Doing it yourself

Interior design can be a very tricky thing to get right, and lots and lots of mistakes can be made along the way, I think this is one of the reasons why so many people play it safe, and when I say that, I mean painting the walls an off white, and one of my other bug bearers, and I see a lot, is small furniture pushed up against the wall with a load of space in the middle of the room, why!! unless your thinking of dancing the night away and need the space!!

So here’s just some simple ideas to get on your way to having a cool pad. 

1). The thing that will transform the space almost instantly is paint! My tip is paint the whole room out in one colour, the ceilings and woodwork, it will make the place look super slick, if your daring enough a really dark colour but if not at least a couple of shades darker than you would normally do, trust me it does work. Don’t get me wrong white can look great but you usually have to have an amazing place to pull it off!

2). Pull in the furniture from the edge of the room, my lounge is quite long but my sofa is away from the wall and I have a table behind it, and I can walk around the chairs which are opposite. It doesn’t make the room look smaller because your using the space! it actually makes it look bigger. Even if you have a small room pulling the sofa away from the wall a little will help and don’t be afraid to ad furniture, a large lamp on a small table can look super cool. I worked on a small apartment a couple of years ago and used super large pendant shades over the dining room table, it worked a treat.

3). Fill the walls, don’t be afraid to use all the space, it will make the space look so much more interesting and a great way to get some personality into the room. Mix it up, so large pictures, ie a framed poster works well and is as cheap as chips. It doesn’t just have to be art, ad sculpture of some sort or decorative plates work well, it’s all about mix and match. Add shelves another great little tip and not expensive is using the ikea lack floating shelves, I joined them and put them the whole length of my wall, then went crazy with layering up the shelves with books, vases, pictures overlapping and lent up against the wall, it totally changes the feel of the room.

A few pics to try and show you what I’m going on about.

 

One of my favourites is the marble effect wallpaper which is craft paper, it makes a small wall (her it’s used in a bathroom) look so much more interesting and what a great contrast to the dark wall in the next room.

 

See what I mean about large furniture pulled into the the space and more importantly filling the space. Ok I know it’s white walls but there are lots of features in this room, high ceilings, large windows, brick wall etc. Although personally I would still prefer darker walls!

 

 

 

Have a great Thursday! Now go and fill that room!!