New to interior designs - help!!

skmck

Hi all!

I'm just in the process of purchasing my first house (very exciting) but the house is only finished to a 'buliders finish' ie. I have to sort out flooring, kitchen, bathrooms, etc. - which I'm really looking forward to!

However, it will be a couple of months yet before the bulider will finish which gives me some time to research the interior design. I'd be the first to admit that I may not be the best person for innovative interior design ideas, complementing colours, etc... so just wondered if anyone knows of any good websites, magazines, etc. which could give me a good starting base??

firlodge

Congratulations!
look at Houzz.com - once you register you can set up Ideabooks for all the things you like.
There is also an excellent forum where you can get ideas from professionals (like myself!)
Best of Luck - & enjoy!

DublinDIYguy

I'd suggest you paint the whole house white before bringing any floors or fittings into the house. Then fill up your house with all the stuff you choose. And when your moved in with nothing left to do. Pick some colours for your walls. By then you'll have curtains and furniture to help give you an idea of what colours will match well.. Maybe pick a nice wallpaper for a feature wall in 1 or 2 of your rooms if you like that. Decorating your walls to match your furniture ect is easier then buying floors and furniture to match the walls. And painting walls after you've moved in isn't messy. Take down curtains. Move everything to centre of room and use sheets under the walls.

tsuzmir

DublinDIYguy wrote: »

I'd suggest you paint the whole house white before bringing any floors or fittings into the house.

+1 i have done the opposite few months ago and can confirm that above advise is 100%

paddy147

+2 to what DublinDiyGuy has posted.

We did this ourselves after our build..all white house internally for a few months and feck all furniture.We then painted the entire house ourselves with our many chosen colours (saved a fair whack of money doing it ourselves).



Get a feel for your new spaces and rooms and then pick and chose your colours and slowly put in some furniture.

Dont just lash everything into the house and clutter it up.
You have the rest of your life to do that.:D

KCC

I'm no expert, but I agree with the OPs. However, personally, I wouldn't firstly paint everything stark white - it might feel a bit cold. Perhaps instead try a softer shade such as Colortrend French White or Colortrend Pashmina Wool (creamy white). My advice is to research, research and research. Get a feel for your preferred style.

Research
To get ideas look at www.houzz.com, www.lovefurniture.ie, www.genesisireland.com, www.arnotts.ie, www.caseys.ie, www.browsers.ie, www.lauraashley.co.uk, www.solomonsoutlet.ie, www.pinterest.com, www.neptune.co.uk www.architecturalspaces.ie www.browsers.ie www.sweetpeaandwillow.ie. At mydeco.co.uk you can actually upload your house plans or else put in your dimensions and create a design from there!

Colours
Remember ABBC - Anything But Brown and Cream, especially together. It's boring, it's in everyone's home, it's hard to avoid, but if you want to make your home special, try to avoid shades of this especially if you're after the 'wow' factor. I must admit I have plenty of brown and cream myself, just because it's hard to avoid and i needed to compromise my style with that of with my partner! Think outside the box - for example, note how interior doors and ceilings are painted in colours other than white at www.farrowandball.com. I would also take care not to put competing woods together, e.g. beech table/door with walnut floor.

Ideas
Wallpaper can really finish a home beautifully. Google 'digital wallpapers' or 'mural wallpapers' - they might not suit your style but I think they can be fairly amazing. http://www.photowall.co.uk/photo-wallpaper/classic/landscapes . Also look up printed art blinds - http://www.creativelydifferentblinds.com/ArtandCulture/. Also look up the decals on www.etsy.com. I'm personally a fan of the monogrammed ones.

Buy quality natural products, even if it takes you longer to get the money together for them. You get what you pay for. The one thing I did was try to get items that I wouldn't have seen in most normal homes. For example, there was no way I was going to get the generic brown or black leather reclining couch. Dare to be different.

A few statement mirrors usually don't go astray.

Consider your storage requirements.

Just to highlight again - I am far from an expert - the above just reflects my own opinions/taste.

DublinDIYguy

KCC wrote: »

I'm no expert, but I agree with the OPs. However, personally, I wouldn't firstly paint everything stark white - it might feel a bit cold. Perhaps instead try a softer shade such as Colortrend French White or Colortrend Pashmina Wool (creamy white).

The reasons I'd suggest painting everything white first..
Brilliant white is far cheaper than a colour, especially if you buy colortrend colours,
It's less work painting the ceiling and walls the same colour as you can do the 2 at the same time and don't have to cut in the tops of the walls sharp to the ceiling.
So if your plan is to repaint the walls after a few weeks when you've done your floors and brought in your furniture it would be a waste of money to splash out on nice colortrend colours with the intention of painting over them in a few weeks plus it takes longer (painter would charge more).
Coloured woodwork is a personal opinion but I find sometimes it works well and sometimes it only works for a month or 2 before looking like it was white but yellowed.. But again you can see both on many websites...


Colours
Remember ABBC - Anything But Brown and Cream, especially together. It's boring, it's in everyone's home, it's hard to avoid, but if you want to make your home special, try to avoid shades of this especially if you're after the 'wow' factor. I must admit I have plenty of brown and cream myself,

I don't agree with that, the reason cream and brown are quite common is cos they have a nice blend and are quite relaxing together. If you want yours to be different use a nice brown wallpaper instead of brown paint. If you like brown and cream don't be put off by the fact other people have it in their house...


Ideas
Wallpaper can really finish a home beautifully. Google 'digital wallpapers' or 'mural wallpapers' - they might not suit your style but I think they can be fairly amazing. http://www.photowall.co.uk/photo-wallpaper/classic/landscapes .

www.dlkwalldesigns.ie here's an Irish company that does the exact same thing as the uk company above and for slightly cheaper. Plus they have a showroom in Dublin 1 where you can see their full wall displays of wall murals plus really nice wallpapers mainly suitable for feature walls. They also sell decals..
Their facebook page probably has more pictures than their website...

paddy147

DublinDIYguy wrote: »

KCC wrote: »

I'm no expert, but I agree with the OPs. However, personally, I wouldn't firstly paint everything stark white - it might feel a bit cold. Perhaps instead try a softer shade such as Colortrend French White or Colortrend Pashmina Wool (creamy white).

The reasons I'd suggest painting everything white first..
Brilliant white is far cheaper than a colour, especially if you buy colortrend colours,
It's less work painting the ceiling and walls the same colour as you can do the 2 at the same time and don't have to cut in the tops of the walls sharp to the ceiling.
So if your plan is to repaint the walls after a few weeks when you've done your floors and brought in your furniture it would be a waste of money to splash out on nice colortrend colours with the intention of painting over them in a few weeks plus it takes longer (painter would charge more).
Coloured woodwork is a personal opinion but I find sometimes it works well and sometimes it only works for a month or 2 before looking like it was white but yellowed.. But again you can see both on many websites...

Colours
Remember ABBC - Anything But Brown and Cream, especially together. It's boring, it's in everyone's home, it's hard to avoid, but if you want to make your home special, try to avoid shades of this especially if you're after the 'wow' factor. I must admit I have plenty of brown and cream myself,

I don't agree with that, the reason cream and brown are quite common is cos they have a nice blend and are quite relaxing together. If you want yours to be different use a nice brown wallpaper instead of brown paint. If you like brown and cream don't be put off by the fact other people have it in their house...


Ideas
Wallpaper can really finish a home beautifully. Google 'digital wallpapers' or 'mural wallpapers' - they might not suit your style but I think they can be fairly amazing. http://www.photowall.co.uk/photo-wallpaper/classic/landscapes .

www.dlkwalldesigns.ie here's an Irish company that does the exact same thing as the uk company above and for slightly cheaper. Plus they have a showroom in Dublin 1 where you can see their full wall displays of wall murals plus really nice wallpapers mainly suitable for feature walls. They also sell decals..
Their facebook page probably has more pictures than their website...

Exactly..cheap,quick and easy to do.

No point in splashing out money on expensive paints from the word go.

Also the internal house ceilings and walls will be painted in diluted white for their primer coat.

So stick with white for a month or 2 and get a feeling for the splace,before spalshing out on expensive colours.