Chris from Apartment Therapy turned us onto a great new blog Our Brooklyn Roof Garden. The images found here make us long for New York again but we are still enjoying our outdoor space much more here in LA.
Our downstairs neighbors kept a nice courtyard full of fresh flowers and across the street the Jennifer Bartlett residence had a garden that any New Yorker would covet.
You can find new and used doors all over Craigslist. Many are cheap, flimsy, interior doors but you'll also come across some solid gems that were removed from old homes and built from one piece. Often times the heights and widths of these older doors won't fit into modern door frames so you'll need to modify your existing door frame accordingly.
So what does it take to make your place look great? Not big bucks or a lot of time. ShopSmart, from the publisher of Consumer Reports, shares 10 projects that can be done in a weekend for $150 or less:
Punch up the numbers
Cost $1 to $40
House numbers are practical--and they can also enhance the style of your home. Play with scale by going with oversize numbers, and choose a style that complements your home's architecture-- whether it's a curvy mission style for bungalows or prairie-style homes, or sleek and modern for a contemporary house, script for a formal colonial, or casual, colorful ceramics for a French country or Mediterranean look.
Put out a welcome mat
Cost About $30
The quickest and easiest front porch update is a new welcome mat. It's an accessory that you can change with the seasons or use to showcase your individuality: Go colorful and kid-friendly with bright strips, classic and sophisticated with a custom monogram, or way out and wacky with a funny quote.
Clean up the landscaping
Cost About $150
A few landscaping tweaks don't have to cost a lot. You can bring a patchy yard back to life by seeding bald spots and pruning overgrown foundation plantings. If you decide to add shrubs around the house, choose varieties that won't grow bigger than 3 or 4 feet, and plant taller bushes and trees at the edge of the house to frame it.
These paper stand planters are one to make use of objects that are considered a blight in many urban areas. Street corners in the west village are littered with abandoned paper stands, some of which have content that's questionable in a neighborhood with small children running around.
Many times these planers have been neglected for years and just sit empty, but this blogger has decided to beautify these paper stands and adding flowers to anything will accomplish that.
[via Mediabistro]
