Inspiration for your home interior
So now you now understand how you want to feel in your home and have your colour choice clipped safely under your belt … no peeking now … and no going back on your tracks! Remember your first intuition and choices are the best to rely on.
Following on from ‘Where do I find interior design ideas’ and ‘How to choose a paint colour for your home‘ I continue this month’s interior design guide on how to design your perfect home with INSPIRATION! This is the part that I love. Discovering a feeling and a colours are one thing, but now we get to the knitty gritty of being inspired by the physical, here and now. By physical I mean by playing around with what is given to us naturally, for free if you like. Look around your home, inside and out and search for inspiration for the theme or ‘background’ for your scheme. Indicators can be all around you. The history of the house you live in, its style, its demeanor, the locality attached to your house; is it near a park or landmark or have a river passing by. May be a famous author lived in your house, or next door, it could be any small indicator to spark inspiration. Finally, is there a beautiful outside which you can ‘bring in’, or an architectural element running through the house that you can build on. So much can be drawn without realising it.
Using architectural elements to influence your design is one of themost simplest and complimentary indicators to follow through with, but there is a flip side to this. Some people who do not enjoy the architectural elements they have in their homes, for example Art Deco or Victorian styling, take it upon themselves to rip them all out, these gorgeous elements that our past has left us with are replaced with blank surfaces and no character, no character! I feel so strongly about this. Its lovely to have variety but please leave architectural features alone. I would always advise to think very carefully before removing them,once they are gone they are gone!
If there is nothing immediately visible to draw from then you have a blank canvas to create what ever you want and let the imagination run wild!
On a note of themes, I am not overly keen on them, I much prefer a suggestion of, or a mixture of styles, again not being tied down to any one. The only theme I feel can work in its entirety, with no mix is the minimalist style. Here it dictates little with clean lines, modern and unobtrusive.
Like design of products and experiences in life, keep it simple, balanced and in moderation. If you do love a particular theme or style you don’t have to be a slave to it, but if its related to your work or a hobby, and or you are passionate about something then why not tell the whole world about it. The whole point of designing your home sometimes is not only for yourself but actually telling your story and about you, so make this your debut to proclaim it! Another example, I love London so I have a ‘subtle’ theme running though the scheme of my living room. It is nt in your face its ‘suggestions’, as in a picture or an accent cushion depicting an association with London. Oh by the way my husband, he also loves London too, that helps! Dealing with differences within your partnerships - you have to work a happy medium, and this is sometimes difficult to overcome, but the secret is be good to each other and value each others opinion, we discuss this later on.
To recap, find your centre of inspiration, be it architectural, surroundings, hobby or a part theme, refine it and make it your own.
Evaluate what you do have what you have not. Be realistic but still have dreams.