Home Improvement

Drab Hallways

Drab hallways, areas by staircases, or an unused corner are one of the highest traffic areas in the home. But is your hallway duller and darker than light and airy? It’s easier than you think to transform your hallway or any used corner with purpose.

For a great welcoming look, move away from dark colors and poorly lit lighting. Instead, bring your home entrance area to life with large mirrors, a pop of color and smart storage.

It may feel like a long, often awkwardly shaped corridor at times, but the hallway should still be treated as if it were a room. We speak to the experts to find out just how to brighten up a hallway, whatever the size.

Lighting is perhaps one of the easiest ways to brighten up your hallway, and there are plenty of options for this, too. Wall sconces are winners with narrow hallways, while ceiling spotlights also cleverly keeps the area looking tidy. Avoid heavy, low-hanging lights for space as compact as this.

Choose a wall-mounted light that directs light upward to cast a soft diffused light against the wall and ceiling. These are most effective when used in conjunction with a dimmer switch. If you have space, add a floor lamp to brighten up dark corners and create a warm glow within your hallway.

Fresh shades of white, cream or soft pastels can easily refresh your hallway. If you are able to redecorate, giving a fresh lick of paint to your space will elevate your home almost immediately.

If you want to make a bold statement, opt for a pop of color. Giving your hallway character with color is a smart way to brighten up the welcoming area. Color is a wonderful way to brighten up and to add dimension to a hallway. A vibrant shade of sage green or ochre – which has become incredibly popular recently – will breathe life into a hallway. You can never go wrong painting space in a very simple bright white, too.

And if you’re really feeling brave, why not embrace the trend of flower-strewn panels? These bold blooms might seem bright for a hallway, but you will be sure to create a scene-stealing entrance.

If you’re looking to completely redecorate your hallway space, start with the flooring. Whether you opt for hallway tiles, a soft carpet or marble stone, this will dramatically enhance your entrance area.

A door with clear or translucent glass is a fantastic way of flooding a hallway with light and therefore making it seem larger and lighter.

The choice of flooring for the hallway will also have a bearing on how light space feels. Opting for a lighter scheme with large tiles or wooden planks will create the illusion of more space as well as visual impact.

While a hallway may feel like one of the smallest spaces in the home, it doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with the standout features you love.

Try using a metallic paint as a paint effect over a matt emulsion to add shine and reflection and bring a space to life.

Elsewhere, mirrors and glossed console tables are excellent accessories worth investing in. ‘You could buy lots of different shapes and sizes of mirrors, both old and new, then paint the frames the same color as the wall and group together.

Astronomy

Supermoons

We are going to enjoy a “season” of 3 full moon supermoons on March 9, April 8 and May 7, 2020. Then we’ll have a “season” of 3 new moon supermoons on September 17, October 16 and November 15, 2020.

A supermoon is a new or full moon closely coinciding with the moon’s closest point to Earth in its monthly orbit. A full moon or new moon has to come within 90% of its closest approach to Earth to be dubbed a supermoon. In other words, any full moon or new moon that comes to within 224,865 miles (or less) of our planet, as measured from the centers of the moon and Earth, can be called a supermoon.

Let’s figure out “90% of the moon’s closest approach to Earth” by the year’s closest perigee (moon’s closest point to Earth for the year) and the year’s farthest apogee (moon’s farthest point from Earth for the year). In 2020, the closest perigee is 221,772 miles. The farthest apogee is 252,707 miles. So any full moon or new moon coming closer than 224,865 miles, as measured from the centers of the Earth and moon, counts as a supermoon in 2020.

By the way, the most distant and smallest full moon of the year will fall on October 31, 2020. Sometimes called a micromoon, it’ll be 252,380 miles away. That’s a whopping 30,529 miles farther away than the year’s closest and biggest full moon on April 8, 2020.

The hype aspect of supermoons probably stems from an erroneous impression people had when the word supermoon came into popular usage, maybe a few decades ago? Some people mistakenly believed a full supermoon would look much, much bigger to the eye. It doesn’t. Full supermoons don’t look bigger to the eye than ordinary full moons, although experienced observers say they can detect a difference.

But supermoons do look brighter than ordinary full moons!  So, go outside on the night of a full supermoon, and – if you’re a regular observer of nature – you’ll surely notice the supermoon is exceptionally bright!

Garden almanac

Breaking Winter

Breaking winter this weekend is supposed to get toward 60 degrees Sunday, and I am thinking of spring. Then looked at the forecast for next week, back down to 30 degrees. I guess spring will wait. But here are some things you can do while you wait.

Sitting in the recliner with gardening catalogs coming out now and with a cup of tea is a time-honored winter activity for gardeners. There, you can peruse the hundreds of new veggie and plant varieties for the 2020 growing season. With a few catalogs at the ready, winter becomes a time for dreaming and hoping.

Grab a pencil and paper and actually draw a bird’s-eye view of your garden. You can mark where plants are currently located and where you want to put new varieties. It’s a great exercise for the creatively minded.

There are plenty of houseplants that can provide you with color and texture right now. Some easy specimens include geraniums, crown of the thorns (Euphorbia milii), begonias, streptocarpus, cyclamen, African violets, and countless types of cacti and succulents. My begonias I brought in October have been blooming since coming inside.

Maybe not the most exciting job, but a necessary one. Keep your shovels, forks, clippers, and trowels in shape by making sure they’re clean and any moving parts are well-oiled. This year I am buying bright-orange spray paint and paint the handles. That way, when you’re working outside and lay a tool on the ground, you’ll be able to find it in a jiffy, instead of waiting till the snow melts to find that shovel.