You might be building a home and designing an entirely new bathroom. Maybe you’re remodeling and adding a new bathroom or changing an existing bathroom. In any case, you have a certain amount of room to work with. Here are some ideas.

First, list the items you absolutely need in your bathroom. This list includes, of course, the toilet and the sink. If it’s a full bathroom, you’ll need to decide on a bath and shower or a shower stall.

Next are the items you would like to include. Often people want a cabinet under the sink, though if you have a small space you might prefer a pedestal. Plan on a mirror over the sink, with our without a medicine chest. Lighting is important. A fan can be helpful for keeping moisure out. You’ll probably want a space for shelves of some kind.

At this point, you might want to consider asking a professional to help with design. If you feel you can do it on your own, here are some tips.

Measure your bathroom well. Choose items that you think you’d like in your bathroom and get the measurements. Some suggest drawing a plan to scale, but for those of us who are less visual, it can be helpful to cut paper to the actual size of the footprint of the item. Place these items in the bathroom, arranging them to where you think you would like them. This is a good way to see how well things fit. Don’t forget that you need space between things.

If everything fits well, there are a few more considerations. You might be limited by plumbing or electricity. Window placement makes a difference, too, unless you have no qualms about showering in from of a window.

If things don’t fit well, play with the design a bit (if space, electrical, and plumbing allow.) See if you can come up with more efficient use of space and still enjoy the design.

If there’s just no room, you’ll have to decide what you can do without. For example, you can use a pedestal sink, which takes less space than a full cabinet. Conversely, you can use a cabinet but don’t include shelves. Some towels and toilet paper can be stored in the cabinet, with the excess supplies in a convenient storage area elsewhere in your house.

A little imagination and a lot of measuring can help your dream bathroom work for you. When you find a bathroom design that works, it’s time to put the pieces together. It’s a lot of work, but it can be worth it.

Home design is not only a big business; it can be very enjoyable for you the homeowner. When you’re building your home, or just giving your present home a makeover, taking the lead role in your home design can be a very rewarding experience. Doing your own home design allows you to express yourself in a way that no one else can do for you. Choices not only become easier when you do your own home design, but you’ll find that you have more of them than if you’d hired a professional to do it for you.

One of the first things you should consider in your home design project is the function of the room you’re working on. Function is a key home design factor. It will dictate the majority of what items will go into the room. Two major points in function to consider is the intended use of the room and who will be using it. Naturally, a room which will receive high traffic would need more resilient flooring and furniture than a room which would not get as much traffic. Knowing what the room is going to be used for and by whom is the first step in home design.

Style is another key factor in home design. After the function of the room is determined, you’ll need to decide the style of décor you’ll be incorporating in your home design. Certainly a family game room would have a more modern style with clean lines, while a country kitchen may have more of a cottage style or rustic home design. Fabrics like furniture, drapes, throws and pillows would play a major role in the feel of the room. Colors used properly in home design can alter a person’s mood upon entering the room. Earthy tones and light blues have a calming effect, while bright reds and contrasting colors can create a sense of excitement. Style when used properly can make any room a success story.

The placement of items and objects in a room will always alter the flow of movement to both the body and the eye. Flow is yet another key factor in home design. The flow of the room is crucial, as you don’t want the room to be awkward to navigate. This not only applies to the person moving across the room, but also the eye of the person moving from one part of the room to another. Of course the physical flow in home design is achieved by the placement of furniture such as sofas, chairs and tables. The eye flow of the room can be controlled by the decorative items placed in the room, as well as how the room is painted. Colors which flow easily into each other create a nice even sense of movement to the eye from one area to another.

Home design should never be a daunting challenge, but rather an enjoyable experience to those who wish to do their own home design. By following the three major factors of function, style and flow, every home design project you complete will be a successful one.

The use of light is an integral element in art, architecture and design. It has the power to dramatically change the look and feel of everything, from a sculpture to a family room or even a hallway.

Incorporating lighting elements into a home can alter the ambiance from clean and modern to warm and rustic, creating specific moods and enhancing colors and textures.

Consider these tips for bringing both natural and artificial light elements into your home design for breathtaking results:

* Let the natural light shine in. Windows bring the dynamic qualities of daylight into a home, capturing outside views, enhancing colors, and flooding surfaces, rooms or any interior spaces with natural light.

However, bringing in more natural sunshine can increase the temperature of a room due to heat transfer through windows. To get the natural sun without unwanted temperature changes, you may want to consider tinted glass to help reduce the transfer of heat.

In addition to capitalizing on natural light through the strategic placement of windows, you can choose from a broad scope of window shapes, juxtapositions and designs to create an artistic flair. For an abundance of design capabilities, including limitless custom designs crafted by artisans, consider Jeld-Wen wood or metal clad-wood windows.

If energy efficiency and low maintenance are a primary concern, Jeld-Wen vinyl windows will offer you these affordable features along with a clean, streamlined appearance.

* Use decorative lights for night and day. The imaginative use of alternative lighting can showcase unique features inside and outside the home.

Instead of using traditional overhead lighting or table lights, artistically combine shadows and light with subtle tree lights lining the edges of the ceiling or a chandelier with a dimmer.

* Reflect light to enhance the ambiance. Often overlooked as a key element in the lighting of a home, mirrors have traditionally been utilized solely as a tool for personal reflection. The creative placement of mirrors can throw light around the room, making a room sparkle and appear larger.

While an entire wall of mirrors may seem a little risky, the placement of framed mirrors sporadically on a particular wall brings a fresh, artistic element into the home.

Regardless of its source – whether it’s natural light that streams in through a window or the soft glow from a table lamp or chandelier – lighting is an important decorative accessory in a home.