My Real Estate Blog

With all the time you've been forced indoors during the cold winter months you've probably found some aspects of your interior design that you'd like to change. Well, there's still another month of cold weather ahead of most of us, and being stuck indoors may provide the perfect excuse for making some much-needed changes to your interior design.

Color is probably the most important interior design element homeowners should consider. It's also the place where they most often drop the ball.  A lot of people are afraid of color and get stuck with creams and whites, and that can get monotonous. Instead of going all out and repainting your entire interior pick a specific color and create an accent wall.  An accent wall painted with a strong color can make a room warmer or cozier, or just more exciting.

As far as colors choices go, your color should depend on what the rest of the room you're working on looks like. One surefire way to pick a pleasing color is to choose one from a painting you have hanging elsewhere in the room and use that to paint the accent wall. It doesn't have to be a dramatic choice.  Just taking one wall and making it a few shades darker will have a strong effect.

A great way to add warmth to a room is to dilute the wall color down to around 15 to 20 percent of its strength and use that to paint the ceiling. It will include your ceiling in your design and make the room feel a little bit more connected.

After you have your color squared away, play with the layout of your furniture.

If you're bored with your home, move your furniture around.  Your layout doesn't have to be just square. If you have a square table, turn it 45 degrees and it can give the room a whole new feel. Or turn a square seating area diagonally. The bottom line is that your furniture layout doesn't have to be at right angles.

A square layout is common because people naturally gravitate towards symmetry. But balance, not symmetry, is the ideal homeowners should be striving toward with their layout. The key to balance is to make sure all of your large pieces (or for that matter, visually striking pieces) are not grouped together.

Balance is when you walk into a room and your eyes aren't just drawn to one thing; you want to inspire movement throughout the room and not to feel static.  Rooms that are square can have a sort of static feeling.

Make these color and layout changes and you'll be well on your way to a more satisfying interior design!