The materials you choose to fill your home will always have a huge impact on the way the place looks and feels. Most people like to focus on the soft options they choose, with carpets, curtains, upholstery, and a huge range of other fabrics and other soft materials found in most homes. Of course, though, there are plenty of other materials out there that can make a home look good while offering a harder surface. Let’s take a look at some of the different options you have in this area, along with some of the best ways to use them around your home.

Shiny & Smooth: Using Hard Materials Around Your Home

Wood

Wood has long been one of the most popular building and manufacturing materials in the world, offering a durable option that is easy to work with and abundant wherever you go. While wood is popular, though, many people fail to consider it when they are working on their home decor. You can find wood with practically any finish, ranging from light and matte to dark and shiny, making it easy to tailor this material to the room you’re using it in. Alongside this, different types of trees produce different patterns and grains in their wood.

What is wood good for?

• Furniture: Most of the furniture you use will have some wood in its construction. Looking for pieces that have exposed wood is a great way to take advantage of the natural beauty of this material, with countless options to choose from.

 

• Floors: The floors around your home will usually be made using wood that is covered with other materials, but you can remove the top layers and work on the wood to make it look much better than it did before.

 

• Worksurfaces: Kitchens, bathrooms, and other spaces around your home can all do with worksurfaces, and there are few better materials for this than wood.

Thanks to the natural qualities of wood, the texture you find with this material can vary from piece to piece. With polishing and buffing, wood can be brought up to a near-mirror shine, though you can also choose to work almost all of the shininess out of it if you prefer a matte look. 

Glass

Much like wood, glass has been used in homes for quite some time. This material isn’t as old as metal or wood, but there have been plenty of time for engineers and designers to figure out the best ways to use this material. Strong, rigid, and holding the potential to be perfectly clear, glass is a remarkable material that gives you a huge range of options when you are working on your home. You can find some examples of the best uses for glass around your home below, but it could also be worth doing some of your own research to get the best options.

What is glass good for?

• Bathrooms: Thanks to it’s clarity and resistance to water and heat, glass is ideal for use in bathrooms. Showers and bath curtains can be made from glass, and there are plenty of other options that this material can be used for, too.

 

• Kitchens: Like your bathroom, the kitchen in your home is a great place for glass. Surfaces can be made from this material, and you can also have windows in your cupboard doors. Some people choose to have glass chopping boards.

 

• Furniture: While it isn’t as versatile as wood, glass can still be used to make furniture. Glass tabletops and desks have become very popular in recent years, and you can also find cabinets that use glass in their design.

Glass is an excellent material that comes in a huge range of different colors. You will usually only see glass with a shiny finish, but this is very different from most of the materials you find at home, giving you the chance to be creative with it. Of course, you have to be careful with a material like this, and it’s always worth making sure that the glass you use for functional tasks is tempered and hardened. 

Metal

Like the other materials on this list, metal is commonly found around homes. This isn’t always in a decorative capacity, though, with much of the metal in your furniture and other items are simply there to provide structural support. This is a shame when you consider just how much can be done with metal. Copper and brass both have an orange hue that will turn green over time, while metals like steel, aluminum, and iron will usually range from dark to light gray/silver. You can choose from loads of different surface finishes for metal.

What is metal good for?

• Furniture: Metal can be a great material for making furniture, offering something that will be able to withstand a lot of punishment while also being relatively easy to make into complex shapes. 

 

• Decoration: The decor around your home can be made of just about any material, but the flexibility and look of metal give it a unique edge against other options.

 

• Functional Tools: Being strong, hardwearing, and extremely long-lasting, metal is perfect for making functional tools. This means that metal can serve two purposes; looking good while having a real job.

Thanks to the finishes available for metal, you can use this option for a wide variety of jobs without having to compromise on the way your home looks. Metal is becoming increasingly popular for a huge variety of applications, and this is good for those who want to make their home look as good as possible.

---

There are loads of materials to choose from when you’re working on your home, but people often neglect their harder stuff when they want to make their place feel comfortable. Having a good contrast between hard and soft is a good way to achieve a goal like this no matter the type of home you live in.

Comment Box is loading comments...