HOW TO DECORATE NEW HOME OR ARE REDESIGNING AND DECORATING A ROOM?

HOW TO DECORATE NEW HOME OR ARE REDESIGNING AND DECORATING A ROOM?

WHERE DO I START?

Whether you’ve moved into a new home or are redesigning and decorating a room in your existing home, planning your scheme step by step gives you the best chance of making it a success. Whichever room you’re thinking about, there are some key points you need to consider before you get going.

THINK ABOUT DIRECTION

The direction a room faces has an important effect on the amount and type of light it gets and the mood this creates. Bear this in mind when considering your colour scheme.

NORTH-FACING ROOM

A north-facing room is light-starved and the light it gets is cool. You can enliven a dark, north-facing room by using light, warm shades of colour.

SOUTH-FACING ROOM

Rooms facing south may be ﬂooded with light and the quality of light is warm. You can temper a very bright, sunny room by using cool colours.

EAST-FACING ROOM

This is ﬂooded with sunlight in the morning but tonally cooler in the afternoon. Your colours need to work in both environments, so compare the effect of the changing light.

WEST-FACING ROOM

This is tonally cooler in the morning than in the afternoon. Again, your chosen colours need to suit both kinds of light.

Flooded with light A south-facing room is bathed in warm light throughout the day. Using cool colours as your basis offsets this to create a clean, sleek, fresh feel. You could go supercool with white walls and ﬂoors and cream furniture and accessories.

CONSIDER TIME OF DAY

What time of day do you usually use the room and, therefore, how do you want it to “feel”? Consider this when planning your colours—walls, ﬂoors, furniture, and accessories.

MORNING

If it’s a room you principally use in the morning, you may wish to decorate it so that it feels bright and invigorating.

Morning colours Experiment with swatches of colour that feel invigorating—colours that encourage you to wake up and welcome the day.

EVENING

If it’s a room you use to relax in the evening, you might want it to feel soothing and calming. It may not see much natural light, so consider the effect of electric lights on your colours.

Evening colours You may wish to consider calming, restful colours that will help to create an environment in which you can unwind

DAY AND NIGHT

If the room is used in the day and evening, choose colours that will ensure that the room feels comfortable at all times.

Day and night colours Compare versatile colours that will enable you to achieve the feel you want at all times of the day and compare how the colours react to the changing light.

ASSESS PROPORTIONS

This will help you to decide not only how to decorate your room, but also what you can do to inﬂuence how large or small the room feels. Good proportions aren’t just about high ceilings or generous width and length—large, sparsely dressed windows in a smaller room can also contribute to how spacious the room feels.

Deepen and widen Make a narrow, low-ceilinged room feel wide and bright by keeping both your ﬂooring and walls a light colour.

Widen Make a small, low-ceilinged room seem wider by matching a dark ﬂoor with a light-coloured ceiling and surrounding walls.

Narrow and make taller A low-ceilinged, wide space that lacks unity can be made to feel narrower, taller, and more cohesive with dark opposing walls and a light ﬂoor and ceiling

Narrow and deepen You can make a bright, large impersonal space feel warmer and more contained with a light ﬂoor and ceiling and dark-coloured walls.

Widen and lower A large, lofty room can be made to feel cozy and more intimate with a dark ﬂoor and ceiling and light-coloured walls.

Narrow, deepen, and lower Make a large, low-ceilinged room feel cosy and intimate by matching a dark ﬂoor and walls with a light-coloured ceiling.

COMBINE COLORS

Your colour choice will be based on the direction, use, and proportions of your room, but it’s your combination of colours that will enable you to achieve the balance you desire.

LIGHT TO BOLD

Light, cool colours make a room feel more spacious, but can also make it seem less inviting. So for a small, north-facing room with cream walls and light-coloured neutral furnishings, add an injection of extra interest with a bold-coloured rug.

BOLD TO LIGHT

Warm, deep colors make a room feel welcoming, but can also make it feel smaller. So take a large, south-facing room and treat it to bold, dark walls, but temper this with white or neutral ﬂooring and cool, stylish furniture, perhaps with some textural interest.

Light-coloured walls can make a space feel larger.

Bold walls make a room feel cosy and welcoming.

Neutral floors complement the light-coloured walls.

Understated floors offset the darker walls.

Bold accessories add interest and warmth.

Cool accessories keep the room feeling fresh.

CREATE A FOCAL POINT

Nominating a feature within a room to be the focal point will help you to bring your scheme together. The focus may be an obvious feature that’s part of the existing architecture of the room, or something that you create yourself to draw the eye and anchor the room. You can create or enhance a focal point in a number of ways, some of which are shown below.

Embellish The existing ﬁreplace surround is further highlighted by dramatic art and impressive artefacts.

Construct The dark-coloured panel and large ornate mirror bring the focal point of the room to the stylish bathtub, creating a uniﬁed and relaxing mood.

Create contrast The recessed wall behind this shelving is painted in a vibrant contrasting colour, which draws the eye. The objects on the shelves are also carefully chosen and artfully placed to enhance the effect.

Dress The French windows in this simple room are dressed with showy monochrome curtains, which draw the eye to the light.

SELECT FURNITURE

Use what you’ve learned about style and color to choose your furniture and consider your room’s proportions to get the size and shape of your items right. Don’t forget comfort!

THINK ABOUT HEIGHT

A room with a low ceiling suit low items of furniture best, so if your ceiling’s low, choose a low-backed sofa or a bed that’s low to the ﬂoor, such as a futon. Rooms with high ceilings can house a tall, ornately framed bed, or even a four-poster bed, and still feel balanced.

Low or high? The height of your furniture is dictated by the height of your room

ADD INTEREST

If your room’s general scheme is fairly plain in terms of color and pattern, or if its architecture is uninteresting, you can use furniture to introduce curvaceous shapes and ﬁnishes and to add texture in its upholstery and materials. Choose sofas, chairs, tables, and beds with this in mind.

Be adventurous Voluptuous shapes and unusual textures add interest to a plain room

LAYER IT UP

The style of your room should not be conjured up artiﬁcially so that your whole house becomes a slave to a single overworked theme or so that each room has a contrived individual look. Ideally, your rooms should evolve slowly, so you might come up with a basic scheme and build from there over a period of weeks or months—layer by layer.