Pick your style

Your home is a reflection of your personality and achieving a style that invites you, your family and your friends into your home is the sign of style success. You want to put together a look and feel that welcomes you in at the front door, if not, then the second you pull into the driveway.
A well-developed theme using all the painting techniques at your disposal can certainly help promote your style onto the canvas of your home. Once you have a solid theme, the choices you make will be guided by the need to fit into your “look”. This will apply to everything from soft furnishings and furniture to the appliances.
When you are looking at improving your home, be bold and go with your own sense of style. It’s your house and your home, you will living there, so best be comfortable.
While the homes you see in magazines may be appealing, take into account your lifestyle and the practicalities of real life — like children and pets.

Let’s look at some How To rules to home design:
Develop a theme: When you pick a theme for your redecoration, stay true to it, even down to the materials, textures and colours that you use. Maintaining the theme throughout will help to achieve a harmonious and balanced environment for both the interior and exterior of your home.
There are many themes to choose from and usually the construction of your home will dictate what is possible. From traditional villas through to contemporary apartments, once you have chosen your style, this unifying theme will help guide your decisions.

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Use your theme to inspire decorating choices but resist being a slave to the theme when you start choosing appliances – old-fashioned washing machines look good but are not user-friendly.

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Environment: Take a look around your neigbourhood and see how your house fits into the grand scheme of the area. It is important to promote your individual style, but having a brightly painted home in a subdued neighbourhood may not be appropriate. Try to choose colours that compliment the site where you house is situated.
Accents:  Accents can be used on both the exterior of your home and the interior. The idea here is to use a complimentary colour to highlight the main body of colour and draw the viewer’s eye. Accents can also be a piece of furniture or soft furnishings like curtains or a duvet on a bed. On the exterior you can create an accent simply by painting the front door or window frames. Try a “Cape Cod” look with a marine theme, blue grey body of the house with a crisp marine white window frames.
Flow: The key to good living is a good layout. Easy flow from one area to another is governed by the room’s layout. For example, it’s common to have the lounge, kitchen and dining room in the same are to allow for ease of use. Likewise bedrooms will be grouped in the quiet part of the house.
It is important to assign a budget to the materials you will need to complete tasks during renovations. Fundamentals of any home, like the driveway, front door, insulation or bench tops should never be skimped on. These are permanent fixtures that you will have for a very long time, so care and money should be spent to make sure they stand the test of time.
With regards to painting, both internally and externally, decide ahead of time on the extent of the project – where it starts and where it finishes! Break the project up into manageable chunks and set limits to get the job done methodically and efficiently.
While painting the interior, it’s better to move furniture out of one or two rooms and then paint them. Once complete, move the furniture and fittings back into place and move on to the next rooms. This helps in maintaining an efficient flow of work and will save your nerves.
The team at Mitre 10 have been helping household DIYer’s plan and decorate their homes for a very long time – this knowledge is at your disposal! In combination with their supply partners, you will find all the information, products, advice and help you will need to get the job done.