Let us re­solve to con­vert our spaces to well-dressed rooms. We look around and recog­nise that some rooms are bet­ter dressed than oth­ers and all around we see so many op­por­tu­ni­ties for im­prove­ment. For 2013 let us have the in­te­ri­or dec­o­rat­ing re­solve, in no par­tic­u­lar or­der, to:

1. Purge and ed­it clut­ter and tired decor items.

Be­fore you can move for­ward you have to agree to let go of items that add noth­ing to the func­tion­al and dec­o­ra­tive as­pects of the room. Be­lieve me; you do not need all the stuff you think you do. I am sure you may love every piece... or do you? Then ed­it the fur­ni­ture in the room. If you hold large par­ties, do not try to have seat­ing for all guests every day. In­stead have enough your every­day needs and use mul­ti­pur­pose fur­ni­ture to re­duce the num­ber of pieces in the room. For in­stance, an ot­toman can be used for stor­age, a footrest, for a cof­fee or end ta­ble. En­sure that each item earns its keep. Sen­ti­men­tal val­ue is valid; dec­o­ra­tive eq­ui­ty is valid but func­tion­al val­ue is pre­mi­um. If you have mul­ti­ple items, keep the most valu­able and most suit­able pieces.

2. De­fine and es­tab­lish your dec­o­rat­ing style.

Dec­o­rat­ing that is a to­tal mis­match with your style, lifestyle and per­son­al­i­ty is soul­less. Your space looks like it came out of a mag­a­zine, but you have no con­nec­tion with it. It does not speak to you or speak of you. I love con­tem­po­rary, com­fort­able mod­ern or tran­si­tion­al. No gath­ered frothy frills, bas­kets of flow­ers or ce­ram­ic roost­ers. Don't dec­o­rate to please your dec­o­ra­tor or the neigh­bour. Do not be swayed by trends. Your spaces should be func­tion­al and in keep­ing with your vibe.

3. Com­mit to Colour.

Even a neu­tral palette can have colour. Every­thing does not have to be beige or grey. Not every­one can live with vi­brant colour. But most of us wear colour and most can find colours that they feel com­fort­able with. Your ex­pe­ri­ences, your cul­tur­al in­flu­ences, fash­ion in­flu­ences and trends are amongst some of the fac­tors that im­pact on your re­sponse to colour. Peo­ple, there­fore re­act dif­fer­ent­ly to colour. So it is risky to have some­one sin­gle­hand­ed­ly se­lect colours for spaces that mat­ter to you. While you can have guid­ance from fam­i­ly and friends, books and from colour ex­perts, even though colour is per­fect­ly co­or­di­nat­ed, if it doesn't speak pos­i­tive­ly to you, the colour scheme will be un­set­tling. It is es­sen­tial that you get in­volved and tune in to your re­sponse to colour.

4. Be Re­spon­si­ble.

Make a com­mit­ment to liv­ing with as lit­tle as pos­si­ble im­pact on the earth with an en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious lifestyle and us­ing sus­tain­able prod­ucts. Re­fin­ish and pre­serve your fur­ni­ture rather than re­plac­ing them and use the small­est space that is prac­ti­cal for your lifestyle. Vin­tage is in. Us­ing sec­ond-hand fur­ni­ture is not on­ly trendy and af­ford­able, but al­so sus­tain­able. Man­u­fac­tur­ers are re­spond­ing with prod­ucts such as tile and coun­ter­tops out of re­cy­cled glass, for in­stance. These prod­ucts are beau­ti­ful and will not sab­o­tage great de­sign. Sal­vaged wood can be re­pur­posed for fur­ni­ture, floor­ing and cab­i­nets. It is full of char­ac­ter and his­to­ry and is a very sus­tain­able op­tion. Build durable items. Dura­bil­i­ty is es­sen­tial for re­cy­cling, re­pur­pos­ing and reusing; it can't do that if it does not hold up to use and time.

5. Do some­thing Won­der­ful for your win­dows.

Treat your win­dows to cus­tom win­dow treat­ments. Your cus­tom win­dow treat­ment will be per­son­al­ized to your win­dow and your space. For chal­leng­ing win­dows such as bays, arch­es, 2-sto­ry, etc, cus­tom treat­ments give you an op­por­tu­ni­ty to get the style you want, the colour you want, and in the fab­ric you want. Your win­dow treat­ment spe­cial­ist will work with you to cre­ate that co­he­sive and strik­ing out­come; max­imis­ing the bang for your hard earned dol­lars.

6. Be Pa­tient.

Hur­ry­ing to try to fin­ish your dec­o­rat­ing project is of­ten at the root of some of the biggest mis­takes. Some­times you set­tle for things you do not like or ab­solute­ly hate just so that you can com­plete the project. Big mis­take. You run the risk of hav­ing the room look like it fell off a cat­a­logue page or look­ing like a vi­gnette on a show­room floor. In fact, mak­ing de­sign de­ci­sions in a rush can be very dis­as­trous. Don't rush the per­fect item is out there. You of­ten need to pause to see it.

7. Have Fun.

Dec­o­rat­ing should not be stress­ful. Be True To Self and you will be de­light­ed with the out­come. For 2013 re­solve to have the best dressed rooms!

Phone 868-678-3414

Email be­yond­drap­ery@tstt.net.tt

Web­site www.be­yond­drap­ery.com

Blog www.be­yond­drap­ery.com/blog/

Face­book www.face­book.com/Be­yond­Drap­eryLim­it­ed