With a new year come grand thoughts of making changes for the better - exercising more regularly, maintaining a healthier diet, reading more books, starting or maintaining a journal. Each of us has a personal list. We have tried and failed miserably over the years trying to succeed at countless New Year’s Resolutions. This fact alone is enough to get a person depressed.
Regardless of the number of resolutions you have broken, begin this year with positive affirmations. Make 2003 the year in which you take time to nurture yourself by rejuvenating your home environment. Consider redecorating your home even if only on a small scale.
Your home is the accumulation of a multitude of bits and pieces. Change any one of them or add something new and your home will instantly become a better place. Sometimes of course, the best home improvement strategy is grander than that. It may be a complete kitchen remodel or the addition of a must-needed extra bathroom.
This year your aim should be to become inspired by and enlightened on the many facets of interior design. You must then use that knowledge to create a living space that will revitalize you. Absorb information on new design trends for both your small and large projects. Try new things:
- Place furniture diagonally. This is a strategy for making a room appear visibly larger.
- Instead of heavier fabrics for curtains, use sheer fabrics. Leave your windows open as much as possible and see how your sheer curtains billow in the breeze.
- Use your best dinnerware for your personal enjoyment.
- Sit out in your garden late at night and enjoy the stars.
Whether your home is newly built or a renovated oldie, there will always be a room or a corner that can benefit from some measure of decorating. Start looking at every room with an eye to redecorating it.
While decorating your home can be stressful yet it can be challenging and exciting at the same time. You may be scared to start a project for fear that it will disrupt your already hectic life but what else is there to do with a home, but to decorate and enjoy. Just as you change and evolve, your home should change and evolve with you. If you do not design and decorate your home to compliment your changing lifestyle, very soon you will find that there is no enjoyment within its walls.
So evaluate your lifestyle taking into consideration any plans you expect to make in the near future. Think long term here because while you may make changes all during the year, you certainly do not want to have to make unexpected drastic alterations.
If for instance you plan to accept a new promotion at your firm, you could easily find yourself entertaining co-workers and clients at your home. In that case, the small round two chair dining set in the kitchen will no longer be appropriate. Maybe you can plan to convert an adjoining room or a spare bedroom into a formal or semi-formal dinning area.
Some decorating projects are guaranteed to bring disorganization into your home. No one likes to live in an environment where their possessions are stuffed into one corner of a room or they are forced to sleep in the baby’s room. However, when the remodeling is complete you are going to have the kind of space you need, the look you want and it will be worth all the inconvenience. I guarantee it.
Give careful consideration to the follows:
- Define your preferred decorating style - Country, Victorian, or Contemporary.
- Decide on the mood you want to create - cozy, vibrant, or subdued.
- Choose a colour scheme.
- Develop the master plan
- Work on the individual room plan
- Prepare your decorating plan of action and list the steps in order of priority.
- Finalize the elusive budget
- Plan your purchases carefully
- Evaluate your level of skill and commitment
Hire appropriate professional help for those aspects of the project that may be too much for you to handle. This is no time to be proud.
Determining you decorating style is one of the most important steps towards planning a decorating project. Be careful not to simply adopt a style you see in a magazine. The key to understanding your style is to understand yourself and your lifestyle.
Interior design today is not just about making rooms pretty. A room must be right "for you." The environment in which you live is one of the most important influences in your life. The opportunity to redesign your home can be a creative outlet and a highly personal form of self-expression if you let it.
As you consider what home improvements to undertake in 2003, remember to invest in changes that will bestow pleasures that will last a lifetime. Then you would have decorated and enhanced not just your home but also your life.
