Interior designers Anne Blake and Claire Mc Donough share three easy ways to highlight your home's best qualities.

If you love interior design, chances are you love all the interiors and property TV shows, you pour over interior design magazines and if you are like us, you might even confess to the odd bout of envy when you visit other people’s homes!

It’s great to get inspiration and ideas from lots of various places and it can be great fun trying to apply these to our own homes.

However, as Interior Designers you ladies wistfully tell us about the fabulous house your sister/friend/colleague has just bought or built, whilst failing to see how great your own home is! Well, we want to assure you that a few slight changes can transform your perception and enjoyment of your own home! Here are three simple things you can do to help you Love the Home You Have!

1. Do not strive for perfection

Firstly, your home is for living; a house is just four walls after all! To make a house into a home shouldn’t be stressful nor expensive, rather it is a fantastic opportunity for you to create YOUR perfect home!

So, when planning your rooms, you really should choose colours, designs, fabrics and furniture that you love and make you happy!

2. Identify your home’s strong points and maximise them!

Very few of us live in a show home and most of us have an extensive list of things we would change if we had an endless budget!

However, the key to creating great interior design for your home is to work to its strengths…..in other words you should maximise the great things about your particular house.

It could have a great garden so the entrance can look amazing or it could be high ceilings, in which case you can have great statement artwork and fabulous light.

Maybe the rooms are tiny but you can make them really cosy or if you have an awkward corner you could create a built in seat or reading nook!

Creating a feature window. Image: Little Greene

 

3. Start on one small area …keep it simple!

This doesn’t even have to be a whole room and I would advise you to start with one small area or view, for instance, an area you would photograph such as your hall table/mirror or your fireplace wall.

Your goal should be, that on completion, you can stand back and look at this one area and love it!
That’s why our motto is love the home you have, because every house has some great qualities, your job is find out what they are!

Creating a desk space in a dormer window alcove. Image: Little Greene