We need to do away with the notion that we need to spend our entire life savings to have a timeless and stunning home that we can be proud of. With the right planning and styling, there’s no reason why the home you have now can’t be its most beautiful and functional version.
You do not need to spend a fortune to have a beautiful home. Here are some simple design tricks to make your interiors appear modern and elegant.
Maximize Multi-purpose Spaces
If there is one thing the pandemic has taught homeowners, it’s that our houses need to be a one-stop-shop for everything we need to do to function as healthy human beings: Our homes need to be a place that is optimal for rest, but we also need to be able to work and stay fit and healthy while in it. A homework station is also necessary if we have kids since we never know if the kids have to do remote learning again.
If your home only has one extra room, you need to be smart about planning and storage to make it a multi-purpose space. Here are some tips you need to remember when planning and styling a multi-functional room:
- Create zones for every activity and person in the house. The zones will depend largely on your family’s needs and lifestyle, so you have to talk to everyone to know what they need. Some basic zones include an exercise area, a TV area, a homework station, a reading nook, etc. The key is to ensure that every zone feels like they are part of a more cohesive whole because, at the end of the day, the space is still one room.
- Consult with a basketball or tennis court contractor to ask if one of the rooms or the garage can be converted into a sports court.
- Be smart about the storage, especially if your kids have plenty of toys and books. Look for cabinet units and storage solutions that don’t take up too much space but allow you to store as many items as possible. You can also consider having it customized since there are companies that don’t charge an arm and a leg for their services and products.
Design Around a Focal Point
No matter the size of the room, you would benefit greatly from looking for the focal point and designing around it. The focal point is exactly as it sounds: It is finding a specific area or architectural feature and arranging the furniture pieces and accessories around it. It will help make any room feel warmer and more inviting. Here are some tips you need to know to design around a focal point successfully:
- The first thing you need to do is to find the room’s most prominent feature. It can be an architectural feature like a fireplace or a big window, but if you find that your interior’s natural architecture didn’t provide one, you can choose one yourself. It can be a big TV screen or a piece of artwork. Just remember that your focal point needs to be visually interesting and appealing.
- Once you’ve determined the room’s focal point, you now need to arrange everything around it. Make sure that the focal point is the first thing that a person sees when they enter the room. This means arranging all your furniture pieces and other decorative elements so that they point to the focal point.
- Use lighting to emphasize the focal point even further.
Create a Balance Between Two Contrasting Features
When it comes to creating a space that will stand the test of time, you want to mix and match two contrasting features in a balanced way. Here are some tips to achieve this:
Colors and Materials
Balancing cool and warm tones will help bring more interest and dimension to your interiors. This means matching your cool-toned materials with naturally warmer ones, like wood.
Styles
In the past few years, one of the biggest—if not the biggest—interior design trends has been the classic modern rustic farmhouse style. Modern rustic feels like a misnomer—isn’t the whole point of modern style getting rid of traditional and older elements? But when you blend the two, they create an explosion of style that brings balance to your space. This might mean refurbishing antique pieces and giving them trendy paint colors or partnering modern furniture pieces with decorative elements reminiscent of a farmhouse.
These ideas and tips show us that we don’t need to make a massive interior overhaul to give our homes a nice upgrade. With the right inspiration and enough resourcefulness, we can make the most out of the house that we have now.
