| Give your home a new life with our guide to what’s hot for Spring 2008
With spring just in, it’s your chance to bring new life into your home and there’s nothing that will make more of an impact than a new fresh splash of colour. Sure, stylish and select pieces of furnishings are very important in creating the character of your room, but the first thing that everyone will notice when they first step into your room is the colour.
For Spring 2008, you can’t go wrong with sunny yellows and vibrant greens. Used carefully, these colours on your wall will get your room invigorated and full of life after the dull weary winter months. The 2 most common ways of adding colour to your walls is by using paint or wallpaper.
PaintPainting your walls is the most simple and cost-effective way of adding colour to it. The important thing is to pick the right shade of paint that will suit your room and to achieve the effect which you are after. Bedrooms tend to benefit from soft relaxing colours such as Kiwi Burst or Lemon Chiffon 3 by Dulux.
Brighter greens and yellows work very well in living rooms and kitchens to give a strong impact. Using accessories with softer colours in this case will help to break the room up a bit. A simple but stylish item like the Spider Atomic Wall Clock would work well for this. The important thing to achieve a unique look is to have fun and experiment with your colours.
WallpaperAt this time of year everything starts coming to life again. The colours of spring bring a breath of fresh air with yellows, pinks, olives and leafy greens being huge for Spring/Summer 2008. The key trends to look out for in prints are graphic retro inspired prints and ‘bringing nature indoors’ with florals, birds of nature and big, bold botanical designs. Designers such as Orla Kiely are always a classic favourite and a safe bet with her trademark ‘multi stem’ print combining both retro chic and outdoor nature.
There are so many ways wallpaper can be used apart from just covering your walls…
Feature WallCreating a feature wall allows you to have your favourite designs within a room and adds statement without overpowering it and if lack of size and space is an issue, this is perfect.
Feature walls are ideal for any room in the home such as around a fireplace, behind your bed and within recessed panels of walls.
FramingFraming wallpaper has become popular with interior stylists which is perfect if you like playing around with colour and designs without the commitment. With this look you can be daring and go for bold patterns and strong colours that you have always liked, but never had the courage to go for. This look is a simple and cost effective way of bringing a plain wall to life. The bolder the pattern, the simpler the frame you should go for.
MDF PanellingAnother simple way of bringing colour and pattern to a plain room without the commitment is by simply covering panels of MDF board. This is another great way of adding interest and creativity to a plain room. You can use one or more complimenting patterns on a number of boards side by side. NB: Ensure you leave enough wallpaper to go around the edges
Some favourite wallpaper designs are:
The Stem Print Wallpaper by Orla Kiely
Boheme from the Drama range
Twiggy by Erika Wakerly
Happy View by K+K Designs
Tamarisk Matsu Pines at Cole and Son
Finally, the Living Etc website have a handy wallpaper and paint calculator to help you avoid wasting paper or paint by working out how many pots of paint or rolls of wallpaper you will need for the job.
Article Source: 'Shades of Spring' by Ochigo
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