You don’t have to be a qualified interior decorator to achieve exceptional results in your home. Sometimes all you need is some inspiration, a dash of imagination and some simple know-how.

We’ve shared our 10 top interior decoration tips below. They’re a great starting point if you’re at a loss for what to do. Great Interior decoration doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes experience, creativity and skill to get it right. Hopefully the interior decoration tips below will help you to take a short cut to great results.

10 Interior Decoration Tips

1. Ensure that you visualise and plan your intended look before you implement it. We strongly advise against getting started without a plan and without laying it out to ensure it fits the space perfectly.
2. Start with the mood you want to achieve. Do you want the space to be light and bright? Colourful and playful; dark or cosy, calm or vibrant? You can then decide on the colour palette and levels of lighting necessary.
3. When choosing a rug, ensure it’s large enough to have at least the front feet of your sofa sits on it or it will look too small.
4. Establish a focal point for the room. Focus on that area. What is the purpose of the space? Is it formal? Cosy? Welcoming? Relaxing? Think about how you want to feel in the space and use materials and colours accordingly.
5. Uncomfortable furniture should be occasional only. Test out the key pieces before buying. We advise you consider reupholstering anything that you love but has lost its spring.
6. Lighting makes a huge difference. Ensure your scheme includes lots of table lights, floor lights and wall lights where possible. The strength and colour of bulbs makes a difference, so stick to soft, warm glows where possible. Upgrade and accessorise lighting with new fabric lampshades in bold colours and patterns.
7. Mood shifts between rooms or zones can be dramatic. If you live in an open plan space ensure you have a cosy area for watching TV, reading or hanging out with friends and family. Keep bedrooms calm and serene with the exception of kids’ rooms which can have bright pops of colour that you may not want in the grown-up spaces.
8. Dark colours absorb light, light colours bounce light around. If a room is full of windows keep the whites soft so there isn’t too much glare. Dark floors with bright ceilings give a sense of height in a room. Gloss paint should really be kept externally for windows and doors, however, if you want to really bounce light around you can use a gloss inside but be warned that it will show every single blemish in your plasterwork so is best used only on newly plastered walls, unless you want to embrace the imperfections of your home.
9. If you want to use bold wallpaper, the best room to hang it in is almost always the smallest, such as the guest WC. The pattern is contained and it is also a fun conversation point for visitors.
10. Consider patterns and colours as part of an overall picture. Don’t be scared to mix your patterns together but make sure they work in harmony with a central theme.

Now that you’ve read our top 10 interior decoration tips, do you have any of your own that you’d like to share? Use the comment section below, or better still, drop us an email, nicky@violetandgeorge.com, call 020 8969 0654, or call in.

Violet & George, 57 St Helen’s Gardens, North Kensington, London W10 6LN. You can also book a confidential interior decoration consultation with us using any of the above contacts.