When choosing flooring for a room remember you have several options to choose from so think carefully before you buy one.

You could choose vinyl which is a man-made material supplied in a wide range of colours. It’s extremely easy to cut and stick down as well as being waterproof and a synch to clean.

Vinyl floor is very tough and durable which makes them perfect for hallways and areas where a lot of wear and tear is expected. The only drawback is that they can scuff and mark more easily than other floorings so, be careful when moving heavy furniture on it.

Natural wood looks great and it gives you confidence knowing it is the real thing underneath your feet as opposed to a man-made surface. These too are easy to install and most engineered floors are ‘clicked’ together without much fuss. Again it’s easy to clean and can be fitted in a variety of different room shapes.

Laminate flooring offers a tough alternative to vinyl and can look smooth, clean and durable. Not all laminates are suitable for kitchens and bathrooms though as water can damage them. Always check with the supplier that your flooring is suitable for the room you are decorating.

Carpets are a traditional floor covering that can add a feeling a warmth to your home, however they are not as rugged as the aformentioned coverings so family members that use children’s buggies or wheelchairs may have difficulty using this floor covering.

Some tired old furniture can be brought to life with the simple technique of stencilling. This is a very subjective technique and can e a lot of fun and very satisfying when finished.

Before you start to stencil you need to prepare the wood by stripping it down and then painted or left with its natural look.

You can strip the furniture by using paint or varnish remover and then steel wool or sand paper to give it a really smooth finish. If the wood needs repairing first, use PVA glue which is quick drying.

You can cut your stencil out of oiled Manilla card or plastic film which you can purchase from craft suppliers and good art shops.

Now, mark your design, floral pattern, swirls or whatever with a 2B pencil or a permanent marker pen. Why not use tracing paper to copy ideas from books and then transfer them onto your stencilling card?

When stencilling, you must keep the card/film firmly in place whilst you apply your colour to the holes. Use spray adhesive if you like to help keep the card in place whilst you stencil, it will easily peel off once you’ve finished the painting.

You may want to varnish the finished piece to protect it and you should choose a varnish that suits the furniture’s texture. You can get matt, satin and gloss varnishes so you can take your pick of finishes.

The fireplace can be the focal point of the living room but how do revitalise a fireplace without it costing you the earth?

Creating a stone-effect fireplace will take patience but it will be well worth the effort when you see the finished look and hear the comments made by admirers.

Firstly, the surround to the fireplace can be made from timber skirting, off cuts of architrave and beading which is all glued and nailed together around the fireplace itself.

When trying to emulate the stone look you have a couple of options to choose from. You might want to use paints which are built up layer upon layer and manoeuvred around to create a graining effect and stone colour.

Some people mix fine sand in with an ordinary emulsion creating a texture which appears to have stone like qualities. The colour of the paint should reflect the kind of stone you want to surround the fireplace.

Also on the market is a specialist fireplace paint which will give you a stone finish. You can also use this paint on MDF, wood plaster and brickwork. The look can be very authentic and it comes complete with instructions on how to apply it.

Bathroom layouts can cause headaches when you want to give them a makeover. For instance they tend to be a funny shape and have things like boilers in the way of your ideas. You have to make sure you leave room for bathroom furniture and, of course, the bath and/or shower.

Relocating the boiler may cost quite a bit of money but it’s worth it when you realise how much space is released by the move. Also, if you’ve got a twenty or thirty year old boiler a new unit should save you money on energy bills.

Planning out a room is always recommended as it allows you to go into the makeover with a sense of what you want to achieve. There may be alterations along the way but a well worked out plan should have negotiated most of these beforehand.

Using graph paper and cut outs of designs will give you an idea of what you want the room to look like. It’s a good idea to look through magazines to get some inspiration and to help with the planning. Make sure you find out the dimensions for each piece of bathroom furniture as well, as this is often overlooked when designing a new bathroom layout.

Bargains can be found everywhere especially in the current credit climate so shop around, you’ll be amazed at what differences there are in prices. And it’s a fact of life that shop clearances make for fertile hunting grounds when you’re after a good buy.

Utilising spare rooms can see you change it into anything from a small library to fun room for children. The real choice is to make it into something that you’ll use.

Too many people have spare rooms that are ‘just in case’ rooms, where the room is redundant for months on end until a friend or family member comes to stay.

Making up a mini-library can be great fun and inexpensive. You can get or make your own shelves fairly cheaply and it’s the books that will be the real stars of the show anyway.

Having a quiet reading room is often on the wish list for many people that have spare rooms. Many people would also like somewhere where they can pursue their hobby.

Making a spare room into a hobby room will have the effect of creating a quiet room and a place where a leisure pursuit can be concentrated on.

Creating a spare room that is used and can be quickly reverted to a room for a guest is the key to getting the balance right. A futon maybe the ideal solution to this as it allows easy and relaxed seating as well as a quick conversion into a bed for a guest.

Normally, I would say decorating one room per year in your home is enough to keep your house up to date and nicely decorated and modern.  It’s also just enough for the pocket, but what about decorating offices?  How often should an office be refurbished or decorated?

Offices can take a lot more wear and tear than a home does and can look shabby far faster.  However, getting the decorators in can cost a lot more if it’s the office you need to decorate, partly because they generally have to work weekends or the evening.  I doubt you’d want to do it yourself either!

One way to get out of decorating an office is to use a serviced office.  A serviced office is (more…)

Big brother fever is back with force this summer, and while everyone might be rocking to their TV’s to find out all they can about the new contestants, there are others who are watching with a completely different focus, the new house.

This year they completely bulldozed the old house to build a brand new one, full of different styles and exciting twists.

The sleeping areas are separated into two different themes. One is luxurious, with double beds, chandeliers, gilding and plush carpeting while the other is sparse with hard, metal frame single beds packed closely together decorated in just red and brown.

The rest of the house works to try to merge the two themes of the sleeping areas, mixing styles. The bathrooms have marble effect flooring and bath, with gilded taps and golden Romanesque statues for ornaments. The aqua colours they have used in the bathroom really complement the marble and gilded effects, adding to the luxurious feel of the room.

While in the past Channel 4 have produced Big Brother houses that were full of funky bright colours that were very young and vibrant, this year they seem to have favored far more rich tones that give off an air of opulence. The kitchen is painted in a deep wine red that contrasts well with the dark wood they have used for the beams, the work tops and floor.

The deed red and the aqua keep recurring in the house and garden tying together the themes very well, creating a very coherent style. This house really proves that you can take very different styles and use them to satisfaction in the same property without disharmony.

Indian style dress, Indian style make up, Indian music, Indian summers, we’ve had them all, but now there’s Indian home decoration. Indian style interior design is something has really taken off over the last few years, originating from European colonial style to more and more ethnic and Indian style. The rise is this trend has meant that there are more and more products available in the market to achieve an Indian heaven in your own home.

With Indian décor colour and furniture is key. The colours have to be warm, bright and strong colours. This does not mean that every house has to be painted in deep reds, greens and yellows, but using a lot of colour to your taste will help you achieve this style. To add a more authentic touch to your Indian style room, use some ethnic stencilling or painting. In order to get an idea of what sort of patterns to use, do some research in books and the Internet.

When choosing the furniture, don’t feel restricted to choosing indian-style furniture. Choosing standard or even furniture from other regions is a must. Oriental furniture matches particularly well, with a strong mix of simple straights and ornamental curves.

Using a lot of colourful and appropriately patterned fabric is also a great way of adding the Indian touch. Look at what is available to you in your area, speak to the sales staff in upholstery fabric departments and choose according to the colours and furniture you have chosen for your room or property.

The most difficult of the elements to get right in Indian decoration is the furniture. These usually tend to be expensive if brought over from Indian manufactures. The positive thing about buying such furniture is that they tend to be one offs that you can guarantee no one else to have. You will have a unique piece of furniture in your home. If budget is more of an issue though look for reproductions in cheaper outlets or paint and recycle your old furniture in the style that you want. Keep in mind that Indian style furniture tends to be solid pieces in dark wood with ornamental carvings, or painted pieces. If you plan to paint them, then it might be a good way to tie the room together by decorating your walls and the furniture with the same patterns and stencils.

One of the most popular styles to decorate in that seems never to go out of fashion is “colonial”. This style basically is a mish-mash of three centuries of European design and architecture, inspired by the east and the Americas. From the 16^th century to the early 19^th century architecture, design and interior decoration were heavily influenced by the colonised countries. This was a result of there not being many designers in the colonies, which meant that such work fell to local artisans who brought their own designs into classical European design that they were meant to be reproducing.

Due to the bright and exotic design that still manages to stay within simple lines, colonial has never gone out of style. This is also due to the fact that within the three centuries and many different European styles that have all contributed to making up colonial, there is enough of a range to satisfy most fashions, trends and personal tastes.

In order to incorporate colonial style into your home, it is worth doing some research. Books, magazines, the Internet and also films can help you gather ideas before decorating. When considering your ideas, try to make sure there is an all round theme to a room before settling on a scheme. Colonial decorating uses elaborate crown mouldings, dark wood for furniture and white linen to create that elegant yet simple style. As the new houses in the colonies tended to be big and airy with well proportioned rooms, it would be wise to make your colonial home seem that way.

The furniture that was used in colonial decorating tended to be mainly Queen Anne or Chippendale. There are still quite a lot of original pieces that can be picked up if one makes the necessary searches, and if original is out of the questions then there are some fantastic reproductions available. The furniture of this era tends to be ornate and yet practical, made of dark wood and finely finished. Use a few pieces in a room, and try not to create too much clutter. Colonial is airy and elegant, so make sure your room is too.

With careful planning and the appropriate accessories and furniture, you too can enjoy the elegance of a bygone era without too much expense or had work. The key is in adapting the right elements to suit your home and executing them to perfection.

Art deco is a style that was predominantly developed in the 1930s. The style was heavily inspired and influenced by Egyptian finds during the same era, and geometry. Elements such as ocean liner inspired windows, gates, doors and windows baring a design of the sun, white-rendered frontages, and flat roofs were all common features of the art deco home in the 1930.

Some of these wonderful features have now been lost due to redecoration, renovation and double-glazing. However, it is quite possible to create the same style in your home today, if you are willing to search for appropriate pieces and do the relevant research.

Mirrors from the period and also decorative, ornamental objects echoing the same themes as used in art deco, such as Egyptian, naval and all things to do with the sun, will add the right touch to any aspiring art deco room or home.

As with most things during the era, interior design was heavily influenced by the British Empire and archaeological finds in the Middle Eastand the orient. Therefore the colour schemes for any art deco home are those inspired by the east. The most popular colour in the 30s seemed to be green and most appropriate shades to use would be jade green, mint green Chinese green and foam green. To this green background you can add some the colours used in the period such as dark blue, pink, vermilion, black, gold, silver and different shades of brown.

When starting out with an art deco style for a room, look at images that you can find in books, websites or any national trust examples. This will help you to put together an idea of what you want in your room.