Interior Design, Lounge Curtains, Made-to-measure curtains, Ready Made Curtains, curtains

Living Room Interior Design Ideas: Affordable Contemporary

When we see contemporary interiors online or in glossy magazines they’re typically full of the latest design innovations and high-tech gadgetry, and while many of us would love to live in this style of home few of us do. We live in ‘normal’ homes with average sized rooms rather than extensive open plan living with walls made entirely of glass, floating stairs and remote controlled ‘everything’!

Yet you can still achieve affordable contemporary style simply by scaling the size down a bit (or a lot!) and looking for simplicity in elegant furnishings and furniture. So, we need to ask ourselves what makes these glossy magazines so special? The answer is that they are created by professional interior designers, who have a large budget and a client brief to work by.

Turn this into reality by adopting the styling of the designers on a do-it-yourself basis. Start by making a sketch of your living room marking where the windows and doors are. Simple paper templates of sofas and chairs will enable you to move these around on paper rather than lugging and dragging them into new positions only to find that the door won’t open properly! If you can scale your templates rather than just guessing the nearer to real-time the sketch will be.

Then look at your colour scheme and be guided by the designers. You’ll see that many work on the principles of having a pale base or predominant colour which is highlighted by an accent colour or colours. Use colours that work well together and sit comfortably in each other’s company. Steely blues, white mist and foggy greys are on-trend this colour with tangerine used as an accent.

If your sofa and chairs are the ‘wrong’ colour use throws to cover them, add cushions to bring a variety of textures into the room. Look at your window dressing and way-up all the choices you have. Blinds, curtains or a combo of the two. If you like the idea of having an entire wall made from glass you can work to create the illusion by using lounge curtains which cover the walls as well as the window itself.

Full length curtains are a must to achieve the look. Choose ready made curtains which are an exact fit – meaning that they’re not an inch or two too short or too long – being precise and accurate is what gives your room the ‘wow’ factor. If you can’t find the exact length opt for made to measure curtains or make your own.

Above all keep your living room neat and tidy – have you ever seen a glossy interior design image with a chaotic living room crammed full of bags and piles of freebie newspapers/junk mail? – Well, I certainly haven’t – so be harsh and you’ll reap the benefits.