Interior Design

We’ll be the first ones to admit that it can be hard to get excited about the interior design of a utility room. A small room at the back of the house often used for nothing but storage, cleaning and household chores doesn’t get pulses racing! Those of us who are lucky enough to have that extra space can appreciate, from a functional perspective, the room’s main purpose; to keep the mess away from other areas of the house.

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It’s an easy decision to make when redecorating our homes to leave the utility room until last. It’s a place that guests rarely see, and we don’t enjoy spending time in there, so why invest any time and money in improving it as a space?

Look at all of the functions your utility room provides you with and add up how many hours per week you spend in there. It can be quite a significant portion of our time. Why shouldn’t we apply our favourite colour schemes and spend time planning how to make the most of our often-neglected utility rooms?

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Be inspired by the extremes

Wherever you look, there is no escaping the current trend for metallic accents through the home. Favoured by professional interior designers but a simple enough trend to create yourself, metallic accents are becoming more popular and the movement is showing no signs of moving soon. In fact, the metallic trend is growing and becoming more dynamic, giving us even more choices in our homes and even creating sub-trends. The first styles that come to mind for most people when they think of metallic in interior design is the minimal and industrial styles that give a cool and quirky factory vibe, or in the complete opposite direction we have the ultimate glamour home, filled with plush textures, glitter, mirrors and metallic surfaces and features. Both are very bold options, but from both of these trends we can choose the flavours we like and don’t like, and use those ideas to create our own metallic-themed interior design scheme.

Credit: design-milk.com

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Bathroom fittings are the whole range of smaller fixtures and fitments that make our bathrooms more functional and stylish. Often added to our homes after we’ve chosen and installed our bathroom suites, such as showers, sinks and toilets, we rely on bathroom fittings not only to be able to use our bathroom properly, but to make our bathrooms more comfortable and user-friendly. The biggest challenge is finding the best balance between bathroom fittings in a location and position that will maximise the user experience of our bathrooms, but will also look fantastic and complement our bathroom styles instead of looking like an afterthought or poorly thought out last minute addition.

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Around a decade ago, open plan homes were all any interior designer could talk about. Home buyers became more interested in buying open plan homes and homeowners frequently refurbished their homes to make them more open, knocking down many walls in the process.

Open plan living is no longer a new thing, but that doesn’t mean that it’s unfashionable or unpopular. It became a staple of interior architecture, and something that caused a shift in the past few years in homes across the world, in all kinds of sizes and budgets.

But now that movement is changing again, and plenty of homeowners and designers are wondering if open plan is the lifestyle haven we had all imagined, or if closed plan is actually the way to go.

Credit: homedesignetc.com

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When we talk about attention to detail, in any type of industry, what we usually mean is the art of paying particular attention to the smaller details of a project. By not cutting any corners and taking the care to make sure an entire project is carried out successfully, with the dedication to maximise the potential of even the smallest features, a project will have a more professional and wonderful finish. When it comes to interior design, smaller features might not make the most impact but when all of those smaller features work together and immense care is taken at every level, that’s the perfect recipe for designing a home that is flawless and perfectly finished.

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The first thing that any guest in your home or building will see is the front door. While we’re all notorious for claiming we’d never judge a book by its cover, it’s a fact of human psychology that people do rely on their first impressions to make judgements. It’s a survival mechanism that has evolved with us over the years, allowing our cave-dwelling ancestors to quickly assess the danger of any given situation. Continue reading →

If there is any one word that epitomizes the ideal contemporary home, it’s “streamlined”. This minimal aesthetic applies to everything from home décor to technology and fashion. As human progress thunders forward at ever-increasing rates, it seems that our buildings, clothing, accessories, and other items become less heavily decorative, adopting a sleek and pared-back style that simplifies and saves space. Continue reading →

In the world of fashion, black has long retained its never-out-of-style reputation. It can be sleek, sexy, and edgy, or classic, demure, and powerful. It creates the perfect palette for any style, any look, on any person. In interior decorating, many homeowners are intimidated by how dark black seems, but it can be used in surprisingly stylish ways. The “little black dress” for your home can be as subtle or as dramatic as you wish.

For many people, black home décor instantly calls up one of two classic looks: Gothic drama, or Parisian elegance. If neither of those are your style, fear not; black can also lend itself well as an accent colour for a cheerful modern home. It can be used to offset the dusty, earthy tones of a southern style. Black even has its place in thematic décor, such as in rooms with a nautical theme. Continue reading →

We need doors in our homes…obvious right? But how many of us put real thought into how our doors look and how we style them? When we buy or purchase a home, we tend to take the doors for granted, accept them as they are if they have no functional problems or damage. We might replace doors as part of a home makeover, but when budgets are tight doors get overlooked for other features such as furniture and external fittings such as windows…internal doors often come low on the list of interior design priorities.

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If there’s any style that has captured the attentions of interior decorators all over the world in recent years, it’s the all-encompassing “vintage”. The charm of nostalgic items is that they come complete with their own sense of character. Whether it’s by design, or a buried memory that the viewer projects on the item themselves, seeing something that recalls a specific time of the past makes us feel as though we already know that room or item. We’re comfortable there.

What many people don’t realize is that “vintage” actually covers a range of styles and décor schemes. If you’ve ever been in a vintage-style space that felt cramped, dusty, and dishevelled, it was likely due to a misunderstanding of vintage style, and a mashup of too many types of vintage. In fact, vintage can be just as open, airy, and inviting as a sleek contemporary home, when used the right way.

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