Throughout homes this spring, on all types of furnishings from fabrics and wallpaper to homewares, leaf motifs and tree designs and patterns are blooming. It seems like the biggest trend this season is ‘going back to nature’.

“Its appeal is perhaps symbolic of our desire for a simpler life and a need for a stronger connection with the natural world,” suggests Sarah Quilliam, head of product design for Hillarys, a window blinds specialist.

“When times get tough there’s a tendency to return to a more organic, holistic and nature-inspired feel in the home.”

Annie Deakin, editor of online home shopping emporium mydeco.com, agrees: “This year marks the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the focus on nature has helped heighten the focus on textiles and home products which echo that theme,” she said.

Deakin says it’s time to turn on to funky botanical wallpaper and fabrics for a bang-up-to-date take on bringing the ‘outdoors in’.

There are many ways in which to reproduce this look in your home by using a feature wall of woodland print wallpaper and scatter cushions.

“Woodland patterns are huge this season,” says House Beautiful style editor Charlotte Boyd.

“Even if you don’t have a large garden, it’s possible to create a sense of the natural world in your home by using one of the new designs.”

She suggests adding a touch of woodland spirit with one of the new metallic tree motif papers.

With the housing market crawling to a halt and Spring just around the corner, people are looking for cheap ways update their tired decor and give it a brand new twist.

There is a great article here:

Give tired decor a modern twist

From the Hexham Courant, there’re some really good ideas on how to do this. Take a look!

Every year many sofas get thrown into landfills or left on the streets to rot, this is because no-one really knows what can be done; this is where Save Our Sofas come in.

Save Our Sofas gives you advice and ideas of ways to keep your old sofa, giving it a new lease of life, or provide environmentally friendly ways for disposal if it is beyond repair.

Plumbs, along with Save Our Sofas believe every sofa deserves a long life in a good home.

In just the last couple of weeks two articles have been extolling the virtues of loose covers as a credit crunch busting way to imrpove the look of your home environment.

 The January 2009 Country Living runs a great article ‘Recycled Chic’ on page 27. The essence of the feature is about finding and restoring interesting furniture tracked down through charity shops or ebay.

You may not need to trawl through ebay looking for ‘elegant upholstered pieces simply in need of new covers’ as Country Living journalist Caroline Reeves suggests. Take a look at what’s already in the family. Now picture that interesting old couch transformed with a new fabric outer and looking just like new. How would it look in your living room. It’s worth considering.

 Good Housekeeping January 2009 edition number 1 tip on page 66 – “Expert updates on a credit crunch budget” is….yes you’ve guessed it….”Give your threadbare sofa a new incarnation by shielding the shabbiness with removable washable loose covers.”

Who am I to argue with Good Housekeeping journalist Samantha Trapp.

Best wishes one and all for a very Happy Christmas and remember, if it’s all starting to look a bit tired and worn in the new year, just follow the advice of the home magasine experts and consider loose covers or reupholstery to breathe new life into the look of your home.

In a previous post I hopefully helped you understand how colour can affect your mood and bring out your personality. If you haven’t read it, please click on the link below:

Colour can effect your mood in all sorts of ways

You should have a vague idea of what colours you are wanting to use in your home. The tricky part now is, how do you put them together to give a cohesive and flowing feel throughout your home?

Often people assume paint is the main factor when decorating a room, in fact it is as much about the colour of accessories, furniture and soft furnishings. You should always consider the contrast between them all. When painting a room, remember that paint looks a different colour in the shop than it is in your home, so always take a test sample home with you to try out before buying in quantity! Whatever you do though don’t worry about choosing the wrong colour, walls can easily be painted over.

When using bold and spicy colours, also known as ‘Active’ colours, keep them simple and in small doses so they are not competing. ‘Active’ colours such as yellow, orange and red will stand out in a room and dominate most other colours so should ideally be used against a neutral backdrop.

Using bold colours to achieve a visual effect can also be done by combining neutral colours with different textures, which can be just as visually stimulating. Also lighter, less saturated, natural colours will make a room seem larger than it is, whereas the deeper and more intense range of the spectrum will pull the walls in around you and give a cosier felling.

When mixing and matching colours, natural shades of greens and browns are by far the easiest to use, as you tend to find them in nature. If decorating with a brown colour scheme, adding plants and greenery will lighten up the feeling and bring life to your room.

A flowing feel of colour throughout your home creates a greater impact but can sometimes be quite difficult to achieve. However, simple touches such as using the same colour in the skirting boards and door surrounds can go a long way to pull it all together.

When you have large areas or objects to colour like floors and sofas that generally have a higher price associated. Keeping them neutral will help when tastes and fashions inevitably change. Painting over a few walls is always going to be more cost effective than changing a carpet or sofa. If you don’t have the time or energy to start painting again, the alternative option for your sofa would be loose covers, which are far cheaper than buying new and have the same effect.

People generally forget about ceilings so most often than not are just left white. If you do want to be different then using a lighter shade of the wall colour will usually work quite well, unless the ceiling is over 8 feet then use a darker shade.

Just remember getting used to a new room colour might take a few days. Once you start filling a room with other elements you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised to see that your new colours harmonise

Learn more tips here about how to choose a colour scheme here.

Read Part 1 here….

If you are thinking of buying a decorative rug either for your wall or floor, here are just a few things you might want to consider.

As colour takes on the most fundamental role in any decor, this should be your highest priority when choosing a rug for your home. If a room’s existing colour scheme is very bright and fussy the rug needs to be a controlling natural colour / design. On the other had, if you already have a natural scheme, a nice bright splash of colour and striking design will really make it the centre piece of any room. Sometimes a rug should enhance the existing decor and not stand out, using an already dominant or accent colouration will have this effect.

I’ve written a previous post about how using colour in a room affects you mood, which might be helpful in deciding your colours:

Colour can effect your mood in all sorts of ways

You might also want to consider how much wear and tear the rug will go through, if you have children or pets a darker and intricate patterned rug will fare far better over time. Just remember to make sure any patterns on the rug do not clash with those on the wall-paper or other soft-furnishings.

You might think that you can just go out and buy a rug without giving too much thought into the size and where exactly it fits into your room’s layout. This really depends on the purpose of the rug and which room it will belong. If you are planning on the rug covering the majority of the room then there should be the same amount of floor space on each side, even if the room is an irregular shape then it still needs to have some sort of symmetry.

There are some basic rules when adding rugs to certain rooms, take the lounge for example. If the rug is going to sit under a coffee table then the entire table should be on the run and all pieces of furniture set back from it at equal distances. You should always consider where a rug will be placed in a room in relation to everything else, as long as there symmetry generally you will be ok. If you find it hard visualising where the rug will site, use some masking tape to define the space and play around until you are comfortable with the position.

Just remember that there are a huge variety of styles, and sizes to fit any decor or budget. So make sure you find the right one before buying.

I’ve always thought of a rug to be something that is placed on the floor to add a touch of warmth and comfort along with an touch of colour to a room, even sometimes being more practical rather than decorative.

However there is a growing trend of using rugs as purely decorative features to revitalise a home by hanging them on walls, these are known as decorative rugs / wall hanging / tapestry. Generally having little or no practical value, these rugs are mostly exhibited on walls in the living room or bedroom but can also been used on beds and as table, chair and sofa covers. Although I would always have to recommend made to measure sofa covers if you wanted to restore an old sofa.

If searching online you’ll most likely come across many Persian or Oriental styled rugs from Asia and other countries such as Turkey, Iran & Egypt with a few modern and contemporary designs here and there. I would definitely recommend buying a rug made from natural materials such as silk and cotton not only for quality reasons but also they have less environmental impact. You could also find a number of companies producing bespoke rugs, which are great if you are looking for a specific design, colour or size.

Decorative Rugs can be a stunning addition to your home bringing dramatic effects to every room, you can even change them with seasonal fashions and take them with you when you move.

Use decorative rugs to spruce up your home – part 2

Vibrant colours often extend from nature and objects surrounding us from lush grassy green fields with radiant flowers to pillar box red post boxes and jet black skies with glaring white stars. Colour is something that surrounds us on a daily basis and does influence our lives and moods, I hope I can explain how you can bring certain colours into to your home to compliment your own personality and lifestyle.

Lets take the 9 popular colour groups:

Red – this is the colour we pay most attention to and is associated with several emotions such as love, desire & passion. When using red colours in the decor of a home they should be used as accents or dramatically in rooms that are seldom lived in. If you are a passionate person then the bedroom would be ideal!!

Yellow – most of the emotions evoked by yellow can be classed as positive such as joy, happiness, optimism & hope. Because yellow is a warm colour it often gives the sense of cosiness and hospitality to a room, which is great for casual interiors such as a day room or conservatory.

Orange – being a combination of yellow and red, orange is a warm colour but not as vibrant as red and as calming as yellow. Orange is good for expressing energy and can emote enthusiasm and flamboyancy, by also stimulating conversation orange is a great colour for any living room.

White – often white is seen as a representation of purity, cleanliness and peace but when used in the home it can enhance, energise and beautifully contrast with any other colour. White is the most versatile of all colours being a combination of them all, because of it’s reflective nature it gives a room a fresh, clean and airy feeling.

Pink – like red, pink is associated with love and desire but loses the raw passion red can induce. Romance is never far from this colour and always delivers feel good emotions.

Purple – as purple dye was initially made from the mucous gland of a snail it was only available to the very rich, hence representing royalty and notability. Nowadays, purple is still an exotic and mysterious colour sometimes being thought of as gloomy. Make sure if using purple to keep the tones rich and vibrant.

Green – often being referred to as the most favoured colour, green brings a calming influence to a room with some people giving it healing powers. Being a colour which represents the environment, green it is very much a colour of the moment.

Blue – you can’t get much cooler than blue, which represents peace, tranquillity & calm. Cool colours are seen as dignified and conservative so are more suitable for formal rooms. Blue is also considered a business colour as it reflects reliability.

Black – along with red, black is a very powerful colour bringing out strong emotions such as power, sexuality, sophistication, elegance and wealth. Again like red black should not be used in a dramatic sense but just to accent other colours.

Just remember, paint is only the first step to deciding colour of a room. The next steps are layers of colour with accessories such as upholstery, fabrics, rugs, curtains, loose sofa covers, lighting and plants etc…

When considering a new suite, loose covers or reupholstery what is the most important question to ask?

For many people the top questions asked are:

1. Why should I consider covers or reupholstery instead of buying new?
2. Can you cover my style of furniture?
3. Where can I see the finished product before I buy?
4. What is the difference between covers and reupholstery?

1. Why should I consider covers or reupholstery instead of buying new?
The idea of buying covers or reupholstery for your existing furniture is something that many people do not even consider. There is a real need for education here as many people see covers as a cheap stretchy product. In fact the the modern fitted cover in contemporary cotton and linen fabrics is a handcrafted masterpiece made to the exact shape of a piece of furniture.

This is not just cheaper than buying new but is also environmentally responsible and many people love their existing furniture but don’t want it to be drab or shabby. So loose covers are the perfect solution!

Reupholstery gives an even more fitted result as the fabric is actually attached to the furniture, cushions and springs are replaced and so on. The end result looks and feels quite literally like a brand new piece of furniture. So much new furniture these days is of very poor quality. For many people, to consider keeping the furniture they already have and giving it a new lease of life really is worth considering.

2. Can you cover my style of furniture?

This is an easy one to answer. Plumbs can cover or reupholster anything, and probably have in their 45 year history. Click Here to find out more.

3. Where can I see the finished product before I buy?

There are thousands of Plumbs customers all over the country. For anyone who is interested we can arrange contact so you can get the full story from someone who has already bought. There is also a full showroom in Preston plus various mini showrooms around the country.

Finally we exhibit at many events across the UK throughout the year from the BBC Good Homes Show to the Badminton Horse Trials. For a full list or events, please visit our events page. Plus enter one of our many competitions to win tickets.

Click here to visit our events page.

4. What is the difference between traditional covers and reupholstery?

Traditional covers cost a little more and are made from high quality natural, and man-made fabrics, have the look and feel of reupholstery and can be removed if necessary. The original furniture is unaffected.

Reupholstery is more invasive but arguably gives a better finished result. The process involves stripping away all the old fabric, checking the frame and springs, replacing old foams and then attaching the new choice of fabric to the frame.

To find out more about our Re-covering and Reupholstery services, see our videos on YouTube:

Click here to see all our videos on YouTube.

Turn the sofa round today. You know the one that hasn’t moved in years. And move the chairs to face the garden.

Now Summer has arrived why not shake things up a bit and give your living room a lift. Fresh flowers in the window, and a couple of new cushion covers will make all the difference. What about paintings, photos and ornaments. Why not ask a friend round and have some fun moving things round. Try moving photos into groups rather than covering every surface. This helps make the room look less cluttered and more organised. A couple of scatters can be had for just a few pounds – try the clearance range at plumbscurtainshop website. Or you could get free accessories such as cushion covers when your order new suite covers. Plumbs are running this offer during June. Summer is such a great time for getting out and about with light nights and warm weather. Plus there are so many fabulous events to visit. Local shows, village fetes, friends and family. But it’s lovely too to create a fresh Summer look at home for when you need a rest.

Let the sunshine in and banish the boring same old look. Move that sofa to face the window, and have a great Summer.