light There are a variety of ways that additional lighting can be added to the small bathroom without taking up more space than is already used, including installing a new window, or even putting in a skylight. 9. Limit Items in Bathroom Many people choose to open up the amount of space available in their small bathroom by greatly reducing the amount of items that they place into the bathroom.  Items such as storage shelves, hampers, and decorative items all take up valuable space in a small bathroom and the bathroom will appear much larger if these items are removed and the things that they hold are stored somewhere else.   Keep Clutter at Bay 10. Consider Storage Outside the Bathroom Some people choose to place a small storage cabinet in their hallway near the bathroom as a place to put all of the things that they would normally keep in their bathrooms. It's also a good idea to consider putting laundry hampers in the bedrooms instead of in the bathroom. Extra supplies and paper products can even be stored in the pantry. 11. Adding Mirrors Adding additional mirrors to the bathroom will also help the bathroom appear bigger than it really is.  Placing additional mirrors in the bathroom will help to capture all of the available light and reflect it back into the room to make it brighter.  Adding extra mirrors to the room will also add depth to the room, as the mirrors reflect each other and make the walls appear farther away.   12. De-Clutter Other ways you can use to make a small bathroom design appear larger include removing clutter and extra items. Instead of storing all of your beauty items on the counter, place them in a cabinet or in the medicine chest when not in use. The more items are visible in a small bathroom, the more cramped the space will look and feel. Using these subtle design changes to modify the look of your small bathroom is easy, inexpensive, and most of these design changes can be completed in a few hours.  By changing your small bathroom design, you can make your small bathroom appear larger within the space of a day.

Little Black Dresser by Judson Beaumont

Designed by Vancouver based artist Judson Beaumont the Little Black Dresser is a fully functional piece of chic art furniture shaped like a dress. The little black dresser by Judson Beaumont of Straight Line Designs Inc. represents the designer’s foray into sexier fare. Finally we can say that this piece of furniture is cute, but a dresser you hand in the closet it not our idea of practical. What do you think about it ?

Liberty Sideboard a Mix of Art

From Giusti Portos, “Liberty” captures art in its acceptable sense- apprehension the absorbing printing- but additionally in a added abreast way. After all, architecture itself is advised to be a above anatomy of expression. Serious in appearance and color, but antic if you accede the adorning fringes, this account would attending absorbing in a simple and affected environment. If you can anticipate of addition blazon of interior,

Liberty Sideboard a Mix of Art

Interior Home Design :Living Room Sample Pictures

Interior Home Design :Living Room Sample Pictures

Adorable and Famous Chair Designs wallpaper

This is because the company’s accumulating appearance replicas of acclaimed armchair models in the history of architecture and resizes them, authoritative the items acceptable for kids. After all,”what could be added admirable than scaled bottomward mid aeon archetypal chairs acceptable for children?” The prices ambit from $125.00 for “The Woody” armchair to $899 for “Mini-E”, the replica of the 1956 Eames lounger. This is a awful arresting accumulating which is why we are agilely cat-and-mouse for your comments.

Adorable and Famous Chair Designs wallpaper

Butterfly Coffee Table from Svilen Gamolov

Butterflies are so adorable alfresco in the garden–why not absorb their images central as well? From women adolescent to old, the butterfly is a accepted attribute of beauty, freedom, and rebirth. While blush schemes and acuteness levels alter from one being to another, avant-garde adornment frequently incorporates these brittle creatures into adornment for the absolute home. Designed by Svilen Gamolov, Butterfly Coffee Table is a abstraction table aggressive by the admirable conception of nature, the butterflies. The actual acclimated is glass, polywood, bright acrylic that plays up the raw adorableness of the materials. Kick aback and relax bottomward for a hot cup of coffee, and deathwatch up your arid décor with the butterfly aerial around. – Via – HomeQN

Butterfly Coffee Table from Svilen Gamolov

Superhero Lifestyle: The House of Iron Man

Iron Man 2 continues the adventures of billionaire Tony Stark and his superhero alter ego Iron Man. The main character is played by Robert Downey Jr. and the whole movie features amazing effects and state-of-the-art technology. But the home of the character is by far the most interesting aspect of the movie- from our point of view at least. This may come as a huge disappointment to some of our readers, but what you see in the photos below is digitized fiction. Jon Favreau, the director of the film explains that the home was falsely positioned on a site in Malibu. It is forbidden to build an architecture project there, so they came up with a different solution: computer graphics. The interiors were built on a sound-stage area in Los Angeles and everything was synchronized with the computer plans. When I’ve saw the movie the house was so real but it seems that movies can trick us very easily ..like this one did. -viaHome-Designing

Decorating ideas for small bathrooms

There are so many decorating ideas for small bathrooms that you need to choose the very best that suit your own design and taste. There are however some general rules to follow that ensure you will complete it much faster and attain a better finish.

The first idea is to make the small bathroom warmer and more relaxing. This is great for increasing your enjoyment of the bathroom and making it a place that you enjoy. For many people, the bathroom represents a place of privacy and total relaxation. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to the decoration.

The decoration should match a general theme. For this to work, you need to have a consistent color scheme. One of the best color schemes is a neutral or pastel color scheme. It must be something that you like and could imagine yourself spending time around.

There is also a growing trend of brighter and warmer colors. Implementing this design with mirrored cupboards can produce a really sensational effect.

The design is down to your own tastes and personal preferences, but just ensure that it fits with the bathroom setting.

If you decide that a new scheme is needed, then rub down the walls first. Bathrooms can acquire dirt very easily so you need to wipe this away before applying more paint. Failure to do this will result in a poor quality finish. Always have a clear area on which to paint first. 

Before you even start decorating, you need to clean out the small bathroom, let the fresh air clean it and remove any mildew, water damage or dirt that might have accumulated. A clean surface area is the way to start. This will ensure that you get a quality finish and your bathroom will look professionally completed.

If you want to add new features to the small bathroom, then look at buying some new fixtures and fittings. This is one area that you can find some problems with a small bathroom, but there are ways to overcome this. Because of the limited space, you need to find usable, contemporary storage features. 

These days you can find floating units that work really well and don’t invade the space. They also provide plenty of storage for the bathroom essentials. You could also look for an inset bathroom cabinet rather than using one that protrudes out into the open space. This is a great way to save space and ensure ample storage space.

If you are looking to add more warmth and comfort to the bathroom, then you might want to use a carpeted floor. This is not for everyone, and many people are now moving to traditional wooden flooring. Other people use ceramic tiles to create a very modern look to the bathroom.

Whatever you choose make sure that the design is consistent with the rest of the decoration.

There are many ways to improve and update your small bathroom. If you use some of the decorating ideas above, you will see a drastic improvement with a few small changes. Everyone can use these simple decorating ideas to improve the look and feel of their bathroom.

Pod Kutmi Design house

2 floor houseBedrooms:4
Bathrooms:1.5
Garage bays:1 Car
Basement:no
Dimensions:23'-0'' x 36'-1''
Living Area:1746.5 ft.
Roof height:22'-2''

id:004Author:

Design tips for smaller bathrooms

If you have a smaller area designated for bathroom use, you will have to make some adjustments in order to make proper use of this space.Start by figuring out what things you need to have in your bathroom. For instance, if you aren’t planning to spend a lot of time in your bathroom, you can install just the main necessary equipments and items in order to feel comfortable. Another important factor is the wise choice of color because a pastel and light color is likely to make your bathroom look larger. The lighter shades are also more welcoming.

Even if your bathroom is small, you can still make it look quite elegant by using the right visual accents. You should use subtle wallpapers that can make your bathroom look larger. Floor coloring is another important issue and you should go for neutral or light colors in order to make the space look roomier. Light shades of blues, tans or grays are the best choices for a small bathroom because they can make it look more airy and sophisticated.

A small bathroom space should be lighted up with additional lights. If you notice that there is no space for such additional lights in your bathroom, you should go for the bulbs that provide a high wattage. These bulbs will make your bathroom very inviting and brighter. Don’t worry about decorating your bathroom either because even a smaller place is likely to be well decorated once you follow the right steps. 

Start by using only a few mirrors because overdoing with mirrors is likely to provide your bathroom with unwanted effects. Keep in mind that using too many mirrors in a small bathroom will emphasize only the corners of its space. So, you should be careful when it comes to selecting the places where you want to have mirrors installed. For instance, installing the mirrors opposite to each other is not a wise idea. Limit the mirrors in order not to show the real size of your bathroom.

You should cleat out the bathroom walls in order to create the illusion of a larger space. You should also keep your things floating. For instance, you might install floating cupboards and a wall mounted sink in order to prevent these items from taking too much from the floor space. You can utilize the bathroom floor for other useful things such as putting a plant or a trash can. Using the bathroom door is another useful tip that will help you save some space. The door is more useful and helpful than acting as a simple exit and entrance.  For instance, you can use it in order to install some clothes or towel hangers because this will conserve extra precious space. You will also be left with more space to use for the bathroom design you plan to have.

You might consider using the collapsible shower screens. Such shower screens come in various types such as sliding or foldable ones. You can also use curtains in order to get the division you want. Allowing natural light inside your bathroom is another wise thing for you to do because having a window installed in this space will make it look more spacious. However, you must make sure that the window is not too big because, if this is the case, you will defeat the initial purpose of trying to conserve wall space. Now that you know all these tips, you are truly ready to start designing your small bathroom .