If you are keen to improve the look and vibe of your home but don’t have a huge budget to draw on then you’ll want some tips to make changes without breaking the bank. Professional interior designers will know all the tricks of the trade to play up the strengths of a house and hide the flaws but as we’re not all quite so knowledgeable, it’s great news when they share these tricks with us.
Starting with the front door is important as this is where the journey inside your home begins. If you want your home to be welcoming and warm then choose to repaint it with a warm, fun and bright glossy colour. Reds, oranges and yellows are becoming increasingly popular.
On first entering your home, to help the flow of things, it’s best to keep the walls on the ground floor a neutral, light colour. This is the area where you least want to cause a massive transition and too many contrasts. Neutral walls give you much more decorating flexibility and makes smaller rooms look larger if they are not weighed down by heavy colour or pattern. A neutral backdrop makes it fun to switch up your accessories and easier to incorporate interesting furniture. For a range of contemporary Aluminium Radiators, visit http://apolloradiators.co.uk/Category/3/header/3/radiator-ranges.
Don’t be tempted to push all your furniture to the walls in order to make the room look bigger. In actual fact, floating furniture away from walls will give the appearance of more space. Also, arrange your furniture so it’s conducive to socialising and is more intimate. An area with a U shape featuring a sofa and 2 chairs facing each other is ideal or even an H shape with sofa and chairs facing each other with a coffee table in the middle.
Ditch those old, out-dated and heavy curtains and let some light in. A blank set of windows is better than an ugly one. Window dressings need to be lightweight, functional and elegant. If it’s a room that gets a lot of sun then opt for light coloured fabric that won’t show obvious fading. The best lightweight fabrics include linen, cotton and silk blends as they hang well and let the light in nicely.
Lots of people enjoy decorating their homes with artwork. This doesn’t mean expensive fine art but anything that someone deems attractive. The biggest mistake is hanging things too high on the wall. A good tip is to hang pictures with the middle being at eye level. Scaling is also important so for large walls, go big with one oversize piece or lots of smaller pieces in a gallery-style. Don’t hang them too far apart either, a gap of 2-4 inches looks the best.
Layering your lighting will also make surprisingly big differences to the ambience of a room. Try to aim for three levels in each room. These include ambient lighting which provides overall lighting mostly from ceiling fixtures. Task lighting would be found on kitchen islands or reading nooks for example, for more specific jobs. Accent lighting is more decorative and is used to highlight a feature or some artwork for example.