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Architecture Design RENO ADDICT

Transform your home with architectural mouldings

Sponsored by Intrim Mouldings

When it comes to redecorating your home, skirting boards, architraves, handrails and the likes don’t get much attention. Let’s be honest, choosing soft furnishings seems a lot more exciting. But the right architectural mouldings can, for a relatively low price, transform your home.

Intrim Mouldings is a leading manufacturer in finely crafted, quality timber mouldings. With options to suit any style or design, you can get trimwork that is quintessential Hamptons to Victorian heritage and everything in-between. They’re particularly ideal if you want to refresh an old home or add some character and period details to a new build.

It truly is bang for your buck. One Intrim customer recently bought a home for $930,000 and spent $4,367 on bespoke timber mouldings (they also repainted the walls and put in a new carpet). Refresh done, and the home was valued at $1.275 million! You can’t argue with that return on investment.

Let’s take a closer look at the design options:

The Hamptons style is defined by casual, relaxed beachside living but done in a classic and very sophisticated way. The look is bright and breezy, featuring high skirting boards with big rounded profile features and beautiful wall wainscoting.

The French Provincial style combines fanciful furnishings with fine linens and gentle tones. Very ornate and decoratively detailed mouldings are showcased around fireplaces, on walls and as beautiful cornice and skirting boards.

The Edwardian/Georgian look is all about coordination! These styles rely on straight lines, symmetry and finesse to achieve a clean look. Skirting boards, chair rails and picture rails are typical of this style with textiles and tapestries hung as features. Timber mouldings are stained or painted in similar tones, and furnishings blend perfectly with the walls.

“More of everything” is the trademark of the Colonial/Victorian era, with homes incorporating various styles ranging from classic facades to extremely ornate and decorative embellishments. Highly detailed dado rails, wall panelling and skirting boards are synonymous with the look.

Interior mouldings in Modern homes often use a minimal shadowline skirting or a smaller profile with sharp, hard lines. Timber trimwork is painted to cover the natural grain or is used as a contrast to more artificial shapes and materials such as concrete.

Once you have picked the look you like, the Intrim Room Styler is your next port of call. Super easy to use, it helps you visualise your chosen mouldings in your home. Simply choose one of the room scenes based on your preferred interior style and quickly find the perfect trimwork to create the exact design you want. You can then request a sample and once you are sure on your decision, the final mouldings will be dispatched within five days from order.

Intrim manufacture in Picton, NSW, and deliver Australia-wide.
For more information.
Categories
Expert Tips

8 tips to uncover your own style and avoid decorating cliches

By Bianca Tzatzagos

Don’t let your home succumb to fashion fads or cliché or mediocrity – make it a space that thrills you to the core. The best part? It’s sure to cost less than you’d think.

Pic source: Hunting for George
Image source: Hunting for George
  1. Reclaim, reuse, repurpose. We’re not just talking about building furniture out of shipping pallets (almost a cliché itself nowadays!) or recycling jars as food storage (the hallmark of every current hipster café). This is about taking a look around your home and reassessing each object for its worth, its appeal, and its function. Maybe you can’t bear to throw away your ancient library bag from primary school – why not hang it from a hook in the kitchen and use it to store the shopping bags? Or what about that soup tureen you received as a wedding gift and never used: why not plant it with succulents or herbs and display it outside? Take simple steps to reimagine the things you already have filling your precious storage space. Bring them new life and in turn they’ll bring new life to your home.
  1. Avoid theme decorating. “French Provincial” is fine if you live in a villa in Provence and have access to scores of genuine antiques. Likewise, an all-out mid-century home is great if you are living in a mod bungalow – in the 1950s! But in any other scenario, it’s definitely best to pick and choose. Life isn’t a theme park, and nor is your home. Most of us have to accept the architectural period of our homes, whether it’s federation style or art deco or contemporary. And while it’s great to embrace those original features, don’t to be too rigid with carrying that theme into your decorating – or you’ll risk tiring of it quicker than you can say “shabby chic”.
  1. Mix it up. See point 2 for why! Don’t just mix decorating eras, but mix vintage and new too. If you only have old things, your place can end up looking like a junk shop (or your grandmother’s house). All new, and it will look like a furniture catalogue. Crucially though, you should only choose pieces that feel right to you. “Eclectic”, after all, has become one of the biggest decorating clichés of all. Don’t choose an ultra-modern chair to pair with your antique desk just because you want a dramatic contrast. Mixing can be as simple as pairing a classic bentwood dining chair with a simple flat-pack desk.
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Image source: Kitsch Please
  1. Be authentic. Learn to listen to your gut (or your heart – whatever’s speaking the loudest). Ask yourself: do I love, love, love this wall art, or am I just excited that it’s trendy, that the colours match my décor, and that I can afford it? Will I love it in 2, 5, 10 years’ time? Is it unique? Does it enrich the story of my home? If not, go to point 5.
  1. When in doubt, under-decorate. Unless you’re competing on a TV show, there’s no need to completely style your home in a single sitting. Take your time to consider purchases, understand the way you live in a space, and recognise those things that really make your spirit sing. Know that there’s nothing wrong with a blank wall for now. (Tip: an oversized arrangement of foliage from the backyard can make a stunning and free placeholder while you search for that perfect piece.)
  1. Always opt for quality. Hand-in-hand with points 4 & 5 goes this mantra: buy less, buy better. Let yourself fall in love with things, then save up for them and buy them once you can afford them. You’ll always love them more than those things you compromised on.
  1. Be realistic about your lifestyle. Decorate for the life you lead, not a magazine photoshoot. Are you a secret “maximalist” trying to live a minimalist lie? If you love your stuff, don’t hide it away, just learn the art of display. Do you dream of owning a chic white suede sofa even though you have four kids and two dogs? (Try slipcovered cotton instead for now.)
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Image source: Leah Bartholomew/Greenhouse Interiors
  1. Never apologise. Tell your story proudly and in your own way. Love your grandmother’s crochet rug? Give it pride of place on the sofa. Can’t afford to replace the 1960s pink tiles in the bathroom right now? Celebrate their retro charm by adding a jug of pink flowers to the windowsill. If you find yourself worrying what other people will think of your decorating, or if you constantly compare your home to your friends’ or family’s places, then you’re doing it wrong. Does your place give you a thrill every time you enter it? Home should make everyone who lives there feel calm, safe, inspired and happy. People who visit should feel welcome. All it takes is a little TLC, and your home will love you right back.

Bianca Tzatzagos is a freelance copywriter and former magazine journalist who works from her Sydney home (which she is endlessly restyling).

Categories
Interiors Addict

Milan Direct moves into French Provincial

It’s not my style but there’s no denying the timeless popularity of French Provincial furniture and it’s certainly a new look for online retailer Milan Direct.

table

The prices, as you’d expect, are very reasonable. This substantial dining table (above), in real oak veneer, is $699 and sits 6 comfortably. You might even be able to get it in time for Christmas Day entertaining, with the first shipment arriving mid next month.