Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Monday, 22 June 2015
How to Decorate a Small Spare Room
“What do you do with that small spare room, the one that’s not quite big enough to be a full-size bedroom? Often this room is used as a child’s room or a home office (often with an awkward furniture arrangement). Sometimes it becomes a dumping ground for extra stuff. Here, design professionals offer advice on getting the most from these tricky spaces.
- Letiche Black of Amberth
- Diana Greenhalgh of My Bespoke Room
- Charlotte Ford of Cotton Tree Interiors
Play with reflections. This is a classic trick and one that can be invaluable in a tiny room, especially when it’s a well-used living space. “Add mirrors to help expand the space, creating an illusion that the space expands beyond the room,” Letiche Black of Amberth says.
Directing a mirror toward the view beyond the window can increase this effect, adding an airy feel as well as an optical illusion.
Give it a purpose. In many cases the difficulties in decorating a spare room — the room you wouldn’t be sure whether to count as a bedroom or a study if you were selling your home — stem from the ambiguity of the space.
“One challenge clients often face is to know what the room’s function is,” says Charlotte Ford of Cotton Tree Interiors. “They are often unsure of what it should be used for.” It can also be tricky to create sufficient storage and give a dinky space a focal point.
Ford suggests furnishing a guest bedroom with a daybed. “The room can then be used as a private study the rest of the time but still look stylish,” she says. “Your daybed can be dressed up with cushions and pretty throws when it’s not being used.”
Color with care. “Once you know how the space will be used,” Black says, “you can start thinking about colors and whether you will opt for a darker shade for a more intimate feel, or brighter tones for a more open, airy approach.”
If your spare room is blessed with an abundance of natural light, paint it white to boost the airy effect and eliminate any cooped-up feeling. Keeping furniture and decor pared down and using pieces you can see through will add to the free-flowing feel.
But if you’re dealing with a windowless or dark room, it will never look light. White paint in this situation risks appearing gray and dull — so go the other way with a bold, moody or quirky look.
Embrace maximalist decor. “Small spaces make great areas in which to be more creative,” Ford says. “Go overboard with wallpaper and cover all the walls — even have the same design on the curtains.”
Spare rooms are often used as kids’ rooms. This space also shows how nicely bunk beds can boost the usage of space in a small area.
“It’s all about fitting everything you need into a small space without impacting on how you physically move around the room,” says Diana Greenhalgh of My Bespoke Room.
Focus on the features. “Embrace original features, which will add depth to the space,” Black says. Here, though the fireplace takes up space, it adds visual interest, making this little living room feel substantial rather than appear to be a featureless little box.
Note, too, how effective that large mantelpiece mirror is at seemingly expanding the room’s dimensions. Skipping window treatments, if you can, will also keep a small room feeling more open. If you have good-looking windows such as these, all the more reason to keep them bare.
Get on up. Greenhalgh advises using the space in a spare room vertically as well as horizontally. “Keep the larger surface area of the bed near the top of the room so you have more free floor space,” she says.
JADO DECOR PTY LTD
Pimp out your storage. Built-in storage — if you can squeeze it in — is a fantastic way to pack extra space into a tiny bedroom. Adding a wall of mirrored doors takes the humble fitted wardrobe to a whole new level in this small sleep space, exploiting Black’s mirror trick to the max. The black and white striped rug provides another optical illusion, appearing to stretch the floor away from the bed.
Round things out. “Try to understand exactly how you will use the space and design around that, defining each area with real purpose,” Black says. “A round table in a corner works well in a square room. Not only will it fit neatly, it will help to create a better flow within the space.”
Downsize your bed. To make the most of the space, use appropriately sized furniture and try not to overcrowd the room, Ford says. If you can’t comfortably fit a double bed into the room, go smaller.
Cabbages & Roses Ltd
Hang it up. “If there really isn’t space for a wardrobe,” Ford says, “think about using some decorative hooks and lovely fabric hangers, just enough for a guest to hang one or two items.” She also suggests choosing a bed with a base so that suitcases and other bulky items can be hidden beneath it.
Dig in. When you don’t have the luxury of being able to encroach on the livable space in a room with protruding shelves, why not dig into a wall to create storage niches? Here, architectural interest has been added too, which, as Black has suggested, creates depth in rooms that can otherwise be featureless.
Do get an expert to check out your walls first to see whether they’re suitable, as this won’t work on every type.
Employ the “two’s company” rule. A home study or office can be a fantastic way to make the most of a spare room. But to avoid feeling cramped while you work, Greenhalgh advises, use two full walls but leave the others completely free. “This balances functionality and ergonomics,” she says. “The desk should also be positioned at the small end to create the feel you’re lengthening the space.”
Create a feature wall. Black explains why carefully positioned wallpaper in a square space is such a clever trick. “It focuses the eye to one particular wall, drawing you into the space and changing how you see the shape of the room,” she says.
Claire Stevens Interior Design
Add depth. Finding the right colors for the walls in a small bedroom can be challenging, as you try to inject depth into the room, Black says. In an otherwise plain room, details such as a striking landscape painting that draws you toward a point in the distance, and structurally interesting shutters, as seen here, can create a sense of depth where there was none.
The challenge of these rooms, Black says, is that “you have to consciously think about every little detail, as the space won’t give any natural clues.”
Choose clever furniture. Not only should you consider choosing downsized versions of regular furniture to make more of a little room, Greenhalgh says, but you should also seek out furniture that does more than one thing.
This narrow bed is also a desk, a shelf and a bedside perch, and it houses a spare bed as well.”
How to Decorate a Small Spare Room
Friday, 19 June 2015
FACT: The meaning behind “turning the tables on someone" read more..
“
According the Oxford English Dictionary, if you “turn the tables” on someone, it is generally understood that you have reversed the fortunes in your favor to some capacity, so as to “reverse one’s position relative to someone else, especially by turning a position of disadvantage into one of advantage.” Useful saying, especially for motivational halftime speeches at sporting events, but where does it come from?
Believe it or not, from board games!
Backgammon and similar games belong to a class of board games referred to as “tables,” a general name given to games played on a board with dice. If the game wasn’t going in your favor, you would have to “turn” them, figuratively, if you wanted to win. You can’t actually “turn the tables” in a game of backgammon, although that would be nice. The phrase is a metaphor, a substitute for the common idea of a “comeback,” because you would have to reverse the board/the players’ current positions/situations in order to change the outcome.
While not as directly relevant to the meaning of the phrase in today’s language, there’s also a hint of this phrase, at least in terms of the words themselves, found amongst old-school dinner party procedures. To prevent anyone from being excluded from conversation, the host would choose a direction (typically the right) and speak with the person to that side of him/her. Everyone else was to follow suit, until the host “turned the tables” halfway through the meal, at which point everyone then switched their focus to the person on the opposite side.
”
FACT: The meaning behind “turning the tables on someone" read more..
Thursday, 18 June 2015
Wednesday, 17 June 2015
Monday, 15 June 2015
Top Apps for Home Decor and Design
“Gone are the days when we used to cut out pictures from interior design magazines and filed them away for future use. Today, technology has invaded nearly every aspect of our lives, including home décor and design. So whether you are buying furniture for your living room, choosing paint colors for your dining room, or simply looking for ideas to do up your kid’s room, you can rely on technology to help you achieve the best possible results.
Here are some of the top apps in the home decor and design space today. Don’t forget to check them out before you plan your next home renovation project!
Color Smart
Want to paint your bedroom in the colors of the painting you fell in love with, but not sure how it will look on your walls? Simply click a photo of the room and upload it on the free Color Smart app (available on both iOS and Android), and the app will come up with a color scheme for you based on the image. What’s more, you can also apply colors to the photo of the room you wish to paint so that you can see how it looks with the new colors.
Houzz
Looking for inspiration to do up the rooms of your new home? The Houzz app (available on both iOS and Android for free), with its hundreds of thousands of photos of nearly every type of room and product, is just what the doctor ordered. The app also includes a directory of architects, designers and contractors in your area.
Snapshop
Ever bought a piece of furniture only to realize that it doesn’t go along well with the rest of your home décor? Say goodbye to such problems with the free Snapshop iPhone app, which uses augmented reality to help you visualize furniture in any room you choose. All you need to do is hold up your phone and drag and drop furniture from the app’s catalog so that it appears as if it is in your room. You can even click a photo and share it with your friends via email.
Mark On Call
Planning to remodel your home yourself? Use the Mark On Call app from famous interior designer, Mark Lewison, to play around with your floor plans. Not only does it replicate actual measurements, it also allows you to take photos of finishes, fabrics, countertops or flooring so that you can skin them onto virtual surfaces to see whether they look good together or not. It is available on both iOS and Android platforms.
Homestyler
The Autodesk Homestyler, available on both iOS and Android, is a one-stop solution to most common design concerns that homemakers have. This free app allows users to snap pictures of rooms and place high quality 3D models of real furniture in them, hang light fixtures from the virtual ceilings, or add paintings and mirrors to the walls. You can also browse the Design Stream for inspiration, share your favorite designs with friends and family on Facebook and via email, and connect with professional designers in your area.”
Top Apps for Home Decor and Design
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)