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Regardless of the shade, adding elements of green to your home can improve your mood, complement your design, and more. Below are a few reasons to choose green for your interior design scheme.

It’s soothing. Green has long been used in decorating for its calming effect. Add some green curtains to your bedroom, paint the wall across from your sleeping space green and snag some easier ahhhhs.

It looks great with wood. If you have wood floors or furniture, tying in a shade of green will make your space even more lustrous.

It’s complimentary. There are so many gorgeous shades of green that it will be easy to thread a little green into your decorating scheme.

It’s natural. Don’t want to add any permanent green to your home? No problem! Just grab a few fresh houseplants and pepper them throughout your room for a fresh splash of green.

It may bring money. While you may not believe in this superstition, some swear that the color green brings wealth. Add some green to your home to call in a little windfall. It can’t hurt!

Published with permission from RISMedia.

According to leading home designers, bathrooms today should be more than utilitarian spaces. They are increasingly treated as cozy oases intended to comfort and pamper.

If that’s your goal, here are a few good ideas for transforming your bathroom:

Enlarge it if you can. A good contractor can steal space you didn’t know you had, taking it from an adjoining room or a seldom-used closet and adding it to your bathroom space.

Use reclaimed materials. Old is new again as homeowners choose recycled materials. Incorporate reclaimed timber into vanities or opt for recycled glass countertops for a sustainable bathroom style.

Choose clean lines. Modernize the look with the clean lines of a vessel sink and a freestanding European tub. If the budget allows, make it a spa tub to make the most of your idle hours.

Add a rainfall showerhead. Relax your back and soothe your senses in the spray of a rainfall showerhead. It’s all the joy of a trip to the tropics without leaving home.

Hang mirrors and art. Any mirror will make a room look larger, and a round, oval or irregularly shaped mirror will add a stylish note, as will a well-chosen print, framed and artfully placed.

Look up. Why settle for ordinary lighting when you can have the luxury of a crystal chandelier? Check your local home store for lighting options that add opulence with a small price tag.

Select spa-like accents. Candles should be a given, but not in any ordinary way. Try bubble glass votive holders along with rose gold towel holders and glass shelving options. A clear glass shower door is another way to add a spacious look to your bath.

Go for lush linens and more. Sink your tootsies into a lush, deep shower mat. Choose thick Turkish towels and plush robes, and a basket full of face and body-pampering soaps, masks and lotions.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

A cellphone bill is an expense almost everyone has to pay each month. Even if you set up automatic payments to make paying it easier, it’s still money you have to come up with monthly”and it can be a big bill.

Here are five ways to lower your cellphone bill:

Switch to no contract. One of the big costs of a contract plan with your phone provider is paying a subsidized price so that you can get the latest phone every two years. Some companies run the contract for 30 months, which lowers the payment, but also adds six months to the time it takes to pay off the phone.

A no-contract plan requires you to buy the phone upfront, but should give you a much cheaper monthly cost over the next two years.

Keep your phone longer. Your phone purchase is no longer bundled in a monthly cellphone bill with a no-contract plan, and you can continue that savings by keeping your phone for longer than two years. The savings increases each month you keep your phone.

Call with WiFi. Most phones offer the option of calling using WiFi, saving data usage and keeping your bill low. You can also use WiFi to send text messages or chat by video, as well as use the internet.

Keep the background silent. Even when you’re not actively using your smartphone, email and apps are running silently in the background and eating up data. Turn off this data usage in the settings menu and only check your email when you have free WiFi. Be sure to check out the background data usage for individual apps on your phone to get an idea as to which ones use the most.

Match your data to your usage. With an unlimited data plan, you may not be paying extra for using a lot of data, but you may see speeds drop when you hit a limit that resets every month. If you’re using WiFi often to save on data usage, look at your phone’s data usage in the settings section to see if it’s within a data amount your phone provider allows at a lower rate.

If you don’t use as much data as you have access to, why pay for it? Conversely, if you’re watching Netflix on your phone and use a lot of data, you may be able to save money by switching to an unlimited plan.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

According to the National Kitchen and Bath Association, granite countertops are in less demand today, while the use of quartz is on the rise.

Why? For one thing, man-made quartz countertops are offered in a far greater range of looks and feels. Reason number two: its a bit easier to maintain over the long haul, and its deemed a better environmental choice because it emits lower levels of radon”a potentially cancer-causing agent. To be fair, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains the radioactive materials in granite countertops are far too minuscule to pose a health threat.

So what, exactly, is a quartz countertop? Its made of engineered stone, composed of at least 90% ground-up quartz mixed with a binder (like resin) then molded into a slab. Because pigment is added during the manufacturing process, the sky’s the limit when it comes to color. And quartz is non-porous and fairly resistant to stains, mold and bacteria.

Unlike granite countertops, which require periodic resealing to maintain their beauty, quartz is low-maintenance, needing only regular cleanings with soap and water or a mild detergent.

Quartz can be more impervious than granite to cracking or chipping under average conditions, although it is not quite as heat-proof. Most manufacturers recommend using a trivet when placing scalding hot pots or pans on a quartz countertop.

Apart from durability and maintenance, quartz comes in an infinite variety of designs, ranging in look and feel from sleek solid colors to organic-looking variations that resemble real substances found in nature, like veined marble. It can have a smooth and shiny finish or a softer, brushed feel (almost suede-looking). Choose wisely because the design can make a huge difference in the look and feel of a room.

Quartz counters may be a bit more expensive, up to 10 percent higher in cost than their granite counterparts, but shopping around and resealing over the years can mitigate any cost differences.

So, what side are you on? Natural stone mined from the earth or a man-made variation?

Published with permission from RISMedia.

If you have a sign in your front yard warning burglars that you have a home alarm system in place, you could be attracting a new breed of scammer. Thats the warning from the consumer watchdogs at Consumer Reports, who say scammers look for signs of existing installations, especially older-looking signs, then strike with one of two approaches:

1. Fraudsters claiming to be remote access technicians from your security company tell you, they noticed glitches in your system and they want to repair it. You let them in and they tamper with your system so they can return and burglarize your house.

2. Scammers claim your company has gone out of business and theyve taken over their accounts. They “examine” your system and convince you to buy new equipment. They take your money and are never heard from again.

The fact is that legitimate home security system companies never simply send a repairman unannounced to your door. Even if they telephone first, call them back to confirm. Similarly, if your monitoring company had gone out of business, you would have been notified by mail, not by telephone and certainly not by someone simply showing up.

Security experts say you can protect against these scams by taking the following steps:

• Get references. Ask any salesperson for names of previous customers, especially in your neighborhood, whom you can check with for legitimacy.
• Do a background check. Demand information about the contractors license: the number, state of registration, etc. Check them out before taking any action.
• Get it in writing. Insist that estimates for service or equipment be in writing, specifying who will install it, how it will be maintained and the cost”and pay by credit card, not with cash.
• Read the contract. Ensure that everything youve agreed to is written into the contract. Check the small print for any monitoring fees or terms you did not agree to.

Most importantly, remember that the FTCs cooling-off rule gives you three business days to cancel the deal if you sign the contract at home. You do not have to give a reason and you can change your mind even if the equipment has already been installed.

Published with permission from RISMedia.