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Author: Alison Coplen
Master bedroom suite
A Return to Elegance 2017
Giles Kime makes a bold prediction as he perceives a new wind blowing through the World of Interiors. It’s easy (and tempting) to dismiss trend predictions, but you only need to look at Country Life to see that interior design is a restless business. The dramatic changes that took place in the early 20th century demonstrated a profession with creative ADHD, as prevailing styles swung from Arts-and-Crafts to Art Deco to an extraordinary Rococo revival in the space of two decades. I’ve never seen anything intrinsically wrong with the idea of interior design being trend-driven. The only danger is when they lack substance or when they’re taken to fashion victim extremes.
Here are some design predictions for 2017, the first of which is the return of elegant upholstery. Although an L-shaped sofa might be the ideal place for a Saturday-night , they miss the point that well-designed sofas are intended to…
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Home staging
Home staging is about highlighting your home’s strengths, downplay any weakness and express the appeal of your home to the greatest possible prospective buyer , we can even improve the properties appeal just to help you fall in love with your home again
The most important thing you can do to prepare your home for sale is to get rid of any clutter that accumulates even with general life. Consider a house rule in an established home that for every new item that comes in, an old one has to leave.
One of the major contributors to a cluttered look is having too much furniture. When professional stagers descend on a home that is being prepared for the sellers market, they often remove as much as half the owner’s furnishings, and the house looks much bigger for it. You do not have to be that drastic but take a good look at what you have and ask yourself what you can live without, even for the sale period.
One of the things that make staged homes look so warm and welcoming is great lighting, many homes are not properly illuminated. To remedy the problem, increase the wattage in your lamps and fixtures. Aim for a total of 100 watts for each 50 square feet. Try not to depend on just one or two fixtures per room, either. Make sure you have three types of lighting: ambient (general or overhead), task (pendant, under-cabinet or reading) and accent (table and wall).
Experienced Real Estate Agents know that a home that is beautifully staged tends to sell faster than a house that is not. Also, did you know that vacant houses are often perceived to have a lower value than homes that are staged and can often receive lower offers from buyers who perceive that the owner is desperate to sell. Staging is the best marketing strategy available with proven results.
Mixing the right accessories can make a room more cosy and inviting. When it comes to accessorising odd numbers are preferable, especially three, rather than lining up a trio of accessories in a row, imagine a triangle and place one object at each point. The scale is important, too, so in your group of three it is more complimentary to vary height and width, with the largest item at the back and the smallest in front. For a creative effect, group accessories by the colour, shape or texture, find a unifying element to bring the overall look together.
If you have a room that serves only to gather junk, create a purpose for the room, make it into something that will add to the value of your home. The simple addition of a comfortable armchair, a small table and a lamp in a stairwell nook will transform it into a comfortable reading space. Consider draping fabric on the walls of your basement , lay an inexpensive rubber padding or a carpet remnant on the floor and throw in a variety of cushions. Voila , you have a new meditation room or yoga studio.
There is also a common belief that rooms will feel larger and be easier to use if all the furniture is pushed against the walls, but that is not the case. Try furnishing your space by floating furniture away from walls, Reposition sofas and chairs into cosy conversational groups, and place pieces so that the traffic flow in a room is obvious. Not only will this help make the area more user-friendly, it will open up the room and make it seem larger.
In most cases, stagers can make many of your existing furnishings work especially by adding a few little tweaks such as rugs, pillows or artwork, to brighten the decor or highlight the best parts of the room.
Home staging is fast growing and an increasingly important part for homeowners seeking the highest selling price, many have turned to home staging as a way to present their home in the best light possible.
You are marketing what is likely to be your largest asset, and for some people also their largest source of debt, and so you want to take that seriously and do whatever you can to make your home the most appealing.
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Curtains finish a room and make a home
If you ever doubted the power of window treatments to add the perfect finish to a room, here is a recent project. Often the window treatment is the last thing we do when we decorate a room, but a room is just not complete until the “curtain call” , and often the show stopper ! Beautiful drapery curtains, even the most simple, are an all-time favorite way to finish a window. There is something about the way they frame a window, the perfect borders to a beautiful garden or view, like framing a perfect picture, and drapes are an investment for the home.
When chosen correctly a window treatment gives a finishing touch to any room. It pulls the elements of décor together and helps define the overall theme.
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5 great ways to give your home modern edge
Not everyone can bring in an architect when they’re remodelling their home, so Livingetc asked Mike Stiff, of leading UK architects Stiff + Trevillion, to give us five, easy-to-follow tips as to how to give a property a thoroughly modern edge.
1. Create a clear line of sight
‘When you walk through the front door,’ Mike says, ‘make sure you can see the garden. It’s a simple thing, but it makes the house feel open, vibrant and positive. There’s no doubt about it, light is the key to interior design, so think about using glass doors internally to let in light and invest in a really good-quality glazing system and insulation to ensure the house doesn’t burn excess energy.’
2. Install semi-hidden light fittings
2. Install semi-hidden light fittings

‘I prefer not to see the light source, unless it is a beautiful object in its own right,’ Mike…
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Tented ceiling decoration
A fabric-draped ceiling creates a dramatic and romantic atmosphere, elegant swags cascading outward from a central area creates an elegant design. This design can also be used effectively in a master bedroom with vaulted or high ceilings. Gentle rolling waves of fabric can be installed across a lower ceiling for a similar soft, billowy texture. Ceilings can look surprisingly beautiful. Discover how you can give a room the true grandeur it deserves