Naken Interiors Home Decorating & Wallpaper Tips

Our homes are uniquely personal to us and our families and we all want the rooms we live in to look great, however our individual versions of what looks great differ significantly. Interior design success is operating from the eye of the beholder. With different feelings that we would like to portray and different colour schemes that either are our favourite colours or colour schemes that mean something to us personally, all come in to play.

With this in mind, the initial tip, and of utmost importance, is to take a minute, breath and think it through properly. Think initially about the atmosphere you would like to create. Warm and cosy? Grand and bold? Refined and sophisticated? The list goes on of course, but it is a good and important start in our interior design journey and a thought process that can often be either ignored or not given the time it should.

Decorating your room or living spaces generally have a number of elements to think through and research. Furniture, colour schemes, lighting, wallpaper, ornaments, rugs & flooring, pictures & mirror frames and themes etc.

The trick and skill are bringing these items together coherently with the overall feeling of the room matching the end goal desired. (cosy or grand etc.) As colour schemes evoke such a sense of feeling, this is the idea place to begin. Matching colour charts are available online, so choosing a base colour and viewing matching colours, or using a neutral colour to dress with other colours, gives you a base to begin to choose furniture colours and accessories to your taste.

Working with darker colours, like rich greens, dark reds and similar, can be accentuated and highlighted beautifully against a backdrop of white or cream wallpaper and typically creates the feeling we desire without overpowering the room. Repeating a colour, a number of times, throughout the room creates a much stronger and better overall design, so utilise cushions, ornaments, bedside table lamp shades and other accessories to repeat the colour.

Once mirror or picture frames have been chosen, it is important to ensure that we hang them at eye level and also hang curtains above the windows or doors so they are symmetrically sounds and covering equally from top to bottom of the wall. Choosing rugs which compliment or tie in with an overall theme work wonderfully well with floorboards or times but be careful to make sure carpets will suit your chosen rug and we don’t create overkill. The contrast between wooden flooring and rug works well and can add to an overall ambiance helping towards a desired effect.

There is an opportunity to personalise our rooms in several different ways that suit our tastes. One effective route is creating a personal picture board, or even picture wall. Additionally, we could consider using items personal to us, like favourite books, or even old records sleeves, in montages or on shelves. The idea is to bring some personality in to the room in a way that you are comfortable with. Certainly, worth exploring and thinking through.

In certain rooms, like bedrooms or studies, there is real opportunity to subtly mix furniture materials to great effect. For example, using a clear designer chair, alongside a dressing table or desk with a chrome base and black desk surface, is a mixture of three differing materials and colours, yet are all neutrals and work together to create an amazing design led unique finish. Working with different finishes is possible to explore, without clashing or distracting from general colour schemes.

Working with kids bedrooms can include trying to incorporate many different colours and themes in one space, so a great tip to make this work, is to use double neutrals and allow the colours of the toys, books and teddy bears become the colour splashes which change over time and do not clash with initial decoration that suits a particular age group. Also, fixing a framed blackboard on to the wall (either large or small) is a great way of your children personalising their own space, without the room being ruined and the ability to simply wipe the slate clean each day.