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How to become your own interior designer
If you want a quiet place to read, make sure you include a comfy chair in your plans. Pictured: the Leo armchair
Follow our ten steps and you won’t need to go to the expense of hiring an interior designer to make your home beautiful – you’ll be able to do it all by yourself
1. The first thing to do is to focus on what you like to do in your home – think how it gets used, or how you would like to use it if it was designed differently. Perhaps you’d like a cosy TV and games room for the kids, perhaps you want a quiet spot where you can sit and read, but don’t want to shut yourself away in the bedroom. All these considerations can form a ‘wish list’. This is really the kind of brief that you would give to an interior designer, so it’s a good place to start even when you’re doing it yourself.
2. Don’t be afraid to borrow ideas. Make a list of things you have seen that you love and would like to copy. Don’t just take inspiration from TV shows, exhibitions and magazines, but think about art galleries and museums you have visited, friends’ homes you have loved, even shops that you have felt at home in. Remembering these places and ideas can help you understand how form, texture, colour, scale, lighting and space can be combined to create something you like.
Take inspiration from everywhere, even shops. Pictured: Gieves & Hawkes shop interior on Saville Row, London.
3. Try to bring out the best in what you have and work with it, not against it. What are its best features? Perhaps it’s a view or a high ceiling? If so accentuate these features with lighting and furniture arrangement. If you have a modern house, there’s no point trying to make it ornate, or trying to create a ‘heritage’ look – you have to work with what you have.
4. Although it’s tempting to get carried away with thoughts of the fun stuff like wallpaper and soft furnishings, you really need to think carefully about the basics first. Consider flooring choice and colour, furniture shape and colour and practical things like where the plug sockets should go first – lamps and cushions can come later.
Measure up your available space and draw a plan
5. Just because you like the look of a piece of furniture does not mean it will look good in your space. Make sure you always measure your room before investing in furniture. To really make sure there are no errors, you could draw out a plan of the room to scale on squared paper, then you can draw in the furniture, so you can see exactly how it will look. At Danetti we make this easier, by always providing full measurements for our products. It’s also worthwhile measuring your doorways and stairwells – the last thing you want is for your furniture to arrive and then not to fit through the door.
6. Think of your house as a whole. Too many people isolate one room, give it a certain vibe and colour scheme, and then chose something that jars with this in the room next door. Rooms shouldn’t all be decorated the same, but it does help if there is some harmony. This is a particular skill of an interior designer, but it’s a useful habit to get into. A major advantage is that it allows you to move furniture and accessories between rooms when you fancy a change.
7. Don’t forget lighting. In most people’s homes the lighting is a ‘hidden extra’ it’s not the prominent thing you see when you walk into a room. Nevertheless, it’s crucial to the atmosphere and usefulness of a space. Always consider what you want to do in a room, for example, in a bedroom you need to make sure there is bedside lighting to read by and overhead lighting to dress by.
Furniture and flooring is worth investing in. Pictured: Luca square dining table
8. Keep your budget in mind at all times. You don’t want to run out of money half way through a renovation project, so be realistic from the outset. Some things are worth spending on – in particular flooring and furniture, while some things, including soft furnishings, will only look up-to-date for a few years, so there’s no point spending loads on them. Remember when spending on any electrical appliances and gadgets that new technology soon becomes old technology, so it’s probably not worth spending that much on the latest fad.
9. Be professional in your dealings with tradesmen. You could ask for references and ask to see their previous projects – if they are good, then they shouldn’t object. It’s useful to put your objectives in writing, this can be a useful document fall back on if things do not turn out as expected.
10. Ask for help. Independent furniture retailers such as Danetti are very familiar with the process of furnishing a home successfully. We would be more than happy to help you find the pieces that will work well together and bring out the best in your home.
Welcome to Danetti Lifestyle
Welcome to Lifestyle, sponsored by Danetti.com. Have you ever wondered what the latest trends will be for decorating your home? What the manufacturers recommend for cleaning and protecting your leather stools? Well, wonder no more. Lifestyle will provide these answers and many more. Each post will be filled with information for creating and maintaining your perfect décor.
For example, did you you know that black painted walls are starting to make a come back? As well as blue and green highlights using coloured decorative products throughout the room. Two of these items are the blue Suck UK Glow Brick and the green Suck UK Glow Brick.
We’ll have helpful posts about the care and maintenance of your leather furniture as well as a guide to the different types of leather available, from mid-grain to bi-cast and every type in between.
Lifestyle will also photos of products that will coming into stock in the future. If you see a design you like, feel free to contact Danetti for more information. We may also post photos of products we like and would like your opinion of them. Would you buy them?
We look forward to any comments you may have about Lifestyle.