How to Utilize Your Home’s Wall Space

How to Utilize Your Home’s Wall Space

Last updated Sep 23, 2020 | blog

Especially in small homes, there’s a neat trick you can do to create a visual illusion of more space and bigger rooms. How? It’s simple – keep as much floor space free as possible.

How do you do this? The best way is to literally fix everything to the wall, off the ground, that can be fixed there – so you and your family have more room to move about. More floor space makes a room look infinitely bigger than it really is.

Use this interior design secret to your advantage and follow these tips to free up your floor, while making your home look trendy and unique.

Methods of Wall-Fixing

  • Hammer and nails – the traditional way. This works best if you have sturdy walls and not thin plasterboard.
  • Staple gun – this might be a better solution if you have thin walls. Industrial strength staple guns will fix most decorative things to your wall, provided they’re not too heavy.
  • Industrial tape – for things like photos and art, double-sided industrial tape like Gorilla Tape can help.
  • Brackets – these secure heavy things permanently to your walls, like TVs, book cases and large furniture.

Floating Shelves

Floating shelves, without visible brackets to hold them up, look chic and are an interesting feature of any room. They’re mostly secured using a drill and screws. Follow the instructions in the pack you’ve purchased to have funky floating shelves in no time at all.

Cabinets

In the same way, ‘floating’ cabinets that don’t rest on the ground are the utmost in modern sophistication. Secure them with brackets to ensure they never come down. Install them at sideboard level and use just as you would for traditional cabinet storage. Display flower vases and photo frames on top for personalized touches to your rooms.

Wall Clocks

A focal wall clock makes an excellent and functional alternative to art. Go for stylish, white-faced copper-rimmed styles in homeware’s current most sought-after hue, or a matte black contemporary model with roman numerals to expertly mix modern and traditional design.

Wall-Mount Your TV

A television stand takes up loads of floor space. Thankfully, Century 21 Everest provided this tip to help you with that situation. They let us know that this can be avoided easily, since all modern LED and LCD screens come with wall mounting brackets, so you can easily fix them up off the ground. Arrange your furniture around the TV, and of course make measurements to ensure you get it exactly centered.

Pictures, Prints & Photos

Displaying your personal artistic preferences on walls has classically been art’s main purpose for millennia. Professional portraits have been displayed in the grandest halls of royal palaces since time immemorial – why stop now?

The latest art fad for interior design buffs is print. Digital artists now create all kinds of print – slogans, computerized artwork, patterns – which can be instantly framed and ready for wall display in minutes. Etsy and Pinterest are great places to find original print artwork cheaply.

Clothes Hooks

Rather than having a coat rail or hat stand, secure hooks to your home’s hallway walls to keep jackets, bags and garments safely out of the way. Maybe even combine these with some floating shoe racks to keep all loose items off the ground.

Rugs

Hear us out – rugs make amazing feature pieces to hang on walls! Rather like tapestries, they add some soft texture to your room in a totally unique way. Beautiful rugs are too good to be stepped on.

Plants

Love to add some greenery to your space? Us too – and they are no exception when it comes to making your furniture defy gravity. People have created astonishing feature walls by covering them with specialized plant pots. Fill them with whatever you like – hanging and climbing plants like forest string of pearls, verbena and geranium work best – and make sure you can easily reach them to water them!

Besides fixing pots to the wall, you could string up hanging baskets inside the house for a unique plant and flower display.

Giving Your Bedroom That Extra Cozy Feel

Giving Your Bedroom That Extra Cozy Feel

Last updated Feb 2, 2018 | blog

We all want our bedroom to be a peaceful retreat where we can escape far from the madding crowd to a place of tranquillity and comfort. We need our bedrooms to be many things at once: a quiet place to sleep in, where we can read and relax, recharge and unwind. Most of all, it needs to be warm and cosy.

Tastes and styles vary and there are many ways to achieve the desired level of cosiness. Whether you’re a fan of neutrals and pastels or you like loud colours and busy patterns, with just a few décor tips, you’ll be able to turn your bedroom into a dreamy sanctuary.

Lighting

One of the most popular designer tricks used to enhance any space is lighting. In bedrooms, where we primarily go to sleep or seek calmness, bright overhead lighting is unnecessary. A better option might be to choose smaller bedside lamps that can give a texture of light. You can also use low wattage bulbs and different lampshades to get a softer lighting effect. If you insist on having a light fixture, go with an elegant chandelier and a dimmer.

Texture

Using a delicate mix of textures, you can add a lot of interest and depth to a neutral bedroom. Envelop the room with textile and go beyond standard bedding. The possibilities are numerous: a soft, velvety headboard, gauzy draperies, vintage wallpapers, a causal blanket thrown over the back of a chair, organic textures and raw materials like rope, wood and stone and even exposed beams on the ceiling will give the room a rustic charm.

Canopy

You can rarely go wrong with a beautiful and soft white canopy. It will contribute to the overall comfort factor and give your bedroom the look of an exotic seaside resort. No room will ever seem cold and ordinary with a canopy bed that will certainly add a touch of romance.

Personal touch

Adding simple items that reflect your personal style and taste can instantly cosy up a room. You can use old family photos in vintage frames, a distressed mirror, a nightstand made by stacking old suitcases, or you can frame a piece of worn out quilt or your grandma’s doily. All these little details will give your bedroom richness and a multi-layered texture.

Layered rugs

Most designers would say that you can’t have a cosy and warm bedroom with bare floors. When we get up in the morning, the first step we take can define our whole day, so make sure it starts pleasantly warm and soft. Regardless of whether you have a wall-to-wall carpet or hardwood floors, you can add rugs for a layered look. For example, soft and fluffy shaggy rugs will add depth and make the room instantly warm and comfy. You can play with colours and patterns and use different shapes and designs to complement your existing furnishings.

Mixing old and new

An easy way to freshen up a room is to mix old and new. Such a combination gives the room charm and personality, and an eclectic look that is everything but a cookie-cutter. You can incorporate some period pieces and combine them with contemporary lighting and accessories, or go with a Persian rug and a vintage chandelier to add a sense of warmth and history.

Good quality bedding

Don’t go stingy when it comes to your linens. Splurge on good quality bedding because nothing beats that feeling of comfort that you get when you slip in between soft sheets at the end of the day. The best option is to choose sheets with high thread count and a good down comforter or duvet. As the seasons change and the weather gets colder, you can always add extra blankets and covers to warm up.

As we spend about a third of our life sleeping, our bedrooms deserve all the special attention we can give them. By making our bedroom a cosy and peaceful sanctuary, we’ll give ourselves a better chance to start our days well-rested each morning and end them in soft comfort every night.