Professional Touches

Professional Touches

Decorate your home with care, so it looks as beautiful as if it were done by a professional decorator, and yet, echoes your personality in each room.

When decorating your home, choose every single item you buy, with care. Remember that most of your furniture will last a lifetime. You don't want to buy something on an impulse, and then, a few years later, as your tastes change, throw it away! Sure, you can, and will, throw away some things, but if you don't want to throw away most of what you buy today, you need to be careful.

Trends

Don't follow trends, unless you have enough money to change your decor when what was very trendy this season is completely out the next season, or when you simply get oh so sick those striped walls.

Theme

The first step you need to take is to identify a style or a theme, and stick with it for your entire home. This means that you need to first define how you want todecorate your home before you run around shopping and picking up whatever you think looks good. Of course, even if you gradually build your home by collecting things at random, you still may hit the spot and have a beautiful home, warm and cozy home. But, for a more professional touch, a little planning and foresight will help. So at the outset, decide what theme you are going to go with. Modern? Minimalist? Ethnic? Victorian? Summer? Moroccan? Eclectic, which means, a little bit of everything, on purpose?…. The choice is endless. Once you know where you're headed, you will avoid making expensive mistakes and buying furniture that does not quite 'fit'.

Magazines

Read as many home and decor magazines as you can get your hands on. They really, really do help. When you see something you like in a magazine, don't just randomly try to reproduce it. First, observe the little details, because that is what makes all the difference. You may love the sofas in a room that has a minimalist theme, but if you put the same sofas in your home without paying attention to the other elements, the results will be disastrous. Along with the sofas, also observe the plain brown rectangular carpet, the large square glass vase with a single gerbera in it, the sleek furniture minus any hint of carving….

Colours

What colours do you like? What colours make you feel good, relaxed and lift your mood? Ever notice how sometimes you visit someone, and as soon as you enter their home you feel so relaxed? This has less to do with how beautiful the vase sitting on that table is, and more to do with colour. If the colours of your home are warm and earthy, chances are that they will embark a feeling of warmth and coziness to anyone that visits. Similarly, cool colours relax you, while vibrant colours lift you up and make you want to get up and go. But, more important, identify the colours that make you feel happy, and use these colors to decorate your home.

Once you've decided on the colour and on the theme, only pick up those pieces that go with your chosen theme. So if you've decided to do modern, minimalist, DON'T opt for a carved sideboard!