Top Winter Conservatory Tips

The conservatory can be overlooked during the autumn and winter, with the summer furniture, though perfect for hot days, not providing the warmth needed for a winter getaway.

There are many things you can do to make the conservatory a more inviting place, from putting in thick curtains all round for extra comfort and warmth to introducing a coffee table or sideboard, or even adding a central fireplace for a toasty-warm heart to this sometimes neglected part of the home.

If you want your conservatory to feel warm and inviting, you could go for the option of curtains and drapes to seal in the heat and mask the dark windows. For a decadent atmosphere, rich in drama, you could go for burgundy or even crimson curtains, with low Moroccan-style couches which will be just as relaxing in summer as in winter. Bring in a warming rug to keep coldness from the floor, and the effect is complete.

However you decide to treat your conservatory in winter, remember that you could be getting more use out of it if you furnish it with all seasons in mind, and gain an extra room for relaxation and family fun.

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Novel Ideas For Your Utility Room

The utility room is an oft neglected space in most homes, a grey, dull space for the freezer, washing machine and extra fridge to sit, with a few cupboards for household essentials. But with a little extra thought, the utility room can be a fresh, breezy place to get things done, a haven of organisation that will help you to keep your house running smoothly and with style.

For a truly invigorating look, try a bright, fresh colour like lemon yellow, or if you are feeling especially bold, lime green, combined with white painted wooden furniture for an airy and spacious feel. Pick furniture with deep cupboards and drawers to make sure that you have space for all those vital household supplies, and don't have to resort to stacking piles of cleaning products and laundry on top of the surfaces.

The most important thing to remember when furnishing a utility room is that it deserves just as much attention as the rest of the house – approach its decoration in the same way as you'd approach any other room, and you'll achieve something truly unique and inspiring.

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Turn Your Wasted Garden Space Into Outdoor Rooms

All too often, large areas of your garden can go unused and unloved, so why not get creative and find a solution that turns these neglected areas into places where you and your family will really want to spend your time.

One great idea is to bring the outdoors indoors by creating a space that blends the cool, fresh outside world with the warmth and inviting relaxation of the inside of your home. Try putting up a shelter or roof, with sliding doors for rainy and windy days, and put some 'indoor' furniture in - a sofa and a wooden coffee table, for example. You'll instantly create a memorable and quirky new feature for your home, perfect for autumn coffee mornings, and a relaxed and meditative place for reading or rest.

So think about bringing the outdoors in, and you're sure to come up with a novel idea - maybe you'd love a garden sitting room with a tiered roof over it, hanging low so that you always have fresh air, even when it's raining. Just make sure that you take care to use an all-weather flooring material to ensure that your outside living room maintains its exceptional style.

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Do It Yourself - 2 Achievable Ideas To Make Your Room Look Fantastic

Always loved the idea of DIY, but never had the time to really take on the project of your dreams? Start small, with an achievable goal, and you can still make a huge difference to the style and practicality of your home, so check out these two great ideas for a simple solution to how to put your stamp on your living space.

Try putting your own shelves up in an alcove – most hardware stores carry floating shelf kits, which give a professional look at a fraction of the price, and also give you that sense of pride that comes from knowing that a littler of your heart and soul went into the completion of a job well done.

All you'll need is a drill, a set of screwdrivers, and a bit of patience, but the results can be truly revelatory.

Another quick imporovement that you can make in an afternoon is to replace your skirting boards with new, modern ones that will really set the tone of the room. If you go to your local timber merchant, you will find a great selection of beautiful wooden boards in a variety of finishes that will have a surprising impact on the look of your room.

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Check Out This Eclectic and Inviting Dining Room

If you are looking for ways to bring an unfussy, relaxing and yet still stylish feel to your dining room, why not check out this beautiful dining room for inspiration.

With its quirky wall hangings and simple choice of furnishings, it has the shabby-chic appeal that is so in demand, but the fitted bookshelves in brilliant white provide a grounding force that will enable you to display a varied collection of knick knacks, ornaments, books and games without the room succumbing to an avalanche of clutter.

The simple centrepiece of a vase of flowers exemplifies the unpretentious, welcoming vibe, and allows the room to be inviting instead of intimidating – far too many dining rooms have the atmosphere of a formal, unlived-in space that means that the room is seldom used for relaxation.

In order to achieve this look for yourself, choose warm wooden furniture, a muted colour for the walls, and bring in some wooden shelves, either unpainted or in white or black, to give you that great eclectic feel and to allow you to display your favourite objects in style.

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Picking Out Wooden Furniture For An Eclectic Look

Sometimes a room furnished entirely in one style can feel monotonous and uninspiring, with no room for the imagination to take flight. Why not try an eclectic look composed of several of your favourite styles for a refreshing alternative that also acts as an inviting expression of your own personality? Choosing some differently-styled wooden furniture can really help you to achieve this striking effect.

For a deliciously different and effortlessly elegant eclectic look,try combining a traditional sideboard, bookcase and console table with a contemporary coffee table and soft furnishings, then add a touch of quirk with some brightly coloured or intriguingly patterned rugs and curtains. By mixing styles like this, you will create an atmosphere that is totally relaxed, without a trace of stuffiness or coldness – the perfect marriage of modern and traditional styles and pieces.

So for a varied look that incorporates everything you love in furniture, but without being tied to a particular era or style, think about combining a wide range of pieces into a totally unique new arrangement and create a space that your whole family will love to spend time in.

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Attention To Design Detail

When picking a style for your home, or even for a particular room, it can be easy to overlook the importance of small nooks and corners of. As this beautiful window seat area shows, by putting a little extra care and attention into the small details, a great effect can be achieved.

As you can see, the choice of upholstery really makes a difference here, and allows this simple window seat to take on a sumptuous and inviting air that will ensure that any member of the family or any guest will want to linger there. It is important to create such areas in your home to provide variety within a room, otherwise you may become tired of your new look far too quickly.

If you hanker after a traditional corner like this, make sure that you pay attention to the details – a rug will allow the corner to be an integral part of the room while also ensuring that it stands out in its own right.

So take a look with fresh eyes at your smallest nooks and corners and soon you'll be filled with great ideas that will truly revolutionise your home.

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A Warm, Stylish, Family-Friendly Sitting Room

This beautiful room demonstrates the ease with which you can create a harmonious space that is not only a joy to look at, but which also has a welcoming atmosphere that will make sure that family, friends and other guests will want to linger, and will be able to be as relaxed as can be.

Look at the beautiful rug, with its bold coloured stripes, and notice how it brings the room together, picking up the colour notes found in the cushions and in the garden, visible through the window. It's important not to go over the top with colours like this, but this room has the balance exactly right.

Also note the eclectic range of furniture, and how the plain white walls allow the disparate styles to be brought into harmony, making the room an effortlessly elegant and relaxing space to spend time.

This room uses a few simple tricks to attain the sense of harmony that exudes from the carefully selected furniture. The trick is to be bold, to be eclectic, and to be true to your own vision of what your room should be.

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Great Home Office Storage Ideas

It is so easy, in this hectic modern world, to let clutter pile up and get the better of you, so why not take the opportunity to assess the situation and invest in some great storage solutions so that you can really take control of your living environment.

The home office can often end up being a repository for clutter, as it is often the least used room in the home, but with a little attention, you can ensure that it remains inviting and professional, while also having enough storage for you to keep those hard-to-organise items in perfect order.

Most home offices already have a filing cabinet and or a bookcase, but these are really only good for office objects, so if you want to gain extra storage for other household items, you may need to bring in some more varied pieces. A sideboard is a great idea as it has a wide expansive top, perfect for setting out documents and categorising your bills and other household accounts, but it also has deep and spacious cupboards which can be used to keep your household clutter in order.

So get creative, and take control of your clutter, and your home office will be a more inspiring and professional space

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Painting With Light

Choosing a colour scheme for a room can be very difficult, as it can dictate the way the room feels, leaving you with few options for different moods. But with a creative lighting scheme, you can set up several different atmospheres, all available at the flick of a switch.

Why not try installing some subtly coloured spotlights to pick out the corners of your room - a warm orange for a relaxing fireside glow, or a cool blue for a modern, relaxing chill-out feel. You could even try bringing in some extra standard lamps to flood the room in soft light for a great family board game evening.

The thing to remember when choosing a lighting scheme, is that the colour ofg light will affect the colours that are visible in your furniture - if you have dark wooden furniture, then an amber light will bring out the warmer tones of the wood, while a yellow light will bring out the paler highlights.

The best way to achieve the look you desire is to experiment, and try many different combinations until you hit on the one that is right for you.

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Beautiful Kitchen Accessories

The kitchen is the heart of the home, where meals are lovingly prepared and where the family can come together, so it is of the utmost importance that you take the time to make it an inviting and comforting space where your family will want to linger.

With a few simple and inexpensive touches, any kitchen can be given a new infusion of life, whether it is some carefully chosen plants and flowers to bring a traditionally natural feel to the room, or some contemporary ornaments to give the kitchen a totally modern style that is sure to be a hit with adults and children alike.

The main thing to remember is to have a good idea of the look you are after, and to be consistent in your approach. If you're going for traditional style, pick vases and ornaments that evoke a sense of times gone by, and which have the comfort and warmth that is associated with more traditional styles.

If you want a more contemporary look, go for cutting-edge design for vases and ornaments, and even try experimenting with a modern lighting scheme, which will allow you total control over the room's atmosphere.

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Colourful Furniture Too Much For Your Home? Try White Walls

With the amazing array of modern textiles available, it has never been easier to bring vibrant, exciting colour to your home, but all too often the boldness of contemporary design can make a room feel cluttered and create clashes of tone.

The best and simplest way to harmonise a room with too much colour is to paint the walls pure white, isolating each piece of furniture in its own space, and allowing the colour to have its full effect without causing ugly clashes. This look is most associated with contemporary minimalist design, but works equally well with traditional looks, since white is a totally neutral colour, and has the effect of melting into the background so that the colours and patterns of your furniture will come to the fore and dictate the atmosphere of the room.

So don't be afraid of white space – with the right furniture and accessories , it can be as warm as any other colour, and with its amazing harmonising effect, can allow you total freedom when choosing your furniture.

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Occasional Tables For Practicality And Style

Every house has halls, corridors and landings, which are often overlooked and can feel bare and unhomely. But with a little creativity and attention to detail, and room or thoroughfare, no matter how small, can be made into a stylish and welcoming space.

Occasional tables of varying styles all bring two qualities to bear on an empty space – a natural wooden table will bring the character and style of the solid timber, enriching your hall or landing with effortless elegance, but a table can also bring much-needed storage or display space.

Why not accessorise your hall with a few matching console tables, and use them to display your proudest family photos or most treasured ornaments, so that they are the first thing to greet you on your return from work or shopping.

Remember, halls and landings are often the first impression a visitor has of your home, so if interior design is important to you, it really is worth taking the time and making the effort to ensure that your entryways are as stylish and atmospheric as can be.

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Choosing The Right Plants For Your Home

Any room will benefit from the introduction of a few well-chosen plants and flowers, but it can be hard to make sure that you select the right ones for your particular style.

If you are accessorising a modern room, then it's important to pick flowers and plants that will fit in with a more contemporary style, so pay close attention to the leaf shape and the structure of the flowers to make sure that the plants will not be too fussy for your modern environment. Choose wide-leaved plants such as rubber trees or specialised palms, which will both look great and require little upkeep, and most usefully, will not shed their leaves or attract too many insects.

If you are going for a more traditional look, then you can choose more freely, from plants with multicoloured flowers, arranged in bowls or vases, to large leafy plants like winter ivy, which is hardy enough to thrive indoors and can be trained to follow fireplaces and mantelpieces.

Just make sure that you pick plants that express your personality, and which really appeal to you and you won't go far wrong – after all, it is your home and it should reflect your tastes.

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Kitchen Storage Ideas

Is your kitchen getting cluttered up with cookery books, seldom-used utensils and your family's belongings that can never seem to find a home? If it is, it's high time you thought about a total storage solution for your kitchen. With so many beautiful styles of furniture available online, it's never been easier to find a storage setup that matches the style of your kitchen, allowing you to organise your life without having to compromise on style.

Whatever storage you need, you'll need to make sure that it matches the style of your kitchen, so make sure that you explore what's available and pick out some pieces that will add to the overall atmosphere of the room while also fulfilling a useful function.

The ultimate kitchen storage is of course the Welsh-style dresser, with its capacious sideboard base and shelves on top to display your favourite crockery. Welsh Dressers used to be exclusively traditional items, but now they are available in a range of modern styles.

Don't be afraid of being unconventional - a linen chest can be a great place to store your family's wellies and hobby equipment, and a chest of drawers provides unbeatable function, so use your imagination, and you'll find an elegant and practical solution.

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