By Clarissa Allison | May 20th, 2016

As nice as it is to have a professionally made, artisan crafted item proudly displayed in your living room, being creative and producing a work of art on your own has a unique appeal. If you need a cool project to try your hand at this weekend, take a look at the following 4 best lighting hacks you can make at home and their professional counterparts!

The Sparkleball!

The sparkleball project is a quick and easy way to create mood lighting for a party, holidays or fun and eclectic home decor. It takes just a few items that you likely already have laying around the house to create this dazzling disco ball.

The Fredrick Raymond  Twelve Light Polished Chrome Frosted Cubes Glass Up Chandelier

The Mason Jar Lantern!

Pinterest wedding boards and hipsters may be the genesis of the popularity behind the mason jar light phenomenon. It’s an easy and fun idea with beautiful results!

Professional Counterpart: The LBL Lighting 573 Mason Classic Line Voltage 120V Pendant

The Wine Bottle Candle Holder!

In this green age, upcycling items that you’d normally throw out is not only common, but expected. Check out this fun video on how to make beautiful and romantic hurricane candle holders with your empty wine bottles.

Professional Counterpart: The ELK Lighting 14040/1 Vintage 1- Light Chandelier in Dark Rust

The Spoon Lamp!

Professional Counterpart: Lite Source EL-50077 Bubbles Crystal Flush Mount Lamp in Chrome

After the recent long and hot summer, the cool weather of autumn came quite abruptly. It comes as no surprised that homeowners are throwing on additional layers of clothing, and turning up their home thermostats to compensate for the cold temperatures. However, before you touch the thermostat dial, consider the advantages you will have with electrical heating. Higher efficiency, lower maintenance and environmentally friendly – electrical heating is the smart choice for your home, continue reading to find out why.

As there is no need for oil or gas required in electrical heating, there is no combustion, output or waste created when converting electricity to heat. Electricity is 100% renewable so the impact on the environment is much smaller than standard gas or oil heaters. Furthermore, as there is no input in required for electrical heating, the ongoing maintenance is much less. While an electric heater may be a larger initial investment, the cost savings from a reduction in maintenance during the service life is much better.

Electric heating can help you save money every month on your heating costs. In certain situations heating an entire home or building with electricity can cost more as it takes more energy to generate and transmit the heat to the entire building to heat. But where electricity truly shines in focused heating in areas. Rather than heating areas of your home unnecessarily, using smaller electric heaters in the frequented areas of your home leads to much better cost savings.

For example, during the evening you may be spending the majority of your time in the living room and kitchen. Turning up the thermostat would cause your heating system to heat all the rooms of your home that nobody is occupying. Instead, you would turn on your electric baseboard heater in the living room to keep you warm there. You can then turn off the heater when you are leaving the room for bed. This is much more efficient as the heat is targeted to the areas needed most and you are in full control.

Electric Furnaces – An electric furnace would replace your standard gas furnace to heat your entire home. A gas furnace can last 20 – 25 years, while the expected lifespan of an electric furnace is even longer. Because there are more combustible parts in a gas furnace, the maintenance is much higher over the course of its life. This means you will realize more cost savings over the life of an electric furnace.

Electric Baseboard Heaters – Many of you may be familiar with these types of electric heaters. These small boxes are placed just above the floor on the baseboard. They are installed in each room (as desired), and can be controlled individually. When the heat is generated it will rise to the top of the room, in turn the cold air falls and is put through the baseboard heater and the process continues.

If you are looking to make your home more efficient and eco-friendly – electric heating is the right option for you.