Secret Squirrel Design Tips

I so hope that May was kind to you and life is peachy? June in Australia is traditionally a time whereby we’re indoors more.. Escaping the wet wild and woolly days that do remind us that we do in fact experience some cold in this wonderful country of ours.

So, if you’re hibernating in your space and thinking of tackling some DIY design/ decoration/styling at home, below are some sexy tips that may help you avoid making tragic and expensive mistakes!

Dont let this be you after making serious DIY design gafs.

1. 60/30/10 rule

This one is an oldie but a goody. With this clever rule you really shouldn’t go wrong.. fingers crossed! 60% of the scheme should be the dominant colour . Generally it’s the wall colour or wallpaper or significant hero pieces say a sofa. Say the dominant colour is White.

The 30% percentage will be your secondary colour, that works like a treat with the dominant colour. Say this colour is black .. this could be picture frames your accent chairs , cushions ..

And 10% will be your accent colour. This one can be the fun one! And this one can be say .. Brass .. vases the legs to your accent chairs..

This is a simple and effective rule so you won’t make any big nasty boo boos, keep your marriage and not send you broke.

 

2. Go big or go home

This one can be open to misinterpretation.. so let me make this clear for you?
You will most definitely create a more magazine worthy space if you use items with not only a good scale, but items that are larger rather than smaller.

Generous proportions make for pleasing visuals. Small items peppered around willy nilly, NEVER LOOK GOOD. I always use this example re so many design themes. So pardon me if you’ve heard me utter this before.

Have you noticed that rooms full of piddly little items never make it to the cover of BELLE or VOGUE or HOME BEAUTIFUL? Rooms full of piddly little items never even make it to the middle or the back of any decent magazine.

You know why? Cos, piddly cluttered rooms look naf.

Multiple small items, confuse the eye, they overwhelm people, and create anxiety.

So the solution is invest in beautifully curated, larger pieces that mean something to you. They don’t have to cost a king’s ransom.

Look for accessories that relate to the scale of your existing pieces and the ceiling heights.. . If you have eclectic tastes, even better! Try to stay in the same realm? You can most certainly mix colours even with the 60/30/10 rule.. the 10% part can be a mix of a couple of colours.

The “Go Big or Go Home” idiom also relates to rugs, sofas, coffee tables.. Its always better to go a little over sized than undersized.

Rugs, that are too small for the space look horrendous! The onlooker will see the space as mean, and also you!

Generously proportioned interiors are positive! Make you look like the generous awesome human that you are! Or would like to be!

 

3. Styling in odd numbers ..

When styling your space.. even numbers look OK. Where as odd numbers look “kick ass”

There are few occasions whereby I’ve spied a stunning “even numbered” styling vignette. [ Don’t you love that word “vignette”?]
They are, as mentioned before. OK. But not interesting. And don’t we all want to be interesting?

Styling in 3’s – 5’s – 7’s – 9’s .. [you get where I’m going] creates enormous interest and complexity. Then the other tip is DON’T STYLE IN A LINE. Lining up items of different sizes looks terrible. See below mantle aberration. EEK.

Better to use less or style in a triangular fashion ..

I so hope that this will help you with your DIY designs! So go forward and style with abandon