The interior of a home is the physical manifestation of its owner's personalities. It can be eclectic, highly regimented, or anywhere in between. But regardless of the size of the redecorating or the budget involved, the most important thing to remember when decorating your home is to let your personality shine through.
Often people see images in magazine and try to replicate the look. Certainly, images should be used as inspiration, but there is no substitute to finding creative ways to distinguish your home from every other home. Incorporating elements that you may find through travel or artwork from family members and friends is an excellent way to personalize your home. Go for the middle ground between a costly original from a famous artist and an inexpensive reproduction of that same work by supporting regional artists and craftsmen. You may be surprised at how affordably you can also frame artwork and photographs, especially if you go to a craft center and buy a matt cutter to do it yourself. Overall, by keeping decor personal and local, your house will become even more of a home to enjoy for you and your family and friends.
Interior Decorating - Think Scale, Texture, and Color
Remember with color to carefully consider both the 'chroma' and the 'value'. The chroma could be grey/blue but the value is the density of the color so it could range from light in contrast to the other colors in the room, to dark. Consider making a sample board that has swatches of color and fabric to see if the whole room works together.
Don't forget to carefully consider how the room works with natural light at different times of day. Too often people see a photo in a magazine and assume that the stylistic look will work in their home. The photo could be of a room twice the size with a ten foot ceiling and a wall of southern French doors on the opposite side, and that may not match your situation.
Decorating for the Kids
Make it bright and fun, and if there are a few letters and numbers on the wall… all the better. Consider making a tack board from homesote either painted with zero VOC paint or covered with remnant fabric. Cork boards and tack-boards are great places to display children's 'art work' and their 'collectible' clippings.
For a fun and non-traditional look, use covers from magazines as wallpaper. You can start when the child is young and fill the room in over time. New York Times covers make a particularly interesting pattern given the original illustrations. This strategy has the obvious re-use advantages but it also creates a cultural memory that captures micro-segments of history and often becomes more interesting over time.
Window Treatments
Windows are the least resistant surface to heat loss in the home, so it is important to consider additions that will retain heat in the winter and block it out in the summer, but also look good while insulating.
To retain energy efficiency and a level of Feng Shui, look for Single, Double, and even Triple 'Cellular' Blinds that often have an Insulation R Value of 3 or more. That can double the R Value of your windows and dramatically help reduce heating and cooling expenses. For fabric, look for lined and double lined curtains, and if you spend ten seconds pulling even a few shut at night in the winter, you will reduce your heating costs. Over the summer you may also want to pull them shut before leaving for work to keep the heat out. Many of the insulated fabrics are translucent so that you don't entirely block out the light.
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These are just a few of the tips that will help with your Home Decor, but if you would like to dig deeper and take a look at the bigger picture, let GREENandSAVE.com's Return on Investment Table inform you on the best ways to save money while tackling Home Remodeling Projects.
