To help you design & decorate your home!

Would you believe that there is a science behind Interior Design? These elements help you put a room together like a Pro. Some of this may come naturally for you, but there may have been an element you are missing which makes all the difference.

COLOUR

Colour gives a massive difference to a room. It can tie it to styles or eras, can bring warmth, give a cooler feeling, be vibrant or dull, or be very bold with contrast.

CONTRAST

This refers to the opposites in a room that highlight both. Such as black & white, but can easily be used with contrasting shapes, textures, lighting conditions, sizes & design styles.

LIGHT

Light is essential for design so we can see what we are doing in a room. It’s best to have three types of light in each room, being Natural, Task & Ambient. Lighting can bring texture, shape, proportion, contrast & rhythm to a room, as well as patterns.

BALANCE

Find a friend. Balance refers to repeating elements in the room to bring it all togerher. You can balance colours, textured, shapes, finishes or styles.

SCALE & PROPORTION

This is oversizing an item for emphasis, or under sizing to draw attention to another element. This is great for creating feature pieces, or highlighting other parts of the room. You can use scale to make small rooms look bigger with smaller items in it, or large rooms look smaller with larger proportioned pieces.

EMPHASIS

This is the focal point or feature of the room. It is what you want to draw peoples’ attention to. This can be done with art, architectural features, colour, texture, shape, proportion & lighting.

TEXTURE

Texture is everywhere, whether it be rustic & rough, soft & silky or sleek & straight. It can be brought in with finishes like wood or stone, & can give patterns.

DETAILS

The attention is in the detail. It is the difference between a good & a stunning finish. This can be piping on a cushion, shadow lines on kitchen cabinetry or metal trimming on furniture. It is the strawberry on the top.

UNITY & VARIETY

Unity is the same thing, variety is different things. This brings the both together with similar colours, shapes, finishes & textures. It is a way to assemble a set with collection of items. So find a unifying theme, like all white vases, candles or sculptures with the variety being the different shapes or sizes.

RHYTHM / VISUAL INERTIA

Rhythm is repetition to draw your eye through a space. This can be done with colours, shapes, lighting, balance & proportion. Visual Inertia is similar, with the rhythm of the items making the illusion of movement, like zebra stripes in a group.

A well designed room considers all these elements which creates a balanced, interesting space. And sometimes all it takes is a small candle on the side table to tie it all together. Designing can be technical but also loads of fun!

The Industrial style comes from the warehouse district. This rustic, beat-around-the-edges look was brought in with people renovating warehouse lofts in cities to make urban housing but keeping the warehouse charm. It has a modern-sleek & minimalist appearance in many aspects as the warehouse life isn’t full of decoration. But the finishes used give the decoration.

These finishes include exposed brick, with or without peeling paint, rustic timbers, exposed pipes, high ceilings, open spaces, dangling light fixtures, concrete floors & metal benches.

The modern addition to this style is the use of shiny copper.

This can also be described as the Urban Style especially when more refined with sleek lines.

To get this look –

• Have a beat around the edges look, the Industrial style is not polished
• Expose finishes, take ceiling out to expose beams, show plumbing pipes, strip paint back or have worn timbers
• Add metal, lighting, stools, coffee table
• Add concrete or exposed brick. This could be concrete tiles, a side table, lights, concrete benchtop. Exposed brick wallpaper.
• Rustic timbers. The more rustic it is the more industrial it looks. The sleeker the timber the more Urban Design it looks.
• Fabric is kept to a minimum, but if you are adding make them textured fabrics. These are to look heavy duty, like hessian sacks. Or rustic leather.
• Pops of block colour. Colour is mostly neutral, pops of colour were used in warehouses. Bright colours which are beat around the edges of more muted, dusky tints.

 

For more Interior Design ideas see these free blog posts –

Styling to Sell your home – http://www.interiordesigneralbury.com.au/styling-to-sell/

The Top Interior Design Elements – http://www.interiordesigneralbury.com.au/the-top-interior-design-elements/

Colour Proportions in your home – http://www.interiordesigneralbury.com.au/colour-proportions/

If you’ve ever painted, renovated or built a home, you would have heard the terms like Flat / Matt, Low Sheen, Eggshell, Gloss & Satin. But what does that mean?

This refers to the sheen level or amount of shine you want for that finish. It may seem a bit non-sensible, but the choosing the wrong one may make all the difference!

For example, you may have just rendered the outside of your home. The beautiful render finish looks like stone. This is Matt. The shine is very low & it looks flat, so if you are painting over the top, you would want Matt, not shiny. This is the same for raw timbers, exposed brick & heavily worn items. If you are working towards an Industrial, French Provincial, Naturalist or Shabby Chic look, these have much flatter textures.

However, if you love ultra modern, clean lines & slick-looking furniture, then a high-gloss look is desired. Gloss grabs your attention as light reflects off it, whereas matt, flat & low sheen recede into the background.

Cleaning

We all want to make it easier to clean our houses & the sheen level can really assist with this! The glossier the finish, the more durable & easier to clean. However, be aware that gloss finishes tend to show wipe & mop marks easily as any imperfection can be seen when the light reflects off it. This also means that if you are painting an item in high-gloss which is beat around the edges, this will highlight those imperfections.

Flat or Matt finishes are not easily washable, but does have great hiding power. This is why it is used for ceilings in houses, to better disguise ceiling joins in the plasterwork as the ceiling is barely cleaned in a house. Low Sheen, Satin & Gloss lie in between the two extremes.

Standard finishes in houses

Ceilings – FLAT/MATT (not washable but hides marks)

Walls – LOW SHEEN/EGGSHELL (washable but hiding power)

Kitchen & Bathroom Walls – can be LOW SHEEN or SATIN/SEMI-GLOSS

Trims & Doors – SATIN/SEMI-GLOSS, GLOSS, HIGH GLOSS

Cabinetry – SATIN/SEMI-GLOSS, GLOSS, HIGH GLOSS

Bathroom Ceilings – LOW SHEEN (so it is washable if you get mould or splashes)

Timber or Tiled Floors – SATIN OR GLOSS

Light

Glossy finishes are more like a mirror, they reflect light. This may help with a small bathroom or darker space to help bring shine into the room. But as stated above, gloss does show imperfections & cleaning issues. High gloss cabinetry in a kitchen may show every fingerprint & breadcrumb. Satin or Semi-gloss is the alternative. This still has a sheen, just not as distinct as the gloss. Satin remains durable & also suits more design styles which are understated, such as Scandi or Country.

How to tell the difference

Most products will state their sheen levels on the label, but even easier – just look at it. Is it shiny? Is it dull? This is not just for paint colours, this also applies to laminate samples, flooring, fabrics & even tap ware. You can have a combination of sheen levels in a home, just consider where is best to use them. What would you like to draw attention to? What is the style you are after? And how do you plan to clean it?

Once you have an understanding of what look you are after & what you would like to feature, the sheen level of the finishes just falls into place.

For other great free Interior Design tips –

What is Contemporary Design? – http://www.onlineinteriordesigner.com.au/what-is-contemporary-design/

Environmental Design – http://www.onlineinteriordesigner.com.au/environmental-design/

How to get the Scandinavian Look – http://www.onlineinteriordesigner.com.au/scandi-style/

The Top Interior Design Elements – http://www.onlineinteriordesigner.com.au/the-top-interior-design-elements/

How to heat your home this winter –http://www.onlineinteriordesigner.com.au/how-to-heat-your-home-this-winter/

How to get the Industrial Look – http://www.onlineinteriordesigner.com.au/how-to-get-the-industrial-style/

 

 What is CONTEMPORARY Design?

The word Contemporary is used quite often in design language & it is implied that we all know what that means. But where does it actually fit with design styles?

Most people mix Contemporary & Modern, as both words came into the Interior Design vocabulary for the everyman at about the same time. However they are very different.

Modern design refers to architecturally designed spaces, with sleek, straight lines, plenty of gloss & a minimalist feeling.

Whereas Contemporary Design is what is in vogue now. This makes it fluid & ever changing.

Currently, Scandinavian styles, Industrial design & now Tribal are becoming the main stream trends, so these elements are all seen in Contemporary homes. The simplicity & structural nature of Modern continues to be seen, but Minimalism is out. Contemporary now includes bleached timber legs on high raised furniture & white based colour schemes like Scandi, teamed with exposed beams or metal lighting fixtures from Industrial, while still having sleek, straight lines from Modern. Rattan baskets or textured rugs stick to the Tribal with Bohemian styled patterns.

Contemporary is a much easier style to replicate in your home than many others as it is purely a mixture of pieces. This means you can pick your favourite elements from each style & incorporate them into your palette. When you get tired of it, or one elements becomes out of vogue, you can update or replace those pieces without having to change the whole design.

Contemporary is also what is currently seen in décor stores, which makes it easy to shop for.

One of the concerns with Contemporary are that it is hard to always keep up with the current trends. This is where it may be better to invest in larger pieces, such as expensive furniture or an all-over colour scheme, in a simplistic style which can outlast the current trends. This may mean a light overall selection & updating the decorator items & cushions as the trends change.

The other issue with adding multiple elements into a room is making sure that they all work well together, especially when they are a combination of different styles. This is where it is best to think about the room. If the colours balance, what you want to draw your attention to, & if that combination of pieces gives the overall feeling or flow that you desire.

The best part about Contemporary is it is always fresh. It may have parts of the old, but with a new way to look at it. Which means your old items could gain a new lease of life & look brand new.