Tag Archives: living room

Ideas to Help You Whip up a Fantastic New Living Room

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moderne Wohnzimmer VisualisierungYour living room is looking a little… dated, isn’t it? The paint isn’t quite as bright and lustrous as it once was, and the room in general is just a bit tired and worn down. That’s what “living” will do to a room!

Well, here we are, and we are here to help. Here is part one of our massive horde of ideas which will help you to create a new and wonderful living space in which you can feel truly comfortable relaxing, spending time with the family, or unwinding in front of the television.

Here we go!

Pretty in Pink

If you happen to have a good mix of antiques in the home, or if your furniture is leaning more towards the rustic end of the spectrum, then you will want to paint your living room in a nice, warm shade.

A lilac shade will be just perfect for a country chic look – think antiqued wooden pieces and fabric furniture covers.

Pair Blues with Greens

We all know that we should be mixing up our patterns and textures if we are looking to create something truly special, but most of us tend to stick to just the one colour. If you really want to create some wow factor, however, you should spice it up even more: go for both blues and greens.

These two colours will bring out a marine sort of feeling in the living room; capitalise on this and add some seaside aesthetic, such as the occasional conch shell or even a nice fish tank!

Mix the Old with the New

Country modern is a fantastic fusion of two very distinct styles, that somehow manages to work as greater than the sum of its parts. Neutral colours work the best here – beiges and creams on the walls – alongside rough fabric covers on the sofa and chairs.

The way to mix the two together is simple: you want one focal piece from each of them. One particularly effective focal piece from the “country” half is a traditional fireplace, so if you’ve got it, flaunt it! Then think about a coffee table for the “modern” counterpart: burnished steel or glass does the trick. Experiment!

Mellow Yellow

If your living room is not fortunate enough to receive a great deal of sunlight, there are a few options you can choose from to help alleviate that situation. The first is to play around with mirrors: arguably the best way is to install a large feature mirror on the wall across from the main window.

A nicer – and “sunnier” – method is to paint the room in bright yellow shades. And so that you don’t go entirely overboard, think about pairing that with a deep red carpet, or with red-varnished wooden flooring.

DIY Tips: What You Need to Know When Moving Into Your First House

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So you’ve just bought your very first house! Congratulations – assuming all goes well, this will be one of the most exciting times of your life! But how do you go about filling your new home with love? How do you go about deciding on a theme, or furniture? How do you budget? Read on for our simple guide to decorating your first house. Take a look at this link for painting materials to help you get started.

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  • If you’re moving in with someone else, and living with someone else for the first time, it’s really important that you take into account each other’s tastes. You will have to compromise and there might be some things in the house that you don’t like, but that’s all part and parcel of living with someone else. If you’re living alone, you can go all out with your own tastes – just make sure that you don’t go too over the top as you still want people to feel comfortable when they come to your house!
  • Think about your tastes – what do you like, what do you dislike, which kind of colours, patterns and textures inspire you? When you go to a hotel, what do you like about the decor? If you think it would help, make yourself a mood board and refer back to it when you’re shopping. Include colours, textures and patterns that you like.
  • If you have the space for it, put in a guestroom. If you can’t put in a full guestroom, at least have a guestbed somewhere – either in your home office, or even something like a Z-bed or sofa bed would do the job. Just in case your mum, dad or sister wants to spend the night!
  • If you’re trying to stick to a budget and don’t have anything to start with, concentrate on the essentials. You’ll need things you’ve probably never even thought about – wooden spoons, a colander, a soap dish, plenty of hangers, so make a shopping list and think about all of the things you genuinely need. If you’re unsure about the kind of things you need and you’re moving out of your parent’s house, walk around and take notes of everything in their house that you use every day or every week..
  • Don’t be afraid to experiment. After all, it’s your first house, and so you need to make a real impact. Whether you want to go wild with colour or crazy with fabrics, it’s always worth doing something just a little bit different. If you want to be bold, use colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel and if you want to be subtle, go for tonal colours that blend together. Don’t underestimate the impact that a framed poster can have, too – if you’re a fan of The Godfather for example, pop a film poster into a chunky black frame for a chic accessory that says “I’m a grown up” rather than “I’m a student”.

DIY Tips: How to Make a Large Room Cosy

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Small rooms are notoriously tricky to decorate – but larger rooms can be even more so. Too much furniture and the room will look like a junk stop. Too little and it’ll look like an empty loft space – so it’s really important that you get the balance right. Follow the interior design tips below for making a large room look cosy and take a look at this link for painting and wall covering supplies to help you achieve the space of your dreams.

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  • Divide the space up into zones, so that the room doesn’t look like one big space. Instead, it should look like a number of smaller rooms without walls within the same area. Try freestanding shelving units as they’re a brilliant way to divide up the space, or use visual elements like different flooring or colours on the walls or even different lighting to divide the space. In a lounge, a sofa can act as a divide between two spaces – whatever the divide, it doesn’t have to be huge.
  • Give the space unity. When choosing furniture, make sure that it’s all the same colour and tone, and where possible, if you’re trying to create a feeling of coziness, use chunky wooden pieces. If you want to make the room look cosy, it’s important to fill it with large pieces of furniture that complement the space and the dimensions of the room – smaller pieces of furniture will just get swallowed up and will look a bit silly. Look for warmer colours and if you do want to use a neutral colour like beige, make sure that you choose a colour that is really warm and steer away from clinical whites and ice blues.
  • Add a focal point. The easiest way to make a room look cosy is to add a focal point – but please, please make sure that you don’t use your TV! The absolute best choice would be a real fire, but if it wouldn’t like right in your room, fake it by adding a modern electronic fire that hangs on the wall.
  • Look for wallpapers with textures and warm colours. Look for textures such as slightly embossed papers or flock papers with a velvety feel as they really help to make the space feel warmer.
  • To make a ceiling look lower and to make the room feel slightly smaller, paint it a shade or two darker than the walls. It won’t really be that noticeable to the naked eye, but it’ll trick your senses and will make the ceiling look slightly lower, emphasising the feeling of coziness.
  • Remember that you can get away with virtually any colour in a large space – don’t be afraid to splash some paint around. Deep red always looks beautiful with polished oak floors and beams, but you could use sage green, duck egg, zingy yellow or a deep aubergine hue instead and they’d all look fantastic.

Source: UKTV Home

DIY Tips: Key Living Room Trends for 2014

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This year, we’re seeing some fabulous new living room trends. Here, we tell you what’s in, what’s not and how to achieve the look in your very own home. Read on for some of the hottest trends and take a look at this link for painting and decorating materials to help you get the job done.

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Art Deco

Inspired by glamorous Hollywood homes of the 1920s, art deco is one of the biggest and boldest trends of 2014. Floorboards should be stained dark brown or even black – for this look, the darker the floorboards the better. Look for geometric print fabrics on cushions and chairs, or for geometric-shaped ornaments. Key colours include grey, mustard and turquoise and for fabrics, look for natural materials. Metallic furniture or fabrics with a slight sheen also work well with this look.

Mad Men

This trend is totally inspired by Mad Men. Keep flooring or carpets dark brown in colour and paint walls a rich, bright yellow – not too muddy and not too mustardy. Add beech furniture and look for pieces with either tapered legs or gently curving edges. Grey works well with the yellow and brown hues, so look for grey sofas and chairs. Finish the look off with plenty of cushions in a range of geometric patterns and for fun, add a starburst or mosaic mirror to one wall.

Oatmeal

Pared-back style is big news for 2014, so choose a range of au-naturel colours and fabrics for a subtle, stylish look. Choose oatmeal-coloured fabrics made from all-natural fibres and look for plenty of contrasting textures – they help to add richness and depth to a room without making it look too fussy. Look for striped linen cushions in neutral hues, and complete the look using plenty of chunky wooden furniture, wicker baskets and if you like, by adding a few contrasting colours – sage green and pale duck egg blue work particularly well in this kind of look when teamed with the oatmeal.

Super Pale Pastels

Pastels can look a little bit too sugary-sweet, but if you choose pastels that are very, very pale, they’ll look just right. Look for the lightest blush of pink, the palest baby blue and the creamiest shades of beige then complete the look with touches of natural wood and the merest hint of copper. Very pale grey also looks wonderful. Try not to interfere with these colors too much – only a little bit of pattern is needed as if you use too much, the whole room will look entirely overdone.

Victoriana

This modern take on antique chic uses pared-back, minimalist furniture and quirky, Victorian-inspired accessories and paintings. Frame your favourite modernist images in a golden gilded frame, and add cushions patterned with stopwatches and top hats. Use luxurious fabrics to contrast with the minimalist furniture and finish the look with the requisite decorative globes or an old-fashioned telephone or two.

Source: UKTV Home

 

DIY Tips: 4 Easy Ways to Update Your Living Room

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Want to update your living room? You can totally change the look of a room in just a day by following these decorating tips. Take a look at the tips below to transform your living space and check out this link for painting and wallpapering supplies to help you get the job done.

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Choose a Fabric You Love

The easiest way to come up with a colour palette for your living room is to keep your eye out for a fabric or a pattern that you love. Maybe you’ve spotted a cushion that you really love, or you’ve found a decoration or mirror that you like. Whatever it is – or whatever the fabric – buy it. You can figure out how to use it later on – whether you turn it into curtains, cushions, pillows or a throw. Whatever you choose, it’ll form the basis of your decor and you can easily pull colours from it to create a theme.

Dress Up the Room with Pattern

Patterned fabrics are an easy and effective way to dress up any space. Use patterned fabrics to cover pillows, cushions or even an entire sofa. Cover panels of a screen with patterned fabric to introduce pattern to your room – and if you change your mind, you can just re-cover it or put the screen into a different room. It’s a great way to experiment with pattern without using patterned wallpaper. If you’re wary of florals or flocks, experiment using stripes instead – they’re geometric, graphic and very modern, a fantastic way to pull colours together without overwhelming the room with pattern.

Make sure that you consider scale when you’re using patterns. Large scale patterns can add dimension when you use them on just one area of the room, like an armchair or on one feature wall. In a very small living room though, large pattern on all of the rooms will simply dwarf the space. Small patterns, on the other hand, can make a larger room seem a little cosier, so they’re great for use in large spaces or if you want to add a delicate look to an armchair or set of cushions.

Add New Textures

One of the easiest ways to revamp the whole look and feel of a room is to use lots of different textures. Soft, strokable faux fur throws are a brilliant way to add a homely feel to a room, while suede, leather, oak, sheepskins and silks are all really lovely, too. Layers of different textures will add interest to the space, and the more luxurious textures you have in the room, the more luxurious the space will feel.

Make Sure Everything Works Together

When you’ve introduced your new textures, colours, fabrics and accessories, take a step back and look at the room objectively. Do all of the patterns work together? Have you used too many accessories? For your room to look fabulous, it needs to have balance – not too much of one colour, not too much of one pattern, and not too much of one fabric. Remember that less is usually more, so if you need to, break up large blocks of colour or textures by using neutral tones and use things like your sofa or your dining table as a canvas for colourful or patterned accessories – the neutral tones of the sofa will be the perfect backdrop to your patterned cushions.

Source: BBC

DIY Tips: What to Think About When Buying Living Room Furniture

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Planning to revamp your living room? The first place you’ll probably start will be your furniture. But it can be quite tricky to work out which furniture best works for your space and how to choose pieces that work well with your existing scheme. Take a look at our furniture buying guide to find out more, and check this link for hiring furniture if you’re kitting out a rental or student house.

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What’s Your Style?

Think about your ideal living room. Would it be minimalist and pristine with white, high gloss furniture? Warm and cosy with plenty of light oak furniture? Or is deep, dark wood more your thing? Once you’ve figured out your ideal, think about what would actually be practical for your home. If you’re completely overhauling your decor, a matching set of coffee tables, cabinets, television units and bureaus will instantly set a new style tone. But if you’re just doing a mini-makeover, look for pieces of furniture in the same tone as your existing pieces and add excitement with one “wowza” piece – in your lounge, that could be a couch or chair in a stunning fabric, a mirrored nest of tables or an antique oak bookcase. Painted furniture works really well too with a range of styles.

Check the Fit Before You Buy

Before you buy, measure up the furniture and make sure that it’ll fit in your lounge. This sounds obvious, but many people fall in love with a piece of furniture in the shop – only for it to not fit properly in the space that they have. Think about how the furniture will work for you and whether it will compromise the storage space you have. Coffee tables with drawers are always more practical than those without, although if yours doesn’t have drawers, make sure that you choose one that can fit a stylish storage box or two underneath. And if you’re unsure of the space? Create a newspaper template and drop it on the floor where you plan to put the furniture. That way, you can see how much space it’ll take up and how it’ll fit into your room.

Finally, make sure that any assembled furniture can fit into your home – it’s also worth checking the dimensions of flat pack furniture, particularly if you have a narrow hallway or any awkward bends.

What to Look For In-Store

If you’re buying furniture that has been built in-store, check over it before you take it home. Open doors and drawers and make sure that the sides match the fronts. Ensure that the doors hang evenly, check that the back panels are not made of thin boarding as they could crack easily, press on drawer bases to make sure that they’re strong and sturdy and pull them out to make sure that they run smoothly. Look for metal runners rather than plastic. Finally, for bookcases and tables, make sure that they’re strong and put together sturdily.

Source: 4Homes