High-end decorating on a budget

High-end decorating on a shoestring is not an impossibility. You have a home that you love, but you feel a need to spruce it up, even though you're minding your budget.

Here's how:

• Start with paint. There is no other home improvement that gives you as much impact for so little cost. In our example, fresh creamy paint brightens up the space and gets rid of any grubby, shabby corners that might have kept the room from looking lavish. A ready-mixed colour saves a bit on painting, too.
• Simplify. It's amazing what clearing away the clutter will do for a room. A coffee table with built-in storage helps tidy away the remote and the magazines, while everything else is just stowed away. The room looks more spacious and feels more serene, with no need for costly decorative items. 
• Plan the layout. A grand fireplace and a picture window provide focal points for this room, and the furniture is arranged to take advantage of them. Just a few pieces will do when they're laid out thoughtfully. The dining area at the other end of the room can work for playing games or conversation when you have friends in.

There are other ways this room could have gone, but this look is fresh and upscale, with very little cost.  Give it a try at your place, too!

There's an App for That!

Painting and decorating aren't new, but there are new high-tech approaches:

• Dulux My Color app for your smart phone lets you take a picture and match the colours in your photo to Dulux paints. That gorgeous sunset, subtly shaded flower or fabulous dress can be the inspiration for your walls!
• Evernote, also for your smart phone, lets you collect and categorize snaps of your furniture, soft furnishings, wallpapers, and artwork. In the shop, you can look at all the influences on that room at once.  No more conversations like, "Do you think this is the same shade as the mats we bought?" "Erm, I think they were more blue than that..."
• Mark on Call is an app that lets you play around with your floor plan. Take pictures and place them on the floor plan for help visualising how your own things will work, or use the library of images in the app. Click on that link to watch a video demo.
• Do the same thing online with Arrange a Room, a fun tool that you can play with in the comfort of your home. You'll have to register to play with it, but it's free. 
• SeeMyDesign is a more complicated tool, with a little bit of a learning curve. Floorplanner is another through tool, with a clean, modern interface. 

It's a far cry from those file folders full of magazine pictures! When you're through dreaming and ready to make some changes, contact Courtney & Wise,  your Sydney painters and decorators.

Should You Paint Your Own House?

When you have your house painted, the cost of labour is the largest expense. Understandably, some homeowners are tempted to try to do the painting themselves. By buying the paint and doing their own painting, they figure, they'll save more than half the cost!

On the other hand, if you're unsuccessful with your DIY, then you've wasted the money on paint and your own time and effort, and you still have to call in the professionals. How can you predict whether you should attempt the job yourself?

• How big and how complex is the job? Painting a single story building with good surfaces in the same colour it had before is a different matter from painting a large heritage building with uneven surfaces in a lighter colour than it currently wears. Be realistic about the difficulty of the job you've chosen. Make sure, too, that you've thought about safety and the environment -- professional painters do, and these very important concerns can add extra steps to the job.
• What else would you be doing? If you'll be taking time off from work, get an accurate idea of the amount of time it'll take you (hint -- it's going to take you longer than it would take a professional) and factor in the cost of your time. If you think you can get it done over a long weekend or in the evenings, think twice. You'll need to prep the surfaces, deal with any issues of mould or blistering, possibly remove old paint, deal with nails that have popped out or any other issues from a settling house, move plants and shrubs out of the way, prime the house -- and that's all before you begin painting. When you consider that you almost certainly won't get the same results that a master painter will, even if you put in all that time, it may not be as cost-effective as you think to paint your own house. 
• Do you have the tools? It may not be as inexpensive as you think, either, even if you decide that your own time has no value that needs to be considered. Do you have the tools you need to remove old paint and preparing the surfaces? Do you have a scaffolding for reaching high places? Do you have the tools you need to paint all the nooks and crannies of the job? You may imagine yourself out there with a roller and a can of paint, but watch a professional painter and you'll see that it isn't quite that simple. Buying all the things you need to do well on just one painting job will increase the cost of your painting considerably.
• How much do you care about results? If you want to slap a coat of paint on the doghouse to brighten it up, the end result doesn't matter that much. The paint on your house affects the value of your property and the way you feel when you come home from work every day.

Before you decide to give it a go, call your local master painters for a quote. Once you find out what you get for your money, you'll find that it's worth the investment. 

When It's All About the View

When you plan your interior decor,you might think about the interior surfaces, then the furnishings, and then the accessories. But what do you do when you're decorating a room with an important view? It's a design element, an ever-changing artwork that affects the look of the room and perhaps dominates the room. You can't leave it out of your calculations.

• Take your colours from your view. In the example above, the exterior painting has to harmonize with the interior, since the building is essentially its own view. Harmony between interior and exterior is always good, but in this case, it's essential. There's also the blue of the pool to take into account. Your view might offer a cityscape, an ocean view, or structures that need to mesh with the colours of your interior. Don't fight them.
• Consider the seasons. If you choose your colours now for the stark bones of a winter landscape, will they work when your view includes a riot of summer flowers? Look back through your old photo albums to identify the changes in the view. 
• Don't let the view do all the work. In the room above, there are plain white shades to cover the picture window. When they're down, it becomes a plain white wall. There's nothing wrong with a white wall, but the room has to be designed to complement that white wall as well as the stunning view. 

 In a complicated case, it's a good idea to call in professionals. If you're in Sydney, call Courtney & Wise.

Why Choose Dulux Accredited Painters.?

Courtney & Wise are Dulux Accredited painters. We have quite a few other accreditations as well, but we're proud of our Dulux Accreditation. In fact, we'd encourage you to choose a Dulux Accredited painter even if you're too far away from Sydney to choose us.

Here's why:

• Dulux Accredited painters are chosen on the basis of workmanship and ethical behavior. There's no guesswork involved when you choose a Dulux Accredited painter; you know they're good.
• All Dulux Accredited painters personally sign a statement agreeing to uphold the professional and ethical standards determined by Dulux, which are stringent. As Master Painters, Courtney & Wise already adhere to high standards, but the Dulux Accreditation guarantees that quality.
• Dulux Accredited painters must have $5,000,000 in public liability insurance. You're protected.
• Dulux Accredited painters are committed to excellence and to reliability. We show up on time, do the work to the highest standard, and respect your home and property.
• Dulux Accredited painters comply with all environmental regulations, including noise and air quality standards. 
• Dulux Accredited painters use environmentally responsible methods of clean up and waste disposal. 
•  Dulux Accredited painters uphold all these standards, year in and year out.
  

When you choose Dulux Accredited painters, you can feel confident.It's that simple.

Choosing Wallpaper

If you're trying to choose wallpaper, then you very likely have already spent hours poring over sample books trying to make up your mind. Bring in other household members and the process can become even more complex.

Here are some suggestions to make it easier:

• Have you fallen in love with a particular paper? Give a sample to your painter and decorator and relax. Don't second-guess yourself and start looking at more choices. That way lies -- if not madness, at least headaches.
• Think about the end result you want. Knowing that you plan to create a light, feminine bedroom or a sleek modern kitchen lets you reduce the choices significantly.
• Consider the uses of the room. Wallpaper for a bathroom has to be able to tolerate damp conditions. Paper for a child's room or a kitchen must be washable. Again, this lets you limit your choices.
• Be aware of the size of the room. Your paper should suit the scale of the room, and of the particular walls you plan to paper. A tiny geometric can get completely lost on a large wall, while a large floral pattern can overwhelm a small room. 
• Bring the sample home and see how it looks with the colours you already have. You can change your soft furnishings and paint, but you might not care to change your furniture or art work.

Courtney & Wise do painting and papering. If you live in Sydney, call us at 9958 1099 to arrange your papering. If you live at a distance from us, bear in mind that having one company hang your wallpaper and another do the painting can require coordination between the two companies. Budget a little extra time for yourself to achieve that coordination.

The Winter Room

When the seasons change outdoors, they ought to change indoors as well. Think about making a few changes to make your rooms feel warmer.

Warm colours up the psychological temperature of a room. Red, yellow, and orange are the warm tones on the colour wheel. Combinations of these colours will make you feel warm and cosy even if it's cold outside.

Light has an effect on how a room looks and feels. Warm, yellow light sources  like natural sunlight, firelight, candles, and soft light bulbs feel warm and inviting. You may not want to open windows to let sunlight in, and you might not even want to build a fire every day. Then just choose warm light bulbs or mass candles to create a light source.

Lamps make pools of light that feel cosier than overhead lighting's glare. Add lamps or change the shades to russet or saffron tones to get a quit shot of warmth in the room.

Texture helps, too. The reflections from metals and the play of light on rough textures can intensify the warmth created by firelight or candlelight.

If it's time to paint or paper the walls, don't hesitate to use a deeper, warmer tone. Changing furnishings in warm weather can make your winter room look summery when the season changes.

Paint and Light

Paint is complicated. Nowadays, the sheer range of pigments and mixing options means that there are myriad choices of colours, or at least of hues and shades of colours. How can you ensure that the colour you love in the showroom will still be a colour you'll love in your home?

We talked before about the wisdom of hiring a colour consultant. If you decide to do it yourself, take some advice from us:

• Don't base your decision on trends. Oh, of course we like to keep up with the latest colours. In fact, we always bring you reports on the new seasonal colours. Often, the new combinations show us colours we hadn't appreciated before, or open our eyes to fresh ways to use our old favourites. The problem is when you choose a colour just because it's trendy -- or just because you love it in your friend's kitchen. Trust us, if you don't have much blue in your closet or cupboards, you might get tired of that cornflower shade quickly on the wall. Look at the colours you have in your wardrobe, the combinations you choose in art work or decorative items, the tones you always reach for when you buy stationery or dishes. Gravitate toward those colours when you consider paint.
• Try the paint out in the room it's intended for. It's not possible to make a good decision from a little splodge of colour on a card. Paint a good-sized swatch of the colour you're thinking of on gthe wall of the room, or on a board you can hang on the wall. Live with it for a while. See how it strikes you at different times of day, when you';re in different moods, and how it looks with your soft furnishings. Is it becoming to the skin tones of your family members?
• Factor in the light. This is one of the most important things. Colour is all about light. The same paint will look different with north light or south light, with morning or evening light, with sunlight or electric light. Check that sample of paint in the thin winter morning light and in the evening's glow from the fireplace. Then you'll be ready to make a decision you can live with -- and choose a colour you can love.

Winter Decorating

It's not as cold as this, but it is winter, and it's time to make the house cosy.

If it's also time to paint, then you might choose warm colors like saffron or terra cotta to warm you. Rich jewel tones like emerald and ruby feel warm, too.

If you still love the clear shade you chose in the summer, though, you can do wonders with small changes:

• Put a fleecy rug on the floor. Sisal or bare hardwood is fine in warm weather, but you'll feel warmer in winter if you can sink your toes into something soft.
• Bring in more soft furnishings. Chenille throws, extra cushions, and heavier draperies at the windows make you feel warmer, too.
• Bring in accent pieces in deeper, richer colours. A ruby vase, a copper bowl, or a bottle green picture frame make a surprising difference. 
• Increase texture. Smooth, slick surfaces can feel cold. Velvet, wool, and rough ceramics will up the cosiness level fast.

A warm cup of green tea or Milo is all it takes to finish the effect!