Find the answers to all of your decorating dilemas and stay up-to-date with the latest Interior trends.

Bright colours continue to be a key look for 2010.  As predicted in our trend forecast last year (colour blocking feature) we are now starting to see this trend really come to light.  Nearly all of the high street stores, including BHS, Matalan, Next, Marks & Spencer & Habitat, have a bright and confident collection that will launch over the next few months.  If you want to create the look but are a bit scared of committing to a large piece of bright furniture then why not start out with some accessories to see how well they work within your room.  This will also avoid any costly mistakes.

Credits: Glass vases, mugs, clock, plastic tubs, cake stands all from the lovely Hambledon; yellow lamp, orange stool and yellow cube all from Habitat

Below are some fantastic examples of adding bright pieces of furniture.  If you live in a home with a neutral colour palette, this makes the perfect backdrop for introducing splashes of vibrant furniture such as dining chairs or a sofa.  You can see below how well these orange chairs work within this white kitchen.  Not only do they make a statement but they also bring personality and style to the room.  The same applies with the lime green sofa and chairs.  Although the sofa is not to my taste, you can see how successful the scheme is.

Credits: White & orange room: open-space-interior-design1234.freshhome, lime and white room: open-space-interior-design1234.freshhome

Credit: Bedding from Really Linda Barker

Colour is an affordable and effective way of making a change to our homes and can quickly transform a room or house exterior. It can also help cement a theme and bring a ‘look’ together.

To provide you with some colour inspiration, we are excited to present the predicted colour trends for 2010, carefully selected by the experienced ‘Trends Panel’ at Crown paints. The innovative colour palettes represent directions that the panel believes will be key for interiors this year.

Terra

The earthen hues of the natural world with a striking contemporary twist. A bold palette of warm oranges and burnt reds complimented with greys, purples and dusky pinks, resulting in a truly modern look.

St Germaine

As the name suggests, a colour palette inspired by timeless Parisian style. Think strong, monochromatic shades, teamed with elegant, rich detailing. A sophisticated twist on the baroque themes of last decade.

Simple Beauty

Reflecting one of the hottest trends right now, this theme touches on sustainability, craft and tradition. Experiment with neutral shades and accents of green and purple.

New Mexico

A fresh take on a classic theme inspired by the hot hues of the Mexican desert. Burnt oranges, yellows and dusty taupes feature, with accents of greying whites and midnight blue.

Paperback

Taking inspiration from a well-thumbed novel, this colour palette is based on comfortable, familiar pastels, teamed with the freshness of olive green and yellow.

Plush

Decadence encapsulated. Create drama at home with an intense colour palette of rich purples, and an eclectic mix of textured homewares.

I wanted to introduce you to a company called Dolly Plops as I have just commissioned them to design a canvas for my daughters bedroom.  Founded by Victoria Connolly, Dolly Plops offers a wide range of Illustrations including mural designs for children’s bedrooms, cards & invitations, canvas paintings and face painting.  Below are a few of her illustrations.  Dolly Plops is based in London but is happy to travel for commissions.  Contact: dollyplops@rocketmail.com

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Due to the current financial climate, many homeowners are taking the time to stay in their homes and enjoy them a bit more due to either not selling at the moment or saving money.
We are quite used to the garish wallpapers of the old houses we grew up in and so in true rebellious style everyone began to paint their houses white, off white or even cream!

Wall Murals

The image is by Rockettsgeorge

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KITSCH

Bright, fun, decorative and comical; these are the words I’d use to describe Kitsch.  Not for the faint hearted, this is a look that will brighten up any room in the home.  If you want to create this style but you’re a little scared to commit to a large room then why not have some fun and go for a Kitsch toilet?  It will be a good talking point when friends come over!

Kitsch Trends 2009/2010, Pippa Jameson Interiors

COLOUR BLOCKING

This is going to be a big trend for Spring/Summer 2009.  Coming straight from the catwalks of Vogue, you can expect to see this filtering through to the Homes and Interiors with bold blocks of colour on cushions, rugs, wallpaper and fabrics.

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The New Year often means a good old clear out!  A time to go through all of your possessions to see if you are hording a mountain of junk!  The golden rule is; if you haven’t used something for 6 months then get rid of it.  A lot of us (including me) tend to stash things away thinking that we’ll need them one day but trust me, you never do!

Picture credit: Daily Mail / Splash

Remember to recycle There are many large recycling centers, just look on your local boroughs website or try yell.com to find your nearest one.  They take absolutely everything including the kitchen sink!  Have a look on The Recycle Centre to find your nearest one.

Charity shops: Another idea is to do a run to the local charity shop.  It’s very satisfying knowing that your old treasured possessions are going to another home rather than being thrown in the bin.  Have a look on the Association of Charity shops website for your nearest.

Have unwanted furniture collected: If you have large furniture items that you want to get rid of then have a look at some local charities and shelters.  They will often collect and pass the furniture on to homeless shelters.  There is sometimes a small collection fee of between £5-£10 but well worth it if it’s going to help the homeless and people in need.  A few companies that collect are: Emmaus, Urban Waste, Reuze, Big Green Switch & The Furniture Exchange

Jumble sale or car boot sale: If you want to get rid of some items that are worth a bit of money then why not have a jumble sale?  The only down side is that you have to get up early but you’ll walk away with a nice profit!

Ebay: Don’t you just love eBay.  If you have the patience then you can pretty much buy and sell anything!  This is good if you have lots of items to get rid of. If you haven’t got the time to list each item separately then just put them on as a group purchase.  All you need to do is take a group picture of the items as well as listing each piece in the description.   Alternatively get someone to eBay them for you.  Just type in ‘eBay seller’ into Google and you will be able to find someone in your area.  They will ask for a small commission but it’s worth it if you don’t have the time to sell the items yourself.

Retro glassware & wallpaper

The retro look is having another revival.  Cool brown and orange tones combined with sharp splashes of citrus colour.

The trend started its come back on the catwalk and, like so many other looks, has now filtered down into the interiors world.  I do like the look but in moderation.  I think the key is to add ‘touches’ and mix it cleverly with modern simple pieces for an ‘up to date’ take on Retro.

There are some good and some bad retro accessories to be found!  Retropolitan is good source of accessories.  An affordable company that has some very stylish and bespoke pieces.  It also has a good online shop so that you can have items delivered directly to your door.  The glassware in the above picture is all from Retropolitan.

Retro furniture

If you are looking for a retro look in the kitchen then try Cola Red.com for some stylish 50’s American diner furniture.

Styled roomset: for Real Homes magazine

South American colour scheme

Photograph: Lizzie Orme

With all this doom and gloom around due to the credit crunch, I thought I would post some bright colour schemes to brighten things up.  If you are bored of the neutral colours adorning the magazine pages then liven things up with hot South American tones .  The image above was inspired from a trip to Cuba. I styled the shoot with photographer Lizzie Orme and then it was published in Real Homes magazine.

Paint: To create the look use colours confidently with strong green,  bold blue and hot pink and team them with lighter colours such as soft lime and cool cream for furnishings and accessories.  There are several paint suppliers you can use to acheive the look: The  Serenity collection at Craig & Rose offers a good selection.  Dulux paints have a Rich collection that offers vibrant colours perfect for this scheme.  Their selection of ‘blue’ paints are especially stunning.

The Brief

We are two female colleagues starting a new business in Wedding Photography. For about 4 years, the space has been used as an office for a photographer’s agent and a photographer. The room has always been (invisibly) split down the middle to accommodate the two businesses. At present there is no order to the room and boxes are on the floor everywhere.

The new business will be the two of us working together on the wedding business but also running our own businesses at the same time. We therefore need to look like we are working together but also have the space to run our separate affairs. Basically, we don’t want to be on top of eachother, if you know what I mean!

We want to be able to bring clients to the office to show them our work and our products. We were hoping we may be able to fit in a small sofa and a coffee table. The storage therefore needs to be tidy and attractive. We would really like to have shelves that also hold lovely books, and other products that ’say’ we are in the creative industry, as well as the obvious photography.

We also want the room to be ’softened’. The white walls are very corporate and bare, so maybe we can have a colour on one wall. The lighting is terrible – strip lights in up-lighting constructions! See the pic showing the side walls. There is a great window down one side of the room that is a wonderful feature, I think. The carpets are standard tile mats, dark blue in colour – these can’t be moved but rugs could be an option.

Transform a tired looking room with some funky wallpaper. Wallpaper is an in-expensive way to add a bit of style and colour to a pale room.  vThis particular style is from B&Q.

Start by choosing a wallpaper that compliments the tones of the existing accessories.; I would suggest taking a sample home to see if it works within the room. Wallpaper the chimney breast, a whole wall or simply wallpaper one strip as shown in this picture.

Wallapers Direct stocks a lot of wallpaper suppliers such as Graham & Brown, Wilman, Sanderson, Cole & Son, Villa Nova, Harlequin, Linda Barker, Morris & Co, Julien McDonald, Monsoon, Crown, Brian Yates.

Photographer: Lizzie Orme