Curtains and blinds Leicestershire

Top Window Dressing Trends for 2015

In the world of blinds and curtains exciting things have been happening in terms of what’s hot and what’s not. At the forefront of all things curtains and blinds Leicestershire,we’re in the perfect position to hand out our tips for revamping your window dressings this year.

Grey days

In keeping with the integration of concrete and concrete look in interior design, greys are very much in, with neutral greys dominating in curtains and blinds. You might be asking ‘how can I make this change without leaving my room looking stark and soulless?’

Well here are a few tips…

Contrast the grey with a splash of carefully chosen colour. Burnt oranges, lemon yellows and soothing blues are all very much in vogue and for good reason. Blues offer calming properties, oranges work stunningly with the greys and lemon is always great for a splash of vibrancy. Greys can be complemented by warm and cool tones alike – so your options are endless.

Add silver touches like candlesticks and trays, light fittings and picture frames, to lend a magical touch to the room. This is an alternative option to the grey/copper contrast that is dominating of late and is another stunning alternative.

Time tested olive greens

If the thought of a trend-driven shift frightens you, then olive greens are stylish with little chance of them going out of fashion any time soon.

Our tips for integrating olive green

Use neutral furnishings, as olive green curtains will provide a stunning backdrop.

Dip one foot into the copper trend as olive green and copper are a match made in heaven, while greys also go extremely well with the colour, so concrete effect wallpaper or grey painted walls will not only be extremely in, but will maximise the impact of your new window dressings!

Blind Faith

Blinds can also be used as statement pieces to offset a more minimal, stark wall paint and colour scheme. A hot tip for 2015 is adding to the ‘go to’ neutral of the moment – grey – with a set of vibrant burnt orange blinds, adding warmth to the room. Of course, you might already have enough warmth with some carefully chosen soft furnishings or a feature wall, in which case, art-deco inspired metallic hues are all the rage for retaining the glamour and chic. For kitchens and bathrooms, where perhaps a fresher more invigorating tone is desired, there are some great options, but green tea shades are especially delicate and refreshing.

Inviting Spring into Your Home

As the winter months become a cold memory and the snowdrops and bluebells warm our hearts with news of spring, it is time to look at our homes in a new light and think of how we can re-energise them with the vibrancy of this season of change. With a little thought your home can be transformed.

Spring clean

It may not be the glamorous option, but a top to bottom spring clean of your home will not only leave your house looking wonderful, but it will leave you feeling energised and you will become fully re-acquainted with your home, helping the ideas as to how to revamp and re-style your property flow. With the car boot season ready to rock now is the time to turn up the music and get those boxes filled with unwanted knickknacks that will free up valuable space.

New carpets or wooden flooring

There’s nothing quite like the satisfying smell of a new carpet and with all those scintillating colour and textile options, new carpets can provide a breathtaking platform for change. Perhaps, on the other hand you’ve always dreamt of that stylish, dust-free wooden floor. A super stylish option is a distressed oak floor, which may have you embarking on a mission to find those statement furniture pieces to do up in a shabby chic style to match.

Bright statements

Nothing says fresh and spring-friendly like a splash of life-affirming green or ocean blue. A bright tiling or wallpaper revamp in the bathroom may seem drastic but those energising blues and greens can make a bold spring statement. This principle can be carried on into the kitchen with whites and greens sure to brighten up your space. Perhaps some green and white chairs for the breakfast bar and a nice shade for that pendant light above the bar might to the trick?

Into the bedroom

For that splash of spring life in the bedroom, now is the time to add that feature wall. There are so many wonderful wallpapers out there that enable you to add a feature tailored to your tastes to your boudoir. With spring in mind, perhaps you could choose from some of those wonderful butterfly-themed pieces or opt for something with those garden birds that have kept you company through the winter and will flourish with the advent of spring.

The fresh spring vibe can be channelled throughout the home with a bit of a clean-up and a splash of colour and the interior design company in Leicester is ready to help you on your journey.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Choosing Curtains and Blinds

With such a wide variety of window treatments now available, making the right choice for your home can be confusing. Here are a few guidelines to help you make your decision when choosing curtains and blinds Leicestershire.

DO think about whether curtains or blinds would work best with your interior scheme. By using an interior designer you’ll get the best advice and be sure that your chosen treatment fits seamlessly with the rest of your room. This may mean using colours which complement your wall treatment or could mean using stand out contrast colours. If you have patterned walls, you could opt for a plain fabric in a colour which tones with shades elsewhere in the room, or continue the pattern ‘theme’ of the walls into your curtains or blinds.

DO think about the size of your room too. Choosing a large pattern, particularly in a room with patterned walls, will make the room appear smaller.

DO let your curtains reach the floor. If you have a radiator beneath the window, think about using a roman blind but still framing the window with floor length curtains for an elegant finish.

DO think about the practicalities of curtains versus blinds when redecorating a child’s room. Safety rods are now standard on blinds but repeated ‘enthusiastic’ pulling may mean blinds have a shorter life than curtains. Look for washable fabrics and consider blackout lining if your child finds getting to sleep difficult.

DO make sure, when calculating your costings that you allow for extras such as wall fixings, curtain rods etc. If your new window treatment is part of a refurbishment project, a professional interior design company, such as Craven & Hargreaves, will make sure that everything has been thought about and included, as part of their project management service.

DON’T be afraid to combine two window treatments. For example, hanging curtains over a roller blind gives a luxury ‘layered’ look. In a room with a sunny aspect, consider having sheer voile curtains for the summer and replacing them with a heavier fabric for winter. Don’t forget to include both choices in your budget.

DON’T go for the cheapest option when choosing curtain or blind fabric. Remember that your curtains will be pulled at least twice daily – more often if the room faces south or west and attracts strong sunlight – so you need a strong fabric. Consider using cords to operate the curtains, to reduce wear.

DON’T forget to check the care instructions for your new curtains or blinds. Most curtains will need to be dry cleaned, while blinds will need regular dusting or hoovering with an upholstery attachment and may need sponging to remove stains.

Selecting the right curtains and blinds will complete any interior scheme, offering good looks as well as sound insulation and privacy and will last for many years, so enjoy choosing the most beautiful and practical window treatment solution for your home.

Upcycling Ideas for Any Room in Your Home

We want our homes to reflect who we are and we’re increasingly turning away from buying massed produced items and going in search of more individual pieces. This, coupled with a surge in the popularity of all things vintage, means that upcycling continues to grow as an interiors trend, as it not only gives you a totally unique look but is also great for the environment and your home decorating budget.

If you like the idea, you’ll find plenty of inspiration on blogs and in magazines, then start looking in antique markets, auctions, salvage yards and car boot sales to find suitable furniture, home accessories and fabrics in reasonable condition and just let your imagination take over. Avoid anything with signs of woodworm, but almost anything in reasonable condition can be transformed. Why not treat yourself to a course on upholstery, staining or paint techniques at a local college if you need pieces for several rooms? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

An old stepladder rubbed down and stained or painted makes a great bookshelf or towel rail for a guest room.
Cover a school desk, coffee or side table in vintage tiles or decoupage made from old magazines or comics (ideal for a child’s room) sealed with several coats of varnish. Use the same technique for kitchen trays, using pages from old recipe books. Or use blackboard paint to make an ideal play table for a nursery.
Old wardrobes, with or without doors, make great storage. Add recycled timber shelves and drawers to make bespoke storage units for your kitchen, bathroom, utility room or hall. An old dresser works well too. If drawers are missing, fill the gaps with storage baskets.
Line old drawers with paper to match or contrast with your walls, wall mount them and use as individual shelves. Alternatively, paint them, inside and out, to match your walls and use them to frame pictures, photos or mirrors. Or, by adding castors to them, you can create mobile storage units or magazine racks.
Hang spoons or forks from a metal ring (an old bicycle wheel could work) as an eye catching ‘chandelier’ to hang above a dining table.
If you’ve got reasonable DIY skills, you can take on more adventurous projects such as removing the top of a cabinet and installing a basin to make a vanity unit or combining a bed head and timber chest to make seating for your hallway.

If you’d like to embrace the upcycling trend but would rather use readymade pieces, an interior designer will have lots of ideas for home accessories Leicestershire which have been upcycled, which will add unique touches to your home and be much admired for their ingenuity.

Framing the View: Choosing Window Treatments

Whatever room you’re designing or redecorating, you’ll want your window treatment to complement your colours and theme. An interior design company will be able to give lots of advice on curtains and blinds Leicestershire and show you photos and fabric samples to help you choose.

Simplicity is the key to interiors at the moment so gone are long, heavy flounces and tiebacks, in favour of a cleaner look, letting more light into the room.

Before thinking about fabric and style, take a moment to consider the room’s orientation: how much natural light does it get and at what time of day do you mostly use it? In a north facing room, lighter, sheer fabrics make the most of the available light, while in a south facing room you may want to choose something to reduce temperature and glare.

In a period home where the windows are an architectural feature, choose a bright, stand out patterned fabric to contrast with plain walls, drawing the eye towards them. However, if you have unexceptional modern windows, you may prefer to concentrate colour on the walls and upholstery fabrics and go for neutral curtains or blinds. Make sure you see samples on site and at various times of day so you make sure the colour and weight of the fabric is right. Remember that you can add blackout linings to your curtains or blinds: a useful option if you have a street lamp outside a bedroom!

If you have a bay window, using separate solid curtain poles on each section can look disjointed, though flexible poles are available. Have four, rather than two curtains, but make sure the curtains aren’t too bulky for the angles where the windows meet. If you have space, why not have a built in seating unit for use during the day and have curtains closing straight across the bay?

Roman blinds look smart in a contemporary home and use less fabric than other options, so you can upscale your fabric choice while staying within budget. If you’ve looked through interiors magazines or blogs recently, you’ll know that layering features strongly. So, choose the fabric for a blind, which you can close over the window when needed, then frame with matching curtains.

If you’ve used different shades of one colour for your walls, have lightweight curtains in one of the shades during the summer and replace them with a heavier set using another shade for winter to give your room a fresh new feeling at the start of each season.

Measuring for curtains or blinds is best left to expert suppliers or interior designers, who will offer advice and make sure that you get exactly the finished length, lining and heading you, want. Check the care instructions for both overall cleaning and spot stain removal.

Well made curtains or blinds should last many years, so take time to make your choice and you’ll be just as happy looking at your windows as at the view beyond.

Bringing Hotel Chic Home

It’s always a pleasure to take a break from routine and stay in a luxury hotel. How many times have you returned refreshed, but wondering how to incorporate some of the hotels design ideas into your home? Even if you’ve not been away recently, looking at luxury hotel websites will give you plenty of ideas to copy.

While your living room, bedroom or ensuite might not have hotel dimensions, with some planning and the advice of an East Midlands interior design company, you can adapt what you’ve seen to create your own luxury hotel experience.

For the refurbishment of a bathroom or ensuite, look for polished wall and (non slip) floor tiles in cool colours, stone or marble vanity units – ‘his’ and ‘hers’ basins if you have the space – the largest mirror you can find and recessed down lighting. Opt for a walk-in shower with a contemporary round, flat head and rain shower flow. Add glass shelves for storage, piled with fluffy towels and you’ve got a luxurious start every day.

In the bedroom, think grey, silver or light gold wallpaper, a high bed head in a toning colour and a luxury bed with mattress topper, heaped with cushions. This look is sleek and sophisticated, so use an ottoman for storage to reduce clutter. Furnish with metallic or Perspex side and dressing tables, adding a pretty French style chair. If the room’s large enough, why not have a day bed?

If you’re redesigning your living area, you could remove a wall to create a larger space, and continuing your chosen flooring from the hallway into other rooms also helps. Position your seating away from the walls and with a sofa and armchair, or armchairs at ninety degrees round a coffee table with an occasional table between them, you’ve got a cosy ‘conversation’ group. If you have space, create more than one: perhaps opposite windows or doors looking into the garden?

Go for the deepest chairs and best quality upholstery your budget allows. Pile cushions and throws in toning colours to create a cosy feel, especially for winter months. If you have an open fire or burner, add log baskets to the hearth.

In keeping with the luxury hotel theme, add your own bar area to your living space. A cabinet, with double doors for hanging glasses, fitted with shelves and a small fridge would really surprise and impress guests, or fit a bar top in an alcove or corner and add a couple of stools for a budget friendly option.

Think about lighting and accessories carefully. Table lamps create soft pools of light but make sure they’re powerful enough to read by. Look for one large, eye catching artwork or group several smaller pieces in matching frames together and collect new or good quality secondhand large format books to display on a coffee table.

Whatever you decide, choose carefully and your problem won’t be finding enough guests, but asking them politely to leave once they’ve admired your style.

Making the Most of Window Treatments

Whether you’re redesigning or just redecorating a room, there are so many elements to consider: flooring, wall coverings, furniture, lighting and, of course, window treatment. Curtains and blinds can play a huge part in adding to the atmosphere and you’ll be spoilt for choice in the range of window treatments available.

If you have a living room which opens onto, or simply looks onto a garden, use curtains to ‘frame’ the view. Using some of the latest sheers under fabric curtains, will allow light in and lead your eyes through the window into the space beyond. In the brightest of lights, the sheer curtains mean you can leave the windows or doors open in summer for ventilation, while reducing heat and the effect of sunlight on your carpets and furniture.

In the winter, curtains – particularly if they are floor length and lined – provide warmth and a sense of cosiness. However, unless you have a period home and are designing to match a historic architectural style, gone are the days of heavy fabrics with deep valances and elaborate ties.

Today’s look for a modern home is simpler and less cluttered. If you have patterned carpet, walls or furniture, think plain blocks of colour at the windows to tone with shades used elsewhere in the room. Greys are on trend and work well with blues, greens and yellows. If you have a large room, try a coloured fabric blind behind curtains in a toning shade but be aware that this layering could make a smaller room seem even smaller.

If you like patterned curtains and the rest of the room is plain, go for a bold motif picking up on a key colour from your scheme, or try one of the many geometric designs available this autumn and winter. Ideally, let your curtains touch the floor and choose a deep box pleat as a modern heading treatment.

Depending on your budget, blinds might be a better solution than curtains. Roman blinds, for example, use less fabric than curtains as they generally only cover the window recess rather than extending down to the floor. Stripes on plain coloured heavy cotton, for example, would give a great look for a smart bedroom, study or home office.

Measuring for fabric to make curtains and blinds needs to be done accurately and is best left to a designer or curtain expert, as mistakes can be costly. Agree where any necessary joins will be made so that these can be as well hidden as possible. Consider what lining you’ll need: for a bedroom facing a busy road, you might want blackout lining to prevent glare from street lights or traffic. Check how your curtains or blinds should be cleaned and what you can use as a spot treatment for accidental stains.

Don’t regard curtains and blinds as an add-on to a design scheme. Once closed, they’re part of the ‘wall’ where the windows are and a key element to creating an inviting, welcoming space.

Create a Custom Designed Welcoming Hallway to Attract the Visitors

When people visit your home, what first impression do they get: warm, bright and welcoming, or cold, dull and crowded? Use your hall to create an inviting space, drawing visitors in, while not forgetting the family’s needs in this high traffic area.

If you live in a period home, you might have original features like checkerboard floor tiles or even a fireplace but, if painted in period colours, the hall may be quite dark. To introduce more light, painting the walls in a neutral colour or pastel shade and adding a statement mirror, will immediately make the space seem brighter. Try placing a large vase of flowers on the hearth or mantel to reduce the dominance of a dark fireplace.

For a contemporary home, you’ll find plenty of flooring choices: natural stone, ceramic tiles, laminates vinyls or carpets. Bear in mind the maintenance needed on natural floors and look for non-slip ceramics and easy cleaning if you have children or animals. A single colour will draw the eye, visually increasing the size of the hall. But including the occasional ‘bright’ tile (fuschia or purple for example), in a neutral run, will give your hall the “wow” factor. Continue the flooring into living areas opening off the hall for a natural transition.

If you opt for wallpaper, you’ll be spoilt for choice with bold prints, retro chic and botanical just some of the current trends. Remember, a large pattern can overwhelm a small space and that an expensive designer paper might be ideal for a single person’s home, but be less practical for the busy hallway of a young family.

Plan in furniture without cluttering the space. A seat, possibly incorporating storage, is a useful option. Think period armchair or reclaimed church pew in an older style hall, pale wood or rustic painted settle piled with vintage fabric cushions for a country style, or a unique designer piece to complement a minimalist, contemporary hall.

Console tables are great space savers. Choose a metal, glass or a polished or painted wood finish, with drawers to keep your daily clutter out of sight. Then, with just a vase of flowers, a few well chosen photos or a lamp, and placed, if possible, beneath a mirror, your table will add to the feeling of welcome you want to achieve.

In most homes, the stairs lead up from the hall, so they need thinking about too. If the staircase is narrow but the stairs are in good condition, paint them white and carpet the center only, to make them look wider. In a contemporary home, consider clear glazing panels to replace conventional banisters. Also, think about the space below the stairs. Could you open it up and install a custom designed storage system, maybe even a home office?

Whether you’re scouring reclamation yards in London, using an interior design company in Leicester or contemplating tartan wallpaper in Edinburgh, create a welcoming hallway and you’ll never be short of visitors. You can also browse The Spinney for a New Venue Leicester

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