Tips

If you are stuck with colour combinations, a good rule is usually to try and create some sort of balance. Nature is really good for examples of this- witness the warm and cool shades in the bird of paradise flower. My real-life example is: In my living room, I am incorporating saffron orange and cream into the choices for cushions and rug next to my slate blue/ navy couch. I was really stuck by the navy for a while, but saw how the orange and cream really create a balance to the couch's dark, intense tone. The example of this is shown in my 3D room, "My Living Room."

If you're planning a new room design, the easiest way to create a scheme is by making a mood board. Tear out pictures from magazines, pick up colour cards from diy shops & order fabric samples, cut out furniture you like from catalogues/magazines. Even if you're not sure what you want or like, you will soon see a theme appearing with your collection! Once you have fixed on a design scheme, you can take this with you shopping, to avoid buying things that don't blend in with your design. Also, of course, you can "try before you buy" by creating your room in the mydeco 3d room planner! Zoe.x

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If you have or would like to create an interior on the 'Plan Your Room' function, its important to get the right camera angle to show off your hard work to its full potential. If you have designed your room with a certain feature (like a fireplace, or elaborate piece of furniture, etc) which brings the room together, the camera angle should be altered to accomadate it. I like to change the camera angle to around 'eye height' to get a real sense that you are within the space. For new members: The camera angle is easliy altered on the right hand side of the screen, by dragging the camera up and down, or rotating it in the direction you would like it to go.

I'm in the process of setting up a home office & the only available space not spoken for, is a corner in my bedroom. So I decided to use my favorite, well worn, distressed console table, as a desk. It looked terrible in that corner, it had to much visual weight, some may say Im crazy to cover up, a naturally distressed piece, but I was determined to remedy this visual weight problem. I mirrored all the flat surfaces with acrylic mirror, a bit more expensive than glass mirror, but safer, lighter & easier to work with. Then all the curved and carved parts were painted with silver leaf paint, I wanted to use real silver leaf, but couldn't find any. This turned out to be a lot easier, because I never attempted silver leafing before. I am extremely pleased with the final result, it looks awesome. I later had a piece of glass cut with an extra 3"s on all sides, which gave me a larger work surface, which also protects the mirror from being scratched. The result is a visually light feeling, more »

If your a design pro or not, don't overthink, just let go and have fun, this site allows us to play, if you don't like what you created, you can always go back to it later and edit or redo what you don't like. I usually start by creating a fictional client,a room for sisters their parents are well off, or a restaurant to accomodate 30 clients, they have a small budget. hopefuly soon, I will have a few real ones to design for, lol. Start by choosing a room shape, add in a favorite furniture piece, this will help you in seeing & understanding the scale and how they relate to one another. Change and play making your room larger or smaller, then start buiding . Add the door or doors, the windows, choose the color of the window & door frames, you can do it at this stage, or later on in the process. Add as many windows as you want, just click and drag as many as you want, on one, or on all walls. There's an option that allows you to view your room , in plan view or side view, clicking on more »

To make a house a home, comfort must come first. Well organized cupboards, storage, lighting, comfy beds, sofas, chairs, a well equipped kitchen, plenty of hot water and heating. A house must flow and be convivial. A way of ensuring this is the follow through of colour. Always think of the domino effect in a house i.e. how colours work from one room to another.

To instantly updating a room, highlight cornices, skirting and dados with a different paint colour to the walls. Add a new rug and cushions.