Interior Design

10 best wood flooring ideas for living room in 2020

Wood flooring can be the most creative in your living room. There is no limit to decorating your living room with various wood flooring ideas. In this article, you can find 10 best wood flooring ideas for the living room in 2020.

Creating your dream living room will become so easy as you synchronize with our different ideas. You will manage to create your dream living room you have ever dreamed of. 

Wooden floor ideas for living room in 2020

Get your hands on colorful pictures and a river of information about stylish wooden flooring ideas, which will help you to make your living room stylish than others. Before jumping on the looks, have some important information about solid and engineered hardwood that might help. 

Solid hardwood

Solid hardwood is a durable one and looks beautiful from outside. It is extracted from a single piece of wood and is a long-lasting material.  Engineered hardwood offers you the same intensity of beauty in looking at it. Besides, this hardwood is heat and moisture resistant.

 

Wooden floor

Wooden floor

Spanish living Room

Spanish living Room elements are present in this wooden design. As you can see, the floor represents the golden shine, which calms the viewer. This design is decorated with a light wood floor. The faded paint simply adds a cherry on the top to the view of this flooring idea. Wooden beams are kept open purposely in antiqued style. The ceiling is designed gracefully for these beams.

wood flooring

By using softer finishes and materials, this living room gives a more relaxing and spaced view. The floor is mezzanine and is perfectly polished pickled oak, and due to that, the ceiling is kept high like modern styles. The Walls are painted gracefully in light brown color with white moldings. A simple set of sofas make it largely spaced and creative wood flooring living rooms for 2020.

Laminated Wood Flooring

laminated wood flooring

This living room decoration is actually the simplest yet the most gorgeous one as a viewer. This style is made with solid hardwood and comes under the category of laminated wood flooring. Laminate flooring brings easy maintenance and reduces your many worries. The light and cool paint on the walls with some paintings add so much refreshment to this living room’s environment. Waterproof laminate floors are available in the market, providing you all the facilities in a living room. 

Pecan Wood on Floors

Pecan Wood on Floors

This creative yet straightforward living room comes with planks of pecan wood on floors. The wood used here is helpful for various purposes like window framing, shelves, etc. walls are painted in a white color giving the smooth flavor for the viewer. You can choose a seating plan according to your need and image of your mind’s living room.

This is a high ceiling living room with a modern design. Floor giving a rustic feel in contrast with the plain white walls. Stone cladding on the fireplace wall makes this living room very expressive. The best furniture set you can go with is the same as you can see in this picture like dark grey fabric is used with yellow leather armchairs. The idea of this living room completely filled with wood is just excellent. 

Solid Teak Wood Floors

Solid Teak Wood Floors

This living room is designed with solid teak wood floors, which makes it a gorgeous modern design. The ceiling is paired with plain white painted walls, which add a warm environment for the furniture setup. 6 skylights right above the living area to make it a bright and more natural into space. Modern Furniture setup is placed to match the elegance of this living room idea. A large brick fireplace is used to add texture and dimension to space. The use of some indoor plants makes this whole look more comfortable and distinctive.

Polished Wood Floors

The simplicity of modern design makes this living room the most elegant one with the classic interiors. Polished wood floors with wood beams make a nice light view. Walls are painted with a light cream color keeping a warm background for space. The fireplace and different indoor plants are placed to add beauty to this living room. Furniture pieces with a modern design add the cherry on the top in this wooden living room.

Brown Wooden Floors

california trend

This living room consists of an electric mix of styles and furniture pieces with the calming painted walls. Vintage pieces with modern design make this living room a unique one. Cool gray and off white painted walls with brown wooden floors giving very distinctive appeal. This living room is small, but the design with fireplace and bookshelves makes it a special one. Two vintage bergeres in white color with a wooden frame add beauty to this design and keep it modern.

 

california trend

This design is basically fetched and introduced by California trends. This living room is totally in a whitewashed look. This whitewashed wood is at the top as it gives the California beach look and makes it a trending farmhouse style living room. Whitewashed wood fits perfectly in 2020 and further years with darker wood peeking out from underneath. Furniture pieces with indoor plants are perfectly placed with whitewash light paint giving a brighter and more relaxed appeal. 

Honey Wood Floors

honey wood

honey wood

This living room is designed with ‘Honey Wood,’ whose trend goes amazingly fit in 2020 and for the coming years for sure. Honey wood floors have a specialty to give your living room the appeal of larger and open. Honey wood is not just a trend, but also a color classic and looks more realistic. Walls are painted in a light color with a decent ceiling giving the feeling of calmness and relaxation. Furniture pieces and unique wall paintings make this wooden setup a distinctive one. 

 

floor

floor

This living room has simple yet the most appealing and calming look. The wooden floor looks more natural, like the polishing is done so gracefully. Homeowners or any guests always appreciate this trend. Plain white color gives the soft texture environment an item of the classic and straightforward furniture set, making the space brighter and open. Overall this wooden living room design is the most peaceful one. 

 

 

Tips To Design Dining Room In Leicester

When people are decorating their home, they don’t focus on their dining. because they think that it is not used a lot and they don’t want to waste too much money. And there is no point to spend money on a place that’s used once a year. Here are some tips to design dining room in Leicester / Leicestershire.

However, this is a bad boldness because if you spent the cash on your dining room., you would make time to usage it, even if it is only once a month or week. You ever thought that maybe you don’t use it because you don’t like your dining room? If you have, then you should try to change the way its appearances. and decorate it in a style that you like, even if it means outlay a lot of money. You will use it then.

Following Are Some Tips To Design Dining Room In Leicester

 

The Table

Start out by selection your dining table. Now you have to do some research and look in some of and online websites. and select a table that fits in your dining room. If they don’t, have a look for some sites that will custom make furniture according to your demand.

After finding the table or you are arrangement on having one made, you need to take some sizes of the room to make sure that the table fits accurately. You don’t want the table to feel too haughty and like after that no space is left for anything else. Read below Tips To Design Dining Room In Leicester.

 

Tips To Design Dining Room In Leicester

Therefore, make sure the table fits and account for the usage of the chairs. And the people visiting your dining room need to be able to get in and out without getting stuck against the wall. You need to make the room relaxed for people to use else you are not going to want to use it at all.

If you have originate a table that fulfill all your requirements, you should ask if they have chairs matching to it. If they do have, then buy them also, but if they don’t then you might have to get them custom made. Or, you could just go observing for chairs that are the same color and the filling goes with the table.

If you have selected a table with a glass top, you can at all times try and pick the padding that bouts the colour of the glass. This may cost you a bit more money., but it will be worth it in the end since you will have a table that you love and you will use it frequently.

 

Wall Covering

Once the table is selected, you should be with that as the feature entry, so all else has to match that. So, you must be buying wall covering that praises the dining table and room. You should be cautious not to make the room look too dull because then it will be unappealing and low.

 

Tips To Design Dining Room In Leicester

 

So, if you have a dark wood table, use a sunnier color for the wall covering. Try not to make it decorative because it will look too fenced and you might not want to eat in there. You need plain wall covering, which you can complement with images of the family.

If you find wall covering that you have just dropped in love with, you can just use it on unique wall so it is more like a feature partition. Then you won’t feel too locked in. It should be somewhat that praises the plain wall covering though, so try and bout the colors that you have in the basic paper. The whole thing should look like it matches, and nothing should look out of place.

 

Choose stuffs that are to scale.

Tips To Design Dining Room In Leicester

This sounds simple, but it can be hard to reminisce when you stagger on a piece you really love (especially if it’s antique) or if you’re trying to bounce the purpose of a smaller room. The bigger the room, the lengthier the table you should have–and vice versa. For too small or corner places where you don’t do a lot of pleasurable, consider a round table which is easier to steer around and takes up less space than one with angles. And please, no more bar tallness tables! They’re simply not happy for you or your visitors—and if your home moonlights as a cafeteria, they’ll end up observing out of place.

Craven And Hargreaves are UK’s, Leicester/Leicestershire leading Interior Designers and Home renovation Experts, we have professionals that makes us stand out from other designers. You can read Tips To Design Dining Room In Leicester and many other things.

Wood Interior Designs

The classic interior designs mostly have wood in it. Wood designs are mostly very classic and are also timeless. What to keep in mind when you have wood designs.

Walls:

Wooden walls look very artistic because the wood patterns are very beautiful. The wood has so beautiful different shades of brown. When making wood walls then one must keep in mind that the most top quality wood must be used. Pine trees are easily available and its wood is available in abundance. Not only this, the wood is also of top quality and is also strong to withstand the extreme weather conditions.

Roof

The wooden roof is a little tricky because it cannot be made like a cement ceiling and the wooden roof have to be made in a triangle shape. Why this is done is because to make the roof strong and make it strong enough so it can withstand the extreme weather and also can balance out the weight of the wood.

Fire Place

Your fire place must be the most comfortable place. As it is made up of stone and you can use wood logs for burning and the rest of the place can be made of wood. The wood rocking chair is the classic and it can be placed near the fire place.

Stairway

The stairways which are made up of wood gives an impression of watching an old classic western movie as the stairway in these movies are mostly made of wood. You can have it in your home and make your stairway a classic. Pine wood must be used in making a stairway as it is the strongest wood and can easily withstand heavy weights.

When selecting wood, it is very important to keep in mind the strength of the wood because the wood has a very long life as long as you pick the right kind of wood. Pine wood is the most recommended. The wood is easily available in the market and there are many experts who can help you pick the right kind of wood before you invest in it. The wood is very expensive and the same wood designs which are available in different materialswhich are not wood but have the design that you want.These cheap alternatives are a good choice and can help you control your budget and make you achieve your targeted design.

3 Design You Don’t Need to Follow Anymore

Rules about interior design are not inherently a bad thing. In fact, most designers are of the opinion these “Rules are placed to guide us”. We may not have that magic eye of interior designers, but we can try to copy their work by turning it into a formula and implementing it in our own space for a similar stylish look.

Rules like: painting small rooms white, hanging wall art at eye level, no mixture of large scale patterns on the same space and using decor of varying height have been put forward by designers.With these rules, one could feel intimidated or incompetent about his sense of style. This is so because either consciously or not, we accept them when decorating or putting up furniture in our homes.

Somebest interior design practices are no longer fashionable. Here are three “Don’ts” put forward by interior designers.

Outdated rule :The use of same metal finish in a room

Nowadays, the idea of matching metals in room space seems outdated.This rule is controversial. According to some interior designers, mixing metals feels so fresh and current whereas others opine that many people would rather feel comfortable going against this traditional rule. There are a few tricks to make this design choice attractive. First, one has to make sure that the metals in question are distinct. Eg.shiny silver chrome and brushed nickel look very much alike that it will seem accidental to have them in a single space. In such a situation interior designers suggests that one metal should be the hero colour while the others follow as accents.

Outdated rule : Follow the 60-30-10 colour guide

Blending colours in a home is not as easy as it seems, as many people do not know what colours to use in specific positions.  This explains why interior designers decided to formulate another rule; the 60-30-10 rule.It refers to the use of a 60% focal colour on large furniture in your space such as walls and carpets. It equally involves a 30% use of secondary colour on smaller furniture like windows and pillows and an accent colour of 10% on other smaller objects like lamps and smaller art.  Thiscreativity brings out a perfect blend of colours into a space. No specified number of colours is specified to be incorporated in a single space. This leaves one in suspense as to what solution to seek in overcoming the rule.

Outdated rule : The need to match all wood stains

Some interior designers do not see the need to match wooden furniture. While some hold that wood doesn’t need to match, othersbelieve the contrary and consider it as cheap and outdated. Despite the dichotomy surrounding this concept, mixing woods gives a touch of class and desired finishing. It should be noted that when wall colours and other decorative art are well placed, all wood finishes fall in place.

Tips for Awesome Home

Have an awesome home, live with style, and make a home with all the new gadgets. Technology has made our life easy and also comfortable. It is a blessing to have an android, a flat-screen, a fuel-efficient car, and energy savers. We live in an era where style and fashion are very important. we have some tips for awesome home for you. A gym is a must. Since you get tired working the whole day and then you don’t have the energy to go out and travel again to the gym.

It will be an awesome idea to have a gym at your home. A treadmill is a must.  When you are designing a gym then you must keep in mind that you should keep only those machines which are useful and you can use them on daily basis. A gym idea is evergreen and it will work on your health also. Second, you can have a swimming pool in your backyard. Yes, the swimming pool requires a lot of maintenance. Swimming pools are best for inviting people and having a gathering too. You can make your friends enjoy the pool. Even you can use the pool every day for swimming. Swimming is the best exercise and it keeps a person healthy and fit.

home renovation, style your home awesome

Another amazing idea is that you must have a whiteboard in your home. Well, you must be thinking about what is so amazing and awesome about a whiteboard. A whiteboard is very useful. You can pin your plans and other schedules and the things which you want to remember on the board for reminding purposes. This idea is very awesome as it will keep on organized and it will make you get things done on time. You can have an aquarium bedroom. This bedroom will look amazing at bedtime. The blue color lights can be placed just above the bed. You can even have a chandelier living room. These days, beautiful chandeliers are available which are not that expensive. Another awesome idea is having a dining table with swing chairs.

It is fun to have a swing chair with a table. Other than this, an inside-out swimming pool will leave your guest breathless. This is such an amazing idea that you can have one part of your pool in a room and the rest of it outside. The spiral staircase saves a lot of space. Then adding a slide to its spiral shape can be so fun. Not, only the kids can use it but also the other people in your house can join in and have fun. If you have an open shaft in your home, then designing your bathroom on top of it with a glass floor will make you leave breathless. Hope you have enjoyed our tips for awesome home, So, have an amazing home with amazing ideas. Please visit our company website at: https://www.cravenandhargreaves.co.uk/

Nautical interiors for your dining room

Dining rooms are quite an important room in many houses, as it’s the place that most families congregate, well that and the living room. The dining room and the kitchen, as well as the living room are the rooms that most visitors to your home will get to see. It’s important to get the atmosphere right through the paint scheme and chosen home accessories.

When decorating a dining room, the nautical look can help to create a relaxed atmosphere, and it’s a surprisingly simple decorating scheme to pull together. Something in a neutral cream or white accentuated with bright blues and reds, can make your dining room look cool and modern.

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One way of achieving it, is to have a white wall, or a neutral painted floor, while having bright home accessories such as red and white, or blue and white striped chairs, and a brightly coloured table in a block of colour, either red or blue. If a purely white painted room is too stark for your taste, even with the flashes of colour in the accessories and furniture, then why not paint one wall a light dove grey? Just to break up the white.

If you want to find a very informal look, then it’s a good idea to choose a bench and table set, rather than opting for a more conventional dining table and chairs. It can almost remind people of sitting at the beach, and evokes memories of childhood as well.

Choosing lighting choices like fishermen’s pendant lights will also add to the overall affect. You might want to choose one that is operated by a dimmer switch, in order to easily create ambience during a evening dinner party. They tend to be placed directly above tables for the best lighting, but if you prefer something different with this interior design look, then industrial style strip lights might be something you would like.

When thinking about the window treatments, there’s the option of using shutters like they do in New England, or if you want the maximum amount of natural light coming through then you might want to go for sheer blinds without curtains.

If this has inspired you, then please get in touch with us at Craven and Hargreaves. We’re a Leicester based interior design firm, and will happily give you a detailed consultation about what we can achieve together. Our email address is info@cravenandhargreaves.co.uk

Creating the Illusion of Size in Your Home

How many of us can honestly say that we’ve never looked around while sat in a room thinking “if only it didn’t feel so cramped”? Well, here are some handy hints as to how to make your rooms feel bigger than they actually are – exceeding their potential if you like. This article won’t go into de-cluttering as I hope that it goes without saying that the first step is to reduce the amount of ‘things’ occupying your space.

home-accessories

Get up against the wall!

It’s amazing how much of a difference simply moving your sofa or other piece of large furniture flush against a main wall can make. The clean lines that result combine with the reality of the extra open space to great effect.

Reflect on this great tip

Yes, you’ve guessed it – use mirrors! The choice of styles is endless and can be a fun way of making a statement while also making your room appear larger. Large ceiling to floor mirrors in between two big cabinets or bookcases can make a devastating impact on the size impression of a room.

Furniture that’s light on its feet

Small rooms will not benefit from chunky, old-world furniture. Instead make sure that dining chairs or tables made of light, fresh materials such as Perspex, acrylic and glass. If wood is to be used opt for lighter woods with thin legs and a low surface area.

Trick the eye

Large, bold black and white diagonal floor patterns (perhaps vinyl flooring) not only look impressive, but they send the eye on a dizzying journey that distracts it from the edges of the room, helping to confuse its idea of size. It can also help to make furniture appear smaller and less bulky.

It’ll be all white on the night

White rooms from ceiling to skirting boards always look bigger. It makes it harder to see where walls end and space begins. This effect can be helped by the use of recessed lights as well as (if you can) stepped ceilings and even a sky light.

Dark can work too

The same trick can be applied to darker shades, like grey so long as you stick to the same principle of ceiling to skirting board coverage in the same colour. This visual seamlessness can be enhanced by also painting doors and radiators in the same colour.

So, before you despair at the thought of accepting your lot there are some low cost options from home accessories Leicester to subtle, well chosen paint jobs that can give your house the illusion of space.

Updating Your Kitchen Lighting Fixtures

Although summer time might seem a funny time to be thinking about your light fittings – there’s never a bad time to plan your next kitchen remodel and planning in advance gives you all the more time to find the perfect fixtures for you. We spend so much time these days in our kitchens and making the most of them makes sense not only from a lifestyle point of view but also from the perspective of adding value to your property. This is exactly the type of advice that those involved in kitchen refurbishment Leicester will give.

After-Two

There are so many light fixtures from which you’ll have the luxury to choose and imprint your own style on your kitchen. These include chandeliers, recessed lighting, under-cabinet lighting, mini pendants, track lighting and elegant, brimful of character hanging pot racks. A nice shade hanging low over a breakfast bar can look wonderful and is a way of introducing colour as well as making a statement. There can be so many options that the problem is deciding where and how to make a start. Of course much will be dependant on your personal taste and the existing style of your kitchen, unless of course your fixtures update comes hand in hand with a complete kitchen overhaul. Do you have a coherent theme in your kitchen? Is it a city style or contemporary kitchen, a small kitchenette or a large country kitchen diner complete with range? Is your favoured theme industrial with cold whites, greys and silvers or a more homely feel with traditional and even antique features?

The functionality of your kitchen must also be considered. Do you have a clear food preparation area like an island? If so, even if you favour recessed lighting throughout the kitchen you can opt for a trio of beautiful pendant lights over the island for a trendy, functional touch. Do you eat your meals in the kitchen or do any paperwork and computer work? If the latter is true then remember computers have their own lights, so it’s the paper that requires illumination. A handy fluorescent task light is a good option.

Lighting the spaces above and below the cabinets has become increasingly desirable. Available in slim, energy-efficient models like miniature track lights or low-voltage linear systems, under and over-cabinet lighting is a great way to illuminate counter tops and cabinet recesses and also accents ceilings. On the subject of accenting it may be the case that you have some favourite pieces of art, posters, decorative plates or even a photo wall in your kitchen that you need to light up. This can be achieved wonderfully with recessed light fixtures or directed track lighting. As you can see, there is a light fixture for every occasion and with a little research and perhaps some expert advice you can achieve a whole lot by overhauling your kitchen lighting.

Basic Tips for a Summertime Bathroom Makeover

Why might I need a bathroom reviver?

Due to consistent wear and tear, bathrooms tend to begin their decline after around 20 years. The average bathroom remodel comes in at around £7-10,000, so it is very important to get things right.

Summer time is the right time

As the warm weather inspires us to get creative (and of course helps the paint dry!) now is a great time to freshen up your bathroom freshened and add some of the style you’ve been dreaming of. As bathrooms represent a ‘high traffic space’, making sensible reformations can yield excellent results in terms of resale value, so also make sound financial sense.

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Essential tips

When considering bathroom refurbishment Leicester it is imperative that you consider utility and design as well as making allowances for where the water fixtures must occupy space.

Due to their typically small and enclosed nature away from the rest of the house, the bathroom is usually somewhere you can really go to town on should you desire, with playful colour schemes and interesting features. Even so, it makes real sense to ensure that your material choices are maintenance light, energy maximising and bright and airy.

Flooring

There are so many options for bathroom flooring that it can be overwhelming. If you have a very small bathroom, then it makes aesthetic sense to go for large tiling and patterns, ensuring the space doesn’t feel cluttered. Ceramic tiles and vinyl flooring are the two most sensible options. If going down the ceramic route, make sure that the tiles are grade 1 or 2, have less than 7% water absorption and are slip resistant. Vinyl flooring can, however feel much better underfoot and is more practical (cleaning) and cheaper.

Walls

Tiling is a great way to freshen up your walls. The classic option is to tile half way up in white and create a stylish border of your choice. More expensive, but more durable and easier to clean than painted walls, tiles are a great way to make your mark on your bathroom wall.

Lighting

LED, LED, LED: the bathroom lighting mantra. LED lights use up to 75% less energy than other options and last up to 25 times longer. Well chosen lighting is a must.

Fixtures and Fittings

These take up an average of 20% of a bathroom remodelling budget and are used heavily many times a day, so durability and ease of cleaning are key. Glass shower doors can be treated with anti-spotting agents, which really help to keep your bathroom looking clean and new. Quartz is more practical than marble and all-brass fixtures are a must.

How to Introduce Colour into your Home

This March 2015 was the first year that I’d noticed the interesting International Colour Day. The day prompted a lot of discussion on interior design forums and it seems that each year the industry is embracing colour to a whole new level. Crown Paint, Valspar Paint and Dulux have all launched their individual campaigns highlighting the importance of colour, with the latter warning that we are sleepwalking into a future without colour, enticing us to become ‘colour rebels.’ Colour really is one of the best ways to add that personal touch to your home. But just how can we do this without making an almighty mess of our home refurbishment Leicester?
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Start small

If your home is understated and filled with neutral tones, try to identify a statement piece to catch the eye. How about a chest of draws in the living or dining space with each draw painted a distinct colour. Perhaps start with yellow at the top, moving through some greens and finishing in blue. The sides, top and back of the chest can all be painted one subtle shade of greenish blue – perhaps the same as the penultimate draw? If this seems too audacious, perhaps start with introducing some flowers in a colourful, bold vase or some coloured cushions.

Big in 2015

This year we have seen the trends shift away from the nondescript cream and beige palette to a cooler set of colours such as silvers, fresh whites and greys. This trend is in keeping with the idea of bringing the industrial into the home. On the fringe of the more popular choices there is a real buzz about using colourful ‘artist palette’ designs against a backdrop of icy white.

Blinds

Sometimes the very nature of an accessory lends itself to colour experimentation. Window blinds are a clear choice when to create a bold impression in an interior because of their ‘blocky’ look.  It is also easy to use colour contrasts or combinations, by using a border on a roller blind or alternating slat colours.

Kitchen mix

Colour mixing in the kitchen has been on the rise of late and helps kitchens look less ‘out of the box.’ The most obvious way to achieve this is with the units. A blend of oak and hand painted units can look lovely. This introduces a homely feel and elegant shades of blue and grey can look great against a predominant oak set-up. The great advantage to this is the colour can be changed in the future, giving you a relatively cheap freshen-up option going forward.

Storage Solutions and Upcycling Tricks for City Life

Life in the city can mean a sacrifice in terms of living space and after all with all that socialising and wining and dining, who needs a mansion to come home to, right? When it comes to putting everything back after a spot of home renovation Leicester then these tips may just save you some time AND space as well as giving your home a quirky touch or two.

It’s never the wrong season for a good old fashioned clearout and often the precursor and even motivating factor for a revamp of your living space and storage options is to don the gloves and get started on the clutter cull! Luckily the fine folk at Storage Solutions have come up with an infallible ‘five box declutter technique’ to help you make those ruthless decisions. Essentially this involves marking five boxes dedicated to 1 – Bin; 2 – Store; 3 – Donate [or sell]; 4 – Keep; 5 – Relocate.

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De-cluttered? Good. City living goes hand in hand with minimalist style and what could be more in vogue than upcycling? Both trends are satisfied in the idea of using old shower hooks on wardrobe bars to tidy away all those handbags. It’s a simple, cost-effective way of putting some surprisingly bulky objects out of sight.

In the kitchen, those fortunate enough to benefit from high ceilings can fix a rack upcycled from a bicycle wheel or the round top of a decorative metal garden table to some ropes to be attached to rings in the ceiling. From this surprisingly chic contraption (a conversation piece for sure) you can hang those infuriatingly un-storable pots and pans.

One of my favourite little tricks is gluing or (perhaps more safely) drilling the lids of glass jars to the underside of a table or sideboard and storing bits and bobs in the jars underneath! It’s an ingenious idea for craft rooms, garages and sheds and is strangely addictive once you see how handy it can be. You can even try it out in the kitchen for your spices and herbs – perhaps underneath some shelves – doubling your shelfspace.

Clever storage and old world charm need not be mutually exclusive and for those who feel that a good bookshelf choc-a-bloc with fine reading is imperative, a bookshelf can easily be built into the wall at the foot of a bed in a small bedroom, which lacks the space for a standing bookshelf. To give it that quirky upcycled twist, if the room design allows an old wooden ladder could be split, making a mid wall corner bookshelf. With just a little thought and imagination the opportunities for ingenious, space-saving, inexpensive city storage solutions are endless.

Modern Wallpapers Giving a Glimpse of the Past

Just as fashions in the colours and fabrics used for clothes change, so do trends in the world of wallpaper design.

In the 1960s, Modern Wallpapers Giving a Glimpse of the Past, like fashion, embraced both monochrome Op art and the joyful colours of Flower Power. In comparison, in the 1970s, the milkmaid look popularized by Laura Ashley sent sprigs of tiny blooms spreading across our walls. The 1980s saw densely patterned floral papers with accompanying borders start to make way, in the 1990s, for a minimalist look with wallpaper often being ditched in favour of plain painted walls. As the decade went on, a partial revolt against minimalism saw the introduction of techniques such as sponging to add texture to the walls.

Since the dawn of the new millennium, and in today’s tighter financial conditions, many firms, including an interior design company in Leicester, are reporting a rise in nostalgia and growing interest in all things vintage and handmade, as people look for ways to stamp their individuality on their homes.

So, retro prints copied from original 1960s or 70s pattern books are big news. The bold geometric designs, often in greens, oranges or browns, are best kept to one wall in a small room, with a complementary or contrast colour paper on the other walls. Carry the theme through with cushions or ceramics in key colours from the wallpaper.

Botanic is another current trend, but, unlike the tiny floral prints of the 1980s, the 2014 wallpapers often feature much larger blooms, combining well with bold modern furniture or adding a striking backdrop to a deliberately mismatched, retro-chic scheme. You’ll find flowers featuring heavily on ‘oriental’ inspired papers, too, and if you choose one with a dark background, these can work well in a contemporary, minimalist home.

If you prefer plain to patterned walls, introducing texture is a great way to individualize your room. And it has the further advantage of helping to disguise any imperfections on a less-than-perfect wall surface! Go for a 30s throwback anaglypta paper which can be painted or left plain, or look for a paper with a metallic finish that will reflect light and make the room seem bigger.

Children’s rooms have been transformed too. The latest trends see an end to the TV tie-ins and, instead, a wealth of beautiful vintage-inspired designs, featuring stylized animals, cars, brightly coloured Paisley patterns and bold geometric stripes that suit both boys and girls and which won’t date as the child grows.

Wallpaper has been part of our homes and our lives for generations, and, as with so many things, wallpaper design trends seem to be coming full circle. But experiments with the latest 3D printer technology have already seen wallpaper being produced. We may be on the threshold of a completely new era that could one day see us all able to produce our designs for our homes within our homes.

SEE ALSO:

Create a Custom Designed Welcoming Hallway to Attract the Visitors

AND

Creating a Study Bedroom for your Child