interiors Your Fir st Home
The contracts are exchanged and you have the keys, this is it your fi rst home, it may have been some time coming but now you have somewhere you can call ‘Home’
by Valerie Breese
IT IS A BLANK CANVAS or maybe to someone else’s taste but you can very easily make it your own with modest cost and maximum impact.
Starting from scratch in a new home is ideal, you don’t have to make a comprimise with existing designs. The plethora of house/home make-over programmes on television shows how exciting and challenging it can be. The biggest change you can make for a minimal cost is with colour on the walls.
Start with a mood board, which allows you to put together
ideas, colour schemes, fabric swatches, images from decorating magazines. You’ll fi nd lots of ideas that you can use in your own home. If you want your home to be a tranquil oasis opt for soothing, cool colours or go with the bright, hot colours and if you change your mind after a while you can always paint over it.
More and more special effects paints are appearing on Building&Roofing-Jan12:Layout 1 16/12/11 15:55 Page 1
the market, giving different fi nishes. Not only are the effects beautiful they can look expensive adding richness and character to a room. Wood graining, stippling, dragging and combing are just some of the more popular techniques, which can be applied to walls and even some furniture like tables and chairs, giving a new lease of life to second-hand furniture. After years of wooden fl oors, then lime washed boards the carpet industry has noticed an increase in business as we are being drawn back to the comfort and warmth of carpet. Not a cheap option, more an investment as long as you choose the right carpet for the right space.
‘Wearability’ is a key consideration and the fi bre content
of the yarn. 80% pure new wool blends are hard wearing dependent upon the pile weight, whereas most 100% polypropylene carpets have the advantage of being stain resistant.
The construction of the carpet is also important as short
dense pile carpets have a more compact wear surface and therefore are better in high traffi c areas like; halls, stairs and landings and need hard-wearing practical carpets that maintain their appearance. Bedroom carpets do not receive such consistent use and therefore are suitable for more luxurious carpets. More expensive, heavier piles are ideal for areas that receive the most footfall i.e. hallways. Living rooms and dining rooms still need a carpet that is resilient to wear and tear and accidental spillages. Firstly do a rough measurement of the area you wish
to have carpeted. Most carpet shops price up in square metres, so measure in metric. Then you can work out how many square metres you will require. Divide this fi gure into your budget to get a rough estimate of how much per square metre you want to spend. Sampling is the perfect way to see if a particular colour
matches your décor. You can see and feel how the colour and texture work in the room and, more importantly, in the lighting. Start by going online. Many companies will send out free samples from their websites, so that you can get an idea of what you are looking for without even leaving the house!
Building
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Image supplied by Cormar Carpets
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