Christmas Countdown: Is Your Home Ready for The Holidays?
It’s official, December is here, and now the Christmas countdown can really begin! While Christmas is still a few weeks away, you can guarantee they’ll fly by in a haze of present buying and festive dinners and parties. If you’re hosting Christmas this year or plan on having some visitors, you’ll want to make sure that your home is ready in plenty of time. Ready to tackle that Christmas countdown to do list? Here are some handy tips on getting your home ready for Christmas. Clear the cupboards Cooking and preparing food over Christmas is stressful enough in itself, without…
A Perfect Poolside and How To Get It
What is your idea of the perfect poolside? The weather? The company? The drinks? Depending on your mood, budget, and garden there are some different ways to ensure you have the perfect poolside you crave. The Ancient Romans got it right, and in some places like Marrakesh, it’s still used as an iconic and necessary part of daily life. It’s a pool of glorious cool blue water in an outdoor space. It’s the perfect poolside around which to entertain and in which to cool off. In fact, this is a simple design that you can use for a relaxed outdoor…
Stylish Outdoor Overhaul… It’s Easy
Stylish outdoor living spaces are an extension of our home environment. They provide a unique place for entertaining, exercising, relaxing or dining…the only limit is your imagination. Sometimes it feels more natural to rise to the challenge of sprucing up an indoor space, where limits stop at the four walls around you. It’s easy to spend time perfecting your interior. But then spring hits and you realise you now want a stylish outdoor area in which to spend the summer. With something as unique and full of potential as your own home’s outdoor space, knowing where to start can be…
Common Wall Art Mistakes & How To Avoid Them
Wall art mistakes are often made innocently enough. I mean, you just hang a picture right? Well, there’s the right way… and the wrong way. If you want ‘home beautiful’ then you need five wall art tips. The necessity of wall art for good interior design is absolute but many people still make simple wall art mistakes. Without some form of artwork, a room will look bare and minimal – and not in the tasteful, Scandi-style way. It’ll be more like the “bare, unfinished, and neglected” style, which it’s fair to say is one that few of us wish to…
Relaxing Style for Your Coziest Home Retreat Ever
Relaxing style isn’t when you don’t to do the dishes for five days and leave the vacuming for yet another weekend. That’s HARDLY relaxing. For many of us, there’s no place like home after a hard day at work. So you need relaxing style to fully enjoy the end of the day. There’s nothing more appealing than pulling up in the driveway, walking through the front door, and kicking off Your shoes at the end of a long day. If you love nothing more than chilling out at home, and you’d love to create a relaxing retreat, here are some…
25 Luxury Living Interior Design Tips
Luxury living interior design can be achieved on a budget… and not a big one. As a seasoned interior decorator, I’m going to share 25 of my top ideas for creating your own slice of heaven at home. If you’re on this website you’re probably as obsessed with architecture and interior design as I am. Excellent! Isn’t it a wonderful hobby or career? Or both? Whilst there are LOADS of expert tips, many of which appear on the pages of this blog, these are some of my favorite go-to solutions. Of course, I strive to be an interior decorator for…
Style Sense : How To Use Your Senses To Create Style
Style sense can be intrinsic and it can certainly be learned. If you want to live with beautiful interiors then use your senses to create personalized decor. Some decor styles are incredibly unappealing. Often it’s the visual elements that don’t seem to ‘work’ or a room gives off a ‘vibe’ that’s not cohesive. If your decor makes you feel uneasy, and you can’t identify why then try these tips to tap into your intrinsic senses. Style Sense: Sight Is your decor too busy? Are there too many colours, patterns, or furniture? Sensory overload will make you feel tired and disoriented….
Stylish TV Storage: When Practicality Meets Aesthetics
Stylish TV storage is a modern issue as televisions become bigger, albeit thinner, and homes become more open plan. If you’ve ever wondered how to stylishly display or hide your TV these three chic ideas will inspire you. When it comes to interior design, we all have a tendency to focus on the big picture. We want to step back into a room and be delighted with what we see. If we have a love of all things modern, then we want to see sharp lines and glossy services. If it’s rustic that makes us smile, then bare wood and…
Minimalist Home Design: How to Get It Right
Minimalist home design isn’t simply sleek, stylish and Scandinavian. It’s a design mindset that can change the way that you live your life. Having a minimal home will definitely help you to be more organized and less stressed. Why? Because this design style enables you to get rid of the clutter that takes up space in your home and occupies your mind. You’ll have more space for the things that matter and your home will look bigger too. If you want to embark on some minimalist home design, you can change your entire property into something sleek and new. Make…
The Perfect Pantry with Expert Storage Tips
A perfect pantry may seem like a dream to you; but not anymore. Whilst traditional options are often the best, storage must work in order to be effective. These expert storage tips for the perfect pantry will help you to organise shelves and pantries like a pro. Consider carefully your kitchen storage options and space otherwise you’ll have tons of space but no jars or crockery that fits anywhere. So before you rearrange cupboards, decide what you want to keep in the kitchen and what can be thrown out or stored elsewhere. You probably know from experience that the hallmark…
Beaumont Tiles: Expert Tips for Tiling Your Way To A Colourful Home
Beaumont Tiles has 112 outlets across Australia making it our biggest retailer of tiles. So when it comes to redecorating and home renovation you know they have the expertise to help you. When it comes to thinking about decor colour most people may immediately think of paint. Whilst paint is a great way to freshen decor and create unique spaces, tiles can also provide great options for adding colour. Many home decorators shy away from colour instead opting for something safe… and white. Yes, colour options can be overwhelming but with some expert help you can add colour in perfect…
Fun Quirky Kids Bedrooms And The 7 Ways To Create Them
Fun quirky kids bedrooms help develop the creativity and curiosity of children. These days there is no end to the cool, quirky and fun style parents can inject into their kids’ rooms. It doesn’t matter if you are a designer, a DIY aficionado, or even an absolute beginner. If you want to add magic to the spaces of your little ones then these expert tips and hot trends are sure to inspire.To stay on-trend with fun quirky kids bedrooms, Director of Vault Interiors Justine Wilson shares her easy tips. Fun Quirky Kids Bedrooms 1. Neon Colour Pops – who doesn’t…
Three Color Rules, And How To Break Them
Color rules are made to be broken, right? Now, I’m the first to acknowledge that some color rules are there for a very good reason; don’t mess with them. However, the use of color in your interior spaces is a highly personal choice. For some, the idea of a bright purple room sounds like a horror show. For others, they have no particular opinion on it – purple’s a nice enough color, so why not? The latter category is as determined as the first, but in the opposite direction: a bright purple room? Rules are made to be broken so here’s three to add to your list.
Positively Glowing : How To Keep Yourself in Top Condition
People who are positively glowing exude strength, confidence playfulness, and a harmony with life. You probably know people like this. But how do they get that way? You know when you are on a plane and the flight attendant says “When the oxygen mask is released ensure your own mask is secure before helping others”? Well, that’s an adage for life. Unless you are OK and healthy you can’t help others. And that’s the same for every adult and every parent. You can’t effectively care for your children if you aren’t positively glowing. So what can you do?
How To Get A Chic and Relaxed Living Room
Your home is your sanctuary, your nest, your personal environment. A relaxed living room enables you to chill out, entertain, and re-energise. Given our love of open-plan homes, living rooms are more on display than ever. If you have a formal living area, you’ll also likely have a relaxed living room where the family gathers. So how can you make it chic while also serving all members of the family? Your relaxed living room can still be stylish – modern, eclectic, retro, country style, colourful, monochromatic. It has to ‘work’ with adjacent spaces but can be a delineated zone. Ultimately…
Hi, I’m Penelope Herbert, Interior Designer and Blogger. Welcome to Don’t Call Me Penny.
