Top tips to avoid stuffing up when decorating!

Moving in, or planning to do some decorating? Afraid you are going to completely stuff it up? Well here are a few tips to help you get it right.

• Hanging pictures. First of all make sure you do this, pictures, photographs and artwork make your home so much more interesting and appealing. Completely blank walls everywhere look boring. In my opinion adding a great print is the best way to add colour to your wall, rather than painting a feature wall choose a bold and interesting piece of art! Look around it doesn’t have to cost a fortune, make sure you choose something you love. But most importantly hang it right! The best place to hang art is at eye level, if you are super short or very tall maybe have a friend come around and help work out the perfect average height. Art hung too high or too low just looks all wrong, so make sure you take the time to get it right. Another tip is to cut out a piece of poster paper the size of the art work you want and put it up with some bluetac to help you work out the perfect spot before you commit to hooks or nails. And if you haven’t brought the art yet cut out some paper and pop it on the wall to work out what size will best suit your wall!
• Rugs. Rugs are beautiful, they add warmth and beauty to a dull space and can even cover up bad stains or worn out floors. Rugs are usually not a cheap purchase, so if you are going to buy one look for a good quality one that is on sale! When it comes to rugs size matters. Do not go too small! Even if you have a small room you are better off choosing a large rug. A small rug placed in the centre of a room can look really silly. The general rule is make sure the rug is large enough for your sofa legs to sit on it. Another option is to layer smaller rugs to create interest. Draw a scale of your room and take some pictures with your phone of your room before you shop. Ask the shop assistants for advice, show them the scale of your room and the photographs. Take pics of the rugs you are considering and then take a couple of days to decide, unless you completely fall in love and can’t resit buying on the spot, it is always good to sleep on any expensive purchase.
• Measure! Measure, and measure! I can not stress this enough! If you are lucky enough to have a floorpan to scale then make sure you take it shopping. Measure the furniture you are considering. Cut out mini paper furniture to scale and see how it fits on the floorpan. A sofa may look small in a big showroom or on the shop floor, but get it home and it can look huge. Be very careful of this. The same goes for beds, chairs and tables, make sure you measure. It can save a lot of regret! This goes for window furnishings too, make sure if you are buying ready made curtains that they are actually a great fit. Sheer curtains should always reach the floor.
• Mix and match! I have often blogged about designing to your own taste, I am sure you are getting fed up with me saying it, but I really can’t stress this enough! Don’t get locked into a particular design style that leaves you no room to move. I love retro, but if I styled my whole house retro it would look like I am trying to set up the latest film set for a 60’s soapie. I have a gorgeous retro coffee table and desk, but then I have some scandi style furnishings, and even some provincial style too. I used to be really nervous to mix and match, but now I realise that it really works to my advantage. It allows me freedom and also looks really good YAY! The trick is don’t go overboard, don’t over style, what I mean by that is choose your pieces and decor carefully, if you put too many things in a room it will look like a charity shop, so do what Coco Chanel said so well  “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory”, just do it with your home! Step back and take a good look at each room and remove a few things if it feels cluttered. You can always rotate favourite items around.

• As above mix and match, but not only with styles, with furnishings as well. Long gone are the days where you buy a bed, then matching wardrobe, tall boy, drawers and bedside tables. Mix it up! Don’t be afraid to choose a bed and then choose different bed side tables. Have fun with shopping, make a mood board with ideas of what you like, measure pieces up and have fun. My only rule is try to get bedside tables to be a similar height to each other and to the bed, other than that have fun mixing it up a little. The same goes for your sofa, you don’t have to choose a matching chair, you can choose a completely different style. So have fun when shopping, the old rules don’t apply anymore, we have so much more freedom, so why not embrace it! 

Below you can see the difference between the couch I chose and the chair I chose, yet they work really well together in the same room.

Oh and if you ask me every room can benefit from fresh flowers.

Thanks for joining me, love Mackenzie xx

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