The Finishing Touches that Make Your House Your Home

Imagine coming to the end of a long build, or a stressful move, and you are finally going to show off your home to all your friends, hurrah! Except it’s not exactly how you envisaged the end result, the finishing details aren’t there – the rugs, the table lamps, the curtains – all the elements that make your house, your home.

You’ve spent hours sourcing flooring, tiling, paint colours, door handles, plug sockets and carpets, your children are fed up with being dragged all around the home shops at the weekends and mostly, you are just fed up with making decisions. You want to be able to sit back and enjoy the results of your hard work, you just want your life back. This is when an interior styling service can really help you.

Interior styling is different to interior design because it focuses on the finishing touches. You may have already lived in your home for a few years but feel that something isn’t quite working with the space. Perhaps all the basics are in place but it is missing that extra ‘wow’ factor that makes you want to just sit and enjoy the space, or maybe you keep looking at the curtains that came with the house but just don’t have the time to change them! The styling of a space involves the designer understanding your needs and style and using that knowledge to make the most of the spaces you have within your home.

There are a number of key elements to styling that your interior designer will focus on:

*Whether you love neutral, eclectic or classical schemes the basics all need to be considered. Lighting, soft furnishings, artwork and plants will finish a room perfectly.*

Window Dressing

Whether this is curtains or blinds. A designer will look at the style of the window, the use of the room and the amount of natural sunlight. They can then advise on curtains or blinds, as well as the style, material, length, tie backs and means of hanging. Curtains could be interlined or single lined, pleated or double pleated – your designer will help you negotiate the complex range of styles and terminology.

Considering your window options within your overall mood board allows the windows to match in with the final design. Here the neutral window dressings are the perfect choice for a scheme with eye catching accessories and strong wallpaper.

Cushions

Love them or hate them, they make a room come together. They can help to bring warmth and personality to a room. Carefully chosen cushions will create a stylish finish without costing a fortune. Cushions come in variety of textures and patterns, often a mix of different styles is enough to bring new life to an older sofa – a cost effective way of updating a room.

Lighting

Lighting – you may already have ceiling and wall lights but it is up to the designer to consider how the room will work at different times of the day. It maybe that the general lighting works whilst the family are using the room throughout the day and early evening but later at night table lamps or floor lamps will create a calmer, softer light that changes the feel of the room and offer a more relaxed vibe to the room.

Artwork and Rugs

Photos, paintings, wall art bringing these pieces together is harder than you think. Sometimes old paintings might just need a new frame to bring them to life or a stronger wall colour could be used to highlight a special piece

Photos can grouped together for a striking display and wall art will bring drama to a room. It is up to a style advisor to look at how the room works and consider the lighting around the room in the context of your artwork. They will also work the style to suit your personality – whether it’s minimalist, eclectic, classic or modern.

*This neutral scheme is lifted by the colour and texture of the painting and contemporary rug design.*

Plants

Adding natural elements to a space creates a calm vibe and encourages well-being. We like to take a holistic approach to the spaces we style and plants are a strong part of this. They are also often overlooked and under-utilised. Again this is a really good, relatively inexpensive way to create a finished room.

*Subtle touches of nature add balance to a room and help with general wellbeing. These blooms bring a softness and elegance to the final scheme.*

Rugs

Rugs are also a clever way to help bring the room together. The texture and size of a rug changes the overall feel of a room. A smaller space with lower ceilings may need a more reflective style rug – to help create a feeling of space and to bring light into the room. We often find that people choose rugs that are too small for their room and that they are worried about overwhelming the space – a stylist will carefully measure the size of the room and key furniture pieces to ensure that the perfect size rug is used.

So interior styling can you offer the opportunity to breathe new life into your home by bringing all these factors together. It is a cost effective way of utilising pieces you already have whilst advising on changes to a room that will improve the overall finish and functionality. A modern space can be made to feel warm and inviting or a more characterful room, with original features, can be enhanced and brought to life with carefully considered lighting and finishing touches.

Watch our video below to see how we transformed a functional living room into a vibrant and stylish living space for friends and family to spend time in.