Children's Rooms

I HAVE BEEN REALLY ENJOYING DESIGNING A CHILDREN'S PLAYROOM FOR ONE OF MY CLIENTS. IT’S A REAL OPPORTUNITY TO BE CREATIVE WITH COLOUR, PATTERN AND WITH WALL COVERINGS AND FABRICS. SO IN THIS NEWSLETTER I THOUGHT I WOULD GIVE SOME HINTS AND TIPS FOR CREATING GREAT ROOMS FOR KIDS –HOPE YOU ENJOY THEM
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IDEAS FOR CHILDREN'S ROOMS:

• Very young children don’t need really expensive wall coverings and fabrics in their rooms. In fact they will probably benefit from changing their surroundings from time to time. For example use posters to brighten up their walls, hang colourful mobiles etc.
  

• Once children get to school age, they will need their room to have a more personal feel. By creating somewhere they love to be you should have less trouble at bed times etc. This still doesn't mean spending the earth though. For walls what about painting in your child’s favourite colour and then using wall stickers to add interest and fun? Wall stickers are becoming really popular now, and are available in a variety of fabulous designs. Here are a few designs that are available from http://www.aspace.co.uk/
  

• Rather than spend loads of money on curtains and poles etc for your child’s room, how about a fairly inexpensive roller blind instead? You can personalise these in a variety of ways –from hand painting with your child, sticking ribbons on the bottom edge, using feather trim along the bottom edge, or stencilling all over the blinds.
  


• You can never have enough storage in a child’s room! There are so many things on the market that are really useful for toy storage, but if you are not careful the boxes and crates can all start to look a bit messy. Ideally buy enough of the same size box so that they stack well and look tidy. To help your child you can stick pictures of what is inside the box onto the outside. Ikea have some great storage ideas for young children that can actually be really useful for older ones too!
  
  
  

• Children spend so much time playing on the floor. Carpets are expensive to replace, but rugs can be a great way of adding colour and fun to the room, whilst giving your little one somewhere clean and warm to play. If you don’t spend too much on a rug, then after a year or so, you could replace it with something cleaner if required. These lovely rugs are from Aspace.

• Most children accumulate a large quantity of books from an early age. Buy a reasonable sized books case for your child’s room, and remember to fix it securely to the wall (some toddlers think bookcases are remarkably like ladders) When your child is young, the lower shelves can be used for soft toys and books whilst the higher out of reach shelves can be great place to store special toys and mementos. As the child gets older, the shelves can be used for more books, ornaments, collections in storage baskets etc.
  
  

• If your child is lucky enough to have a playroom as well as a bedroom then you may need to think about seating and work spaces as well. Consider buying a table top from Ikea along with the height adjustable legs that they sell. That way your table can start off low, and “grow” with your child.
  
  

• Any sofas etc that you have in your kid’s playroom will get a lot of wear and tear! Consider loose covers that are washable, and if possible buy a spare set so that you can keep the sofa looking reasonable for longer. Another tip is that although cushions look lovely all lined up on a sofa –your child will constantly throw them on the floor! Only have them if you don’t mind them looking untidy in between times.
  
  
• Of course if you really want to go to town there are some lovely children fabric and wallpaper ranges available to suit all tastes and budgets. Here are a few examples of these ranges that are available from DESIGN FOCUS. http://www.interior-design-focus.co.uk/
  

Top tips for choosing window treatments

Choosing window treatments for your home can be confusing as there are so many things to think about. Here are my top tips to help you get a great window treatment for your room.

1. Look carefully at your window in the context of the whole room. Small rooms do not merit over fussy bulky curtains as they visually take up too much room. Similarly very large grand rooms will look sparse if the curtains are too thin and flimsy.

2. Look at whether you have much “stack back” room for your curtains. This is the space either side of the window that your curtains fill when fully open. If you do not have very much stack back you may wish to choose curtains that are less bulky, a curtain heading that compacts well or perhaps a roman blind would be better.

3. When choosing a pole for your curtains make sure it’s up to the job. A pole with a small diameter will not look right with interlined luxurious curtains, and probably won’t be up to the job of holding the weight of this type of curtain.

4. Measure your windows carefully. Take down all the necessary dimensions as per the diagram below and give them to your designer or curtain maker. Better still if possible get them to take the measurements for you.

5. When choosing patterned fabric consider the scale of the pattern. Large scale patterns work better on large drop curtains or blinds where the pattern has room to be repeated. However on some occasions if a large design can be centred on a blind it will look really spectacular. Small scale patterns can look very busy on large curtains or blinds and are usually better suited to short length curtains and blinds.

6. Generally speaking curtains and blinds should be lined unless made from sheer fabrics that are designed to let the light through. Think about how your curtains will look from the outside and try to use the same colour lining throughout the house.

7. For bedrooms blackout lining is a good choice allowing less light to penetrate the room.

8. Silk curtains and very luxurious window treatments are better interlined. This means they have a layer of thick “wadding between the face fabric and the lining. Interlining curtains protects the face fabric from the sun, prevents heat loss from the room and helps the curtains hang well.

9. If you have set you heart on a particular fabric that works out too expensive when made into full length curtains you could consider either making it into a roman blind and using a less expensive fabric as curtains. Alternatively you could use a less expensive co-ordinating fabric as a wide border at the bottom of the curtains.

10. When deciding on the type of curtain headings you are going to have to think carefully about the atmosphere you are creating in the room. Pinch pleats, goblet pleats and cartridge pleats are more formal types of heading than tab tops, pencil pleats, slot headings or eyelet headings.

Spruce up your bedroom without breaking the bank.

Sometimes it's nice to make changes without having to completely redecorate a room. Here are some ideas to help you spruce up your bedroom without breaking the bank.

1) Cheer up your bed with a new duvet cover and pillowcases. This need not cost the earth -there are some lovely bed sets available for bargain prices. I thought this one from Dunelm would warm up the bedroom during the coming winter months.

Or maybe something more masculine: (Dunelm)

2) If you have an upholstered headboard that has seen better days why not recover it yourself. Choose a fabric that co-ordinates with your bedroom scheme and then using a staple gun simply staple this over the existing fabric. Carefully tuck the corners in to get a neat finish and you will have given your headboard a whole new lease of life.

3) Sometimes little things make a big difference -and no more so than lighting! take a look at your bedroom light fitting -is it past its best? There are some lovely inexpensive light shades available from B and Q to add a bit of glamour to the bedroom! Here are a few of my favourites, and all at under £30

4) Dressing tables are often quite large, but offer very little storage except from another surface to clutter up! An alternative would be to turn a chest of drawers into a dressing chest -just put a mirror on the wall above it and place everyday essentials on the top. Be strict about what you leave out on display - other items could be placed in the drawers in small baskets for easy access, or even better in the bathroom cabinet!

5) Add some new wall pictures. This can really lift a tired bedroom scheme and can cost very little. you can use anything you fancy to brighten up your walls - samples of colourful wallpaper mounted in frames looks great and these can be changed easily when you get tired of them. A collection of picture postcards from holidays can be carefully mounted together to create a collage, or photographs of family, friends or places can be grouped together. If you are feeling creative why not buy a plain canvass and paint your own abstract painting for your bedroom using the colours in your scheme using left over paint or inexpensive sample pots. The beauty of this is that when you get fed up with it you can paint something else over the top!

These postcard pictures are from Ikea and cost only £2.50 for the set:

A GUIDE TO HOME OFFICE DESIGN

Many of us work from home these days so that we can be near our families, avoid long commutes, or so that we can avoid having large overheads that are perhaps un-necessary. In our eagerness to get on with business home workers often take over a spare bedroom, corner of a dining room or small study room without planning what they need and where they are going to put everything. This haphazard way to setting up an office area usually results in mismatched items, overflowing storage and a bland and un -welcoming working environment. It has been proven that offices with a more stylish design, with good lighting and a comfortable desk area mean better productivity at work. If you are serious about your business, why not take a bit of time to plan your office, making it a welcoming, bright place that you are happy to spend time in. Don’t forget you have chosen to work from home so that you can suit yourself in many other ways - why not allow yourself the luxury of not having to work in a uninteresting, uninspiring office space as well. You can personalise your space, stamp your character on your home office and make your working environment whatever you want it to be. Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

• When painting the walls, a lighter shade will work best, reflecting any natural light and keeping the area bright -however allow yourself to choose your favourite colour –don’t be restrained by “normal” office colours of pale green or cream.

• In a home office cheerful wallpaper can be an attractive alternative to paint, but make sure you choose something that is not too wild and distracting, and something you will not tire of quickly.

• Wall decoration – brighten up your home office with some favourite photos or prints to personalise your space. If your room does tend to be on the dark side try putting a mirror opposite the window to reflect the natural light around the room.

• If your office is in a dedicated room of its own rather than in the corner of the dining room, you can choose window treatments to suit you. If your office is on the ground floor you may like venetian or vertical blinds for privacy, but you could add colourful curtains or a roman blind to add warmth and character to the room.

• Choosing the right furniture is important. Try and choose a matching desk and storage so that your office really looks like you mean business. Do you need a large desk with drawers? Do you need space for drawing and/writing?

• Before buying any furniture consider carefully what your storage needs are –do you need lots of filing space? Have you got lots of brochures and books that need to be on bookshelves? Maybe you need storage crates fitting onto shelving?

• It’s a good idea to draw a scale plan of your room to enable you to work out the best options for positioning furniture, taking into account telephone points, electrical sockets and position of natural light etc.

• Desk chairs come in all shapes and sizes and to fit all budgets. Make sure you spend some time finding one that you find comfortable, after all you are going to be spending a lot of time sitting on it!

• Lighting is very important when you are working all day in the same place. You need to make sure that your lighting is adequate for all the activities you undertake - for working at the computer, for writing, reading, sewing etc.

• Think about the type of flooring you use as well – durability, cost, style, maintenance and comfort and things to think about here.

With a little forward planning your home office can be turned into a practical working space that reflects your character and makes going to the office everyday and absolute pleasure!

Making Progress

Over the last few weeks I have had a web site designer design a new site for me. The old site was looking tired and dated and didn't really give off the image I wanted of the business. What I hadn't realised was what a huge challenge this was going to be fore me -I just had a complete blank when it came to writing the content -unusual for me as I'm not usually short of words!! In the end I asked someone to help with this as well and between the three of us I think we are now almost there.

This whole thing has made me realise that I can't always do everything on my own! It is well worth paying for the right person for the right job. Hopefully the new site will be live by the end of this week and I can celebrate by crossing it off my "to do"list.

Hi -welcome to my new blog. I am Sarah, and I run Design Focus, an interior design business in Gloucestershire. We have been in business 10 years now, and during this time we have worked on so many varied projects, both domestic and commercial. I hope there are people out there who are interested in what we do, and how we work, and just what a day in the life of an interior designer is like -so in this blog I plan to post some useful hints and tips from time to time, as well as letting you know what I'm up to with my design projects etc. I hope you enjoy the content and find something useful to inspire you along the way!