Interiors today: Home is where the heart is

By Maggie Greening - Interior Designer

Ok, so you have seen lots of fabulous furniture, lighting, and accessories in the shops and on the internet and you think how lovely it all is. Once bought, bound to improve the quality of your life immeasurably and make you feel so much better about yourself .. or is it ?

 
Whether it is for the Kitchen – (useful and lovely, what more could you ask for!), for the Living Room (good for showing off to guests) or the Bedroom (a little treat for yourself /partner/children – bound to make everyone feel loved…). But is it really what you need?



Now don’t get me wrong, I truly believe that making a comfortable and beautiful home for yourself and your loved ones is a noble cause, but before you go out and spend your hard-earned cash on more items for the house, why not pause a moment to consider a few things.
 
Where am I going to put this lovely new item? Will it fit in? Will it last? Do I absolutely love it? And above all, is it really addressing the lingering feeling of unease that I have about my home?

As an interior designer who has been practicing for 22 years, I have come to the conclusion that first and foremost we all need a good edit of our belongings before we start buying anything else for the home.

We all have lots of stuff, but is it really working as a whole?  Is it really reflecting the needs and personalities of you and the people you live with? Is it really making you feel good about yourself? If not, it should be.

So we have to get organized. But also let’s get creative. Let’s have fun getting our lives to make more sense in homes that we love. Let’s stop making expensive (or cheap!) mistakes on buying things that we think we ought to have and let’s start making considered decisions (yes, and even purchases!) about how we want our homes to work.

This will mean having a good look at everything around you in your home and possibly changing the way it is being used.

For example, have you started working from home so that building an office space in the back garden is an option (suddenly, an extra room in the house)?

Or do you need to redesign your Kitchen area so that it better integrates our family and social life?

Or does it mean simply re-working what you have, organizing the space more efficiently, paring down but freshening up a bit too with some re-upholstery, new cushions or curtains?



You don’t always have to spend a fortune. This sort of thinking can work to any budget, be it large or small.

In the next few months I’ll take you through the average house room by room and try to give you some fresh ideas on how to live and work better in a home that not only makes you feel really good about yourself, but also that you truly love.

Maggie Greening is a local interior designer who designs both residential and commercial spaces.

She can be contacted by email or phone at:
 

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel: 0208 372 1868
Mob: 07931 344913

www.mginteriordesign.co.uk