philosophy of design is very much in-sync with a postmodern world view where rules and regulations are thrown out the
window in favor of an almost anything-goes approach. But beware: even in chaos you will find order.
Before you begin ask yourself two questions:
1. What do I want to improve?
2. What is my interior design budget?
Your interior design options can range from small to large and from inexpensive to very expensive.
You may be able to solve the problem of your lounge room with a splash of colorful pillows and a strategically hung mirror
or you may need something more drastic like a complete change of wall color with a feature wall to boot.
The important thing is to be able to pinpoint exactly what is not working for you now. Is it really the color of your
walls? Or would a framed poster and showcase light fighting do the trick? Is it really your drab furniture? Or would a
brightly colored throw rug and pillows make the dramatic change you are looking for?
In order to answer these questions you need to step into your room and imagine you are expecting a new friend to visit.
What would this person see? How would you feel you could better impress this person? Then always try to answer your ideas
with the smallest possible changes first rather than the most drastic.
Color is one of the best ways to create the illusion you want. Adding color to your interior design need not be drastic (as
in wall painting or new furniture) but easy and something you can do in a day. Instead of painting a wall, hang a mirror,
clock, shelves or piece of artwork. Instead of buying a new coffee table, decorate your existing one with books, candles
and a large bouquet of freshly cut flowers.
The most important rule of successful interior design is the rule of simplicity.
Interior design ideas these days are dime a 12. If you watch a television show that is dedicated to interior designing for one hour, once you come out, you would have enough knowledge that you can design for complete home. The main drawback of a television show when compared to applying these ideas in life is these are tough to document. If you don’t sit next or in front of the TV and scribble down madly onto paper piece, it is really difficult to remember all the ideas that you get watching the show. The key for a successful interior designing is planning.
Replicating or trying to copy an idea or design from a TV show for your home could include additional planning or steps which might not be shown in an hour or a thirty – minutes of a show. This being the reason it is necessary for one to go through the entire dry run of the design or idea before we actually execute it. There is a fair chance for figuring out and taking corrective measures to make sure a hassle free application.
The only resource for ideas and information for interior designs is not Television. Books always remain as a better help for designers of any experience and background. The information we get in the books is more or less explanative and thought-out material when compared to a TV show. As book demand more basic information and material than a Television show can have in a limited segment of time. Not only this, books are written by two or three authors together for such subjects and are also edited before it is released to the readers in any form. So, the information would be edited and re-written by two to three parties. Exceptions for the rules are always there but, this would be the normal scenario.
If you feel reading a book is time consuming for tedious task, then you can always choose to read a magazine article as another source of information for interior design. You always have the benefit of pictures or visual representations of the designs and its concepts in a magazine that you can look into or hold on for a particular period of time. Professional interior designers collect all these articles in big numbers along with the visuals and keep them in a format that can be accessible to everyone easily. This is a perfect source for getting specific information, feel or look that is difficult to describe in actual terms of industry for a client. Terminology used in these articles are self-explanatory although people who don’t have much expose to this jargons might find it difficult to understand few phrases or concepts that are used to define the interior design areas. Most of us are aware of the words ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ design but, the magazines would not find it difficult to say ‘Americana’ or ‘Minimalist’ for these terms. You need not think its incomplete just because you are not aware of these phrases, you have to understand that the process of learning takes time and hence is exactly termed as a process.
If you have enough creative ideas with you, go through different magazines and have an unique and distinct style design for your work that are within the ideas and guidelines for interior designing. If you feel you are not much comfortable with your style and find it easy in the traditional design segment, then collate all the ideas pertaining to this category and stick to the ideas or guidelines provided in the information you have collected.
Taking a little of information from these various sources and compile them into a creative collection of ideas that can help you access this information any time in future to compare with your own vision and ides would be a best way to understand information.
Stunning décors
That is by far the biggest single advantage that designing in the virtual world has on offer. It is a million times easier than designing and drawing on paper. This ensures that you do not need to be trained in anything substantially to create decorating ideas and interior designs all b yourself. All you’ll need to know is how to use CAD. This makes the concept a very attractive option even for those who could never draw a straight line.
Convert thoughts into designs
Before virtual interior design came along, you either had to be damn good with measurements and sketches or should have been very-well trained to transfer a beautiful design that lingers in your mind onto paper. The problem with this was that customers and designers often ended up with different views of how the design would end up looking like. Now that problem is eliminated as every user can easily translate thoughts into solid designs with just the click of the mouse!
Eliminate potential errors
Most often we start thinking that our design is perfectly right, but we then need to face up to new and unforeseen challenges. Using the virtual prototypes, one can eliminate such errors or even keep them to an absolute bare minimum. You can erase, start again from the basics and re-do it with new ideas as many times as you want without spending a single dime. This might take time, but its way lot less than the hassle of having to put something in place, and then remove it and redesign.
Saves cash, time, labor and a whole lot more
This is pretty self-explanatory. If you know exactly what you are getting and can see on a screen what your home will finally look like, planning is a lot easier. You can try a million designs in the virtual world, stick to the one you love in the real world. Most importantly, this will give you a good night’s sleep as you will not be worried about ‘what it would look like’.
Import photographs, create customized options and even get cost estimates
You can import the photographs of your existing rooms, re-decorate the existing stuff the way you wish to experiment and check it out before actually asking your hubby to get off the couch and move everything. You can even create customized options and get cost estimations for re-decorating in case of sophisticated CAD applications. Just depends on what you need.
There is absolutely no doubt that virtual interior decorating has revamped the world of design and decoration. It has bridged the gap between ideas and reality offering you an easy way to design your own stuff. One little thing you need to be careful though is the way this can get really addictive Just like that new video game level that you just have to crack before you do anything else in life, this also entices you endlessly. Considering that there is never a finals solution, you are always looking for something better!
● If you are starting your interiors from scratch, you can start by choosing fabrics first and base the color of you wall from it, then you can select furniture that compliments the color of walls and the fabrics that you are going to use.
● Save on expensive wall decor, go through magazines, art books or even your child's art work at school and have the picture framed. Not only will you save, you will have a unique picture that is not found on commercial home decor stores.
● Consider an extra cabinet or storage space inside your bedroom or den, they are areas that usually invite clutter. It is important to always have your room neat and clutter free.
● Use warm flooring on bedroom floors like wood and carpet. Don't use ceramic tiles, marble or granite on bedroom floors. It is not pleasant to get out of bed in the morning and step on a cold floor. If a cold flooring material is already installed, put an area rug beside the bed.
● If you can, use the same fabric, design and color of the bedcovers as with the curtains. The room will have that "Interior Designed" look.● If you want to be one with nature as the look you want for your bedroom, go with woven wood shades. These are made from renewable resources like jutes, bamboos, reeds and rattan. Cool, cozy and "green" look is achieved!
● If your room is small, use mirrors on the walls. It gives the room an illusion of space (If you are a Feng Shui believer, see the tips on mirrors).
● For bedrooms and specially dens, put an exhaust fan on the ceiling or wall farthest from the window. It will suck-in the cold air outside and keep the air inside the room fresh and cool. This can even save you electricity bills by not using your air conditioner during cool months.
● Some of us wants our bedrooms to be dark even late in the day specially when we sleep late. Thus some of us put up very dark curtains. Deep colored curtains against a light colored wall comes very strong. It is better to have your walls a shade darker and the curtain a little lighter to lessen the contrast. An alternative is to use two layered curtains instead one that is very dark.
● Aside from the typical center light on the middle of the ceiling, use lampshades, pin lights and up lights for mood lighting. These type of lighting gives dark and light patterns of light in the room.
● 1/3 of you life is spent on your bed. Invest in a good mattress, pillows and cotton or linen sheets -they absorb perspiration better.
● The bedroom is your private space, among all rooms in your home, your bedroom's look and atmosphere should be the most relaxing and reflective of your personal taste and style.
The problem people face when it comes to finding a new look for their home, is that there is an absolutely huge selection to choose from. It can be a big challenge when it comes to interior decorating and people are sometimes faced with a dilemma about what style or theme to choose for each room.
Looking for Inspiration?
For the people who are short of ideas or inspiration, you may find what you are looking for in an interior design magazine. As with everything, there is a selection of these different magazines everywhere and the thing is that it can often be difficult even choosing the right one that you need.
It is best to look around and look at each one you see and browse through the styles in each one. By doing this, it may be the inspiration you need and may give you the ultimate ideas to transform your home.
What Are The Benefits of an Interior Design Magazine?
The problem people face is that they have a lack of inspiration and therefore go for simple designs to just make do. They may want something original and tasteful and maybe something that is very homely too. In the magazines, they have been designed to feature all of the best and newest interior designs to help people who are struggling to find something that they may like. The great thing is that these magazines are an inexpensive source of information and they cater for everyone’s tastes.
New homeowners like to find the right look for their home and the magazine can be a breath of fresh air to them. It can be great to help you update any out of date décor around the home. Some of the magazines will be catered for cutting edge décor so if this is something you want then these magazines will be great for you.
What Style are you after?
You may have been considering a certain décor or style before but you didn’t know where to start. The different interior magazines can help you to achieve that certain look. You may be after a particular magazine that can help you to achieve a more traditional theme rather than the cutting edge décor. It could be that you want to redesign your cottage and with an interior magazine it will guide you and give you the ideas that you need. Also, the best bit is that some of them even guide you through the process of the design too.
