Instant home makeovers How to up the glamour by Nicky Haslam - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Interiors Instant home makeovers How to up the glamour by Nicky Haslam By You Magazine - February 21, 2021 Nicky Haslam, interiors designer to the stars, brings you a luxury makeover without breaking the bank. Zsuzsa Furka 1. Take it higher Consider giving the sitting room ceiling a slosh of semi-gloss mid-blue paint. Strangely this creates an impression of added height, as well as space in the pools of reflected lamplight. 2. Viva vivid An 18th-century maxim in decoration was une touche de rose – a touch of dark pink. It was said to make all the other colours sing, but these days one can just as easily use red. Pillar-box red, not dreary claret. Try a crimson cushion or a lacquer tray. You’ll practically hear all the other colours singing. 3. Fake flowers? Fine! I have to admit to a LOVE of well-made fake flowers. Big-leaved indoor trees such as Ficus lyrata look great under an uplighter lamp. Design by Nicky Haslam and Studio QD [email protected]. Photographer: Georgina Viney. 4. Pile on the style I firmly believe that a white shaggy rug – a flokati, maybe, from rughouse.co.uk, and the bigger the better – adds a sense of glamour and luxury to any room. 5. Don’t be afraid to upscale Large objects, rather than ditsy little pieces, make even the smallest space seem bigger and more interesting. Books, as we are told, do furnish a room, but not just in bookcases; several lying casually around on any flat surface give animation to the mind as well as the eye. 6. Hello, happy hour! In my youth, most homes had a grog tray of welcoming bottles of booze in an obvious place. Some glasses, an ice bucket and a lemon or two hint at G&Ts in the offing. Hilton Carter/CICO Books, taken from Wild Creations (£20) 7. The bigger picture If you haven’t already taken up painting yourself, why not splash out on somebody else’s creation? I say splash, but there are myriad young artists these days who work in every style, and often they’re surprisingly cheap. Try art fairs for a vast selection. Simon Upton/The Interior Archive 8. Add a touch of luxe Almost any bit of dull wooden furniture looks better painted blanc cassé, a fancy name for ‘broken’ white… a good acrylic white emulsion with a tiny bit of black and dark brown stain stirred into it. Table designed by Studio QD [email protected]. Photographer: Georgina Viney 9. Wake up your walls For the walls, try rehanging anything on them: pictures, posters, photographs, whatever, in massed groups (with the larger ones above the small) in the best vantage spot. It will make the room seem bigger. Simon Upton / The Interior Archive 10. A shift in focus Turn on all the lights and, from a good vantage point, look carefully at the room through half-closed eyes. It will reveal any areas that require attention; too much stuff in one place, or where colour or pattern is needed. Andrew Crowley/Camera Press Shop the look Add a touch of class by channelling Nicky’s high-end polish. Cushion, £120, libertylondon.com Pendant light, £79, swooneditions.com Stool, £175, oka.com Rug, £359, furniturevillage.co.uk Armchair, £349, made.com Antique gold mirror, £450, oka.com Velvet cushion, £148, libertylondon.com Bottles, £449 for four, amara.com RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR Aldi s pumpkin-shaped casserole dish is all we want for Halloween 7 of the best money-saving kitchen gadgets to invest in this winter Aldi has restocked miniature velvet chairs and sofas for your dog DON' T MISS Fiona Bruce Sometimes I struggle not to cry November 14, 2021 17 beautiful 2021 diaries to help you to look forward to December 4, 2020 Why women leave men for women What’ s fuelling the rise of April 28, 2019 Hollywood veteran Laura Linney on plastic surgery friendship and her stellar July 3, 2017 You can shop the khaki jumpsuit from Holly Willoughby’ s new M& S July 17, 2019 The secrets and lies behind this happy family photo April 11, 2021 It’ s cocktail hour Olly Smith’ s cocktail recipes and Eleanor Maidment s canapé November 14, 2021 BBC One has revealed its Christmas TV schedule and there’ s lots December 2, 2020 YOU Beauty Box August Reviews August 1, 2017 Rome has been named the cheapest major city to visit in August 7, 2019 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. 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