With a New Year just around the corner, what better time to consider updating your home decor?! Interior design and home trends change through the years, just like fashion styles. While there isn't anything wrong with updating your home on a regular basis, I'd recommend creating an interior design theme that you love. Once you have the foundations, you can update it simply and cheaply with smaller, inexpensive furnishings. Use these 10 top interior design tips to transform your home into a happy, positive space that you'll be pleased to call your own!

1. Start with an idea in mind. Before you jump into decorating or redecorating your home, think about the kind of look you want to achieve. Neutral? Earthy? Bold? Bright? Monochrome? It's easy to get overexcited adding and buying home accessories that in the end you don't need. So it's best to have a set idea in mind first so that you don't confuse and overwhelm the end result. Consider creating a mood board to track your vision.
2. White walls are always a good idea! White is a popular neutral colour and it is a fantastic wall colour option! Plain white walls and furniture have been in trend in the interior design world in recent years and it's not difficult to understand why. White rarely goes out of fashion and it makes updating your home easy and affordable. Instead of having to update large items of furniture and be forever re-painting your walls, all you will need to do is update soft furnishings like curtains, upholsteries and cushions.
3. Make use of social media for interior design inspiration. I loved using Pinterest for my last interior design project! Pinterest gave me tonnes of inspiration for creative storage options and other functional furniture ideas.
4. In small spaces don't over clutter every wall of the room. This will only make the space feel smaller and more untidy. Instead, try to make sure that you leave at least one wall of a small room free of patterns, pictures, and furniture. This will give the illusion of more space.
5. Get creative with your wardrobe and storage space. Freestanding wardrobes and cupboards are great, but creating your own storage solutions will cater much more to your needs. You could try building your own or if not, why not hire a professional who can talk through your ideas and needs with you in order to create something custom-made.
6. Consider an aluminium lantern roof to allow extra light and heat to fill your home. Bad lighting issues are no joke. On the trivial side, you might end up leaving the house with a little too much makeup on. On the other hand, you may notice increased electricity bills due to having the heating and lights on for longer periods. An aluminium lantern roof opens up your room(s) to evenly distributed lighting, meaning there's possibly no need for curtains or blinds and you can enjoy gazing up at the starry night sky.
7. Plants! Real plants have not only been a well loved home trend over these last few years, they also help to eliminate odours in your living space and keep your air fresh and healthy!
8. Go bold with your backsplash! The choice of kitchen backsplash is huge! There are so many interesting backsplash designs to brighten up your kitchen environment. Personally, I love the faux brick wall look - but bold patterns also look amazing!
9. To wallpaper or not? Wallpaper is one of those things that most love or hate. Wallpaper is an interior design trend that has came back into fashion. Think carefully before you wallpaper because you do risk marking your walls permanently and removing the stuff can be a nightmare. You don't wallpaper every wall though, one statement wall might be all you want.
10. Another great use for wallpaper is using it to cover the backs of visible cupboards and units. Chest of drawers and tall cupboard units work well as room dividers, but the backs of them do tend to look ugly. To solve this issue, wallpaper the back boards of the units with a wallpaper design of your choice to fake the illusion of a wall or proper room divider.

I hope you enjoyed these tips. And just one last reminder to research and plan out your ideas before rushing into anything and later regretting it! Have fun!

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#AD - this post was sponsored by Three Counties but all information and opinions are my own. 

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