Interior Design Look for Minimum Spend: Decorating with Soft Furnishings

With proper decorating techniques, you can transform any space from out-dated to fashion-forward. Soft furnishings are one of the quickest and cheapest ways to remake a room's look. Here’s what soft furnishings can do to drastically make over your home in one weekend:

Keeping the Home Modern and Fresh

You may want to redecorate simply to keep your home updated and fresh. The furnishings that you purchased when you first moved in are going somewhat out of style, and you hope to update by adding a few new pieces. You can easily update your home using soft furnishings. These changes can be done with a minimal budget, meaning that you'll have money left in the bank to improve other aspects of your home.

Easily Transform Rooms

When most people think of redecorating their home, they picture making sweeping changes. Maybe they hope to purchase all new furniture and change the layout of the room, or perhaps they want to buy a major centrepiece such as a painting or mirror. These kinds of redecorating ideas can be so expensive that they never even get off the ground. Using soft furnishings to decorate a home is a low cost investment that can have a major impact on the room. Just a few added touches here and there, if done tastefully, can give the room a whole new feel.

Easily Make Seasonal Updates

Similarly, soft furnishings are a great way to keep up with the seasons. You can easily swap out colours and patterns on pillow cases, rugs, curtains, and cushions to match the season. Special holiday soft furnishings can both help your home to be more festive and avoid permanent damage from the spills that your relatives may make in your home.

Add Colour and Texture

Soft furnishings are a great way to add colour and texture to a room. You can add a splash of colour to transform a neutral coloured couch, or add colourful window coverings to recolor your wall space. Different textures of materials can add depth to your room design. Especially if you choose a textured carpet, you will incorporate a whole new feel to the room. Be careful which colours you choose, since each colour can have a different meaning and psychology behind it. Bright colours such as red bring energy and vitality to the room, while cooler colours such as blue can bring a calmer energy into the space.

Windows as the Focus of the Room

Windows are often a highlight of any room. They bring in welcome light and break up wall space nicely. Of course, you will want to have something attractive covering your window space whenever you'd rather have some privacy. Curtains and blinds are an important part of room decoration. Choose the right curtains or blinds and you'll make a huge difference in the look of a room. Since windows take up so much space, the colour and pattern of your window coverings will be a defining feature of your room. You might want to choose a colour that blends into the rest of your room decorations, or you might choose a bright and unusual colour that draws even more attention to your windows as a feature. No matter what, be sure to choose window coverings with a high quality and good material.

Choosing the Right Soft Furnishings

There is no exact science to choosing soft furnishings. Mostly, they should be a reflection of your personality. Choose items that make you feel happy and at home. After all, these will be some of the items in your home that you're closest to; pillows and cushions should be comfortable and inviting to you. There are a few decorating tips that you can follow to make your home most appealing to everyone, including your guests. Choose furnishings that match the existing feel of your home. For instance, homes with mostly wooden features should stick to more earthy tones of soft furnishings. Rooms with a lot of light can be lifted even further by white and light coloured soft furnishings. Also, all of the patterns in the room should match. Having mismatched patterns creates visual discontinuity in the room. If you wish to have patterned or themed items in your room, choose a few places to focus this energy. When everything stands out, nothing does. A window or table makes a good focal area of the room; consider having your most interesting and vibrant soft furnishings located in one of these places. There are plenty of affordable soft furnishings on the market, so you can hardly go wrong by purchasing a few pieces to spruce up your home.