Focus on: Window styling

Windows naturally draw your eye as you enter a room. How much (or how little) light they let in can completely alter the look and feel of a room. But I know from my own experience that if you're doing a lot of work on your home, decorating fatigue can set in... Window styling can be yet another difficult decision on the list! Ugh!

Windows are our gateways onto the world and are similarly the neighbours' gateways into ours..! It's important to strike the right balance between privacy and letting in the maximum amount of light during the day. Similarly, the balance of wanting to enjoy any views, but also wanting to create a feeling of cosiness, particularly in the evening. The problem is that there are so many choices: Curtains, roller blinds, roman blinds, shutters, top-down/bottom-up shades.... If you have curtains but want a change, how do you know what might look nice without having to buy first? Are there any rules to help guide decisions? Or at least a way of narrowing down the choices?

The main point to ask yourself is if light or privacy is important to you or do you need both?

Curtains, Roller blinds or Roman blinds?
This is the big debate. Curtains are felt to be cosier and the fabric choice can add depth to a colour scheme. They also allow you to play with perspective because if you hang them higher than the windows, they can make the room look bigger. Roller blinds have cleaner lines and could be better suited to a more modern home. They also take up less space than either curtains or roman blinds. Roman blinds have pleated fabric which is always on show at the top so they are a good mix of curtains and roller blinds. They are a soft addition to a room and the colours don't tend to fade in the sunlight like some curtains could do. 

But there's no rule to say you can't use two styles at the same time. If you want cosiness, privacy and light, it might be worth considering a roller blind in a thin fabric which can let light in and at the same time ensure privacy and then hang curtains to pull across in the evenings. 

Curtains:

Roller blinds:

Roman blinds:

All 3 choices can be fitted with a black out blind backing, a particular must for children's bedrooms!

However, the choice doesn't stop here, there are many other ways to make your windows work for you. Here are more options below:

1) Semi-sheer shades
Great for dining or living rooms, where privacy isn't critical but you do want to always have a little light coming through.

2) Window film
Similar to semi-sheer shades, but especially good for town living and period properties where there is a natural 'break' in the window design. Window film will mean that you get all the benefits of light coming in through the top half of the window, but no-one will see you walking through the rooms as eye level is covered. The great thing about this is that you can get plain, patterned or even coloured film. Be daring!

3) Stained glass
If you have a door with window around it or within it, stained glass is a great way to get light and privacy. The colours will be beautiful in your hallway! But don't feel you can only use stained glass in doors, it would also look lovely in windows or as an edging to windows. A great tip to decrease the expense is to use stained glass window film... 

4) Shutters
Great for bedrooms, shutters look pretty, are good at keeping out unwanted light and give privacy too. They are economically efficient and keep the heat in during winter and the heat out during summer. Shutters can also be painted and bring charm to a room. Though you will need space either side of the window for when you want them completely open.

5) Specialist drapes
Bedrooms on the first floor usually need more privacy than bedrooms on the second floor, but both still require natural light. These very contemporary floor-to-ceiling drapes offer light as well as privacy. When closed, they become an entire wall of fabric which still allows light in.

6) Top-down/bottom-up shades
Similar to window film but not such a permanent feature, these shades are ideal for rooms where you might want more control over the light coming in. They give you maximum flexibility and allow you to lower the blind from the top or raise it up from the bottom so you can best determine how much light and privacy you'd like at any given time of the day. As well as another option for living rooms, it's good for bathrooms or offices and conservatories. The honeycomb design on some ranges are especially good at keeping the cold out and the heat in.

Hopefully this will help you decode some of the window styling options out there! The main thing to remember is how much light and privacy you'd like and then it's just going with your instincts about whatever you think looks the best within your decorating scheme.

4 books for your coffee table

A source of new ideas? Something to inspire? A talking point for guests? There's a lot we demand from our coffee table books. They are permanently on display, after all. The list above is by no means exhaustive and it can be difficult to find books which tick all the right boxes. But hopefully I've done all the hard work for you! Below are 4 books which you won't be disappointed by, you'll just have trouble deciding on which one to buy... 


1) CLASSIC CONTEMPORARY: THE DNA OF FURNITURE DESIGN

In order to produce the clever and modern furniture we have today, we've had to learn from the past. The author of this book, Tim Gosling, shows that decoding a historical design's DNA is an intrinsic tool in creating successful contemporary work. This book takes us on a journey through 300 years of design, from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, relating key periods to the author's own projects as well as superbly illustrating the old and new in drawings and stunning photographs. It is beautifully put together and the text is both lively and authoritative. Each chapter is carefully laid out and is a wonderful resource, particularly if you want to re-create a specific look in your own home. More than that though, it represents how we've come to where we are today and the beauty in both classic and contemporary furniture design.



2) THE SHOPKEEPER'S HOME

There are some shops which seem to tempt you in... You walk past and have to stop, inextricably drawn across the threshold, without quite knowing why. What is it that makes them so beautiful? How have they managed to create such a welcoming atmosphere?

This book is delightful. It peeks inside the houses of some of the creative owners of independent shops and shows how their displays and decorating ideas can be translated for the home. Pictures of the house interior and shop are laid next to each other so you can pick out how they recreated their look inside their own home. An incredibly unique book that will be a real talking point.


3) PATTERNITY: A NEW WAY OF SEEING

A visual feast, this fascinating book will spark conversations, ideas and controversy. This is not a technical book. Nor is it about pattern as surface decoration. Instead, it is a fabulous collection of picture references interspersed with musings on the nature of pattern. The visual content largely consists of pictures of nature or everyday life juxtaposed with stills from the fashion world. This book takes you on an uplifting journey of pattern-related subjects, taking in Fibonacci, the golden ratio, Buddhist ideas and chaos theory. It gives you a visual springboard from which you can leap off and dive into the topics touched upon. 



4) THE LANGUAGES OF LIGHT: A CREATIVE APPROACH TO RESIDENTIAL LIGHTING

Lighting is too often neglected in our room scheme planning. It's so easy to focus more on paint colours, accessories and furniture. We have good ideas in our head, but once the paint is on the walls, it might end up looking all wrong. And this might not be because of the colours and ideas, but it could be all down to the lighting. Lighting can bring a home from doom to va-va-voom. 

This wonderful book is an intelligent and practical resource that is at once useful and beautiful. The writing is sensitive and comprehensive, combining psychology, technical details and tricks of the trade. There are chapters on lighting techniques and case studies which are weaved together with photographs so you can easily replicate any idea at home. An inspiring and interesting book to create the right lighting language for your room.

Drama After Dark

Decorating in dark colours can seem daunting. Walking down the paint aisles in shops, it's so easy to head towards neutrals and whites. They're familiar, safe, you know what you're getting. Magazines reinforce this and show a 'blank canvas' where we use accessories to inject colour or interest. It's hard to embrace a dark colour you may love if there are naysayers who put you off with calls of 'oppressive' and 'gloomy'.

But don't let them stop you from heading to the dark side! They'll soon be converted. We're missing something if we ignore a whole colour spectrum.  Dark colours inject personality, they create a warm atmosphere and are the perfect backdrop for furnishings and accessories. Dark colours are beautiful. Take a look below to see why.

Painting a room in a dark colour will make it feel bigger. This is especially true if you embrace it not just on the walls, but also the floors. The dark paint seems to eradicate boundaries, making the whole space feel much larger:

Using a dark hue on your walls means you can pick out architectural features and key pieces of furniture in white or a lighter colour:

If you have a dark, windowless room, play to it's strengths and paint the walls in a dark colour to enhance its snug and relaxing feel:

Dark colours create the perfect back drop to display prints, art, photos, mirrors. They make everything on the wall 'pop':

If you want glamour or opulence, dark is the way to go:

By going dark, you will sit in the room and realise that the walls recede, you end up noticing more what's actually in the room:

Around Christmas time and through the winter, you'll often find dark colours making a resurgence in stores and magazines as a way of making your home feel 'cozy' and 'snug'. But dark is not just for one season! Dark colours look equally amazing in the summer months with the lush greens of plants and flowers against them and the full sunlight making all the pigments in the paint shine:

One tip though, you really do get what you pay for in terms of quality. If you buy a very cheap paint, there is very little pigment variation, you'll end up with something that looks very flat. If you're going to do dark, do it properly and buy a good quality paint. Yes, they are more expensive, but buy from companies such as Farrow & Ball, Little Greene and Zoffany and you'll see why they are so great.

Don't be afraid of the dark...

Home staging anyone?

Is now the best time to move up the housing ladder? This has been a common theme in the papers recently as interest rates are at a record low. If this fact is making you want to buy somewhere or perhaps move to a new place, you might want to know more about the latest import from across the pond. 

Home staging is a practice which has been popular in the States since the late 1990s and has been filtering its way over here ever since. It is defined as the act of preparing a property for sale with the aim of making it appeal to the maximum number of people so that it sells more quickly and for more money. 

One American woman would bake bread and make coffee every time she had a viewing as she thought buyers would like those smells. Another couple whose house had been languishing on the market paid their children to keep their bedrooms clean and tidy and the house sold within a month. According to the National Association of Realtors in the US, styling up your property can slash a home's time on the market by between 25% and 50% and fetch a premium of 5%-20%.

A few small additions can make a big difference to the overall look and feel:

For those wanting more impact, professional stagers, such as Rokstone, a boutique estate agency in central London, offer makeovers costing between £1,000-£150,000. They use Hermes throws, Bulgari soaps, plush towels, Missoni cushions, Thomas Goode plates, coffee table books and glossy magazines; "we don't sell property, we sell lifestyle," says the firm's managing director. She then went on to say that they also borrow art from galleries because "if buyers walk in and spot a Picasso, they think everything in the house must be tiptop".

Other professional stagers try to create a whole narrative to the house they're re-doing. This can include baby shoes at the end of a child's bedroom to pull on the heart strings of parents. It could be a beautiful dressing table with crystal perfume bottles and fine jewellery or a man cave with cuban cigars. One stager even went so far as to lay a Tiffany box on the bed with pearls thrown over the bedsheets and clothes, wanting it to look as though the couple had been passionately embracing only moments before!

Putting aside thoughts about the ethical nature of this kind of story telling, for top-end house sales, these kind of tricks make a big difference to how quickly the home is sold.

For more modest house house sales, however, what kind of ideas can we borrow from the professionals to make our home look the best it can?

Lighter and brighter furniture can make a big difference, 

as can removing curtains and exposing windows

Take out personal objects, such as the piano, and arrange furniture so that 

buyers are able to see how they could use the space if they lived there.

Remove blinds and drapes to enhance light and space. Arranging a table and chairs,

simplifying the wall colour and updating bedlinen can accentuate the sense of space.

Bright accessories and light furniture make this room feel fresh and open.

Changing light fittings, covering chairs and exposing the floor 

give this dining room more light and a contemporary look.

Other handy tips for 'dressing' the interior of your house for a successful sale include:

 - Price: First and foremost, get the asking price right. Don't be tempted with a high price as this could just mean months and months on the market. Look to see what other similar houses in your area are selling for and adjust your price accordingly.

 - Storage: Buyers always want more storage, so make sure you have visible space to store items. Take unnecessary things out of closets and neatly organise what's left. Buyers will then see that there is space to spare.

 - Light: Maximise the light coming into your home. Take down heavy drapes, clear away clutter from the windows and trim plants and bushes in the garden that block out light coming into the house. Consider also changing lightbulbs and fittings to brighter ones in order to eliminate dark spaces.

 - Kitchen: This is the most important room in the house and can make or break a sale. Make sure it is tidy with clear surfaces. You may also need to spruce up the cabinets with a lick of paint or update cupboard handles. It might be worth also buying one shiny new appliance and have it on display. If there is one expensive item on show, buyers will think the rest of it is also similarly expensive.

 - Mini makeover: There's no point spending a lot of money on a house if you're going to sell it, but simple changes can make a big difference. If there is one room painted in a bright colour, consider re-painting it neutral. Make sure your house looks clean and tidy and touch up the paint on walls that are looking tired. Other things to re-do could be new door handles, cleaning the curtains, buying some fresh new cushions.

 - Pets: Not everyone is a pet lover, so if buyers smell the dog or see a cat litter they might think the house is not clean. It could be worth giving the pets to the neighbour or a relative if you're having an open day.

 -  First impressions: These are the only impressions and really count. Walk up your driveway and into your home as though you were looking at it for the first time. Notice plants in the front which could be tidied up or coats and shoes which could be put away in the entrance hall. Make your home warm and inviting. Never underestimate the power of fresh flowers and a few stylish magazines. This can take your home from bland to beautiful.

If you're selling your house at the moment or contemplating a move, good luck! 

Is it a table? Is it a chair? No, it's both!

A big trend for the coming year is multi-functional furniture. Why? Boundaries in our lives are becoming more and more blurred. Homes have to function as places to both live and work. People are also adapting to living in smaller houses in big cities. There is a growing need for compact, multifunctional furniture: modular sofas that become beds, or can accommodate tables, as well as surfaces with rechargeable technology.

As a society, we are used to change. We no longer have jobs for life, we move companies, change our work, often having to move to new cities or different environments in order to advance our career. Moreover our personal lives don't stand still either; we marry, have children, retire, downsize. Events such as these, changing how and where we live means our furniture needs to be able to adapt to our varying requirements. We need flexibility. We need to make sure that something we buy as a young couple will also work with a family. Alternatively, if we live in a small space, but want to entertain for larger numbers or have a need for storage, our furniture too needs to be able to expand and accommodate this.

Furniture designers are responding to this need for adaptability.

One such designer, James Howlett has created an ingenious piece of furniture. It is described as a "cluster of multifunctional modular forms. Each form is individually designed to serve many purposes and to be of use in almost any room in the house, but when needed the group comes together to build one compact coffee table."

This one modular piece can be: A compact coffee table cluster; two tables and two chairs; storage unit; a desk, a seat, and a book-shelf; a child’s dining table; a TV and games unit and a playground for children.

An item such as this will not only be able to change according to your life circumstances, but also adapt quickly depending on what function you might need your furniture to perform on a particular day.

However, if you'd prefer something more permanent, but still need a multi-functional item for a small space, then take a look at this creative solution for small bedrooms from Studybed. By day it's a desk to work from, with a shelf above for storage. By night, pull the desk down to reveal a bed. And the best bit? There's no need to even tidy your desk at the end of the day, it stays perfectly upright when the bed flips down, ready for you to pick up from where you left off in the morning:

The innovative Italian company clei has a whole range of different items which do more than that just one job. Their multi-functional furniture can be customised according to colour and style. This sofa is perfect for unexpected guests as it quickly converts into a bunk bed.

But it's not just specialist companies creating multi-functional furniture. High street shops have responded too and Ikea has produced a range of furniture with wireless charging units for your phone. This lamp is one item from their range:

Buying one piece of furniture that serves 2 functions, if not more, means every item we own is working harder for us. We'll be able to fit more into a smaller space, it's easier to move house and we're hopefully doing more for the planet too. If we can buy one item instead of two or three, we'll be using up less of the world's resources.

So, next time you're out shopping for a chair, see if it can also become a table...or better still, a storage unit as well!