How to Make Your Home Stylish

Host: A lot of people out there are looking to give their home an affordable facelift but they need a little bit of help so we’ve got renowned decorator and author of Design Rules, Elaine Griffin is here, she’s haring her tricks of the trade for turning your home into a stylish warm and a cosy place for less, right Elaine? Elaine: Absolutely. Host: That’s the big key here, welcome to the show. Elaine: It’s easy and it’s cheap. Host: Wee like that now you’re here to give us practical advice. Let’s talk about when you’re moving into your apartment. A lot of people don’t own a home. When you’re moving in, what are the first things that you should do? Elaine: When you’re moving into a new space, the number one place that you want to get right is your bedroom. You know why? You’re going to do everything-it’s command central. It’s going to be the dining room, you’re going to put your little tray on your bed or just like flat out lie down and eat on it. It’s going to be the one space from which you emanate. So you always want to get your bedroom done first. Host: What about painting though, that’s always a big tough thing because you don’t know what colors are in, what colors are out and a lot of people are just scared to put colors on their walls though so what do you do? Elaine: I understand and actually questions about color are the number one things that decorators get asked. People are colorphobic. Here’s what you do. Number one, think about what colors you wear. This beige is a great looking color on you. You look great. Host: You know what, the interior of some of our walls is this color. That’s relaxing to me. Elaine: That’s the rule, look in your closet first. What are the colors you feel comfortable with. Number two, look at your friend’s homes. What are the colors that you like where you go? Pay attention to color every time you leave the house. You’ll get used to it. The trick, the rule here, because my book Design Rules is all about the practical rules any tips of the trade that professionals learn on the job and in design school, if a color combination exists in nature and a fruit, a flower or a landscape, it will work in your house. If I say a beach landscape, you know the colors immediately. Host: And it relaxes you and kind of calms you down too. What about positioning though. There’s always these questions. The chandelier above the table, how far above the table should the chandelier hang? Elaine: As a rule, but there are exceptions to every rule. For example, if you’re Wilt Chamberlain, you’re probably not going to have one but as a rule between 30 to 36 inches from the table to the bottom of the chandelier. Host: Which really isn’t that much. Elaine: You want to be able to clear your head, the tallest person in the family should definitely be able to clear his head. Host: My husband is pretty tall so that chandelier will be in the alley. Elaine: Then he just has to bend down and be careful. Also let your ceiling height be a judge to help you with that. If you have a 8 foot ceiling, you want to hang it maybe just a little bit higher than if you have a 9 foot ceiling or more. Host: The curtain though, now we’re seeing in all these photos that the curtains start at the very top of the ceiling then go all the way down, how high should they be hung in that house? Elaine: That’s the right thing. That’s good, because you know what, the problem starts when people hang them right at the window. You see them hung on the window trim, wrong. No, that’s definitely down. You always want to hang the curtains as close to the ceiling as you possibly can because that’s going to, it’s like a supermodel, put it on high heels. Elongate. Host: We have less than minute left but I have to ask you about the area rug, when you put the area rug down, how much more room, how much more floor should be left around the rug? Elaine: Number one, you don’t want a tiny area rug because sometimes you see little shrunken rugs. That’s too small, that’s a mistake, you want all of the furniture in your seating group to sit on the rug. Maybe you can have a couple of legs here, the back legs of the sofa or a couple of like legs of the chair but as a rule, you really want all of your furniture to be on an area rug. They’re doing a room size area rug, you want to leave about 7 to 12 inches approximately of the floor clear all the way around. Host: You know your stuff, I don’t want to mess around with you. I’m going to make sure I follow all your rules, let us know if we didn’t. Thank you so much Elaine good to have you here. And if you guys want to get other great DIY do it yourself decorating tips and advice you can pick up a copy of Elaine’s book, it’s called Design Rules and it’s out now.