Shane Inman is an interior designer located in New York, New York. Today, he’s sharing his top 10 professional tips to help you design and decorate your home.
Low ceilings. Painting low ceilings using the same color as your walls will blend wall and ceiling shadow lines. The eye will not know where the walls end and the ceiling begins.
Flawed walls. When you have badly worn or damaged walls, try using a faux finish to cover the dimples, scrapes and mars. A good faux finish will camouflage everything with its many variations of color and random pattern. The eye will not be able to detect the difference between paint and flaws. A word of caution, however: Be careful when choosing and applying your faux finishing technique, because if it is done poorly, it will accentuate the problem rather than camouflage it. For this trick, you will need to gauge whether a faux finish is in order or whether you should use that money to repair your existing walls.
Damaged wood flooring. Damaged wood floors that have no sanding life left in them can be painted to make them look fresh again. You can make a dramatic change in your space by using a very durable garage floor paint that comes in many color variations.
One good piece. Serious home improvement enthusiasts will want to start off their venture with one really good calculated piece and work around it in future years. Structural integrity, not cost, is the key here – even if the two usually go hand in hand. A room full of inexpensive furniture has no longevity.
Less is more. Put everything you want in the room you are redesigning, and when you are finished, edit yourself by taking 25 percent of it out. A person entering a room for the first time should be able to experience the space as a whole and not be overwhelmed by its contents. Remember, the more you have in a room, the smaller it becomes.
Add personality. Not everyone has to fit into either a traditional or contemporary style – follow your good instincts! Nowadays, pretty much anything goes, as long as you do it with some sense of style. Remember, you can’t buy good taste!