No, we aren’t talking about getting rid of everything in the room … just what to add to your rooms once you’ve chosen the all-important door handles, and the somewhat important paint and furniture! This isn’t a course in imagination (if we could teach that, we’d be millionaires already) … but we do provide a framework for things you might want to add to give your traditional home or your modern home a bit of personality.

Comfy Bottoms

Where are you going to sit when you are in this particular room? Adding pillows and throw-blankets to a room, especially the living room or bedroom, makes them seem much more inviting and cozy. You may not want too many in the office though… the sight of soft, clean pillows is often a bit too tempting! Or am I the only one that randomly falls asleep when I am supposed to be working … ;-) They are also a great way to expand on a color scheme for the room. You can choose pillows that match the trim, or ones that complement it. Check out floor pillows, which are great for kids rooms, and anywhere your pets are not allowed!

Let There Be Light

Your room most likely has an overhead light - it might be a single bulb sticking out of the center of the ceiling, or it might go so far as to have a shade around it! Well, different lights can create completely different effects in the same room - so it is difficult to go overboard with lights. Track lighting is a popular one in modern homes - a great choice for the hallway, or in little alcoves throughout the house. Spot lights are useful for antiques, pieces you want to highlight, or wherever you want to sit and read in a room! Just make sure that all your different types of lighting also have different switches, so you can mix and match depending on what mood you’re in or effect you want to create. (more…)

You roof must be the most important part of your home … there are plenty of dwellings to be found worldwide without walls (though the inhabitants might live some place that is closer to a tropical paradise than your own home!), but a home without a roof is just not a home! Who wants to be rained on while they sleep? Certainly not me … but if that floats your boat, I’ll not comment :)

As such, we are looking at interior decorating of ceilings in this ‘Out with the Old’ feature. There are so many homes that have boring old white ceilings, that you will now find ‘Ceiling white’ paint in every hardware shop that sells paint across the world! There are plenty of different things you can do with a ceiling though - here are our  ideas and guide to implementing them.

The reason that so many ceilings are white is that light colours make an area seem larger - and it can be quite uncomfortable and depressing,  feeling that the roof is pressing down on you if it is painted a deep, dark colour. So, in your adventures with ceiling colour, go for lighter ones. Not ones without personality … just a light sprinkling of personality! You’ll probably also want to look at having the same colour for the ceilings in every room of your house - this is a good way to add consistency and flow to your home … while not making it a boring place to live. So choose a ceiling colour that will match with the different themes you may have throughout your house. If the kids’ rooms are pink and blue, choose a ceiling colour that will either connect or contrast with these colours, as well as being suitable for the cream coloured bathroom and the green feature wall in the master bedroom. (more…)

As you would have realised if you are doing a traditional renovation on your home … creating a whole new look for your most significant investment involves a little more than just choosing new doorknobs! (Although, of course, that is the most important part!). The second decision you’ll have to make when doing a traditional renovation, after the lever handles versus door knobs conundrum, is what color scheme you’ll have in your home. Here we look at some general guidelines and some inspiration for period style homes.

One of the first things you need to consider when you are looking at repainting your traditional style home is the colour wheel. This is in use by every interior designer on the planet, and is an essential guide to color schemes - not just colors. It is shown on the right side graph below.

It may not make much sense at the moment, but the heel basically show the position of different colors in relation to each other. The smaller wheels around the sides show different ways to create colour schemes - you can have a complementary, a triadic, a monochromatic, or an analogous theme for your home. Really, you can have anything you like … but if you want it to look good, them’s the breaks! (more…)

We love old stuff here at Architectural Classics. We may have told you that once or twice! We also think, though, that new stuff can be just as exciting … especially if that new stuff is old stuff. Confused? Well, I’m actually talking about doing period  style renovations. Ah, it all makes sense now!!

This will be the first of a series of articles on renovating your period style home – some random information gems, tips and hints, and guidelines. This week, as is often the case in life, we look at why sometimes to get something, you have to go back to nothing. Or, as a wise old Muppet in ‘The Labyrinth’ once said, “My dear, the way forward is sometimes the way back” … followed immediately by the reply from his hat “Would you listen to that rubbish!”.

The reason that they way forward is sometimes the way back, is that you’ll most likely have to strip out your period style home to some degree before you can start on the decorating. Boring, I know, but necessary. And no matter how boring, it is definitely a task deserving of attention and care! Today we are looking at taking out walls and windows.

If you have bought a home built in a period style, or if you’ve been lucky enough to find a home built in an actual period (!), you may have to take out some architectural elements, or add some, for consistency of style. The first thing you’ll need to do is determine either what style your house is, or what style you want it to be. One of our previous sites of the month - has a very comprehensive guide to period styles, giving you information on just about everything, from structural elements like floors, walls and mouldings, to decorative elements like colour schemes, fabrics and furnishings. Highly recommended, and if you don’t get anything useful or in-depth enough out of here, it is at least a good starting point for a Wikipedia search!

Go through your house with the style guidelines in mind, and note what is different in your case to usual. If a feature belongs to a later period style (for example, your Georgian house might have some decidedly Victorian doors, or have had its sash windows replaced with a different or newer type of window), add it to the ‘out with the old’ list.

Before you even lay hand on a tool though, get out a pencil and paper (and a hardhat if you like, to make yourself feel very architect-ish and important!). Create a site plan that notes the position of every important feature of a room – length and breadth, any odd shapes, ceiling height, window height and dimensions, power points, paneling height, architrave dimensions, skirt height, heating or cooling vents, fixed furniture and plumbing points. Note the direction the door swings, also. You’ll be surprised how often you’ll need this … (more…)