Inspiring home designs

So when you redesign your home, what exactly should you do to it? If you’re short on inspiration, here are a few ideas to get you started.

The place where many people like to really go to town with their design ideas is in babies’ and children’s rooms – you can paint them bright colours, do imaginative pictures of fantasy environments, draw pictures of the child’s favourite characters from books and TV, and so much more besides. If you do this, why not let the child join in with the painting and show you what they want, with you just being there to help make their decoration dreams come true. However, one thing to be careful of is to keep redecorating their room as they get older – you don’t want them to be embarrassed to bring around friends when they’re a teenager because of their babyishly coloured room.

Another idea could be to make an ‘outdoors’ house, taking inspiration from your garden in how to design your home. This means lots of greens and blues, lots of plants, outdoor fragrances, lots of windows – a real outdoor feel indoors.

Indeed, the best way to design a home yourself is often to just pick a theme and take it as far as it will go. I know a couple with a ‘space house’, complete with portraits of rockets and black ceilings with painted stars – it sounds silly, but it’s really interesting to look at. Whatever you’re passionate about, make your house show it.

Don’t forget, though, that redecorating doesn’t have to be all about tearing things down and buying new stuff. You can get a long way with a few posters, ornaments, or just reorganising or repainting your furniture. You really don’t need to break the bank and hire a handyman to get your ideal home, as a little work can go a long way.

Home-Design - when to call in the professionals

When you’re redesigning your home, the first question you need to ask yourself is whether you’re going to hire a professional or do it yourself. The answer depends on what you’re planning on doing.

There are plenty of things that you can do yourself quickly and easily: painting, putting up shelves and cupboards, all that kind of thing. Anything you can find in the DIY shop will come with instructions that should let anyone who is reasonably experienced in DIY put it up.

However, if you want to do something more complicated – converting a room into a bathroom or a kitchen, or building an extension, for example – then you’re going to need a professional.

When it comes to home design, however, it can be tough to know exactly who to hire. For basic things, you need a handyman, but for more complex projects you might need a builder. To do anything in the bathroom, you probably need a plumber. If you’re giving your whole house a makeover, you might even want to hire a professional designer, who will look at the overall picture and come up with ideas to make your house a better place to live in.

While pro designers can be expensive, they are usually worth the money – you wouldn’t think it from the amateur jobs you see on some TV makeover shows, but they really do know what they’re doing. There are some cowboys out there, though, so make sure the person you’re used has all the relevant qualifications: it’s best to ask for references, as that means you can go and see for yourself houses that they have worked on previously, and see if you like them. Be careful on judging them simply because they’re not your taste, however – remember that a good designer will reflect what the people asked for, not just force their own tastes on people.

Home-Improvement how to get it right?

Few people who have gone through a major home improvement project will tell you that the whole thing went smoothly and was finished on time and with no problems. There are just too many people involved and too many things that can go wrong. With a little advance preparation, though, hopefully you can avoid the worst home improvement nightmares. The first thing to do is to put someone in charge, otherwise you’ll end up doing it yourself – architects tend to be good at this, as once they’ve designed the improvement, they will have an idea of who is needed to make it happen. The next thing you need to do is absolutely vital: budget, budget, budget. It’s so easy to spend far more than you wanted to if you don’t work everything out in advance and set a limit that you won’t go over – a few extras here and there, and before you know it you can’t afford it any more. If possible, negotiate fixed prices with the builders, so that however long the project takes they will get paid the same amount. This will encourage them to finish quickly, and remove the risk of you getting stuck with a large bill. You might need to phone around for a while before you can find someone who will accept the deal on these terms, but as long as you’re offering a reasonable price, they are out there. Avoid hiring too many specialists, as you don’t need that many people working on a home project. Stick to more general professionals, who can call in people they know to do the parts that must be done by someone trained or registered in that area. Avoid hiring plumbers and electricians directly, for example, as they will just stretch out the work – leave it to the builder to bring in his own plumber or electrician instead.