Showing posts with label furnishings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label furnishings. Show all posts

Monday, 21 September 2009

Sleep deprived? Look at your décor…

Here’s a novel idea; if you can’t sleep and it’s not down to traffic, noise or being tired enough, the missing link in your puzzle could well be your home décor. Sound odd? Read on.

As the most intimate of rooms in the home, the bedroom is a zone of rest and relaxation away from prying eyes and reflective of its occupant’s solace.


Some people manage to keep their bedroom tidy, and others – well, others have rooms that look like a hurricane just hit it. Mine included. With clothes, shoes, coats and bedding strewn around, sometimes the space your possessions occupy detract from the space you require to feel at ease.

It’s a good lesson to learn that just because space is available, it doesn’t mean that you need to fill every last inch of it with home furnishings. You wouldn’t crawl in to a rabbit hutch to sleep so likewise it makes sense to give yourself space within your own room.

If you’re in dire need of decluttering, think about what you want your space to resemble first and then be ruthless. You’ll need to be in the right frame of mind to do this, so chin a couple of coffees if need be, and then get to work.

Anything that’s in the way of clear walking space around static furniture - chuck or move. Throw out anything that you don’t absolutely adore or isn’t a functional necessity – if you won’t really miss it, you don’t need it, at least not in your bedroom.

Give your bedroom the benefit of any natural light coming in to the room and use no-fuss drapes or blinds to help control it. Furnishings should be fairly minimal in a truly relaxed room and built-in furniture can really help in achieving this.

In creating your own sleeping beauty haven, it’s wise to pick your colour schemes carefully. Softer tones will mellow out the space, whites will visually enlarge a small room, and gold can be great for creating warmth as an alternative to red.

Avoiding this tempestuous colour will help maintain your respiratory rate (odd but true) to let you fully relax. All that’s left is to splash around a bit of lavender and you’ll be in the land of nod in no time.

Friday, 18 September 2009

Recession-proofing the home furnishings market

You’d have to be a fool to assume that the recent recession hasn’t had a major impact on the home furnishings and furniture markets, and for retailers to make a come back successfully after the drain on our finances it’s apparent that a “business as usual” attitude will find them quickly sinking instead of swimming afloat.


Looking at the US Department of Commerce’s stats it’s easy to see that recession-scarred customers are withholding approximately 13% of previous years’ home furnishings and furniture retail sales from businesses and keeping the pennies where they’re needed most – in their wallet.

Clearly consumers have altered their financial priorities, a downturn anticipated as far back as the middle of 2007. Strong businesses have stayed the course but it won’t be long before their luck runs out, or rather their financial reserves.

The stats are echoed by revelations that the average amount spent by affluent households on luxury furniture, rugs and other furnishings is down 7.3% from the previous year.

Savvy retailers will recognise that the way to stay afloat in the coming months will be by focusing on the motivating factors for consumers and intelligently strategising their business rather than banking on a new product line to secure their imminent future.

It won’t hurt that Christmas is around the corner, but a key trend will inevitably emerge of “better to do one thing very well than many things badly”, and retailers concentrating on and reinforcing their existing assets should prosper in the face of this economic downturn.

Source
 
The Interior Design Blog - Blogged