Pick 5 colours & Repeat

Your house should have a consistency of colour. Pick 5 colours. This could be a white for the walls, trims & ceiling, a timber for the floor, grey sofa, & then 2 pops of colour in the cushions & décor. This basis of colour allows you to add décor in those hues. So you can have timber furniture to match the floor or white accessories to match the walls.

If you like more depth of colour in some areas of your home then you can add one of your ‘accents’, like the cushion hue to the wall paint to give impact. Then team the other 4 colours around that.

Add Emphasis

A focal point in a room is a grounding space. Traditional homes use fireplaces or decorative drapery to highlight the room. In modern houses this can be the glass splashback of a kitchen, a feature wall of wallpaper or even a large decorator item like a clock or wall mounted shelving. Having a focal point draws the eye to it, so make it an area you want people to see – don’t highlight a mess.

Have a style

Most homes have an eclectic mix of items or styles due to the years of gathering furniture & décor, or renovating over decades. This can create a mismatch in style. Do some research & find what style you like. This could be sleek Modern, relaxed Bohemian, clean Scandi, Mid-Century Revival furniture, or elegant Hamptons. When looking around you will find you gravitate to certain eras or design elements & this is a place to build off. Find the items in your home which follow that theme & highlight these. Keep that design style in mind when purchasing new pieces or find ways to distract from the items that must stay but don’t quite fit. And that brings us to…

Misdirection

We all have those items or areas in our homes which aren’t pretty. However these areas are usually quite functional, so they are hard to change. Misdirection is the best way to ‘hide’ them while still being able to have a useful space. Misdirection is all about drawing people’s eye away from the problem. For a cluttered kitchen, you could add a large colourful artwork or clock to a wall which grabs attention (emphasis), for a messy children’s play room once again a large colourful artwork will draw the eye up from the cluttered floor to the wall space. Make sure not to put an attention grabbing piece in front of a messy space, make it the opposite wall so the occupant has their back to the clutter.

Think Function First

As a Designer, everyone thinks it’s all about cushions & colour, but it is more about function & flow. An area has to work properly otherwise it just gathers mess. You need to be able access all areas of the home otherwise you have wasted space & potential. When there is an area of your home that isn’t working, take a step back & think – why? Is the storage not correct, is it hard to access, not part of the natural flow, bad lighting or poor ventilation? When you nail down the problem then we can add a way to fix it which is also attractive in the space.

Is your workplace making you sick?

 

We all know the feeling of Mondays dragging on for what seems like forever. But is Mondayitis an actual condition – or are we just wingers?

The theories for causes of feeling slack & unmotivated on Mondays are wide-spread. This includes over indulging on the weekend, causing the liver to work extra hard to get back to a stable level. The differing life schedules that the weekend creates breaks our usual sleep, eating & work cycle causing more lethargy on Mondays.

One theory is Interior Design based – with the 1960’s & 70’s adopting office building set ups filled with plastic based furniture & fixtures. These toxins from the plastics are released into the air, but with the buildings being closed over the weekends, the concentration of toxins ingested on Mondays gave the occupants a much more lethargic feeling than any other day.

Sick Building Syndrome does actually exist & this could be a cause of your feelings or physical state when at work. If you do feel a certain way in your office, consider What is around you, When did this feeling start & How it makes you feel. New carpets, fresh paint & plastic furniture can all have toxins being released. Good air flow helps to remove the toxins & indoor plants have been found to be great air filters to give you more clean air. They are also very in vogue right now as well.

If there is nothing new, consider old items – bad lighting, damp areas, poor ergonomics or constant noise. Inadequate lighting can cause headaches after hours of squinting or straining to see. Consider different forms of light, such as adding a desk lamp & moving it around during the day to get the most workable light. Some buildings can be old & have drainage issues. Dampness in offices causes mould & spores to be thrown into the air. This can give respiratory issues & make you feel unwell. You may find this more during damper months, & not so much in summer.

Poor ergonomics are a huge issue in offices. Slouching, sitting crooked, looking down at your monitor & poor mouse clicking can cause plenty of back, shoulder & neck problems. Fixing your desk space & replacing your chair to focus more on ergonomic support will help immeasurably. Also make sure that you get up regularly to take breaks from the screen.

A change to your working environment may make all the difference to your physical & emotional state during the work day. Of course, if you do all these things & still find that you feel lethargic, especially moving through the rest of the work week, you should consult your doctor to ensure it isn’t another issue.

And from a mental point of view – one theory to break the Mondayitis is to love what you do. This empowers you through the whole day & gives you a purpose to the hours you spend there. To take the edge off a Monday you can pre-plan your work week on Sunday night to have a clear focus moving into your Monday morning, or if possible, finish work early on Mondays & do something you enjoy like walking the dogs or reading a book. It will make the start of the work week more enjoyable.

If all else fails – maybe just grab another coffee & hope for a better Tuesday!

A cluttered house is a cluttered mind.

This is a statement which I heard years ago & find it rings true. This is a bit of a hard topic to traverse for me as I have ‘hoarders’ in my family, but in this privileged country of ours we have so much ‘stuff’ in our homes. Right now if you were to look around I’m sure you could count up dozens upon dozens of items you are surrounded by. And on top of that if you really considered it, how many of these items do you really need?

Now it’s not just about need. We want to live a certain way & with that comes tangible items – I would rather have a bed than no bed. But when our houses become a shrine to consumerism, we need to take a moment to decide if it is important to keep it all.

As an Interior Designer I have seen minimalist interiors, with only those few precious items perfectly placed on the mantle. And then I have seen the houses with items smothering every surface, stacked on top of each other & layers of dust on top, making it abundantly clear those pieces haven’t been moved for years. There is no right & no wrong way to live. I am not dictating that everyone needs to clean out to be perfect. I am stating that in my experience the original saying sees to hold true – A cluttered house is a cluttered mind.

When you look at an area of your home (and we all have them) where items tend to gather, you can see all the work you need to do… the jacket is there because it needs sewing, the paint can sits there until I touch up the hallway, Grandma’s baking dish needs to be returned to her & the shoes are there because they need polishing. So consider that your whole home was covered with these areas. The mental toll must be exhausting.

That is what I mean by A cluttered house is a cluttered mind. It is a constant ‘To Do List’ involving time & effort you may not have.

From a different perspective, the Ancient Chinese belief of Feng Shui is based on Chi being energy or life force. In a cluttered home, the Chi cannot flow through the home safely creating stagnant or damaging energy to pool in areas.

From a scientific or medical perspective, when air cannot circulate correctly, this can lead to mould growth or dust mite being present which in turn can cause respiratory problems in humans. Long term the mould can cause damage to walls, ceilings & stain carpets. In areas that cannot be easily cleaned insects & rodents tend to live which can also create more heath issues for occupants. Sounds dire!

But that is the worst case scenario, the sort of thing you would see on an episode of Hoarders. Luckily most of us don’t live in houses such as these, however we all tend to have that area or two which does need a bit of attention.

Interior Decoration is a fickle field as every season there are new colours, new décor items & new furniture to adorn our homes. This can make it really difficult to stay in vogue without having an overload of clutter.

If it is important for you to keep your Interiors updated with all the new fashions, then consider a white based colour palette for the walls & window furnishings, & a neutral coloured floor. Note, when you hear the word ‘neutral’ this includes white, black, grey, brown, stone, taupe & linen colours. This will allow you to create a colourful & attention grabbing décor range which can be updated as often as you like.

If you prefer to have a consistent style & only add a couple of pieces every now & then, you need to consider which style you like. Pick a theme. Research the style you like. This may be Industrial or it may be Classical. Allow most of your interior to follow that theme & ensure that when you add a Contemporary piece the overall feeling of the room isn’t disrupted.

So how do you clear out?

Well Spring is always a good time for this. Just start in one room. Each time you pick up an item, think about if you really like it or could put it away in storage. With the items you choose to keep, make sure this is for YOUR reasons, not because it has always been there, or that one family member you never see likes it there. This is YOUR home everyday. Make sure it is YOURS everyday.

If possible, move these ‘keep’ items to another area of that room.              A change is as good as a holiday. If you like that cushion, you may as well keep it fresh. Even move items from room to room. You could also re-purpose items, like taking all those old picture frames & arranging them into one large photo wall collage. Or clean out the old books from the bookcase & use it to store extra cushions or throw rugs when they are not in use. This not only re-invigorates the bookcase, but also softens the look. And can save cash as you are not needing to shop for new items.

For the pieces that you have ‘put into storage’, what you do next is up to you. If you are the type of person who is happy to part with them, passing them onto family or Op Shops then it solves the issue. If you are the type of person who cannot let them go, you may want to ask yourself ‘why?’ And this answer will probably be different for each item. However one truth will always remain – we can’t take it with us when we go, so do we really NEED it?

“Love people & use things. Because the other way around never works.” – The Minimalists

So with Spring only a week away are you going to de-clutter, freshen up that interior & consider a new way of living? Ha, ha! It’s alright if you’re not. We don’t need to adopt a new religion to decorate our homes but a little bit of mindfulness can help you focus on what is really important to you & ensure that you’re not overloaded with a cluttered mind.

We are the land of droughts & flooding rains, & our temperatures all around the country can be intense. Houses can be little hot boxes or freezing cold in winter, so what can you do to make your home more comfortable?

Most people now days would just say – turn on the split system aircon, but with the rising cost of power bills & our terrible reliance on electricity, that isn’t always a viable option either. This is where Passive Solar Design comes in. This is the way to align your home depending on the angle of the sun to make a huge difference to the interior temperature.

If possible, when designing a home layout try to have –

• Living Rooms or Patios on the North facing side
• Bathrooms & Laundries to the South
• Bedrooms to the East unless you have a shift worker
• Have no windows on the West side unless they can be shaded in summer
• Have wide eaves to give shade on the windows & walls in summer
• Deciduous trees to shade in summer & let light in for winter
• Thermal mass flooring inside for winter

But when you have an existing home, you don’t get to change these, so what do you do?? Here’s some of the best tips for saving on power & better heating & cooling your home.

• Update electrical appliances & use low energy globes. There are a few good incentives & schemes to help with this.
• Look into solar or renewable energies, including solar hot water
• Insulate!!! This includes inside wall cavities, ceiling & underfloor.
• Double glaze windows, but if you can’t do that….
• Window furnishings on inside & out. This cuts heat/cold from getting into the house, & insulates the inside preventing you choice of artificial heating/cooling from getting out.
• Add plantings or obstructions outside the house. A deciduous tree will shade in summer & let light in for winter. A thicker hedge closer to the house will help insulate the walls. Shade structures outside can cut the strong sun massively from hitting your home.
• Have a lighter coloured roof. Dark colours absorb heat.
• Add a vent on your roof to let heat out of your ceiling cavity.
• Turn off appliances when not in use. Use natural light, take shorter showers, use energy efficient devices, put on a jumper & socks.
• Recycle wherever possible. Try to repurpose items rather than replacing them & throwing the old one to the tip

These things may seem pretty much like common sense, but it is amazing how uncommon common sense is now days. Back in our grandparents day, this is what they did. But our lives are different now. We are living in a time when air conditioners are a standard in every home & we all have at least 50 electronic devises that we use regularly. We have become so dependent on electricity that we feel like we have to pay – so why not be smart & make that amount cheaper. Not only will your bank balance love these changes, but your home will be more comfortable to live in.

 

For other free Interior Design Tips –

Storage for Older Homes – http://www.interiordesigneralbury.com.au/storage-for-older-homes/

Heating your home this Winter – http://www.interiordesigneralbury.com.au/tips-on-heating-your-home-in-winter/

Having an older home – http://www.interiordesigneralbury.com.au/a-grandma-of-a-home/

The latest design trend PLANTS – http://www.interiordesigneralbury.com.au/latest-decor-fascination-plants/