Many of us have looked longingly at the designer dressed rooms featured in décor magazines, books or online – wondered how to create that look for ourselves, and then with a bump have been brought back to earth at the thought of how impossible it would be to keep the rooms looking beautiful when faced with the rough and tumble of normal family life.
It is however, possible to create well styled and comfortable rooms that will support day to day family living. The key is firstly to understand how your family lives, their likes and dislikes, habits and needs.
Light and bright with a neutral palette, natural finishes will work for most families. Dress this up with colour accents in soft furnishings, artwork and furniture. Choose washable surfaces and hard wearing fabrics which are washable if you have a family with small children or messy teenagers – this will save you lots of stress and worry and make it easy to keep your new décor clean. Things like washable slipcovers on couches and armchairs can save you lots of heartache – just pop it in the washing machine and all is bright and clean again. Leather sofas and chairs can help – warm it up with comfortable cushions and bright throws.
Simple style tweaks can make a huge difference and don’t have to cost an arm and a leg.
• Don’t arrange your furniture against the walls – this will make your room look smaller, not larger
• Get rid of heavy curtains that overpower the décor – replace with light curtains in neutral shades. If you need to block out light for any reason, line your curtains with block-out fabric.
• Declutter – create storage and either throw out or store the clutter behind closed doors
• Use rugs to introduce texture and colour – this will instantly warm up your room
• Consider scale of furniture vs rugs – a large couch and a small rug will create an unbalanced look
• Don’t match everything. Create a coherent look by sticking to the same colour palette, and choosing a few colours that complement each other, interspersing plain with a pattern or two.
Comfort is not all about the décor and look of individual rooms, though. It’s also about the flow and ease of movement between rooms, and the proximity of related areas (for example, an easy route from the garage to the pantry to assist with unloading and packing of groceries). Another example is to locate a study area closer to the living areas so that you could do some work while still being at hand for the children and responsive to their needs.
The key to a home that has both style and comfort for your family is to borrow ideas from those magazines, books and online sites – but adapt taking your family and lifestyle into consideration. If you do this you won’t go wrong.
