Beat The Winter Blues By Maximising Natural Light

Using bright colours within your home is an ideal way of making you feel happy! Psychologists and colour experts agree that the colours you see can affect your mood and disposition. Typically bright warm colours are thought to make you feel relaxed and happy, whereas dark colours, if not used correctly can have the opposite affect and make you feel sad and ‘blue’.

Winter is historically the time of year when many people feel low, many experts say this has to do with shorter days, longer nights and lack of sunshine. If you are one of thousands of people who get the winter blues, choosing bright colours for your soft furnishings and window dressings is great morale booster.

Image: Belle Maison

As the days are shorter a key factor is to maximise the amount of natural light entering your home. Roman blinds are ideal window dressings as they provide maximum light when pulled up as well as providing complete privacy when lowered. Making your own Roman blind is easy as you can purchase Roman blind kits, all you have to do is select the fabric.

Opt for a contrasting pattern, floral patterns are good for making a room feel inviting and fresh. Which can be added to the bottom of the blind. Having a coordinating or contrasting panel at the bottom of the blind is also a superb way of bring a sense of balance to your rooms.

Look for fabrics which actually make you smile! It may sound rather bizarre, however when you start looking at fabrics there will be some which you are drawn to instantly. Go with your ‘gut feeling’ and you won’t go far wrong!

Add Stunning Focal Points To Your Bedrooms With Roman Blinds And Matching Accessories!

If you like to be clutter free you will love interiors with sleek, clean lines which are stunning in appearance and simple to achieve. Using neutral colours on walls and floors enables you to inject subtle touches for colour which compliment the room along with adding focal points of interest to draw the eye.

Neutral colours will also give the illusion of more space in small rooms. Use white on the ceiling to enable the light to bounce off and reflect downwards to create a feeling of warmth and natural light as a fuel efficient way of saving money. Creating a warm and inviting ambience enables you to turn the thermostat down a couple of degrees and nobody will notice!

Image: A Life's Design

Make you own Roman blinds by purchasing a kit which includes all the necessary fittings, along with full instructions, and choose identical fabric to either make your own or recover an existing headboard to bring a sense of harmony and cohesion to the room. Whenever possible add a chair within a bedroom for people to place their clothes, much tidier than throwing them onto the floor! Add a matching cushion for the chair or the latest in-trend bed runner along with boudoir cushions for the bed if you don’t want your bedrooms to look too clinical and stark.

With the fabulous texture and patterns of fabrics available creating stunning bedrooms has never been easier or more affordable.

Modern Curtain Colours Can Transform The Look Of Your Home Within Minutes!

If you like monochromatic colour scheme and yet feel that simply having black and white a little to stark you can use one of this year’s hottest colour trends and tone things down with beautiful charcoal or steel grey. These colours create a softer look on the eye as well as creating a well coordinated room which had balance and proportion.

Charcoal Aisha Ready Made Curtains

Opt for another of this years revival of floral fabrics which have a modern look of large blossoms trailing there way up the fabric rather than single flower heads, which can look too twee in modern and contemporary interiors. The great advantage to this type of fabric is that it works in a similar way to vertical stripes by drawing the eye up and therefore creating the optical illusion of more height.

This style is ideal for large windows or patio doors, opting for ready made curtains makes life very easy, no sewing or preparing, simply unwrap, hang and within a matter of minutes your windows or doors take on a completely new look.

Steel or metallic colours look stunning when used in combination of white as well as blending effortlessly with pale yellow, lilac, lavender, pinks and reds. As it is a neutral colour it looks striking when used as the main colour within a room which can then be injected in subtle touches of vibrancy, such as red or purple to bring home right up to date.

If you opt for ready made curtains which have matching or coordinating soft furnishings such as cushions and rugs, rooms can be transformed in the blink of an eye! With the affordable prices having to be lumbered with a set of curtains just because they cost a fortune id a thing of the past!

Inspirational Work From Home Stations

Image: Desire To Inspire

Working from home has a certain charming appeal to many people, however those who have worked from home for many years will tell you it’s not as easy as it sounds! Especially if you are also trying to maintain a home, as it is far too easy to be come distracted and pop off to peg the washing out or take an extended lunch break! I jest, not many people who work from remember to take a lunch break!

Organisation is the key along with a certain amount of flexibility built into your schedule of work, yes, you do need one of those if your are going to accomplish anything during the day! Having a proper designate work station is imperative in order to work efficiently. It does have to be left particularly tidy, that’s a matter of personal choice but you will need a space which does have to be cleared away because it interferes with other aspects of your life!

The are some great inspirational ideas for a wide variety of work stages to be found on interior design blog pages, probably because the people who write the posts work from home and know the necessity of such a space if you are going to be productive in what you do.

Of course the one great advantage of working from home is that you get to chose the colour scheme and style of your space! You don’t have to have drab grey filing cabinets and dingy carpets which have seen better days. You have what you want and arrange it anyway you please without falling out with a co-worker because you love having a vase of flowers near you and they suffer from an allergy to pollen!

Use Beautiful Sheer Curtains For Your Windows

Voile and sheer fabric curtains provide a stunning widow dressing

Sheer curtains such as voiles, faux silk and organza are becoming an increasingly popular choice of window dressing, replacing traditional style net curtains in many homes. These gorgeous lightweight fabrics provide the traditional privacy with a modern twist which look simply stunning in modern and contemporary styles of homes.

With the vast array of colours and designs to choose from these sheer fabrics provide an chic look to windows of all shapes and sizes. It is even possible to have these styles of curtains lined which has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages include:

Curtain always hang better when lined, the natural folds have a charming appeal which provides a real touch of elegance to a room.

A lining adds further insulation to reduce the amount of heat entering the room in the summer months, whilst also providing added insulation during the cooler months.

Reduces the possibility of people being able to see into your home when interior lighting is used at night.

Disadvantages include:

The floaty feel may be lost as the light is unable to penetrate through the fabric so intensely.

A lining will reduce the ability for you to see out through the windows during the day.

Whether you opt to use these ready made curtains lined or unlined is a matter of personal preference, if you are using them as an alternative to nets and have standard curtains to close at night the need for having them lined to prevent prying eyes because less of a necessity.

The poles or rods to use with these lightweight fabrics are also varied. From trendy cafe style poles to tension rods which require no drilling or fixing. This style of rod is perfect for those living in rented accommodation, with restrictions which stipulate that you are not permitted to drill holes in the walls!

Natural Wood Blinds Coordinate Effortlessly With Any Colour Scheme

Creating your own style within your home has to be one of the most exciting aspects of interior design! Especially as you can mix classical looks with modern styles and still arrive at a visually stunning interior.

In fact if you are on a tight budget the choices can be even more inspiring as they provide you with the opportunity to scour the high street shops or via the web to find all manner for wonder bits and pieces at really low prices which you can put together to create a stunning display area with a purpose!

Image: Absolutely Beautiful Things

Keeping with the them of small budgets wood weave style blinds or roller blinds have to be one of the most low cost window dressings you can buy. With a wonderful array of colours and styles you can select styles which blend naturally within your home’s style and décor.

Opting for a wood blind is also ideal if you want your window dressing to compliment your colour scheme, as they are the best option for coordinating quite effortlessly with any other colour. The lighter the blinds the larger the window space will appear, whereas the the deep rich mahogany colours are perfect of adding a touch of grandeur to a room.

Shop around for items which appeal to you or have a memory attached to them to really turn your house into a well loved home. Although today’s contemporary designs are predominately white without a hint of disorganisation, they can feel quite cold and uninviting if your don’t get each and every aspect of the design just right. Whereas an eclectic mix of personal items can provide a home with it’s own distinctive uniqueness and charm.

Creating Stunning Entrances With Beautiful Curtains

Making an entrance hall warm and inviting is the best way to impress style into your home sadly many of today’s modern homes in the UK do not majestic entrances with sweeping staircases, splendour and grandeur. However, this does not mean to say that you should neglect your entrance space, far from it!

This is the heavy traffic area in your home therefore you need to think carefully about the style and décor carefully. Light colours with always give the illusion of more light which is usually needed in entrances as there no windows unless the door is glass or half glass. White has to be the colour to use to bounce light around as naturally as possible. Opting for brilliant white gloss paint is ideal for this purpose and is also easy to keep clean and grubby finger mark free!

A small table with a welcoming vase of fresh flowers is the perfect way to make quests feel welcomed as well as providing you with an instant uplift each time you pass by. Popping a table lamp in a hallway will also create an ambient lighting hue during the evenings.

If you have a long narrow hall the trick is to draw the eye naturally down the narrow space by having a stunning feature at the end. If space permits a chair or two looks stunning with the continuation of the colour scheme taking the eye through and into the next living space. Replacing doors with full length ready made curtains which are swept open from the upper third and held in place with matching tie-backs, is the ideal solution to being an effective and stunning way to use space and light effectively.

Lightweight Voile Curtains – A Modern Privacy Alternative

The history of using fabric to cover window openings dates back thousands of years. In hot countries lightweight strips of naturally woven materials were used to cover window openings to reduce harsh sunlight and heat from entering the living space, they were also wetted to try and reduce humidity and keep the space even cooler.

Whilst in cooler climates thick and heavyweight fabrics were put up across window openings in an attempt to keep homes warmer and prevent draughts. This of course was in a period of history when there windows did not have glass and whilst in the modern world windows all have glass to provide security for a home in many third world countries there are many dwellings which rely solely on blinds made from the local natural resources such as bamboo or lightweight wood weave, or lengths of cloth or fabric.

Today homes in the UK have glass fitted into the window spaces, with the vast majority having double glazing to help keep homes warm and draught free. As such the type of fabrics we select for our homes as curtains do not necessarily revolve around the fabric weight.

Voile curtains are the perfect window dressing solution in modern homes

With central heating it is possible to use lightweight voiles all year round to create the interior design style we like, rather that have windows covered purely as a protection against heat loss in the winter months and heat reduction during the summer.

For most people window dressings and treatments are used to stop people from looking inside our homes and invading our privacy. Traditional net curtains are still available, however if you have a modern or contemporary interior lightweight voiles are the modern alternative which add style to your home as well as preventing others from peeping inside.

Ready Made Curtains Have Never Been More Affordable

In the world of interior design the next thing to slice bread has to be ready made curtains! Available in every colour and pattern imaginable there are also a vast array of fabrics and materials to suit traditional, modern and contemporary homes and their respective design styles impeccably.

Cream Sorrento Ready Made Curtains

Furthermore, ready made curtains have never been more affordable, as such the ability to change your curtains with the seasons has never been easier. In the spring colours which are bright and lively are ideal for rejuvenating your home and your morale! Move into the warm days and sultry nights of summer and lightweight voiles are the ideal solution to making rooms feel light and airy.

Move forward to autumn and we have the need to start looking at medium weight curtains such as Damasks and jacquards, in gorgeous autumnal rich colours which make us feel warm. Indian summer colours such as deep reds, burnt oranges teamed with indigo blues and purples are the ideal solution to keeping colours bright as winter nights draw in.

In winter the seasonal colours of red berries and deep greens look sensational when teamed with metallic gold or silver to add a rich depth to designs.

To be able to simply change your curtains each season means you will need a wall and floor colouring which blends will the wide variations. White has to be the most versatile colour, however can look stark and almost clinical, opting for ivory or creams may be a better idea or natural tones will also look effective with accent colours. Alternatively soft pastels such as pale pink, green or lilacs can look stunning when used as a base colour on walls which coordinate with the vast colour palettes of curtains and fabrics.

Inspirational Ideas To Revive Your Bathroom

Whilst many people dread the thought of winter with dropping temperatures along with dark nights and overcast days, it is the ideal opportunity to use the time to change the interior design of your home.

The credit crunch may still be affecting many people’s spending power and yet there are some wonderful inspirational ideas to lift the winter blues which can be achieved very inexpensively particularly in the room which is the smallest in most people’s home.

There is no need to rip an entire bathroom apart in order to transform it into a haven of peace and relaxation in which you can warm yourself up by soaking in a hot bath. Fundamental items can be re-vamped or replaced on a budget to bring a whole new lease of life to a tired looking bathroom.

The coloured suites which were so popular in the 1970’s have virtually disappeared from people’s home and the trend for white bathroom suites has seen a revival. The styles of baths has also been re-vamped with free standing baths top of the list for traditional and contemporary homes.

However, if you still have a coloured bathroom suite and do not have the budget to replace it, you can use it to your advantage by simply opting for colours on the walls, floor and window dressing for an instant uplift.

Blue Salina Roller Blind

Swap curtains for new roller blinds in sherbet colours which coordinate with the colour of your bathroom suite. Adding a patterned roller blind will also make a huge difference to the look of your bathroom. Retro patterns may be the ideal solutions for uplifting your bathroom and giving it a new lease of life in a trendy way!