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Interior design is all about style, quality and personal preferences; but finding an inspired ‘look and feel’ to suit a client’s brief, and delivering precisely what a client wants even when they can’t describe it themselves is never easy. We sometimes need a few clues:

Most people want their homes to mirror their own personality. They look for features which echo their likes, loves and longings. Pictures, and specifically photographs, can play a huge part in ’scene setting’. Holiday snaps, family portraits, familiar landscapes all come together to create an ambience that reflects the home owner.

Traditionally photography, in the form of framed matt or gloss images has always had a place in our homes but many interior designers are now keen to see what digital technology can do to enhance the versatility of displayed photographic images.

The obvious route is to take an appropriate photograph, digitally enhance it and then enlarge it to poster size. Evidence of success can be found in any teenager’s bedroom. Let’s face it; size is definitely important when it comes to interior design.

Many interior designers have already experimented with giant photographic prints produced in strips with a large format printer. This technique, pioneered by hoarding sign printers and developed further by exhibition and display companies has also given us full drop floor to ceiling banners – just visit any major exhibition to see examples.

Floor to ceiling banners as an interior design accessory have actually been around for a long time. Full drop brass rubbings mounted on hessian, made by hand and very popular in the 1970s, are a good early example of people personalising their homes using big, bold images. A number of design houses were quick to bring a range of full ceiling height, photographic reproduction ‘rubbings’ to market.

Photographers simply can’t resist the opportunity to enlarge their work. One enterprising London photographer has actually built an incredible giant ink-jet printer, housed in an old warehouse by the Thames, which can reproduce his avant-garde digital images on genuine canvasses bigger than a house. Great for massive corporate atriums but it could be a tad excessive in suburbia!

The issue is simply one of scale as the ‘photographic image on canvas’ issue is definitely worth exploration. Portrait painters and landscape artists have traditionally used canvas as a foundation for their work. A glorious painting on canvas is rightly perceived as an expensive, luxury item and far removed from the same image painted onto board or paper; but can the same be said for photography on canvas?

Of course it can because, despite critic’s protestations, art is always ‘in the eye of the beholder’. The added dimension offered by canvas media and additional perceived value of a canvas photographic print lifts it out of the realm of simple photography and into the art print arena.

So what are you waiting for? Next time you have a client who doesn’t know what they want, simply digitise a selection of their own photographs and have them converted to canvas. Use appropriate images to lift dull areas and bring light to dark corners. Family group and favourite pet pictures can be an amazing resource.

Finally, don’t be afraid to commission a special image for a particular location. Photographic costs are relatively low and the same image can be used as a foundation for a number of related features.

Your living room is the room in your home where most of the living takes place. It is where your family gathers to watch television, read, and generally unwind and relax after a busy day. It’s also the room where you and your co-employees are gathered during parties and holidays.

You are struggling to come up with interior design ideas and strategies for it, and you worry that your budget is not big enough to do the job justice. However, with a little planning, creativity, and ingenuity, your living room can be more relaxing environment where you can unwind or entertain with comfort and ease. You can find available interior decorating ideas in local stores or you can browse the net for it. You may also consult for feng shui expert to suggest for feng shui color design that would be best for your living room.

Feng shui is not only for proper positioning but for appropriate colors as well. And though, many do not believe in this practice, some would say that they are able to connect fung shui ideas to their benefits experienced. Yes, appropriate color selection, right furniture positioning really provide pleasant feeling when you stay at home.

Utilize your furniture arrangement to define functional areas. Strategically placed floor rugs, lamps and furniture can create zones in your home. You can redesign your seating to take advantage of a focal point, such as a television, picture window or a fireplace. You can also find affordable part pieces that combine functional storage with fashionable decorating lines. Tables with drawers and shelves add valuable, and a simple desk doubles for homework, household management, bill paying and filing, and other related tasks.

Select neutral colors and accent with colorful textured throws, rugs, and other decorative and artistic components. Keep the harmony of your room in perspective. You do not want to overwhelm a small room with large, bold pieces, nor do you want to place smaller, neutral pieces in a large room where they will get lost.

If you are working with used furniture, try distracting from worn upholstery or a faded finish by using colorful toss pillows or table runners. Bright color curtains can distract from a faded carpet and breathe new life into an old room.

Whatever interior decorating idea you may have, whether you consult a feng shui expert or do the interior design tasks on your own, do it with what is pleasing and relaxing for your heart. It is not really a necessity to buy expensive accessories, what matters is, you are best served by the designs you have.

It is often difficult for people starting with Interior Design to know where to start. Good interior design or style mainly arises out of a feeling, flair or an intuition for colour, pattern and scale. For this to be rewarding or pleasing the end result must be functional, practical and stylish.

To get you going with achieving these goals, here are a couple of practical tips:

~ Before decorating, start a scrap book. ~

Collect samples of colors as well as photographs of rooms that you like. Analyze your scrapbook to determine styles and colors that are your preferences. Even if you do not intend decorating the whole house straight away, it is good practice to draw up a color schedule, listing all the colors you intend to use. This forces you to devise a scheme that works in the whole, rather than a piecemeal, room-by-room solution.

~ Plan your space ~

Whatever the size of a room, space must be organised carefully to provide distinct areas for different uses, but at the same time remain a harmonious whole. Planning is essential and in a sense you are obliged to finish the room first before you can start it, a catch-twenty-two situation. This does not mean that you have to buy everything at once but you should have a clear picture of the end result. I prefer the collect-as-you-go method since this way everything tells a story reflecting the interesting habitat of complex dynamic human beings.

~ Draw a floor plan ~

Draw a floor plan and place signature pieces. This will help you visualize the layout and organize your space as mentioned in the previous point. This will prevent you from making errors in terms of available space before you make expensive purchases. You can also to use the floor plan to try out various combinations of placements of pieces. A useful tip here is to draw your floor plan to scale on a large piece of paper and cut your main pieces out of smaller blocks of cardboard. This way you can move your pieces of furniture around on the plan in various configurations and can visualize the layout that much easier. Of course this is a low-tech option, there are much more high-tech solutions available for your PC, but this approach can be amazingly effective.

~ Start thinking about the details. ~

These are always the elements that get the least attention since the details are not as exciting to decide upon such as, for example, the color scheme. However, the details are vitally important and can make or break a scheme. They create a hidden life establishing relationships between different objects regulating the effect of competing centres of attention, introducing a sense of rhythm and strengthening line. Again, start collecting samples and photos of trimmings, door handles, light fittings and so forth.

Not the greatest skill with color nor the most careful choice of accessories and trimmings may prevent the result from looking flat and lifeless.

Surprisingly maybe, a sense of humour is an essential element in good design. Humour, flair and surprise these are all ways of describing the happy accident, the odd combination of objects or the quirky touch which makes a room a living interior rather than a studio set.

Consider a room, which is beautifully design, but not fulfilling your requirement, what this design called? Design Failure, Interior designing is not for designing home or office just to look beautiful, important factor is to fulfill requirement while keeping it beautiful, so interior designing is to balance both, designing aspect and requirement aspect, if you just start designing by making room space beautiful, your client might rejects your design. 

First step in the interior designing is to understand the requirement of your client, its always be a better idea to make questionnaire, put as much detail questions as you can do, sit with your client and observe his personality, invite him or her in your office, when you think you fully understand client requirement, now start your drawing, first only draw basic requirement, no fancy curves, nothing, just simple basic design, just put things in better places, measurement aspect and that’s all, when you finish basic design, now start making your design beautiful. 

Imagine, imagine, imagine, your imagination is king in interior design, if you are not good at imagination, you might be fail in interior designing, imagine different colors, lighting, material, curves in mind, start making it beautiful, lighting, colors, material, curve, whatever you have in your mind, place it at your canvas, than make a master piece, this will be approve by client guaranteed, because this 100 % fulfill your client requirement and also its beautifully design, this is the formula of designing,

Understand requirement of client. Making things out of this requirement, Putting these things at better places. At final step, start making it beautiful.

Follow this formula and your design will be a winner design.

Just like the “cherry on top of the cake” table lamps are the finishing touch to an interior.  For the eclectic and for the classic interior design, the ultimate is the antique lamp.

Interestingly, antique or period lamps offer a much greater range of shapes, designs and styles than the range offered by contemporary table lamps, which inevitably take on a rather uniform look, in vogue with current style.

The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co offers a range of over 100 antique lamps.  Each lamp is individually designed, producing a unique table lamp in every sense of the word.

The company offers antique and decorative English, French, Chinese and Japanese lamps in a range of porcelain, glass, bronze, cinnabar, treen, marble, pottery and even papier-mâché!

Sophisticated interior design requires thoughtful and subtle lighting.  To over or under light a beautiful interior is to detract from the finished effect.  The great benefit of table lamp lighting is that it is easily portable, allowing for lighting to be repositioned producing the most satisfactory outcome.

Antique and decorative lighting is primarily a personal choice, from the perfectly understated white lamp, through to the highly decorative, four coloured Japanese Imari lamps, all available from the decorative lighting specialists, The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co.

Please remember that The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co, ship lamps,

ready wired for the U.S, the U.K and Australia.  You are invited to visit The

Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co’s web site at ww.antiquelampshop.com

© The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co 2009

It is said that a change is as good as a holiday and you wouldn’t go away on vacation without planning so when it comes to changing the look of your room or the entire interior of your home, it is imperative that you get some interior design ideas before starting.

How much planning is of course going to depend on the extent of the changes you have in mind. Are they going to be structural and see you knocking out walls, kitchen or bathroom renovations? Or more like a spruce up with a change of color for the walls, new window dressings and perhaps new floor coverings and furniture. Planning is important as is getting new ideas.

Naturally, if the changes you have in mind are structural, consulting a builder, kitchen or bathroom renovator is imperative. Apart from the building aspect you would have to think about things such as space to move in the kitchen, distance from stove top to work bench, cupboard space, bench space and ventilation, type of surface on bench tops and cupboard finishes. In the bathroom, where the pipes are, types of glass for shower screens and how easily can it be cleaned, tile colors and surfaces.

For other more cosmetic changes, scouring through home magazines may give you plenty of ideas. A browse through furniture stores and display homes also offer limitless ideas. Talking to curtain and blind manufactures as well as floor covering manufacturers will help clarify any questions you may have. Sometimes just changing the color of cushions, ornaments or floor rugs can give you a different look.

When thinking about floor coverings there are several things to weigh up such as does anyone in the house have allergies, do you have indoor pets. Carpet can often trap pet hair and other household dust and even when vacuumed regularly, can affect allergy sufferers yet give and warm feel. Tiled floors are easily to sweep or vacuum but can become very slippery, wooden floors are very much the same but both can look great with mats which can be rolled up and aired outside.

Window coverings can also change the look of a room. Think about how much natural light you want in the room, how much privacy you need from the coverings. Will the sun fade or damage the coverings? Finding the right window covering to suit you purpose whilst blending in with the colorings and theme of the room.

Painting or wall papering the walls will change the look instantly. Plan what the room is going to be used for. Your choice of paint finish should depend on several factors: Do you have young children? Is it a high use area? color is also a factor remembering that light colors will always make the room look bigger and brighter.

Unless you are very adventurous, think about how that colored wall you want is going to look with your expensive lounge. Are you going to tire of that color quickly? How hard is it going to be to match window coverings, furniture etc. Buying new furniture is the same, think about color matching and also the fabric, will it be serviceable for my needs.

Interior design ideas endless and can be ever changing with new ideas and trends.

or decorating has often been a tricky subject for renters. How much effort does one want to go through to improve a space that one doesn’t actually own? Luckily, most interior decorating concerns non-structural work that focuses on color and furniture layout. Still, renter decorators tend to seek quicker, cheaper solutions to their decoration challenges than their home owner counterparts. In big cities where rents are high and space is at a premium, this difference is even more pronounced. In fact, the hipper the neighborhood, the more creative you have to be.

Get it off the ground:

It’s an unforgiving rule of nature: the more fashionable the neighborhood, the higher the rent and the smaller the space. If you were to put the furniture from a one bedroom apartment from Des Moines Iowa into a one bedroom apartment in the West Village, chances are you wouldn’t be able to take a step without bumping into something. New city arrivals quickly learn to mount bookshelves on the wall whenever possible and minimize the amount of four legged furniture items that take up precious floor space. Urban furniture stores address this with décor designed for this purpose. Even if you can’t afford a swanky thin, modular bookshelf, they are fairly easy to build on your own. One friend of mine faced with budget and space restrictions came up with the imaginative idea of building bookshelves that hang on a series of 30 degree angles; creating a zig zag effect that made me wonder why it had never been done before, as they say “Necessity is the mother of invention”. Even beds can be wall mounted, designed to swing down from the wall when needed. The classic Murphy bed is a good example.

Using Mirrors:

Many small restaurants employ the technique of using mirrors to make their space appear larger. Mirrors reflect light and, as a result, double the perception of depth in a given room. Mirrors are available in a broad variety of shapes, sizes and frames. Pick out a mirror design that works best for your given wall space. You can even get a pair of mirrors and mount them opposite one another for compounded reflections that create an even larger perception of space. Remember, in the world of interior design, perception is nine tenths reality.

Two Spaces In One:

A great tip for addressing the storage problems of a small space is to elevate the bed. Once elevated, the space beneath the bed can become an ideal storage area. The higher your ceiling, the more elevation (and thus storage) you can get away with. Another great small apartment item is the travel trunk. Get a large trunk, put it by a window, throw a few pillows on it, and presto, you’ve got window seating area with a little touch of adventure.

If you have always had a flair for interior design and help friends turn their homes into masterpieces, perhaps you should consider turning your natural talent into a career. The business of interior decorating can be very lucrative and rewarding for those that know what they’re doing.

If you have an eye for decorating and are very good at it, you will go far in the interior design world. Just like many other businesses though, you do have to be able to adapt to the styles each individual client will have. You will need to learn how to put your taste aside so that it doesn’t try to influence your client. Let their unique style show in their home or office so that your clients will come back to you for more.

To be an interior design professional, you don’t have to go to school but it is recommended. You will want to have a degree because it will make you look more reputable and knowledgeable about this chosen field. If you want to make a lot of money doing interior decorating, school will help you get there. People are more willing to trust decorators with a degree because they know they have the basic background and know-how to get the job done. So, check out your local colleges and see if they have a program that can get you a degree in interior design. It’s never too late to go back to school so don’t let your age stop you!

Once you’ve graduated, you can work at an interior design firm or you can start your own business. Most people start out working as an interior decorator for someone else’s company and then start their own business a little later down the road. You will need to have some money saved up to start a decorating business, so make sure you have a nest egg before you leave your current job.

In my interior designer practice, I’m often asked by my clients “What’s my style?” They’re having a hard time identifying their own style, and they turn to me as an expert. I always tell them, “The style you like is your style!”

What exactly does that mean? It simply means that, just as you are unique, so is your style. Your style is a reflection of your own taste, lifestyle, and history.

Your style will undoubtedly evolve as you mature. The style you like when you’re in your 50s will probably be different from the style you liked in your 20s. That’s normal. As we change, our tastes change too. We shouldn’t fight the changes, we should embrace them.

You might find that you like a combination of typical interior design styles, and that may seem confusing. But there’s nothing wrong with combining styles. We’re no longer locked into just one style or another. The most important thing is to relax, have fun and enjoy designing your home.

At one time, it was common to select either a traditional, modern, contemporary, art décor or other defined style. But it’s not so cut-and-dried today, because of the many new styles, including eclectic and shabby chic.

In fact, eclectic and shabby chic styles are great examples of styles that were created without any of the old established boundaries. They were born out of the need for new individual looks ─ a buffet of different styles all mixed together to create new styles.

Of course, all of these styles can make selecting your style more confusing. And sometimes it’s just too difficult to choose just one style. That’s okay. You can break the rules and still achieve your design goals.

So, remember, choose your style wisely, and take time to decide. But never forget-it is YOUR style!

Interior design is an art of putting pieces together to manipulate the architectural integrity of the interior spaces. It is concerned with anything and everything that is found inside a space and that includes the doors, walls, textures, windows, finishes, furnishings, light, and furniture. Most of these elements, if not all, are used by interior designers in creating a safe, functional, and aesthetically pleasing space. The interior design of a house gives it either a warm and inviting setting or a cold and distant ambience. While there are many factors which contribute to a room’s atmosphere, the way the furniture is arranged or where the furniture is placed is also a great factor to influence the mood of the room.

Squeezing in all the furniture into your rooms is a lot more challenging than buying them. Sometimes furniture cannot be placed in a certain spot due to a door that swings the wrong way, a window that is too low, and many other factors, which will challenge your furniture-arranging skills.

A Short Guide on How to Arrange Furniture

It must be remembered there are no hard and fast rules in interior decoration, much more on furniture arrangement. But there are some things that may help one in arranging the furniture to give the room some enjoyable spaces where the whole family or guests will feel relaxed.

1. Good furniture arrangement starts with evaluating the area of the room or house as well as the furniture inside the room. Consider the size of the room first before buying or putting in the furniture. Measure the room or get the dimension of the room. This will give you an idea of the size of the furniture that you will put. By using one’s common sense, the furniture must fit into the available space.

2. When you plan to arrange a room or decorate a room, always take into consideration the person or persons who will use the room, the number of people who use the room, and how often these people enter or stay inside the room.

3. Determine which particular area of the room catches your immediate attention. This area will be the focal point of your room. Discover some dramatic elements in it. Let us say, the focal point of your bedroom is your large window which gives you a beautiful view of the beach, then you must put your primary piece – in this case, your bed – to that side or if not, put your bed to the other side and let it face the window in such a way that you get to have a good view of the beach outside.

4. Consider the color of your room when choosing the furniture. When the color of your paint is dark, get light-colored furniture to make the room look brighter.

5. Create a visual motion and excitement. Add furniture and furnishings that comes in two to have a symmetrical balance or asymmetry. Asymmetry refers to an imbalance such as two candles of somewhat different sizes next to each other. Symmetry is very restful while asymmetry is used to add visual motion and excitement.

If you wish to make your house or room more relaxing and beautiful, the guide above may just be all the help you needed.