Top 5 tips for a luxurious and sustainable room design
Posted on
- Take a little time to review what you have at home already. Can you use things from other rooms instead of buying new? Are there loose or fixed items in the room that you can reuse? Do you really need to strip it all out? You’ll be surprised what moving lamps, mirrors, art and decorative items into to different rooms can do!
- Reuse. Do family or friends have unwanted items you could reuse or that need a repair? A home with collected items from travels, family and friends and has so many more stories to tell, is so much more original and luxurious looking and it has a soul. It’s all about vintage. I believe every room needs at least one vintage item in it in order to ground it.
- Recycle. An easy thing to do is look for recycled content when you source things like tiles, flooring, rugs, bedding, fabrics. You can even buy paint that has been recycled. Better to recycle materials that are already here than making new ones!
- Avoid trends - unless you love those colours and designs. Buy things YOU love rather than what magazines tell you to like. You will like it for longer and that Let colour in if it brings you joy! Experiment. Paint onto lining paper and try colours on different walls. Perhaps you have friends who have been doing the same thing and you can share sample pots? If you are decorating yourself - it’s worth reading the guidelines and use the paint calculator given by manufacturers for coverage because we always buy too much. It’s good to keep some for future touching in and repairing - but did you know an estimated 50 million litres of paint sold each year goes to waste in the UK?
- Buy quality. If that means saving up a bit longer for that quality item or buying preloved. Being savvy - better quality items have a resale value, so if you do fall out of love with it - you can sell it on. If you buy anything made from new timber - always check it is from a sustainable source. This means it’s timber (or paper goods including wallpaper) from a well managed forest that has a replanting program. Look out for the FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) or PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) logos.