Basic Interior Designs

French Country style of decorating is a look that is rustic, old-world and welcoming. It’s one of the most popular styles of interior design. If you want to capture the look of French Country in your home, here are some tips:

vibrant colors that follow the vivid tones of the country’s landscape, like red, yellow and gold, blue and green are most often used.
French Country style uses a lot of natural materials, such as solid wood, stone floors and wrought iron. Dark woods that are low-gloss and natural looking, or pieces that have been stripped and painted off white or soft green are often used.
Animals, especially roosters, are a recurring design motif in French Country, and can adorn fabric, wallpaper or accessories.
Toile is the fabric most often used in French Country, as well as fabrics with striped, checked, floral and printed designs.
Flowers, especially lavender, provide the perfect finishing accessory to any French Country home.

Image Source:www.oregonbuild.net
An interior decorating project will be much more successful if you pay attention to a few key guidelines.  Once you know the basics of interior design you can create rooms that really work.
Have you ever walked into a room that was full of nice things but just didn’t “feel” quite right?  The chances are that the person who decorated that room might have great taste but simply did not know the basics of interior design. 

Many people fall into this category but you don’t have to be one of them. 

Most of us know what we like but just have no idea how to pull it all together to create a warm and inviting room when interior decorating.  We are giving you a mini course on interior design which will help you make more informed decision with your home decor.  You will learn the basics of interior decorating and gain the confidence to take great decorating ideas and use them together to create one cohesive look.

Remember, when decorating you should enjoy the journey and not see it as a task to be accomplished.  When starting an interior decorating project remember to keep it fun!  While learning the “rules” of interior design is important, you must always keep in mind that your interiors should reflect your lifestyle and tastes. 

• proportion
• balance
• contrast
• Rhythm
• Harmony
• Pattern and Texture

In Feng Shui, an area is divided into 8 areas that deal with living: North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. The North deals with success in your business or career. The South deals with your reputation. The East deals with health. The West deals with your children. The Northeast deals with knowledge. The Northwest deals with travel and helpful people. The Southeast deals with wealth and the Southwest deals with relationships. By placing the right objects at the right place, the area will be activated and it will bring effects that depend on whether or not the objects are compatible with the area. There are a lot of information about these; just Google “Feng Shui” and you will learn a lot of helpful tips to make use of this ancient art of interior decoration.

Have you ever tried some Feng Shui in your house? If not, you better! According to practitioners, it creates spaces that maximize the opportunities and promote the wellbeing of the inhabitants. It promotes abundance, success in careers and undertakings, sustains loving relationships, improves physical, emotional, and mental health, builds self-esteem and expands influence. By careful picking and placing of objects and choosing the color, design, shape and texture, you could manipulate the universal forces called Chi so that it would give the effect that you would want in an area. The area in turn gives an influence to the inhabitants. Why not try it out: perhaps it would give you luck or not, but you could be sure that it would challenge you and give a pleasing look to your home.

If you’re dissatisfied with the space in your home, you could do a little modification here and there without taking your room apart and rebuilding it. A cheap method to do this is using color. You could expand space by painting your room with pale colors. You could use glossy paint to make your room appear wider. Also, strong patterns create a direction so you could use these to lengthen your room. If you want to narrow down a room you could use strong dark colors. Add a stripe of contrasting color to make it appear smaller. Use non-shiny paint as well.

Colors can do wonders to your home. It is the least expensive decorating tool and it can do a lot of things. By painting the ceiling and walls differently, your room will shrink in size. You could enlarge a small room by putting lighter toned colors. You could make a long narrow room short by painting one end a darker tone than the side walls. You could widen a narrow room by painting one side wall lighter than the other and using lighting on that side. By using green and blue, you will make a room feel cool and calm while red, yellow and orange will make a room feel warm and exciting. These are only a few of the things that color can do so find out more about how to make color work for you.

How you arrange your furniture and things makes the difference between a lame room and a lovely room. Avoid a messy look by keeping taller furniture at about the same height. See to it that the tops of bookcases and cabinets align. Group the furniture according to size and make sure that they go along well. For example, it doesn’t look good if you pair a tall chair with a low table. Distribute your furniture properly by putting the largest on the longest wall. You could keep large units parallel to walls to save space. Allow easy access from one area to another and keep from placing unnecessary furniture which eat up space. By keeping the right amount of right-sized furniture at the right spaces, you would see a brand new room shine before your eyes.

There are many reasons why you may wish to renovate and redecorate your house. It may be because your lifestyle has changed and you want your home to reflect that: perhaps you’ve gotten a big salary, your children have left home, you are widowed or divorced, or you just want to spice things a bit. No matter why, there are lots of ways on how to do it. But first, have a meeting and get every one’s opinions if you are not the only one living in the house. As much as possible, agree on the color schemes, furnishing and how much you are going to spend. List what you have and think about what to keep and what to give away. There is no end to the things you can do so have fun!

Save on payments to an interior designer; do the designing yourself! There are plenty of information and inspiration available to you: take a walk in the park, visit designer homes, go to museums or exhibits and take a look at pictures in the glossies. You could also browse online sites for tips and trivia. You could ask advice from people like those who work in paint stores, fabric shops, wallpaper outlets, picture framers and furniture makers. You could also seek pointers from artists, photographers, designers and others in the art business. Or interview those who build and design houses themselves. So what are you waiting for? Have fun exploring!

Want to make your house look like the ones they show on MTV? You can! If you have the knack of finding interesting items, an eye for color and design and a playful imagination, you would have your dream home in no time. Do your homework. Learn and apply the rules in decorating homes and be your own interior designer. Learn how to assess space. Discover the effects of color and lighting on areas of your house. Know how certain items and materials make certain effects. Shop around for materials that will suit the style in your mind. Don’t be afraid to explore, after all, it’s your home!