Play with colours

FESTIVE FLAIR

He offers the following suggestions to dress up your home this Deepavali.

To give your home a traditional touch, play with bright colours and glittery accessories.

Instead of painting the entire house and blowing up cash, give the walls a new look by unleashing your creativity.

Pull out bold red, orange and yellow curtains combined with rustic golden drapes, which lend a festive but warm and welcoming look to the house.

Dangling torans and drapes is also a good idea.

You can enhance the appeal of these drapes with embroidery, bells, mirrors and shells.

Bedding and the cushion covers can display a wide range of eye-catching colours with exquisite embroideries on delicate silk and satin materials. They can also have some shiny patterns, laces and beads giving the entire room a rich look.

For lighting, you can use wall lamps or hanging lamps. Use more diyas, floating candles or wall pieces which can carry glass candles and vases. They can have a mesmerising appeal.

If you plan to give a contemporary look to your home, use bright colours. Contemporary design is about pairing neutral colours, black and white, with moderate artistic use of brighter colours.

Place dark coloured rugs with geometric patterns on them. These rugs are a great way to enhance your home decor because they add warmth and sophistication to your living room. Medium and large size rugs can be used as a part of a furniture grouping or in the open area of the large room. A home with a contemporary design theme features bright, airy and sophisticated living spaces. Contemporary look is more about geometric patterns than about floral patterns.

Many tend to buy living room furniture sets with a sofa, two matching side chairs, a matching coffee and side tables. Be different; don’t match the couch with the side chairs.

In fact, it is more fashionable to have differently styled pieces put together like a modern sofa with classic or antique side chairs and differently styled tables.

Use sofa covers which have lines or circles on them to give them a more modern look.

Use corners with lovely statues that lend a classy look to your home. Corners are the best place for small statues. Use more of ceramic, glass artifacts as they provide an aesthetic quality to your living area on the corners or tabletops, as they are the best places. Create space and depth for your small living area by positioning a mirror on a wall. Your mirror should reflect something pleasing to the eyes. If you have more wall space, try adding a small painting on either side of the mirror.

If your living and dining areas are part of the same room, you may use a different flooring material in the dining area to delineate the space from the living area. Or you may put an area rug on your dining area to define the space. A freestanding screen is another good option. Corners and tabletops are good places for small statues. Statues, especially marble ones, provide an aesthetic quality to your living area. Elegant yet down-to-earth, these statues lend warmth to any living area.

An alternative to statues are lamps. Place them in a corner or on a tabletop and they can accentuate your living area. Second to colour, light creates moods and sets the tone of your living area. You can use lamps made of polished minerals and stones. These unique lamps will highlight your living area.