It’s that time of year when we maybe get a little introspective and start to take stock of how the last year has gone. Did we lose that weight we wanted? Read all those books? Finally get on board with this whole Twitter thing we’ve been hearing about?

Since home is, for many people, an important extension of self, Apartment Therapy recently featured five home resolutions they’ll be keeping in the next year. Great ideas, and it inspired us to think about what resolutions we want to do, home-wise. Here goes:

• Organizing: We’re going to rid ourselves of extraneous paper and shred old bills, as appropriate. We’ll also be organizing our closets and not just shoving the mess into there. New closet organizers, boxes and bins may also be pressed into use.
• Cooking: Eating out and supporting local restaurants is great, but cooking at home not only saves money, but allows you unprecedented control of the food you put into your body. Plus, you can flex your culinary muscles and become known for sparkling hosting and fabulous dinner parties.
• Curb appealing: With all the zeal over interior decorating, it’s easy to forget the home’s exterior. No more! This year, we will be painting, repairing, refreshing and landscaping to make our houses the envy of the neighborhood. New walkway? Flowerbeds? Our only limit is our imaginations!
• Greening: We want to make this year the greenest ever. So we’ll be looking at ways to make our homes — and our lives — more energy efficient. We’re going to try to re-use stuff more, evaluate whether we really need something and think of ways to buy locally as needed.
• Learning: We’re going to attempt to pick up some sort of DIY skill this year. Whether that means something like learning some home repair basics, or a softer skill like making our own throw pillows, we’ll be doing it for ourselves.

New Year’s resolutions are notoriously difficult to keep, but we believe that if you start small and have a purpose, it can be done. What are your home resolutions? Let us know in the comments.

Overwhelmed by cleaning? You’re not alone! We all have busy lives and jobs and sometimes in the evenings it can just seem too exhausting to think about cleaning. And then the weekend rolls around and, well, isn’t the weekend better devoted to the pursuit of fun rather than cleaning?

And so the grime continues to build. If you can do a little bit each day though, the rewards will come in the form of a clean, uncluttered and calm home. To get you started, Apartment Therapy offers an awesome tutorial for how to get (and keep!) your home clean.

Our favorite Apartment Therapy tips include dealing with things right away, whether they be credit card offers to be shredded or dirty dishes in the sink, finding an awesome soundtrack and setting a timer on your cleaning. Everyone has 15 minutes to clean before your favorite television show starts (or during the commercial breaks!). Anything is easier when you know it won’t go on forever.

They even offer a day-by-day cleaning guide that you can follow every month. No more excuses and no more weekends spent feeling guilty you haven’t been cleaning. Check it out!

Image courtesy of Todd Baker on Flickr

Looking for a way to remodel your house and add value? You might think of adding in a family room or extra bedroom, gutting kitchen or redoing the bathroom. But surprisingly, one of the best remodeling investments you can make might already exist in your home. Yes, that’s right: You can remodel your attic and reap some big rewards.

According to Calfinder, “the attic-to-bedroom conversion ranked number two for highest return on investment” in 2009 and 2010. Attic-to-bedroom conversion recouped over 83 percent of cost — pretty impressive! Attics can be dark, drafty spaces that are hard to live in, but they might be perfect for a large master suite or could fit two new bedrooms in an existing space.

Of course, there are considerations like: Will the roof need to be raised? What about dormers? Is there a permanent staircase in existence or will you need to put one in? But if you are looking for a good use of space, considering making your attic into the bedroom of your dreams!

Image courtesy of Calfinder

Renovating your home can be one of the great joys of home ownership. You get to put your own personal stamp on the space, but what happens when you want to sell? DIY Life lists five projects that are most likely not going to be worth your time and money. Here they are, along with our thoughts.

• Too Much Taste: DIY wisely points out that even if you think brightly colored walls look stylish and unique (no argument there!), other people might not think so. Should others’ opinion matter? Probably not…unless you want them to buy your home. If you plan on staying put a long time, you might as well paint your bathroom orange. Painting can be a pain, but it’s a fairly cheap and easy fix. If you think you will be selling soon, do yourself a favor and go with beige.
• Budget-Friendly Fixtures: We think that you should buy the highest-quality items that your budget will allow. After all, you can’t change out your flooring the same way you would some cheap throw pillows. Again, we think this decision will have a lot to do with how long you will be in the house. Cheap fixtures might be fine for a few years but bother you after 10 years.
• Big Ticket Items: DIY Life mentions a pool as a prime example. In that case, we say it depends on the climate. In a northern environment like Minnesota, where Marvin is located, pools are rare and might not add to resale value. In a place like Arizona or Florida? Buyers might welcome the chance to take a dip. But any big ticket home item must be weighed by the enjoyment you will derive from it vs. how much of its value you can recoup. Maybe your future buyers won’t be impressed by that expensive steam shower you put in the master bath.
• Reinvention of Space: Our opinion is that this depends how easily you can swap things out. Let’s say you use your third bedroom as a crafting room. When it comes to selling, buyers probably want to envision it as a bedroom, but that’s a fairly quick fix to stage. More permanent room re-dos, like turning that bedroom into a bathroom (to give DIY Life’s example) might not be so wise.
• Unfinished or Poorly Done DIY Work: If you’re handy, do it yourself. If you’re not, or don’t have the time to finish what you started, PLEASE just hire someone to get it done. You’ll thank yourself for it later.

What other home renovations do you think are an unwise use of time, space and money?

Image courtesy of freefotouk on Flickr

We like to think of our gardens as an extension of our home. And just like any room in the house, sometimes you just want a few new things to brighten it up. For your reading pleasure, here are some fun products and ideas that can liven up any outdoor abode.

The Lluna planter by Serralunga is a cool modern planter as you can see:

But if you find yourself needing a cold drink instead of more greenery, this planter obliges. It would work well for a large backyard soiree!

Speaking of that garden party, if you are looking for a use for the empty beer bottles you stashed in the planter/ice bucket, look no further than Design*Sponge’s bottle garden idea.  It’s an easy idea for a really cool garden…and it’s a great way to re-use without recycling!

If the bottle garden inspires you to find a way to re-use objects in your garden, then consider Re-Nest’s idea to turn your chandelier into a planter. Where the bulbs would be, you put small pots of flowers instead. It’s unique, funky, and classically quirky.

What are some fun ideas you’ve tried for “re-decorating” your garden?

All images are from blogs linked to above

Color: It’s one of our favorites ways to change up a room. It can make a dramatic difference, it’s fairly inexpensive, and with just a little elbow grease, you can get a whole new look.

But this made us think. When we choose to paint, is our color palette dictated by the season? In these warm, sunny months, perhaps people are choosing clean whites, sky blues and cool pale greens. In winter, perhaps there’s a rush towards cream, royal blue and mallard green.

Of course, this only takes into account people’s decision-making process at the time of painting. Unless you have a lot of time on your hands and truly love to paint your walls, that eggplant wall won’t suddenly turn into lavender every summer. The most important thing with choosing color is to make sure that you love it and that it fits the room–in whatever season.

Calfinder has some photos of bright, bold colors that manage to look season-less. Here’s one for your enjoyment and please check out their post for more paint inspiration!

Photo courtesy of Calfinder

We recently talked about some (supposedly) passé decorating trends. According to The Nest, there are seven big mistakes you can make when decorating–even if you avoid the aforementioned trends. In no order of importance, they are:

1. The unanchored rug–nothing on top of it? Then why is it there? We’ll make exceptions for small rugs used by doorways to avoid tracking dirt in.

2. Really big furniture. If it takes up most of the room, it will look ridiculous.

3. Bad paint. It can’t be said enough–test your paint in various lights and sleep on your decision. Maybe in the morning that tangerine accent wall in the living room will seem less kicky.

4. Too much of everything. The article evokes the old Coco Chanel adage that says that before a woman leaves the house, she should take one thing off (e.g. a piece of jewelry or a scarf). The same is true for homes. If course you want it to look lived in and not empty, but too much stuff=clutter. Fast.

5. Decorating from a single era. Yes, you want your furniture to fit your home. And you don’t have to go completely crazy, but don’t be afraid to put a piece of African art in your Cape Cod, a Ligne Roset chair in your Victorian or a piece of chintz in your modern house. After all, you don’t live in a museum.

6. A BIG TV. Look, we all like the idea of a home theater. but consider your room’s proportions. Also look at the pattern of use. For a basement rec room, a very large TV might be just the thing. For a living room used for multiple purposes, such as gathering after dinner and entertaining guests, don’t let your television become the focal point.

7. Bad lighting. It’s unflattering and causes eyestrain.

Of course, this is all opinion, and in the end you should do what you are comfortable with. But the thread that runs through all these “donts” is a lack of consideration for living and for human interaction. Clutter, TV, distracting walls and bad lighting will detract from the warm human element that home should bring to mind.

What are your decorating donts?

Image courtesy of Chris Campbell on Flickr.

One of the most fun things about redecorating is studying all the latest trends. When it comes to execution, go lightly, though: Go too far and it starts to look like a newbie designer did your living room.

MSN Lifestyle recently listed some trends they think have gone too far. They include:

• Antlers and taxidermy
• Inspirational sayings
• Buddha sculptures
• Ghost chairs
• Poufs
• Accent walls
• Boutique hotel chic
• Black chalkboard paint

Does your home have any of these “passé” trends? We say that, in and of themselves, none of these are wrong. If you like it, go for it! It’s your home and your space. You should like what you look at. But one (or maybe two) at a time, please.

Consider context, too. Antlers and taxidermy will seem more in place in a rustic hunting lodge then they might in a suburban home. Chalkboard paint can work well in children’s bedrooms and on kitchen doors (somewhere to write the grocery list!), but is probably out of place in the dining room. And as the article notes, Buddha statues are religious pieces, not eclectic home decor.

Tell us in the comments if you or disagree with these and what decorating trends you choose to skip.

Photo courtesy of jawcey on Flickr

The Wall Street Journal recently took a look at “The New Rules of Remodeling.” Here at Marvin, we’ve been seeing an uptick in remodeling interest. It stems from the economy of course–from practical considerations like being unable to sell a house to the more philosophical decision to improve what you already have. Being a window and door company, we see lots of interest in window and door replacement, but there are lots of things that homeowners are doing.

However, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out, the economy has changed the game for remodeling as well. During the housing boom, someone might have added a third story to their home. Now they are remodeling the master bath. Or they might have chosen to gut their kitchen for remodeling. Now they’re replacing the countert0ops.

What have you been seeing? If you had been wanting to move to a new house and are now not able to, are you more likely to splash out for a big project? Or are you looking at remodeling as small things to make your house better? And how are you balancing the urge to remodel the way that you want with the need to think about future resale (in one, five, 10, 20 years?)? Does it even matter to you that the remodeling project “earn” its money back? Or are you just content to improve your home?

Take a look at the Journal article and leave your thoughts in the comments!

If you are feeling especially crafty, and want to give your bathroom an inexpensive new look, consider sewing your own shower curtain! Our friends at Design*Sponge show us how.

You can do either a patchwork curtain (a great way to empty out your scrap bag!) or a solid one. If you have a basic knowledge of sewing, this is a great way to get crafty! Here’s what you will need:

• Fabric: five yards for a solid curtain or one to two yards of seven different fabrics
• Thread that matches your chosen fabric(s)
• Scissors
• Pins
• Tape measure
• Seam ripper
• Iron
• Sewing machine
• Optional: cutting mat, rotary cutter and straight edge

Once you’ve gathered these things together, you can begin! Check out Design*Sponge’s post for extensive instructions.

With just some time and a little know-how, you can give your bathroom a whole new look!

Image courtesy of Design*Sponge.