Basic Interior Designs

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In designing homes for women, time is of the essence. A home’s features should consider that women need to conserve time and energy when doing household chores. For example, a laundry shoot in a multi-level house is indeed a great convenience. Instead of hauling clothes and bed sheets up and down the house, why not just dump them in a shoot that leads straight to the laundry room? Instead of putting carpet in areas with high foot traffic, why not use hardwood or tiles? It is faster to clean them and dirt does not show easily. Another modern convenience would be a built-in vacuum cleaner especially for big houses, where the vacuum mechanisms are stationary and can be connected to different outlets in the house.

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Produce a “main attraction” in any room. Whoever comes into that room is drawn to that particular feature which makes him/her comfortable.

• Use the correct fabric for your purpose. Curtains should be made of light or sheer materials to allow light to penetrate to the room and not wool or velvet. Sturdy textile is commonly used for furniture upholstery. But learn also how to combine prints to create a soothing appeal.
• Utilize any available storage space to prevent clutter.
• Have an aptitude for seasonal decorating. There is an appropriate decor for the different seasons. The most cheerful of which is the season of Christmas where all sorts and sizes and color of decors are available. Choose what types of decor are suited to your room or house both inside and out. It’s also nice to add your personal touch and quirky humor to the accessories in your home.
• Choose the color that best reflects you. Or the color that makes you comfortable. Your trim and ceiling color should be of the same color to have a smooth flow from one room to the next. The hallway is one area that you can paint in any bold or daring color. Test paint colors before painting them on the wall.
• Tear out wall papers and borders to start anew.
• Find alternative china pieces to complete your tableware set.
• Hang curtains on your windows to emphasize it.
• To have more impact, group family pictures together.
• Provide adequate lighting to your room or house because it gives character to a place.

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.

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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

by: Larla

We all have a junk drawer, a place where we just stuff everything from receipts, coins, pens or anything that could fit in.

At one point, we might be looking for something but couldn’t find it anymore because of the pile of junk inside the drawer. If that happens, then it’s probably the best time to clean up that drawer.

You need to visualize what you would want your drawer to contain. It can just be important documents, old receipts, keys. You can put other things as well as long as it does not look cluttered.

First, remove all the contents and throw out those that are of no use anymore (old batteries, pens with no inks) or things that have their own places but were just stuffed in the drawer.

Sort the contents by finding small compartments/ dividers where you can still put them in your drawer but in an organize way.

Make it a habit to clean up your drawer at least once a month so nothing gets lost and keep the contents in order.

If you do it correctly, wall art or framed photographs can change the entire look of a room.  As a general rule of thumb, pictures should be placed just above eye level, where “eye leve” is determined according to the use of the room.  For instance, if you’re placing the picture in the living room where people are usually seated, eye level should be from a sitting position.

As to how the wall art should be arranged, decide on the area you want people to focus on.  Placing a group of photos on a wall creates an interesting focal point in a room, but this requires more planning.  Arrange the photos out on the floor before placing anything on the wall. This way you can decide on the arrangement without leaving any holes or marks on your wall.

Before you undertake any major design project, you need to make an accurate floor plan.  It’s important that you define your space and know its limitations before you place furniture or move things around.  To make a floor plan, measure your living area including doors, windows, closets, and electrical outlets.  It’s important that your measurements are very accurate, or else your floor plan won’t be very helpful.  Once you’re done taking measurements, transfer the measurements to a rough draft sketch.  Make copies of the finished space so you don’t need to re-draw the basics if you make a mistake rearranging the furniture.

DIY home decorating not only helps you cut costs drastically - it’s a very satisfying and fulfilling project. In order to get things efficiently and properly, you need to have the right tools for the job.  Here are some of the basic tools that you will need for any decorating project you might undertake.

For hanging things, you will need thumb tacks, push pins, sewing machine needles, picture wire, and plastic anchors.

For attaching things, get a glue gun and glue sticks, rubber bands, a staple gun and staples, spray adhesive, starch, fabric glue, and needles and thread.

For cutting things, you need sharp fabric scissors, utility scissors, a box cutter, and a light handsaw if you want to do some woodwork.

For measuring things, invest in a tape measure, T-square, or yardstick.

Store your tools in a toolbox and consider getting a step tool and caddy to organize your materials better and make them easy to carry around.

For a different take on adding life to your walls, try covering the walls using fabric instead of wallpaper!  It works a lot just like wallpapering except you’ll be using starch to stick the fabric, allowing you to remove it easily and reuse.

Before you undertake this task, decide which wall you’d like to cover in fabric.  You can either cover the whole room, or only half a wall then apply a border trim.  You might also want to use the fabric to create a wall mural, or make a collage of color and place a decorative frame around it.

Depending on your tastes, fabric could either be very cheap or very expensive, but this can be fixed by shopping at clearance sales or discount fabric stores.  The good thing about using fabric to cover your wall is that once you remove it, all you have to do is wash it before reusing it for another craft project.

Whether you choose to cover your entire bedroom’s wall or only a part of it, you’ll definitely love how fabric looks just like actual wallpaper, without its permanence.

Choosing and blending colors might be confusing for some, but here’s a quick way for you to decide on a color scheme for your home: pick, see, and LMD.

First, pick a pattern from any object that you have, such as a pillowcase or a piece of furniture. Use the pattern as the basis for the color palette you intend to use for the rest of the room.

Next, see three colors.  Select a light, medium, and dark color (LMD) from your chosen pattern to serve as your foundation.  To make the task easier, head over to the hardware store and ask for paint chips that will match your pattern that you can bring around when you shop for furniture.

Finally, the way you use light, medium, and dark colors affect the overall atmosphere and appearance of your room. A light background is the easiest to pull off since there are more colors that will match it.  The medium color of furniture, curtains, and windows will blend easily with a light background.  Finally, use dark colors on accessories. Since the eye is usually drawn to darker colors, arrange the accessories in such a way that they serve as the focal point of the room.