Style is something we unconsciously deal with on a daily basis whether it is the perfect hairstyle or manner of dress for the day. Do you wear the Italian leather shoes or is the occasion less formal and require pumps. You fuss over the tie to make sure the colors and patterns are correct and accentuate the suit. We make these decisions in all aspects of life including the home or office.

In the home you surround yourself with what is comfortable for you and your family. It could be that you design it to be the perfect cozy retreat to come home to at the end of the day in which case you’ll want to choose prints that reflect that. You may want to design a modern bold look in the home in where you may want to consider gold or silver metal frames for your prints. The style of the frame and print and colors you choose contribute a great deal to the overall look. It can be the focal point or an accent piece. Mom and dad may want a soothing print in their room while teenager Joe who may be into sports may want sports posters in his room. Little girl Mary may want princes posters because that is what she is into and makes her comfortable and happy.

The office is an ideal place to have motivational poster for several reasons:

1) It can motivate the staff and executives and anything that can motivate someone is doing a great service to them. It is a constant reminder of what you can achieve or a common sense phrase that sticks with you to help you along in possibly all areas of your life.

2) It enhances the overall look of the office and puts aesthetics where there may have been just bare walls before.

3) It demonstrates that the company cares about the people who make it possible for an income to be made by all. Employees who feel that they are appreciated will work harder and therefore produce more income. This also generates less stress for a better working environment. Happy employees will make a happy employer.

We live in a hectic, fast pace world and a few great stylish posters or prints in our lives are a reminder of what is and can be.

Enjoy!

Willie Jones is a freelance writer, researcher, floral designer, and artist, for Art Inspires, Inc. Make sure you enroll in the free motivational poster drawing at http://www.artinspires.com

Many people love the look and feel of down comforters, but can’t afford the high price tag. Luxury down comforters can cost in excess of $5000, more than some people’s cars. Luckily, discount down comforters are available.

The Internet is an excellent resource in finding cheap down comforters. Overstock, for example, offers other store’s leftover inventory at reduced prices. Though their product selection is ever changing, it is well worth it to visit the site periodically and search for down comforters. When they do offer the comforters, it is at a deep discount. At the time of this writing, they were offering a Queen sized 600-thread count white goose down comforter for $129.

Outdoor Adventures offers goose down comforters at a discount over retail prices. Their products range from ultra-lightweight to heavyweight. At the time of this writing, their prices ranged from $139 for a King-sized, 525-fill power European down comforter, to $799 for a King-sized, 800-fill power Canadian white goose down comforter with a silk cover.

Still another option for discount down comforters is Bedding Factory Outlet. They offer down comforters at a price up to 70-percent less than retail. At the time of this writing, their prices ranged from $59 for a King-sized “Everyday” comforter, to $99 for a King sized “Superior” comforter.

When buying discount down comforters, you will want to check the fill power. This number corresponds to the comforter’s fluffiness, the higher the rating the better. A fill power rating of 800 is the most luxurious, and will generally have a price tag to match. Generally, you will want to buy the highest fill power you can afford, but anything over 550 is considered good.

When buying a discount down comforter, the cover material is less important. This is because down comforters should be covered with a duvet. It is better to buy a cheaper cover material with higher fill to better serve you in the long run.

Down Comforters Info provides detailed information about various types of down comforters, including goose, luxury, down alternative, and discount down comforters, as well as down comforter covers, and instructions on washing down comforters. Down Comforters Info is the sister site of Waterbed Sheets Web.

Selecting art for your home can be an exciting adventure and a source of enjoyment for years to come. Keys to success are figuring out what kind of art you like, how it will fit in with the rest of your interior design plans, and how to exhibit the art to the best effect in your home.

What kind of art do you like?

There are many opportunities to browse art within your community at local exhibitions, art fairs and galleries. Even small towns usually have a not-for-profit gallery space, or cafés and restaurant that exhibit local artists. In larger cities, galleries often get together for monthly or periodic “gallery nights” where all the galleries hold open house receptions on the same evening. It’s a great way to see a lot of art in a short time.

Today the internet provides the largest variety and depth of fine art available worldwide. You can visit museum websites and see master works from ages past, check out online galleries for group shows, and visit hundreds of individual artists’ websites. One advantage of using the internet is that you can search for the specific kind of art you are interested in, whether it’s photography, impressionism, bronze sculpture, or abstract painting. And when you find one art site, you’ll usually find links to many, many more.

Should the art fit the room or the room fit the art?

If you feel strongly about a particular work of art, you should buy the art you love and then find a place to put it. But you may find that when you get the art home and place it on a wall or pedestal, it doesn’t work with its surroundings. By not “working,” I mean the art looks out of place in the room. Placing art in the wrong surroundings takes away from its beauty and impact.

What should you do if you bring a painting home and it clashes with its environment? First, hang the painting in various places in your home, trying it out on different walls. It may look great in a place you hadn’t planned on hanging it. If you can’t find a place where the art looks its best, you may need to make some changes in the room, such as moving furniture or taking down patterned wallpaper and repainting in a neutral color. The changes will be worth making in order to enjoy the art you love.

Sometimes the right lighting is the key to showing art at its best. You may find that placing a picture light above a painting or directing track lighting on it is all the art needs to exhibit its brilliance. If you place a work of art in direct sunlight, however, be sure it won’t be affected by the ultraviolet light. Pigments such as watercolor, pencil and pastel are especially prone to fading. Be sure to frame delicate art under UV protected glass or acrylic.

How to pick art to fit the room.

Size and color are the two major criteria for selecting art to fit its surroundings. For any particular space, art that is too large will overwhelm, and art that is too small will be lost and look out of proportion. The bolder the art, the more room it needs to breathe.

As a rule, paintings should be hung so that the center of the painting is at eye level. Sculpture may sit on the floor, a table, or pedestal, depending on the design. Rules should be considered guidelines only, however, so feel free to experiment.

When selecting a painting to match color, select one or two of the boldest colors in your room and look for art that has those colors in it. You’re not looking for an exact match here. Picking up one or two of the same colors will send a message that the painting belongs in this environment.

Another possibility for dealing with color is to choose art with muted colors, black-and-white art, or art that is framed in a way that mutes its color impact in the room. A wide light-colored mat and neutral frame create a protected environment for the art within.

Style is another consideration when selecting art to fit a room. If your house is filled with antiques, for example, you’ll want to use antique-style frames on the paintings you hang there. If you have contemporary furniture in large rooms with high ceilings, you’ll want to hang large contemporary paintings.

How to create an art-friendly room.

Think about it. When you walk into a gallery or museum, what do they all have in common? White walls and lots of light. If a wall is wall-papered or painted a color other than white, it limits the choices for hanging art that will look good on it. If a room is dark, the art will not show to its best advantage.

If you want to make art the center of attraction, play down the other elements of the room like window coverings, carpeting, wall coverings, and even furniture. A room crowded with other colors, textures and objects will take the spotlight away from the art. Follow the principle that less is more. Keep it spare and let the art star. Then relax and enjoy it.

Selecting and displaying art is an art in itself. Experiment to learn what pleases you and what doesn’t. You’ll be well-rewarded for the time you invest by finding more satisfaction both in the art and in your home.

Copyright 2006 Lynne Taetzsch

Lynne Taetzsch is an artist and writer who has published books with Van Nostrand Reinhold, Regnery & Co., Watson-Guptill, and Faber & Faber publishers. Her contemporary abstract paintings have been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the world, and she currently has a studio in Ithaca, New York. Visit her online art gallery at http://www.artbylt.com.

Do you know that your bedroom is responsible for who you are right now.

Your own bedroom is the place which you see last when you go to sleep and also is the first place you see when you wake in the morning.

These two are the times of the day when you are most receptive to receive any messages, good or bad.

Hey, what did I say? Good or Bad. Yes, it’s true, anything you see, feel, touch, smell, listen to at this time of the day will contribute in making your "personality", no matter whether it works for you or not.

That’s why you can make use of this fundamental reality to unconsciously program yourself almost automatically, by taking care of your bedroom. In short you can "design" your bedroom as a self help tool.

The term "design" in itself has a much wider scope. Design is not just color scheme, materials, lighting, furniture and its arrangement in the bedroom. It includes the personality of the person who is going to use it.

While in a bedroom, a person is more relaxed, feels more secured and is open minded to accept more positive messages. That’s why it is necessary to understand the personality of a person before designing his/her bedroom.

His/her likes/dislikes, moods, what motivates him/her can affect the entire bedroom design strategy. This design strategy includes the type of furniture to be used (iron, wood, cane contemporary), color schemes to be used (cool, warm, composite) types of flooring materials(tiles, carpets, wooden floors, PVC floors), the overall theme of the bedroom(oriental, contemporary)

That’s why a good bedroom design is one which creates a feeling of security for it’s owner. Use of natural elements such as plants/flowers can greatly add to the motivational capacity of a bedroom space. Since plants and flowers already have a beauty of their own, can greatly enhance the aura of the bedroom.

A bedroom which is nothing but a full mess, is harmful for development of a healthy mind. A room full of clutter and unnecessary garbage gives a negative message to your subconscious. As far as possible, office work, computers should be avoided in a bedroom.

If there is a scarcity of space and such situation arises all care must be taken to keep the work clean and healthy. This requires a little effort, but payoffs are huge if done on a regular basis.

I hope this article was informative and positive.

Copyright 2005 Shrinivas Vaidya

For more powerful concept level thinking of bedroom design visit Bedroom-Design-And-Decorating-Ideas.com. Here you will find some good tips on how design is related to humans very closely.

Furniture is an inseparable element in home decorating. It is furniture that makes the rooms in a home habitable/usable. Depending upon the use of the room, the quanity of furniture changes.

In early ages a lot of emphasis was given on the size of the furniture. for example the king was give a "throne" which clearly stated his status within the society. From then furniture has become a fashion trend with furniture design as a complete profession in itself.

Primarily furniture comes in two main body frames, wooden and steel.

The wooden furniture then gets divided into many types of woods depending upon the type of furniture required. for example teak wood, cedar wood, cane furniture etc…

The steel furniture also has varieties such as stainless steel, wrought iron furniture, etc…

Very basic difference between the two types of furniture is the method of manufacturing them. Lets take a look at some of the basic pros and cons for these two types of fornuture body materials.

1) Wooden Furniture

Wooden furniture is the most widely used and opted for type of material for furniture. The main reason is ease of use. Stnce wood is a soft material to work with (as compared to steel), manufacturing furniture with wood requires less amount of initial investment in terms of money.

Carpentary skills required to carry of furniture jobs can also be easily learned, hence it is a popular type of furniture type. From users point of view, wooden furniture looks very aesthetic and becuase of its soft nature decoration can be easily made on wooden surfaces.

2) Steel Furniture

Steel furniture has gained much popularity after the advances in technology in the metallurgy field. Manufacturing of steel furniture does require special tools and skills. The greatest advantage of steel furniture is its strength and lifespan.

Stell furniture can be put under the category of "contemporary furniture". Becuase of the flexible manufacturing process, furniture with any size and shape can be easily designed and manufactured today. Wooden furniture does hace certain limitations when it comes to shapes.

But our main question remains unanswered! which one should you go for, wooden or the steel furniture?

Of course there is not a straight forward answer for this question. You can go for a wooden theme or a complete stell theme design or a combination of both. But there is a different point of view for looking at it and that’s visual quality..

Both wooden and steel furniture has got their own visual impacts on our mind. This visual impact will differ depending upon final fiish of the furniture piece. So it’s not just use of the furniture piece, but aesthetic features also matter a lot.

If you go for "all stell" furniture theme your interior space might look like a modern and contemporary styles, which might not be acceptable at times. On the other hand the "all wooden" furniture theme might give your spane a country type of look.

Because furniture pieces are the first things which are visible when we enter any room, their selecton greatly affects visaul qualities of spaces.

There is one more point to consider here. If you are the kind of person who likes to shift the furniture layout more often, go for steel furniture. Of course this is not the ultimate rule of the world. I am saying this simply because it is easy to transfer the steel furniture from place to place with the help of wheels.

Thus whatever type of furniture you choose you must consider that it’s not just usability but visual factors are eqaully responsible for the beauty of interuior spaces.

I hope you have enjoyed this text…

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Subscribe to Shrinivas Vaidya’s mailing list of free interior design articles and get one article week right into your inbox. All articles come with free reprint rights!

A room is like a blank canvas. How you fill this blank canvas can have a great deal of influence over your day-to-day life in small yet extremely important ways. A well set up room can make you happy every time you walk in.

For me there is one key ingredient that helps make a room truly happy and livable. Color. If a room has a certain color it can make me a little happier, a different color can be calming, and yet another color can be warm and inviting. There are many different ways you can control color in a room. Some of the best ways can involve a nice wood grain bookshelf, repainting the walls, a picture or painting, or even a rug. Paint is a wonderful general solution that is able to encompass the whole room. A bookshelf or a piece of furniture is an excellent localized addition and paintings or pictures can be an amazing vehicle for expression while adding color to a room at the same time.

I deal most with rugs. I feel they have the artistic and expressive advantages of a painting yet can warm a wider area. A rug also has the advantage of being a wonderfully tactile artistic medium. You can walk on a rug and rub up against it. Whether the rug is a smooth thin pile rug or a thick wool rug can have a great deal of effect on the feel of a room (to learn more check out www.hazaad.com). Rugs also have the advantage of being able to insulate a room from both sound and cold. The sound dampening abilities of a rug come in hand in situations where the neighbor has left out his hearing aid and cranks up the TV to compensate or a dorm room with a party below. Nice pile rugs can also be extremely comforting when it is cold outside and you are inside walking barefoot on the rug.

However, in the end the most important thing when looking to change the feel of a room is personal taste. Salesmen often try hard to convince you that their product is perfect for you. They don’t know that. Only you can decide such things.

If you are looking to warm up a room my guess is that color is also important to you. I would suggest that you spend a little time looking at paint colors, furniture, paintings, or rugs. Whatever you really like is going to serve you far better than what others tell you to buy.

John Geer runs the small online rug import business www.Hazaad.com from Davidson, North Carolina.

Have you ever considered the idea of buying a bunk bed? There are many styles to accommodate your needs whether it be for your home, a dorm room, gift or a variety of other reasons. A bunk bed can be a fantastic solution for a room that has no space to spare. These types of beds can be extremely practical in many different situations such as a home where children share a room, a student dorm room, a business staff accommodation and even save a lot of space at the cabin or cottage.

A bunk bed is found more often than not, made of wood, but can also come in metal. There are many types to choose from depending on what you need it for. Types of bunk beds include L-shaped, triple bunk beds, twin over full bunk beds, standard and loft bed types. Also check out a trundle bed, which may be particularily useful for kids who like to have sleepovers, as it slides out from below your child’s exhisting bed like a drawer. These types of bed have the ability to make a small room appear quite large, and feel like that too.

With a bunk bed, many people have a concern with safety. Well, before you purchase one of many bunk bed styles available, you want to make sure that it is sturdy. Some good quality stackable beds can support 400 lbs per bed, which means they are not only for children, they are also great for adults. Please take the time to enquire about the different lengths available for you, as they really are a great way to add space and style to a room in your home.

Dean Cecere is author and regular contributor of useful information on how to solve your sleep concerns. For additional bed and mattress resources, please see http://www.beds-foam-mattresses.com Your guide for pillows, beds, mattresses and bedroom solutions and ideas.

(When designing a child’s room, you want to create an atmosphere that inspires and stimulates them mentally. The room should be interesting to the child, and should reinforce both rational thinking, and creativity. One way to achieve this goal is with a fun science based theme, which will present a topic in the natural world in an exciting manner.)

The jungle is a dark and mysterious place, full of dense shrubs, towering trees, and shadows within which any number of strange animals could be lurking. It is a place of predators and prey. It is a place of exciting adventure. It is also a place that is full of the opportunity for learning more about animals, plants, and nature in general. If you present it in the right way, a jungle-themed child’s room can be an engaging, inspiring project that may encourage them to develop a long term love of learning and nature.

When preparing to develop a jungle themed décor, the first thing you should do is research. Get as many books as you can on the various animals and plants that live in the jungle. Encyclopedias and websites can provide good background knowledge, while books and magazines will give you more specific facts. Make copies of any pictures that inspire you, and take notes on anything that you and your child find interesting.

When you are ready to start applying your research to decorating the area, you will want to begin by building the jungle’s vegetation. Buy large pieces of construction paper in as many shades of green and brown as you can. Lay the paper out on the floor or a large table, and trace the various plants you learned about in your research onto the paper. If you know the name of the plant, or anything about it, write this on the back of the tracing. Carefully cut out the shapes that you created using either scissors or an exact-o knife. Always be very careful when involving sharp tools in any project that you undertake with your child. When the plants have been cut out you can use double sided scotch tape to adhere them to the walls. Thumbtacks can also be used, but be careful using them around any child for whom they may become a choking hazard. Start with just a few trees and plants, and add more until you feel that your jungle is dense enough.

Another method you can use for creating plants is to create stencils of the many different shapes that you want, and then trace them onto your walls with paint or colored pencils. This will give the room more of a finished look, and will almost certainly be more attractive than cut-out designs. The drawback to this method is that it is much more permanent than construction paper and removing the stenciled drawing when you are ready for a new look will be more difficult.

To create the look of hanging vines, dip pieces of rope into green paint and wait for them to dry. Then string them from ceiling to wall across the room. Be careful that the rope is out of the reach of the child, and doesn’t present a strangulation hazard in any way. Small monkey figurines can be hung from the rope to give it added effect.

3D plants will solidify the illusion you are creating. To create a vegetation model, buy plastic plant pots and attach long cardboard tubes, upright, to the bottom of them using tape. These tubes can be found in the center of most rolls of wrapping paper. Use construction paper to create the leaves and the branches of your plant, then cut them out and attach them to the top of the tube. If you find that the construction paper is too weak to create a solid branch, try placing two pieces of construction paper around a piece of cardboard to provide support.

An even better way to create a full jungle look is to bring in real plants. This should be done cautiously and with full consideration that a child can harm or damage a plant if they are not aware of the responsibility of having a living thing in their room. Before adding plants to the area, discuss with the child all of the implications that the plant will have. It is a life, in their room, and they are responsible for guarding the plant against harm, from themselves and others. If you feel the child is ready, you should move only one or two plants in at a time. Give the child some of the responsibility for watering their plants, and carefully monitor its health. If the youngster proves that they can handle having a living entity in their room, you can continue to add to their plant collection.

Once you have your vegetation in place, you can start to populate it with the many strange animals that live in a jungle. Using the construction paper cut out method you used to create the wall plants, draw and cut out some of the animals that you researched. When placing them on the wall, situate them slightly behind some of the leaves and branches of the plants that are already there in order to better incorporate them into the scene.

Expand on your flat animals using stuffed animals and statues. Animal toys and figurines can be arranged in action poses against the plant background. Stuffed animals can be scattered around the room, hidden behind dressers or with faces poking out of the shadows of the closet. Using items such as these makes the room more interactive, and turns the whole setting into a toy.

A simple finishing touch is to make a recording, with your child, of the various animal noises that you would hear in a jungle. Watching National Geographic and episodes of various other nature specials can give you an idea of what a jungle would sound like. You will want the recording to be at least five minutes long in order to be effective.

As you place the different elements in the room, write technical information that you researched on the back and underside of the items. That way, when it is time to change the theme, you and the child can revisit many of the facts that you learned while building the decorations. Compliment the child on any facts that they remembered, and go over the information to freshen it in their heads.

Working with your child to develop a themed room offers many chances for meaningful interaction with them. Use this experience as a way to get to know them better. Ask them questions; find out what they like, and how their minds work. As you develop the look and feel of the room, you will also be developing and deepening your relationship with the child.

Children should not try any of these ideas out themselves without the consent and supervision of an adult. Caution should always be used in any activity that involves a child. Make certain that none of your decorative efforts puts your child in danger in any way.

Joey Lewitin is an artist and interior designer who has always advised the use of creativity in decorating ones home. For many years he has been one of the premier Pebble Artists working with PebbleArt Inc to create unique home décor accessories using natural stone - These designs can be seen at PebbleZ.com

A chandelier can be an ideal option for lighting in your home. Not just for foyers and formal dining areas, but chandeliers can also be used to provide lighting in kitchens, bedrooms, as well as the children’s room. But before you go out and look for that perfect chandelier, here are some things that you need to consider.

Criteria For Buying Chandeliers

1) Size of the chandelier: The most important element to consider is the size. If not sized correctly, a chandelier will not be able to provide lighting as desired and may well not fit into its designated spot. So here’s what you need to know about sizing a chandelier.

• When choosing a chandelier for a particular room, you need to first measure the width and length of the room. Add these two measurements and the resultant sum (in inches) is how wide your chandelier should be. For instance, if your room is 14 feet wide by 16 feet long, you need to add these two numbers which gives you 30. Thus, the ideal width for a chandelier for this room will be 30 inches. However, you also need to consider the height at which the chandelier will hang. If you have low ceilings and the chandelier will hang quite low, you should buy a slightly smaller one (26-28 inches). But, if you have really high ceilings, then you should go in for a bigger one (34-36 inches). This is because the higher the chandelier, the smaller it is going to appear.

• Another important size consideration is the length. A chandelier should be at least 30 inches above the table that it will hang over. This is the optimum height as it is high enough to leave adequate room to place things under the chandelier and is low enough to provide the desired lighting. Thus, after subtracting 30 inches from the top of the table to the ceiling, and 3-4 inches for the chandelier hook, the space left can be used to decide the length of the chandelier. Once again, you can be a little flexible here. If you usually use very tall centerpieces on your table, you should choose a chandelier that is a little shorter.

2) Type of lighting required: The kind of lighting that you need is also an important criterion to consider. Here are the various types of chandeliers used to bring about different kinds of lighting:

• Ambient Lighting: If you wish to achieve ambient (general) lighting, you should go in for a big one, which has plenty of bulbs and open lights. This will ensure that the chandelier provides light for the entire room.

• Accent Lighting: If you want to place your chandelier over something specific so as to illuminate that object, or if you want it to provide you with accent lighting for specific areas, then you should choose one with spotlights and down lights. A spotlight will help you to focus lighting on special works of art and help to bring about their beauty. With down lights, you can provide accent lighting for tabletops and other specific areas.

• Diffused Lighting: Many people like to have sober diffused lighting in their home. They do not like the glare of very bright lights. If you too desire such lighting, you should choose a chandelier with uplights. An uplight will throw light on the ceiling which then gets diffused and provides a very warm glow. You can also choose a chandelier with shades as this will help to maximize the light filtering down but reduce the glare at the same time.

Thus, once you have decided on what type of lighting effect you wish to achieve, you can select a chandelier accordingly.

3) Style of the chandelier: As it is most likely going to be the center of attention in any room, it is essential that you choose a chandelier that has a look and style which is in keeping with the rest of your décor. You do not want to draw attention to your chandelier for all the wrong reasons after all!

While a traditional crystal chandelier can look at home in almost any setting, if you want to go in for an ornate wrought iron chandelier, or perhaps a contemporary one, it is important to first determine that such a design will match your home décor. Remember, while choosing a chandelier style, you want to go in for one that matches your décor and not contrasts with it.

In addition to the above, ease of cleaning, number of bulbs (depending on how much lighting you require), and your budget are the other factors to consider when choosing a chandelier.

Lukas Rathswohl is the publisher of All About Chandeliers, your guide to finding the perfect chandelier for your home. Go to All About Chandeliers - Your Chandelier Guide and brighten up your home!

It may seem that all you need to be a good interior designer is a sense of aesthetics and a flair for design. That is a good start, yes, but it gets you about five feet forward in terms of your career. The first thing to do is to turn a latent, in-born talent into an effective tool. Just because you can figure out what looks nice and what doesn’t does not make you a good designer or decorator. You may know how to use light and colour, how to synthesize architectural elements with design details and how to integrate space and design, but that is about five percent of the work. Most of the real work begins when you come to the execution.

Some formal education in the basic concepts of interior design is absolutely essential. There are many schools, which will give you a basic background course, and most of them are diplomas, but they are all very elementary in terms of the knowledge and the skills they provide you with. You could either pursue a full-fledged course at a reputed institute, preferably one with accreditation; or you could learn by working with someone who is a storehouse of talent. Work with the best, work for free if you have to, because it will be worth it. But regardless of where you get the education and for how long, the one thing an interior designer must always remember is that one is a lifelong student. Every day gives you an opportunity to learn something new about the trade and explore another aspect of its limitless potential.

If you have an eye for design, make sure that is turned into an artful skill, by practicing at every opportunity. Read everything you can, observe design aspects wherever you go…make mental notes and if possible keep a journal with points you pick up along the way. There is no substitute for hands on experience so get into it as early as possible. If you aren’t paid for it, don’t worry…learn all you can and explore every opportunity to test your know-how. Because it will tell you all you don’t-know-how-to. Use your home and any space that is offered to you as a guinea pig. Work out your concepts and present your vision. Explore the dimensions of your own creativity before you ask others to entrust their money ,time and space to you.

Create a portfolio of your work. Try to do as many varied projects as possible. It will teach you all you need to know first-hand and also work as a showcase for your talent. Interior design or decor is about space planning, conceptual genius and a lot of hard work. While design is a major aspect, if you don’t have fundamental business skills, you will never be able to succeed independently. When you strip it of the design and glamour accoutrements, what you have left is a lot of planning and time-management skills, labour management, client handling, costing analyses and execution abilities. If you cannot transform what is in your head into something that is concrete, you are perhaps better suited to the drawing board.

Research every aspect of your trade. Find suppliers, understand products and build relationships. These people will be your backbone. The stronger they are, the more upright your standing will be professionally. They can get you better deals, which means you can offer clients a better deal, and that is one way a new kid on the block gets business. Once you are familiar with different styles, concepts in flooring, wall coverings, soft furnishings, accessories and art you must find the suppliers who will actually deliver the goods.

While you are meeting clients, learn to do one thing. It will determine your success as an interior designer. It is not your ability to design. It is your ability to LISTEN. Understand your client. Find out what their lifestyle is. Discover what their likes and dislikes are. Find out what they need and desire. You will find that it may not necessarily coincide with what you would instinctively recommend. Which leaves you with two choices. If you can find a point of convergence, try to assimilate their wants into your presentation as much as possible. If you find no meeting ground, you are better off recommending someone who can deliver the goods rather than work on a project where you will derive no satisfaction, and the client will offer no appreciation. At the end of the day your designing style and their requirements have to meet halfway. For it to be a worthwhile enterprise.

A smart thing to do while you train to become an interior designer is to specialize. You could always diversify later, but initially it is a good idea to find a niche for yourself. If you would like to do residential interiors focus on that for a few years. If commercial spaces are your cup of tea, gain experience in such contracts. If you think you want to be left only to design and stay away from the rest of the madness, then stick to just designing. If organizational skills are your forte, turn to project management. Find out what your skills are and then start honing them. Until you reach a stage when you can start honing another skill.

A good interior designer should be able to work well with anyone from the architect to the civil contractor. If you just want to do your own thing regardless of their suggestions or requirements, the simplest project will turn into a nightmare. At the end of the day, if you, along with all the others involved in the project, including your client, cannot be a cohesive team, the whole thing will fall apart.

If your creative genius can be coupled with practical ability, you are well on your way to becoming a successful interior designer.

Learn the ABC of being a good designer

–Integrate concepts and styles to give a unified décor

–Maintain a sense of equilibrium. Balance is the key.

–Know your field. Know your client. Never presume to be bigger than either.

–Never stop learning–Never stop listening

–Innovate. Don’t get trapped into predictable design.

–Never underestimate the value of good service. It tends to pay higher dividends than design.

–Time management and scheduling skills. Plan and execute.

–Coordination skills and being a team worker.

–Business expertise. Do an MBA if you have to but get your business concepts right.

–Patience–Eye for detail–Design Skills–Style

–Knowing the latest trends. Information keeps you ten steps ahead.

–Understanding different decorating styles, their uses and limitations

Rekha I Nambiar is an interior designer based in New Delhi,India. She runs her own business in interiors,furniture and furnishings.She is also a consultant for all sourcing related to home furnishings,furniture and interior design in India.

Her work may be viewed at http://www.id-home-furnishings.com

Her blog is http://www.20six.co.uk/furnishinghub