We spend a good amount of time and money on our homes, so why not make each space within them feel a little bit more like, well, home? Making your house a place that reflects your tastes, speaks to your inner being, and makes you feel happier can be a challenge, but taking the time to do it can be well worth the effort in the end. Here are 5 interior design tips that will make your house what it was always meant to be: your happy home.
Ignore the trends
When you look at the great interior magazines, it’s not about trends. It’s about enduring quality, things that are extraordinary, things that have integrity. A lot of what are considered trends don’t really have any integrity. Trends, in interior design, are really more about the surface – style as a surface design that’s applied onto something else. And that isn’t what good architecture or good interior design is about. Instead discover what style fits your way of living and your unique hobbies and collection. The happiest homes around are those that are extremely individual, daring in it's choice of colours and combinations.
Keep your eyes open
Be inspired, absorb what’s around you, but also apply a critical faculty when you’re looking at things. It’s about constant editing: the ability to look at something and understand why you like it, why you don’t like it; why something is good and why something’s mediocre; why something is downright awful. Simply looking at it isn’t enough. It’s learning to understand what its intrinsic qualities, or lack thereof, are all about.
Start at the bottom
Have an empty box? Don't buy a sofa first . Work from the bottom up. Decide on your flooring, get some rugs first—they’re like paintings for the floor. Don't be afraid to go for bold designs that tells a story, starting with a flooring and rugs gives you the setting and elements to work by. And if you want to work with it or contrast it is part of the process but maybe even start with some antique rugs that your grandmother left you and then decided that this is going to be the only antique thing in your house and the rest be pink bubbly furniture.
Mix old and new
Be daring, mixing pieces from different periods makes a scheme more timeless. That acknowledgement of the past, the present and the cutting edge… It’s like creating a sense of historical continuity within your home. Some things will resonate by juxtaposition rather than being of entirely similar periods. It’s all about creating a sense of balance: trying to find elements that have a contrast but can speak to each other in terms of their scale and proportions and relative force.
Evolve your home
As the years go by, our lifestyle changes, our family unit expands. Sometimes it's about re-upholstering a couple of the sofas and bringing in a couple of furnitures by an interesting new designer or re-doing a whole room to fit the new addition in the family. It’s keeping that freshness of approach. Fortunately with interiors, one can gradually change things and you can create a home that evolves with you.