May 21, 2012

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Don’t waste space in your home

April 2, 2012 By Danielle J

Many people find that their homes have rooms that get little or very occasional use, and yet they don’t have enough room in the rest of the house for what they want to do. For example, how often do you really eat in the dining room and how many days of the year does it sit there, museum-like, in a state of readiness for the next big occasion like Christmas or Easter?

With modern lifestyles, the traditional dining room gets less and less use, unless you make a real point of dining in there regularly. But if that all seems like too much trouble compared to sitting down to eat at the table in the kitchen, why not use the dining room for something else?

Dining rooms can make great home offices for example. You can easily change the furniture around in there to accommodate a desk and computer and perhaps a bookcase, too. It’s easy enough to run a phone line in there, or just use wireless connection to the internet.

Or you might want to do away with the dining table altogether, especially if you have one in the kitchen  or conservatory, and use the ‘dining room’ as a second sitting room. If this is the case, then you just need to pick out one of the many sofas that you see on sale these days and perhaps add a nice new rug and you’ve instantly got an extra living room. This can be really useful if you have older children who like to watch different things on TV or younger children who could do with more space to play with their board games etc.

Check out Harveys furniture store for ideas on how to revamp your dining room into a space that gets used 365 days a year and not just on Sundays!

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Making the right improvements to sell your house

February 27, 2012 By Danielle J

As anyone who has experience will tell you, moving home can be a stressful time. This is especially the case if you have found your new dream home and are now in a desperate rush to quickly sell up and move.

If you have put time, effort and love into your home then the last thing you want is to be ripped off by selling at a lower price than you would like because you’re in a rush. So, to ensure you not only sell quickly but sell at the right price, make sure your home looks at its very best when you show around potential buyers.

Investing in a few key home improvements now could end up making you money in the long run when you sell your home for the price it deserves.

Starting in the kitchen, if your kitchen units, appliances or furniture are very old and battered then you may want to consider investing in some reasonably-priced but good quality kitchen items from a stockist such as Wren Kitchens. This isn’t to suggest that you pay for a brand new fully-fitted kitchen of course, but a few key pieces could make all the difference to the look of your kitchen and therefore how much you ultimately sell your home for.

You can take this approach to home improvements and apply it to all of the other rooms in your house. Rather than refitting everything, a few new additions or replacements and a spot of DIY here and there may be all that is needed to improve the look of your home and impress those potential buyers.

Putting in a bit of effort now and spending a little bit of money could end up saving you thousands when you get the asking price you were hoping for.

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Best Bedroom Ever

January 29, 2012 By Danielle J

If you are looking to update your interior design upstairs then there are some key elements to modern bedroom decorating which you probably need to know about… here are a few to get you started:

  1. White bed linen. Timeless and classic, white cotton bedding is the perfect backdrop to any decorating scheme and will accessorise with any other colours. Go for a high thread count for added luxury and look out for textured fabrics for added interest.

  2. Stylish lighting. One big ceiling light just won’t cut it any more! Try functional lighting for the dressing table, mood lighting by the bed and perhaps a reading lamp by your chair. Chandeliers and candelabra are also making a bedroom come back.

  3. Clever storage solutions. Deep drawers under mattresses, floor to ceiling fitted cupboards or just a great deal of wardrobe space – it all helps to tidy away clutter and keep things looking neat.

  4. Personal touches. Delightful photos of the kids, romantic shots of you and your loved one, found objects from trips abroad or treasures from Grandmas old house all add a little bit of unique personality to the room.

  5. Centre stage. The bed is of course the vital piece of furniture in every bedroom. Head to http://bensonsforbeds.co.uk and treat yourself to a brand new dream bed to get the best nights sleep ever.

  6. Reflections of beauty. Don’t forget to include a mirror in your decorating plans. Mirrors look stunning with ornate frames and can help to give the illusion of a larger room too.

  7. Experiment with floor coverings. Whether you have carpet, laminate or wood floorboards try a rug out for size. Contemporary or classic in design an area or even room sized rug will add a cosy touch and soften sharp lines.

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Furnishing a flat to rent

December 14, 2011 By Danielle J

When you’re letting a flat as fully furnished, you should take care to choose items that will be hard wearing but look good.

Unless you make your flat attractive, potential tenants will choose another property over yours. So if you have a couple of days to spare when you old tenant leaves, then take the time to give the place a re-haul. Throw out anything that the old tenant left behind in the kitchen cupboards, etc, and give everywhere a really thorough clean. Check all the appliances are working, and decide whether any white goods need replacing.

You may decide it’s a good time to repaint – choosing a light colour neutral for the whole flat will create a feeling of spaciousness rather than painting individual rooms different colours. Having one colour also makes it easy for you to just crack on with the decorating.

If you’re replacing any furniture, there are plenty of different options when it comes to the living room. Recliner sofas can be great and they’ll be appealing to a potential tenant, but given that you don’t know who your tenants will be, it may be best to stick with something more traditional.  Anything with a mechanical function like a recliner is more likely to be broken by someone who doesn’t value your possessions as you would.

If you look around at a sofas sale you’re bound to find a sofa that is reasonably priced, functional but nice to look at, too. It’s probably best to opt for a darker colour if you’re buying a fabric sofa – one that can cope with a spill or two. Get the fabric treated with stain protection before it’s delivered.

Similarly, for the bedrooms, choose ones with solid bases – if you get slatted wooden bases these are more likely to be broken than divan beds.  Get a reasonable mattress but don’t spend too much on it, as you’re likely to change it for the next tenant.

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Why not add a statement feature to your dining room?

September 26, 2011 By Danielle J

If you’re looking to make some improvements to your dining room, you might want to consider incorporating some kind of statement feature into the space.
Instead of redecorating completely, you could make some simple changes to make the space a little bit different.
One option would be to add a feature wall to the room. If you’ve got neutral hues around the space, you might want to apply bold, patterned wallpaper to one of the walls to make it stand out within the room. Floral designs are quite hot at the moment, but so are retro ones, so you could try to find something which combines both of these trends together.
If you want to do something that doesn’t involve any redecoration, you could use dining room furniture to create a feature in the room. Find some statement chairs either with bright colours or bold designs and put these around the dining table to really spruce up your decor.
One of this year’s biggest interior design crazes is bright colours, so you should definitely try to incorporate these around your dining room.
Even if you don’t want to put too much effort into revamping the space, you should be able to inject some colour fairly easily. Just use fabrics throughout the room – on the curtains, as a tablecloth or even just over the cabinets in the space. This will add a touch of colour without there being any risk of overkill.
Making some simple improvements to your dining room, which don’t necessarily require much effort, can really make a difference to the space. Just add a splash of colour and you’re bound to feel the room is so much brighter and more cheerful than before.

Filed Under: Decorating, Interior Design Tagged With: ,
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