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Decorating Lowdown, Where to Start

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Decorating Lowdown, Where to Start

It's probably because it's that time of year; spring cleaning / freshening up spaces seems to have officially started amongst you all and lately I've had lots of people asking if we offer a DESIGN SERVICE...

First of all this is a major compliment, the store seems to be inspiring people to "Reinvent their spaces" just the way I hoped it would so I'm really excited by that. Incase you missed it we managed to meet the lovely Katharine from Luxe mag who wrote a gorgeous article about us, she wrote "We're channeling a desire for us all to kick out the commonplace when it comes to decorating our homes." - I love that line!

Secondly, this is definitely something we're working on! I'll just say watch this space for later on in 2017.

To help, I thought today on the blog we could touch a little on 'interior decorating', and how you can do it yourself!

1. Try to find a starting point. Don't overwhelm yourself by thinking from the offset, 'right, what colour shall I paint these walls?" - it takes a little 'homework' if you like, or it might just happen by chance! Try to find (or you might stumble across, or it could be a piece you've had for years) something that YOU LOVE, something that inspires you. It should have 3-4 colours in it and chances are lots of research went into the design of it's pattern and colour way. I'm talking a cushion, a vase, a rug a wall hanging - anything!

Take this beautiful cushion for example, from this you could pull grey/ slate blue/pale green/ even lilacs, peach, brighter orange, soft pink, dark black . Look deeper - often there is much more to see!

3. Question the mood - how do you want the room to feel and make YOU feel? For example you want calm and relaxing this should reflect through subtle hues, if you want bold and quirky- go for contrasts in bright uplifting shades. Always question your choices based on the mood you decide to go with, think 'how would this piece/colour make me feel'.

Use your one piece (1) to 'inspire'.

Pull out your fave elements from it and then choose one colour to act as your 60% -this will be your walls (and floors perhaps)

Then hit up the 30%- here you want a few colours that work together - this will be upholstery and furniture.

10%- the finishing touches! You could go for mono and metals (like I tend to), or throw in a dash of bold to contrast -so long as it represents around that 10% and you stick to distributing it EVENLY (aka 'peppering' as I like to call it) it will work just perfectly.

The brown leather harmonises perfectly with the dark wood paneling - this is the 30% aspect.

Keep it simple when you start decorating and don't STRESS. Enjoy it, but equally CHALLENGE yourself- you'll be surprised what magic can happen when you push yourself out of your own comfort zone!

The artwork on the wall pulls this beautifully sophisticated scheme together.

P.S on a more practical note, PAINT BIGGER PATCHES. Don't use a tiny bit if your tester pot on one little place in the space and decide you HATE it. GIVE IT CHANCE. GO bigger with your patch- don't worry about the wall your'e painting it anyway, right? GO as big as you can and do a few layers of paint before you dismiss the colour you've picked. You will never get a true reflection of what the colour will be like until you've painted out the full room. (I recently order a very dark blue for a spare bedroom. When I opened it, it was as bright as the blue on an Arriva bus!!! I thought 'this can't be right" but we were in a rush and it was all I had so I used it. Three coast later turns out it is actually the deepest hue of an inky turquoise- I LOVE IT. Don't be fooled by the tin!)

Have a fab weekend folks! XOXO