Oh Sweet Home!

We all dream of owning a home. Home ownership lends its allure to the desire to create and personalize. The question; what’s your dream house is often met with all kinds of creative and charming responses; ideas galore. However, few individuals achieve this dream before the age of 40 .The good news is, your inner craving for creating and personalizing your space does not have to be quenched only after you own a house. The little apartment that you currently call home can be the canvas against which your décor ideas are showcased.

For a rented facility, your apartment decorating efforts may be limited to walls, furniture, floor and window covering. Most landlords will not mind a fresh coat of paint in your colours of choice as long as the structural integrity of the walls is maintained and on condition that you will restore the original paint when you vacate the apartment. Before you get too excited about transforming your apartment, you need to consider the following:

• The tenancy agreement (what are you allowed /not allowed to alter in the house i.e walls, windows etc)
• Your lifestyle (is the house a resting, entertaining or working space)
• Your budget
• Do you want to seek the services of a decorator or do you want to do it yourself

Having carefully considered the above, you can then create a plan and action it. In planning and mapping your rooms, you should:

• Draw a plan for each room, indicating overall room dimensions
• Indicate on the plan where the windows and doors are
• Decide what the focal point of the room will be
• Leave room for general traffic patterns
• Lay out on the plan , where the different furniture pieces will fit.

If your decorating efforts will focus on walls, windows, floors and furniture, it is advisable to start with the walls as they form the backdrop for all the other décor efforts. Walls define the feeling of a room whether you choose paint, faux finishing or wall paper. In the following weeks we will explore different wall decorations, starting with paint.  To get us started, you will need to ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s my style?
• What kind of finish do I want on the walls?
• What colours will adorn my walls?

Let’s meet next week to explore your apartment decoration journey together.