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Décor tips for 2018 – Darkie Designs top 5
January 9, 2018
When it comes to
design
and
décor
, there really is no set ‘rule book’. The elements of design are forever evolving and changing, so trying to keep up may prove more difficult year-to-year.
Instead, our best approach to keeping your home both modern and practical is to simply follow your own aesthetic and intuition of what you want your home to look and feel like.
That being said, we have rounded up a few handy décor tips to consider if you’re looking to spruce up your space this 2018!
1. Don’t turf out ‘older’ furniture
New furniture is expensive. Instead of throwing out what may be a tired or worn out couch, look at re-upholstering it. Sand-down and repaint chairs, desks, drawers and side tables. There are multiple ways of re-injecting new life into old furniture and with a little DIY, you can turn a dreary corner into a bright and cheery one.
2. Pick your paint colour last
Picking paint colours for each room can be a rather time-consuming and overwhelming task, especially if each room needs a little lift! Paint is an excellent way to re-inject life into any room, but one of the best ways to pick your perfect colour is to place your furniture and décor inside the room first.
This may not make sense, but the look, feel and colour of your furniture and décor may go a long way in helping you decide on the perfect colour to complement the existing décor you have.
3. Hang décor at the right level
There is nothing quite like a mirror or painting that is hung too high to off-set the balance of a room. One of our most important décor tips for 2018 is to ensure you hang your mirrors, light fittings, artwork and paintings at the correct level in order to bring aesthetic balance to each room in your home.
The general rule-of-thumb is to ensure the centre of each wall-mounted item hangs no more than 1.5 metres from the floor. This way, mirrors and artworks will be at eye-level for most people.
If a room has very high ceilings, you may be inclined to hang things a little higher than usual. But it’s important to remember to hang mirrors and artworks according to human scale and not room scale.
4. Know how to work a rug
When it comes to arranging furniture and décor pieces around a rug, there are three basic ways to go about it:
• All on:
if your rug is big enough, it’s best to place all furniture legs on the rug, helping to create a more luxe feel to your room.
• All off:
if you are decorating a small space, don’t be tempted to purchase a big rug which will cover up all the floor space. Instead, opt for a smaller rug where legs of furniture just border the rug, creating the illusion of more floor space.
• Half on / half off:
If your rug is plain, without too much pattern or texture, placing items of furniture such as a coffee table or side table is a great idea. However, if your rug is overly patterned and bright, it may be best to keep all items of furniture off the rug and let the show-piece speak for itself!
5. Be colour smart
If you are working with a smaller space, our top décor tip is to use monochromatic or neutral colours to decorate the space. Large, bold colours have a way of overshadowing small spaces, making a room appear smaller.
Be sure to mix up the texture and shades of décor pieces though to bring a bit of character and vibrancy to the space and avoid a monotonous feel. If you want to bring in a little colour however, an accent wall or throw cushions in a contrasting colour is a great way to do so.
Our top décor tips for 2018 are, of course, not part of any set rule-book, but offer a little insight and tips for modernising any particular room in your home. Happy decorating!
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Back in March of 2020, Bianca and Jana were dusting off their Fez’s and grabbing the pashminas out of storage in preparation to Rock the Casbah! However, as we all know and vividly remember - with March, came the eventual Covid shutdown, and instead of frolicking down the Moroccan streets, we all shut ourselves inside and watched the days tick by… 3 Years later, and now we can finally say - with conviction - that they’re going to Morocco at the start of September! This blog, filled with excitement and curiosity about all the weird and wonderful curios they might find, and endless sourcing they’ll do, stays as a reminder that sometimes plans change, things go awry and there’s not much you can do about it other than persevere - and that we did! So, here’s Bianca and Jana’s innermost thoughts about the trip, 3 years before it came to fruition, enjoy :) We've got our passports out and Jana has already picked out what she's going to wear each day… Come March [September] we'll be heading north with Air France to the Kingdom of Morocco, bright eyed and bushy tailed as we make our base in the ancient city of Marrakesh (also known as Marrakech to the French, but we're not French, so we'll go with the English version until all that fuss about Brexit is sorted out) - This turned into a year long negotiations trade, and now us outsiders would pay nearly double what we used to if we visit the UK - thankfully our flight is direct!! We'll be looking for inspiration and will be investigating what's there that we could possibly bring back to The Hoed. We can't wait to experience the atmosphere and afro-arabic influences of this amazing place as we visit the celebrated souks and off-the-beaten track artists and craftsmen that make Marrakesh so special. We're desperate to see the beautifully hand-crafted furniture, textiles, fabrics, rugs, carpets, objets d'art, accessories, lighting… anything that catches our eye and could possibly be brought back south. Berber mats and rugs are definitely on our list, as are the kind of furnishings you might find in a gorgeous Bedouin tent. If you think about it, the Bedouin refined the art of "glamping" into an artform - fabulous carpets on the ground, soft, billowing fabrics hung here and there, plump cushions spread on the ground, intricate leatherwork and carved wood, patinated metal… Total Glamping vibes! We just love all of it and will be tracking as much of it down as we can. We'll also have an eye or three out for wonderful ceramics and glassware and wonderful lamps that give off soft, filtered light. For us it's about workmanship, so we'll hopefully be finding the people who make furniture and ceramics using techniques that have been passed down over countless generations meaning that everything we look at will have its own, and its own special story. Our mission is to share those stories with you and, if it's feasible, bring some of that special workmanship home to the Rainbow Nation. We're most definitely inspired and are sure this is going to be a truly special trip! Counting the sleeps till then! Less than a month to go now - we will be keeping the updates going on our social channels as well as another few blog posts to explain in detail our wild adventures - Stay tuned!
A safari theme never really runs out of viewing time and is particularly popular for interiors at the moment. The warm, earthy tones give a sense of comfort and the accessories offer the anticipation of travel and adventure.
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