I’m busting myths in home design in a bid to set you free to take a chance and create a home that makes your heart sing.
1. White doesn’t always mean bright
There’s a long-standing belief that if you have a dark space, paint it white to make it appear brighter and larger. In practice, this can backfire.
If you have a space with low natural light and paint the walls white, the white generally end up looking sad and insipid.
White needs natural light to do what it needs to do and that is to appear crisp and fresh. If you have a space with very low natural light, don’t fight it.
Instead, paint the walls a saturated colour and create ambience and atmosphere with a bold navy or deep green.
This green wall triumphs over a white one in ambience and personality. Picture: Dulux
2. Mixing styles doesn’t always equal a confused home
My clients frequently tell me they know what they like but are worried that they’re loves are conflicting in style. I say, bring it on.
Ornate skirting boards aren’t only limited to classic homes and Parker furniture isn’t only for mid-century modern homes.
Your only limitation should be that you stick to what makes your heart sing with the objective that at every turn in your home you love what you see.
Vintage furniture can sit alongside contemporary pieces. Picture: Mindi Cooke
3. Timeless doesn’t mean safe
Sometimes the will to create a timeless home ends in a lot of very ‘safe’ design choices like very neutral colour palettes, flat plasterboard walls and uninspired furnishings.
Creating a timeless home means being true to what you love but stepping outside the cookie cutter. It means doing your homework, looking far and wide and being open to new ideas to create a home with interest.
A wall and door made of glass? Why not. The most innovative ideas happen when you don’t follow the cookie-cutter standard. Picture: Mindi Cooke
4. Black doesn’t always mean bold
Have you heard the notion you look through black and you look at white? In this way, I consider a white chair to be a bigger statement in the home than a black one.
I always say that black in a home is an anchor. It’s like the glue that prevents your space feeling like it’s all floating away (visually).
You only need to use it in small bursts for it to do its job. Black dining chairs with the timber table, black curtains rods, black door handles, and black kitchen cabinet knobs, can be enough to break up what is far too often a blanket of white.
Black doesn’t have to be a feature to be bold – it holds its weight used as an anchor, like this black-framed lighting feature. Picture: Mindi Cooke
5. Less isn’t always more
In our large open-plan homes, we need to work harder to create spaces within our spaces with rugs, side tables, buffets and generally more furniture.
This comes at an expense, however, and is a good reason to consider this at the planning stage of a renovation. What are you going to do with a bathroom so large that you could hold a dance party in it?
In large open-plan spaces, we need to work harder at creating spaces within the space. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
Article repurposed from 5 home design myths busted by Carlene Duffy. Author at realestate.com.au.
