House Design News

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Rethinking Patterns: How to Make Your Sofa Make a Statement Posted: 20 Dec 2013 11:34 AM PST A patterned sofa can make for a striking effect in your living room. With the right choice of pattern, you can get your sofa to set the tone for your entire living room area. At a time when sofa choices are usually a neutral gray, beige or white, putting a bold pattern on the largest piece of furniture in your living room can have the power to make the statement that you like to have your own sense of taste and aren't afraid to express it. To help make up for the lack of character in regular, neutral sofas, many interior decor magazines try to suggest a convenient middle ground – cushions, pillows and throws that are upholstered in colored, patterned fabric. Patterned cushions on a sofa, though, never manage to make the bold statement that patterned sofas do. Patterned sofas can be used to achieve different effects in a living room Patterned sofas are a kind of focus piece for your living room. When you decorate with one of these, you should to let it take center stage. One of the best ways to do this is to make the surrounding environment as neutral as possible. Plain white walls, simple, neutral-colored curtains and a simple carpet that doesn't draw attention to itself are a good idea. Experimenting with a subdued paisley pattern: Paisley is a repetitive small-scale print. A paisley pattern on a simple, sky blue sofa can bring old world style to a living room. You can combine this with a Roman shade on your window with another small-scale print. Sofas decorated with a neutral-toned British flag: The Union Jack has long been used as a design motif. It's been used on curtains, recliners, rugs, cushions and even wallpaper. Using the British flag in your decor can lend your living room a distinctive, masculine air. If the flag is colored to be a bit neutral, as in a leather sofa that's mildly tanned in blue, white and red, the effect of masculinity can be particularly emphatic. A plaid sofa: Since plaid has been around for centuries, many people see it as an unadventurous choice. The comforting familiarity of plaid, though, can be made interesting with a few design touches around your living room. Placing floral-patterned armchairs, like the ones found on www.made.com, on either side of a plaid sofa can help liven it up. You can also try calling attention to the sofa's plaid pattern by bringing in plaid bolsters and pillows in other color schemes. A floral-patterned sofa: Mildly colored floral patterns feel comforting and homey. If you have a large living room that feels too empty, bringing in the coziness of a gentle floral pattern can quickly shrink your space. If your living room seems too small for your taste, you can expand it by taking the opposite route – a modern, white sofa with clean lines. The material you choose can enhance the effect of the pattern If you are interested in a patterned sofa for the bold statement that it makes, experimenting with different kinds of upholstery weave can make for some compelling effects, too. Your choice of upholstery material can affect how you perceive the patterns used on your sofa. A floral pattern can achieve two completely different effects, depending on whether the fabric is coarse or smooth. If you feel adventurous, you can even try upholstering your sofas in tough, outdoor fabric like Sunbrella. Amy Grimshaw knows how to make a statement in home decor! She loves sharing her passion for bold design on decorating blogs.

6 Questions You Still Need To Ask Yourself When You Want To Move Home Posted: 19 Dec 2013 11:34 PM PST How long have you been living in your current home? If it’s been a long time and you aren’t used to purchasing property you might not know where to start looking. You already know buying a place to live is one of the hardest decisions you’ve ever made in your life because you have been through it before. When you made your first purchase it must have went well for you and that is great, but that doesn’t happen every time and buying a new home doesn’t always have a fairytale ending. Sometimes disaster strikes and you lose everything. You might not lose everything, but it could turn your world upside down and that is enough to ruin everything you have going for you. The most important thing when it comes to buying a new home is making sure everything goes as smoothly as the first time. You know everything that made your first home special, so you can look at whether or not your second home will be as good by asking yourself these important questions. Do you like the area? When you live somewhere for a number of years you really become attached to the area. When you feel safe somewhere it means you can leave the car parked on the street at night. You can let the kids play in the street because there are not many dangers lurking around the corner. You feel safe walking to the shop when it gets dark. You have all these things you love about the area you live in and if you want to be happy in your new home it has to tick all of the same boxes. Do you have the money to trade up? Most people are not going to move into a new home that is smaller than their last house. It happens in some cases and it’s often older couples with children that have left the nest, but in most cases you will want something better. If your mortgage is going to increase it means your monthly payments will too. As you get older you don’t want to have a tough life and extra money every month allows you to enjoy yourself. You must make sure you have the money to trade up. Can you move in straight away? Before you move into your new home you might have to carry out major repairs and they have a way of disrupting your life. Do you really want to move into temporary accommodation for a few months until your new home is in a livable condition? Will this disrupt your work and the children’s schooling? Even if you need to carry out some minor repairs it could turn your life upside down if you don’t have the money available to pay for them straight away. Is it big enough? Have you ever wished your current home was bigger than it is? Did you ever wonder what it would be like to have your own gym? Maybe your children are young and they currently share a bedroom, but it won’t be long until they need one to themselves. I’m guessing you have never wished it was smaller, so when you choose a new one you want it to fit in with your needs. If you don’t need any extra rooms at the moment think hard about whether or not you will need them in the future. Will you be able to maintain it? Buying a new home is the easy part, but looking after it year after year is more difficult. If you end up living somewhere with a massive garden you don’t want it to turn into a jungle because it’s too big to take care of. If you move into an older house there is a much bigger chance of something going wrong. You will also spend more of your life doing the housework when your house is double the side. If you think you can maintain it then great, but if not you might want to have a rethink before buying it. Do you have plans to sell it? Maybe you plan on buying a new home because a member of the family is being transferred to a new city to work. That doesn’t mean the job will last forever and what will you do if they get transferred again? You will probably have to sell the house and buy another one. If that is the case then it’s better to buy one that will be easier to sell down the line. You don’t want to be stuck somewhere because it’s going to cost you too much money to let it go for such a low price in the future. Leslie Kramer, the author of this post, is a freelance blogger who often writes for Stella Settlements, a leading interior design and construction company. Leslie likes to bake and read in her free time.

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