People get their houses decorated for all sorts of reasons.

They might be starting new families; they might be looking to gain a business boost or improve their home’s value.

However, the single biggest through-line, the thing we hear again and again, is ‘I want to bring some life into my home’.

We spend so much time in our homes, and having a space which is dull, uninspiring and above all lifeless can slowly lower your mood.

It is, therefore, always worth putting in that extra effort to really make it come alive.

You will feel energised and uplifted, and people who visit your home or office will see you in a whole different light.

 

How do you do it, though?

Injecting life into a home is all about shaking things up.

One brilliant, simple way to energise a space is giving it a lick of distinctive colour.

Using bright, bold colours and making sure the finish is spotless will make the whole space feel more alive.

You can even use colour psychology to create specific moods and alter the way you interact with the space.

Another great idea is introducing house plants and flowers.

So many homes have been transformed by the presence of a living, breathing plant.

It makes the whole space feel alive, and spreads beautiful smells and a sense of being a part of your surroundings.

It also requires care and attention, which has the knock-on effect of making you take better care of the whole space!

Finally, playing with lighting is a great way to introduce new life into a space on a budget.

Try out new lamp shades; experiment with different sized bulbs or weird colours.

You can get dimmers, meaning you can control the level of light in a room.

Or you can buy new curtains or drapes and experiment with the way light filters in and out of a room.

Or you can invest in windows, and bring more and better sunlight into your life.

 

With these simple, easily achieved methods, you can be sure to bring some extra life into your home.

However, if you feel you need more than just this, get in touch with expert, professional decorators and see what they could do!

A feature wall can often end up being the cherry-on-top of a well-decorated home.

While it’s not for everyone, most people appreciate the power of an eye-catching show-piece in their home.

The problem is, most of us don’t know how to make them really work.

And let’s be honest: a botched-up feature wall is embarrassing.

We’re big believers in being bold and confident though, and so we want to help as many people as possible create feature walls that flourish.

To do this, we’ve put together a five-step process for making it happen.

 

Choose your wall for a reason

It might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people appear to put no thought into which wall they make a feature of or why.

Having a clear rationale as to why you’re choosing this wall will help guide the whole process.

The wall you choose needs to be of a reasonable size – a 10” feature seems pointless – and it needs to be in a position which naturally draws attention.

Don’t create a feature wall opposite the TV, otherwise you’ll spend all your time facing away from it!

 

Make bold (complimentary) colour choices

You need to make sure the colours you choose go with the colours in the rest of the room.

You also need to make sure the colours you choose create the right mood.

However, most important is to make sure you choose striking, brave colours.

A feature wall needs to stand out, and using interestingly coloured paint, possibly even with special effects like glitter or chalk, is the best way to ensure it does.

 

Choose a room where you can focus on it

It’s important that your feature wall has pride-of-place in the room it’s in.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

Making sure you choose a room which isn’t overcrowded, where there is space and freedom is key to ensuring the feature wall has its full effect.

A living room is a great choice in this regard, as is a study.

 

Experiment with objects and texture

Lots of people fall into thinking that feature walls are simply big, colourful walls.

Instead, a feature wall is like a work of art.

In that sense, doing as much experimenting and thinking outside the box is paramount.

You can play with different textured wallpapers, objects or inserts which could create powerful effects.

You could also talk to a professional with experience

 

Be strategic with furniture and context

Whilst making your actual wall stunning is the priority, you have to remember that it will be massively affected by the context you keep it in.

You can accentuate aspects of the wall by placing furniture strategically around the room.

You can also off-set and augment the feature’s colours with your choice of complimentary carpet or rug.

Ultimately, thinking of the feature wall as part of the room it’s in as opposed to a separate entity is the real key.

It will come as no surprise that colour affects our mood and alters our perception.

We experience it all the time.

From the food we eat to the brands we buy, colour subtly shades our taste and choices in extraordinary ways.

What we might not be so aware of is the ways we can hack these affects and use them to make more of our homes.

When the average person decorates, they either copy existing examples or work from a vague ‘sense’ they have.

The problem with this? It’s hard to properly visualise what it’s going to be to spend time in a room, how your decoration is going to affect your mood, behaviour and desires.

Reverse engineering this process, starting from what you want your home to do to you, can reap enormous benefits and help you decorate better.

Let’s say, for example, you want to make sure your bedroom is a calming, relaxed space.

Do you sit down, imagine a calming, relaxed bedroom, and then attempt to recreate that image?

Maybe.

If you absolutely love frustration and disappointment.

What might be more effective though, is knowing that blue is widely regarded as a calming colour.

Not only that, but there’s scientific evidence that it lowers blood pressure.

So using blue for a clam bedroom seems a no brainer.

Of course, you might hate blue, and that’s absolutely fine.

Instead, you could opt for white, which is known to create a sense of greater space and freedom.

And if you do like blue, then combining these two facts – painting your walls a soothing blue and your ceilings a spacious white – might be optimal.

Once you have this plan, doing the actual decorating is so much easier and more fun.

 

To help you get the most out of your home, here are some facts about other colours:

 Yellow: usually associated warm bright and energetic environments, yellow is a great colour for a kitchen

Green: a colour the human brain has a particularly easy time perceiving, meaning it’s ideal for a home office where you want to minimise distraction. It is also said to reduce anxiety.

Purple: associated with luxury, purple can be a rich, mysterious colour for a feature wall. It is said to prompt creativity, meaning it would be a great choice for an office if you do creative work. Equally, a lighter purple can be a good colour for a bedroom, with its mix of luxury richness and calmness.

Orange: associated with energy and enthusiasm, a warm orange is a great choice for a living room to promote socialising and increase people’s willingness to get up and do stuff.

Red: known to raise the heartbeat and irritability, red is a colour to be careful with. It has romantic implications, and can be great for socialising. A dining room, particular one designed to host diner parties, would be a great choice for a rich red, which promotes excitement and a sense of intensity.

And if, after all that, you feel professional skills are necessary to really make it come alive, don’t hesitate to drop us a line for your free quote…

Here’s a common belief: decorating big rooms is fun and doing up your smaller rooms is an annoying extra.

Maybe it’s because we tend to spend more time in the bigger rooms, or at least spend more time with other people in them.

What this means is small rooms are often either rushed or ill-considered.

It’s easy, in our impatience, to assume small rooms can be decorated just like bigger ones.

But in truth, there’s a whole separate art to painting and decorating small rooms which needs to be carefully learned.

Consider this: small rooms often only feel small.

With the right decorating techniques, they can actually be made to feel homely, spacious and warm

For example, using lighter colours will help reflect sunlight (if the room receives any) and make the room feel bigger than it is.

Similarly, painting the ceiling (which is often overlooked) a nice, soft colour (light-grey is a solid choice) will make the room feel airy and freer, as well as creating more light.

However, beyond simple painting choices, more involved decorating choices can massively affect a smaller room.

Removing clutter and freeing up space will obviously help the room feel more spacious, but another thing to consider is the focal point of the room.

Is this a room for watching TV? Is it a bedroom? Or an office?

Depending on how and where you want attention and time to be spent, your basic decorating choices are likely to massively vary.

It might be that an old space which is currently used for storage could be re-imagined – with the right decorating – as a space for a new hobby or activity hitherto unthought-of in your house!

Regardless, taking the time to consider your smaller rooms and free up your creativity to imagine what they could be is not just worthwhile but essential if you truly want to make the most of your house.

And if you’re truly stuck for inspiration, a professional eye can dramatically re-energise a small room, helping you make the most out of even the most uninspiring spaces. Get in touch with us today for a free quote or to discuss how you might make more out of your home.

It’s a fair assumption – painting and decorating is all about making a house a home.

However, many people overlook the power of painting and decorating as an investment.

For example, when selling your house, making sure it’s properly put together and spotlessly decorated can add huge amounts to your house’s price tag.

The only qualification is that you have to be tactical.

Because decorating a house in order to sell it is very different to your standard furnishing.

To help ensure you do yours right, allow us to make some suggestions as to how to make the most out of pre-sale painting and decorating…

 

Fill and smooth all surfaces

It may sound strange, but plenty of us get used to living with cracks and unevenness on our surfaces.

It often gives our homes some character, making them feel authentically our own.

That said, we have to remember that people looking to buy your house are planning on make your house their home, and are likely to see imperfections as getting in the way of that.

These little things can actually do real damage to your asking price.

So it’s integral that you make sure everything is as smoothly filled and flawless as possible.

Whilst this can seem a huge task, with the right professionals any kind of crevice or crack can be remedied with ease (and often on a budget.)

 

Paint your walls neutrally

Whilst with normal decorating the sky is the limit, and you should always feel as free as possible to be bold and experimental, it’s worth pointing out: bright green walls significantly limits your potential market.

This is a real balancing act, because obviously no one wants to buy a ghost house, either.

Arguably, this is why professionals, who can make even neutral, uninteresting paint jobs look wonderful and warm.

Regardless, the takeaway is clear: giving your walls a proper touch up, and ensuring your colour code is as moderate as possible will always be a safe bet to maximise your market potential.

 

Clean and de-clutter your space 

We may not like it, but someone else’s family is going to be filling your rooms with their own things.

So when you’re presenting them with your property, it needs to be as clear and clean as possible, so that their imagination can fill in the gaps.

Aiming to make your rooms feel minimal and orderly, without them appearing like one of those stock-photo-frame pictures, is ideal.

Simply making sure there is nothing which sticks out can be enough to make a huge difference.

 

With these simple tips in mind, you should be ready to make the most of this opportunity, and make sure you get everything you can when selling your house!