Optimise Home Event
There was a fantastic turn out for our Optimise Home event. A huge thanks to everyone who came along and to our fantastic speakers for sharing their knowledge and experience.
Denise’s Top Tip:
Make sure you allow yourself plenty of time to make decisions. There will be a lot of decisions to be made from layout of the rooms, to the location of lighting not to mention choosing your colour scheme. It can all become overwhelming pretty quickly, especially if the builder or trades people are putting you under pressure for answers.
Rushing decisions and trying to have everything finished quickly can often lead to hasty purchases you may regret. You could end up spending too much money on an item you later dislike, but feel you can’t ditch because of how much it cost.
Getting some professional advice can make all the difference and remove much of the stress that goes hand-in-hand with interior design projects. A designer will help you to put a schedule together so that you can see where key decisions need to be made. Ideally you should have all of your decisions made before any of the work starts. This way you will be guaranteed to be one step ahead of the builder and trades people at all times.
Finally when it comes to the finishing touches, take your time. It isn’t possible to find the perfect mirror for your hall, or the right lamp for your living room, but it’s far better to wait until you stumble upon it than simply buy something to fill the gap.
Neuroscientist, Dr Michael Keane’s Top Tip:
To successfully create a home that will enhance your wellbeing you need to be clear about the kind of life you want to live. Working with an architect or designer os the ideal way to help you put the right kind of plan in place.
The way we live our lives is very much influenced by the spaces we spend time in. How the rooms are laid out and the interior design impacts on how we feel.
But the part of our brain that takes in all of this information does not contain language so it can be very hard for some people to articulate why a space makes them feels a certain way. And it’s even harder to understand that it is the space that is making them feel like that.
Working with a designer or architect is a great way to help you interpret these feelings and so to create a home that will enhance your wellbeing.
Dulux Brand Manager, Niamh Coffey’s Top Tip:
Before you start thinking about colours, ask yourself how you plan to use the space. For example, you will want to create an entirely different atmosphere in your kitchen than you will in your bedroom. Your kitchen should feel fresh vibrant and inviting so you will want to go for brighter colours.
Your bedroom, however, will want to feel calm and restful. So softer colours that create a tranquil feeling are an excellent choice, or you could even consider a dark, moody tone to create a cocoon-like effect.
Colour is one of the biggest influences on the atmosphere of any room so it’s vital that you start with how you want the room to feel and build your interior design scheme around that.
Lighting Consultant, Rocky Wall’s Top Tip:
When planning your lighting scheme for any room, you should start as early in the interior design process as possible. It’s also really important that you plan where the lights are going to go with the location of your furniture in mind rather than simply focusing on the ceiling. By doing this you will be able to light the different zones more effectively.
Don’t rely solely on ambient and overhead lighting – this kind of lighting is purely functional and gives an overall illumination for a space. It is generally achieved either by overhead pendants or spotlights. Make sure you include some secondary lighting such as floor and table lamps. Not only will they help to dress a room but they will also create atmosphere.
Avoid the temptation to over light a room with too many fixed downlights – the result will be harsh and will tend to create glare. Instead, position directional fittings so they light the walls to reflect light back into the room.
The talk was followed by some great audience participation and discussion, thanks again to all who attended and helping to make the evening so enjoyable.
As a thank you to all who attended our second Optimise Home event we created a special Workbook specifically designed to track a typical week at home to help figure out what is and isn’t working so that you can start to create an interior design brief for your home improvement and prioritise where to invest the budget that you have to spend to ensure you get the best possible return.
We’ve turned this workbook into a PDF which is available to download when you sign up for our blog. Simply fill in your details below to grab your copy now.
