Now it's time to share the knowledge gained with experience. I have enough knowledge to write about "interior life hacks"! I have been designing interiors in residential and public spaces for more than six years, and during this time I have been able to identify the main differences between a professionally designed interior and an amateur's design! So I am ready to share with you "lifehacks" that will let you create a harmonious interior without designer that will look very stylish and professional.
I want to draw your attention to the details, which, unfortunately, usually take back seat, while the details together create the whole picture.
Oddly enough, but the correction of common errors is almost 80% of success.
So, the first thing we are going to exclude is a wrong approach to the choice of flooring and baseboards. In most cases, I observe how people choose quite expensive flooring and a cheap plastic baseboard matching the color of laminate or linoleum. At the time, you need to do exactly the opposite.
1. If you don't walk around the house in high heels and your room is not wet, you almost can not tell an expensive laminate from a cheap one, when it is on your floor. But a cheap baseboard with plastic fittings, would negate the effect of the most expensive laminate or parquet. Therefore it is better to choose a slightly cheaper flooring and a more expensive frame!
2. The less connecting elements you have, the cleaner your interior looks in literal and figurative sense, because it also makes it much easier to clean! When washing the floor you can not be afraid that the plastic element will simply fall off.
3. Another "law of baseboard," which can work for you (but most often works against you) is the color! Choosing a baseboard of a color that matches your flooring, you steal the ceiling height in visual perception according to the height of baseboard. That is, if the ceiling height is 250 cm, but you choose a boarding of 4 cm in the color of the floor, then visually your ceiling will seem to be only 246 cm! Believe me this significantly affects the perception of the interior with a low ceiling! Please note how the interior is perceived in the following illustration when the baseboard is more contrasting with the floor rather than with the wall! A baseboard matching the wall color returns visual perception of height! It makes the room more spacious!
Now you are armed with this knowledge, it only remains to use it properly! A little more about color, height and shape.
If you want to make a contrasting baseboard, but your ceiling is not higher than 260 cm, the baseboard should be high (4 to 6 cm), otherwise the ceiling will again become lower, it is also better not to take a complicate shape. If the baseboard color is close to the color of the walls or painted in the color of the wall, its height can be 6-10 cm or more and some experiments with shape will be appropriate. If you choose a classic profile, keep in mind that you will need to support the style, it is not necessarily to make the entire interior in classic style, for example, rods for main curtains in Scandinavian style will be enough, classic style can be also combined with ethno, boho style, and so on.
4. Another important thing: do not combine different types of flooring in small spaces, it will break up the space, interfere with general perception, will force you to use connecting elements, which do not add to the beauty! Even if you did so, it is better to refrain from arcs and curves!
5. Another common mistake, excluding which you will be able to create a more interesting space! All you need is to get rid of related combinations of three colors: brown, brown and brown... In fact, it is harder to make proper related combinations than contrasting colors. But people are afraid of color experiments, they are afraid that they will get tired of unusual colors, and everybody buys everything in beige and brown colors. In fact, this fear is not unfounded! The fact that the tinting and color choice also have a secret! The color should be complex, in other words, its formula must be complex (there must be three or more pigments), it must contain a black pigment, which will make the color calm, natural, even if it is dark and rich. At any hardware store, you can see a fan of such complex colors, they will look like they have a shade of gray, but do not be afraid, they will not look "dirty" on walls, on the contrary, this color will look noble in interior.
I am sure that for many people it will become a real catch and the way of making the dream of the extraordinary and bold interior that would not look pretentious come true! By the way, the correct choice of colors will make painted walls more interesting than the walls with wallpaper (especially if you made a wrong choice of expensive wallpaper), it will also let you significantly save money and reduce the risk of getting into trouble and throwing money away!
6. Be conscious of brown! If you anyway decided to choose brown! It is worth remembering that this color does not like cheap materials, if you choose wood it must be a real wood, not "faux wood"!
7. And in the end I will share one more little secret, but I will not tell you it in detail, the fact is that similar rules (as for baseboards) work for crown moldings. If we paint moldings matching the walls, we will visually give the walls some height. But you need to paint moldings before installation and not after it, do the same with baseboards!
8. If it is possible to order laminated windows and wooden window sills, it is better to spend money on it, rather than on expensive wallpaper. If possible, you need to exclude all plastic details, all kinds of corners and connectors, do not get too customized with the details, it is better to make a laconic "box", and introduce texture contrasts with curtains and furniture, moreover, it will be easier to change them!
Of course, this is not all information, but it will let you avoid mistakes at the initial stage (regardless of style), you won't make the mistakes which you wouldn't be able to correct after everything's ready. And they will also let you lay the right foundation for your interior! I am finished for today, I wish inspiration to everyone! And simple solutions to complex problems!