If you are updating your home, there are some popular improvement ideas that might not work for you.
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For some families the kitchen is the center of their lives and it's important to see kids all the time, and for some the entertainment is the thing. In those cases an open space concept is the answer: the kitchen and the living room together, in an uninterrupted space and flow. But that has its downsides. Your furniture may soak smells from the kitchen, it's harder to heat such a large space and you must have a strong vent. The better solution is to have a pocket door between the kitchen and the living room to divide the space while cooking, and make it open when needed.
If you have radiators in your house, there's no doubt someone will tell you "Cover it, it's ugly!" If you don't have enough money to buy designers pieces, the simple solution is to cover them in some way. But, there are two problems with that. One is you will reduce the radiator's efficiency in heating up the room, and you have to be careful which materials you use because you don't want fire or unhealthy fumes in your room. However, a radiator, especially the steam one, may cause serious burns, especially if you kid touches them, so the best solution is to buy some nice brand that will look good and be safe.
One trend that is here, was here, and will most probably stay here, is a TV device above the fireplace. That's due to poor designer's reasoning: the fireplace is the visual center of the room, and when everything is said and done, there's no place for TV. "Yeah, put it above the fireplace!" A TV placed high is equivalent to watching a movie in a theater from the first row. You neck will not think that's a good idea. Today there are number of projectors that allow you to project the picture anywhere on the wall, and if you don't have it, just reorganize your room and put the TV in line with your eyes for a comfortable watching.
Open shelves are another cool design idea. They are easy to install, you see what you get and they are not expensive. But... dust. As anyone who works in the kitchen knows, dust and water steam and oily fumes like to live together. And in time they will create a very visible and hard to clean layer of grease on its surface. Admittedly, you can use oil to clean grease stuff, but why bother? Since you don't live in a museum where everything has to be on display, get closed cabinets. They look good, they provide a lot of space, the dust will stay outside and you won't have to clean them often. ■
Monsoonal moisture will continue to draw northward from the Southwest and pool with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico over the central U.S. along a sprawling, slow-moving frontal boundary.
