Your home:

Tips to note when you decorate your home

by Janice Wee

That bright colour might look great in a tiny swatch but garish on an entire wall. Use a free colour visualizing tool to help you visualize how the wall would look in your chosen colour, before you spend money on the paints.

If you choose a bright colour, consider confining it to a single wall with neutral colours, on the rest of the walls to balance the look.

Light colours make a room look larger while dark colours make a room cosier. To make the ceiling look higher, try a very pale colour or white to make it recede. You could try painting the ceiling sky blue so it looks like you are looking up to the never ending sky when you look up towards the ceiling.

Wood gives the room a warmer, homelier, back to nature feel.

A room with woodenwallpaper, wood floors, and ceiling, lit with warm lights gives you a comforting, cosy atmosphere; Get your basic colour scheme right first.

The colour of the floor, walls and ceiling should all complement one another.

You could use the exact same colour on the walls and ceiling for an unbroken, armonious look in a room, to form the background before you add the furnishings or furniture. Visualize how the elements go together, you could sketch out the entire look on paper, or use www.colormyhome.com to put together the walls, floor, ceiling and furnishings to see how the colours go with one another.

To use, choose the colour or wallpaper for the wall. Next, choose the floor colour. Then choose the ceiling colour. Finally pick the furnishings. These are compared against the wall colour or the floor colour.

Dark colours are easier to maintain as dirt does not show up so easily. Consider a darker colour for sofa sets, tables and other heavily used furniture, especially if you have little kids or pets in your home. On the other hand, if you have a long haired white cat that sheds a lot of hair, you might want more white furniture as white hair contrasts with dark furniture. Consider your household when planning your colour scheme.

Decorating tricks by Kadence Buchanan If your apartment or house does not look totally fabulous, perhaps you should read the following advice on giving your space a makeover that will change your life.

- Your style: Home stylists support that you should make your home a reflection of who you are. In order to find the style that best corresponds to your taste, go through magazines and house catalogues and tear out pictures you like.

When you have a pile of pages, look for common themes. For example, you may realize that the pictures you have been saving illustrate rooms that have coloured walls or lots of patterns or similar artwork.Another way to gain insight into your style is to think of your most beloved object. It actually represents things you are passionate about.

So, if your prized possession is a blanket you bought up last summer from Mexico, you are into eye-pleasing things and comfort. Try to incorporate those elements into your own home.

- Your color scheme: For your house to release a balanced and welcoming atmosphere, each room should contain two base colours and an accent color, and their proportions should be roughly 60 percent for the main base color, 30 percent for the second, and 10 percent for the accent one.

According to experts it is best if you do not to have all three colours in equal amounts, as the eye does not like that. Throw pillows, vases, lamp shades and wall hangings can add that 10 percent accent color.

- Your textures: If the main color scheme of your house is neutral, mixing up textures you like is extremely important, since your house can look flat without an interplay between hard and soft, shinny and matte. Thus, rugs and throws should be combined with sleek surfaces, like a lacquer table.

- Your light: Every room needs at least three light sources, arranged in a triangle formation so that the space in the centre of the room is illuminated by this triangle light effect. In fact, this small change can make a huge difference to the overall outcome.

- Your size and shape: If a room has too many towering items or too many short, squat ones, it will look awful. Also, if it is dominated by square pieces and sharp edges, they need to be offset by some round or curvy lines.

One easy way to solve both of these imbalances without buying any new furniture is to work with your wall hangings. For instance, if you wish your sofa or table that is against the wall to appear taller, consider hanging directly above it a large painting or photograph.

Also, if you have too many angular elements in a room, consider hanging a round or oval mirror.