Christmas seems to come around so fast, we just have put away the decorations and now we’re taking them out again. It gives you a chance to be creative, using your decorating skills and to have fun. You will spend most of your time around the dining table at Christmas eating and entertaining, so dress… Read more »
The Connacht College of Design is offering a diploma course in Professional Interior Design. It will be held in Oranmore and bookings are being taken now. Interior Design is a great career, as it is easy to earn extra money working part-time or full-time with very little expense. This course is a combination workshops and lectures…. Read more »
The style you choose is usually the one with which you feel most at home with. If you like living informally, surrounded by your possessions, you probably like a cosy traditional look, like that of a country cottage or an Edwardian villa. But if you like space, you may go for an uncluttered look, where… Read more »
Having a well co-ordinated colour scheme goes a long way in making a house or a room look well, but making it feel like a home is another thing. The secret is in the detail—what is often called the finishing touches. It gives a room individuality. You don’t need a lot of time or money,… Read more »
Colour is an important factor in setting the scene in the home. Different combinations influence and create moods, seem to alter the proportions of a room and will help to create a particular period feel e.g. Victorian style. Vivid, bold colours tend to give a room a lively image, while pale ones create a more… Read more »
The style you choose should be a combination of the style of the house and your taste rather than current fashions or the previous owner’s taste. It helps if you live in a house for awhile before deciding a style or making any major structural changes. This is not always possible. You can use just… Read more »
Carpets, floor, and wall coverings have a big impact on a room, but often people pick their carpet last. The walls are painted and the furniture bought before consideration is given to the carpet, which makes it more difficult to get it to match the rest of the room. You should consider every part of… Read more »
With changing lifestyles, hectic and conflicting timetables, lack of space etc. all have contributed to the decline of the separate dining room in recent decades. Once it was the heart of the home, but in modern homes the kitchen has replaced it. Whether you have a separate dining room or it’s part of the kitchen… Read more »
Give your soft furnishings that special look by adding fringing, braid, or piping. They can be used on curtains, cushions, tiebacks, blinds, lampshades and even tablecloths. Trimmings can create a tailored look that will give a special finish to any room. Outlining and defining soft furnishing is usually associated with traditional-style décor, but some brightly… Read more »
The arrival of a new baby is a very exciting time and the child’s first room is a special place. A nursery needs to be safe, practical and flexible—good planning will help to achieve this. It doesn’t have to be the smallest bedroom, if a bigger room is used, it can be adapted over the… Read more »
With the price of property increasing each day and accommodation becoming scarcer, people have to adjust to living in small spaces. With a little imagination and careful planning there is no reason why a small room or house cannot be made attractive and comfortable to live in as a large one. Before you make any… Read more »
Colour is an important element in design, it brings spaces, shapes and patterns to life. It can be matched, contrasted or highlighted with use of paints, paper and fabrics. It can create mood and style, and change our perception of size and time. Colour can affect us psychologically, making us feel happy or depressed, anxious… Read more »
