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Design The 3 things to get right in your home

According to Jen Bishop from the Interiors Addict (www.theinteriorsaddict.com), a logical approach can be used to determine the priorities when improving your home. With a focus on the lounge, the floor and the bed, big steps are made to create a world you’d love to live in.

The Interiors Addict

Quick-Step ARC Bamboo Champagne ABWCHAM

The lounge

You will probably spend more time on your lounge than anywhere else in your home. It’s probably the only single piece of furniture that EVERYONE in your home will sit on regularly. For this reason, as well as being stylish and looking good, it needs to be comfortable and hardwearing.

When it comes to longevity, you can’t go past leather. Spill proof and wipe clean, it’s great if you have kids. If you go for a classic shape it won’t age or go out of fashion for many years. Some people just don’t like it though. Many of us want to cosy on down into a soft, fabric lounge. If this is the case, make sure you factor in your lifestyle when choosing. If you have young children and naughty dogs who are prone to jumping up, removable, washable covers are the way forward. If you’re fickle and likely to want to change the look of your room every year or so, go for neutrals. If you want something that doesn’t show up every little mark, go for something dark, but bear in mind this can be quite overbearing.

And if you want my personal advice? Don’t pick a huge and dark coloured modular lounge in black or brown unless your space can really take it. They can often look dominating, in a bad way, and take over your room (for some reason they’re what most men gravitate towards though!).

The floor

Your floor will cover the biggest surface area in your home (walls excepted). You can use a floor to make a room seem larger or even smaller, to highlight furniture or rugs by contrasting with them, or to make a space look more modern (or traditional) and there’s no doubt the right floor can make a home seem more luxurious. If you’re renovating, flooring will no doubt be a significant investment and a big consideration. Whether you want durable (laminate), environmentally friendly (bamboo), traditional (cork) or the height of luxury (quality solid timber), there are so many options available at every price point. Laminate flooring in particular has improved greatly in the last few years with a range of extremely convincing timber finishes available.

The Bed

Or should I say the mattress. Opinions differ but in my opinion, it’s the mattress you should invest in, not the bed. Once you get past the age of about 25 you realise that sleeping on any old lumpy mattress is no good for your back. When you come back home from the gym with an injury, or from a hard day at the office with a stiff neck from looking at a screen all day or holding the phone between your cheek and your shoulder (we all do it) you realise that a few hundred (or thousand) dollars might be better spent on a quality mattress than on chiropractor appointments. If budgets are tight, invest in a top quality mattress topper, which can make a world of difference.