The Little Greene Blog

With the New Year well underway you may be thinking about breathing new life into your home. As the economic gloom of 2009 slowly begins to lift, trends for 2010 focus on a brighter more eclectic style of interior decor. Here are a few of the key trends to look out for in the coming year.

A socially-minded focus on the environment and sustainability will see the use of natural materials, such as woods and metals, become a popular choice for furniture. Alongside this try using an earthy colour palette mixing greens, browns and beiges to create a calming atmosphere.

In 2010 Grey will emerge as a staple colour to compliment any room of your house. When teamed with vibrant colours such as purple or yellow it creates an unexpected and stylish effect. Identified by colour forecasting specialists Pantone as a must have colour for this year, Turquoise can be used in many different ways. Try it as an accent colour to brighten up a room filled with muted beiges and natural tones, or use it alongside other shades of blue to achieve a cool and tranquil space.

Texture will be a trend that affects all aspects of interior decor.  Look out for furniture items such as rugs, carpets and cushions that have interesting textures or have been developed from unusual materials. This trend can be extended to your choice of paints and wallpaper as well. Try combining matte and gloss paint colours to achieve a textured effect, or use a textured wallpaper to create a cosy atmosphere.

Whether it’s a unique piece of furniture or just a souvenir from your last holiday, inject a bit of personality into your home this year. Items that display evidence of craftsmanship or individuality can make your home feel more personal and welcoming. Look out for sustainable ethical items that will last you a lifetime.

Finally, 2010 will see the wallpapered ceiling emerge as a forward-thinking take on the wallpapered accent wall.  A wallpaper that compliments the colour scheme of your room can create even more of a design statement when applied to the ceiling. It can work to draw attention to architectural features and unusually shaped rooms. It can work equally as well to add a touch of eccentricity to a more conventional four-walled room.

If using wallpaper throughout the room, try to choose different patterns for the walls and ceiling and make sure they are broken up by other elements such as wooden panelling. This will avoid making the room feel boxed in, and will make sure your home is on trend for 2010.

Wallpaper in a room or on a feature wall can add an interesting level of detail to the overall look of your room, but it can be a daunting task if you’ve not wallpapered before.

The following questions answer some of the basic issues that crop up during wallpapering and painting. Feel free to add your questions or thoughts in the comments.

Q) What is the best method to remove wallpaper?
A) There are a lot of different ways to successfully remove wallpaper from a wall, but some of them can be very tedious. Heat can often be the best free solution to remove wallpaper. Covering an area of the wallpaper with very hot water and leaving it to soak in for couples of minutes, then scraping it off becomes much easier. For quicker results, you may find that a wallpaper steamer helps dampen the wallpaper a lot easier, but this obviously comes at an extra cost.

Q) Can you paint directly over wallpaper?
A) In a word, yes. It is generally best to strip the wall if you are planning on painting it, but you are able to paint directly onto it with most wallpaper. You need to make sure you have an even surface, so this means pasting down any loose bits of wallpaper, and filling any holes that may be in the wall. If the wallpaper is shiny you may want to test a small area first to see how the paint reacts to the surface and use a primer if necessary.

Q) How do you prepare a wall for wallpapering?
A) This answer is best broken down into the following steps:

1. Make it smooth – Fill any holes or bumps in the wall to ensure you have a smooth wallpapering surface. If your wall is in really bad shape, you may need to have it plastered before applying any wallpaper.
2. Lining paper – Although not a necessity, lining paper will help cover a multitude of imperfections in a wall – a common issue in older properties. Lining paper should be cross-hung (applied horizontally) if you’re going to hang a wallpaper on it (this will prevent the glue from the top wallpaper lifting the joints of the lining paper), or hung vertically (with completely flush joints) if you’re going to paint it.
3. Apply the wallpaper!

Jane Cumberbatch is a Little Greene fan and our new guest blogger. She’s created a guide to re-vamping an old piece of furniture, so here’s her video, and below this is the transcript.

Continue reading »

We are delighted to welcome Jane Cumberbatch to the Little Greene blog.

An interior designer with a number of best-selling books to her name, including Pure Style and Decorating Easy, Jane is an authority on simple, accessible, natural styling and what she calls “A blueprint for 21st century living”.

Jane’s website – Pure Style Online – is a must for inspiring ideas and budding stylists, with a wealth of knowledge, tips and over two decades worth of first-hand design experience.

Jane will be passing on a few trade secrets along with some advice on how to use colours in your home – look out for more posts in the coming weeks and months…

If you are looking for innovative ways to decorate your home, why not take inspiration from overseas and transform your living spaces with vibrant colours, fabrics and furnishings.

For a Moroccan inspired rooms try hot, vibrant oranges and reds combined with shades of blue and aquamarine.  Moroccans take inspiration from the colours their geography provides; the desert’s golden sands, the hot baked mountain rocks and the sparkling colours of the sea.  Shades including ‘Terre di Sienna‘ and ‘Heat‘ are great for creating the essence of Moroccan landscapes and can be accentuated with shades of blue-green such as ‘Canton‘ and ‘Marine Blue‘.  The dark blue shades can be used as a dramatic backdrop for the entire room or used to add depth to specific areas.  Complete the look with brightly coloured fabrics, jewelled accessories and textured rugs and throws.

For a French country style look, the result is rustic and welcoming.  Decorating colours are inspired by sunshine, fertile fields and the countryside.  Try yellows and reds as well as all shades of green including ‘Garden‘, ‘Sage Green‘ and ‘Woodland‘ to recreate the essence of grass and rolling hills.  The finished look should invoke a warm, casual, old-world feel.

If the delights of the French countryside or the colours of the Moroccan bazaars don’t tempt you, why not opt for a Hispanic Hacienda theme.  Spanish decor focuses on earthy tones coupled with rich reds and terracotta hues.  To create the look try ‘Bronze Red‘ and ‘Tuscany‘ on the walls and compliment this with furnishings in warm, earthy tones.  Fabric tapestries and dark wood are an effective way of completing the look.

As with most painting projects, preparation is important and will make a difference between a beautiful professional finish and a botched job.

When you’re choosing a colour to paint your radiator, bear in mind the surroundings. Although whites or off-whites will be the obvious choices, with oil-based paints these colours will go yellow because of the temperature of the radiator. You can reduce the prominence of a radiator by using the same colour as the walls or make a statement but using a contrasting or complimentary colour.

It is ideal if you can paint your radiator before it is plumbed in – or if you can take it down. This allows you to get better coverage on the hard to reach areas – but be careful if it’s already plumbed in – you’ll need to drain the radiator first – so it might not be the best option if you’ve got a new carpet!

If you’re painting your radiator in situ, then make sure you keep it turned off until the paint has dried and ensure the room is well ventilated. Cover the surrounding area, and tape any areas which meets a surface you don’t intend to paint over.

Use a piece of medium grade sandpaper to smooth the surface. If you have thick, unsightly paint or drip marks from a previous paint job, you may need to use a paint stripper to get a smooth finish.

Clean the radiator to get rid of any dirt, dust and fluff – anything like this trapped under a new coat of paint will be very noticeable, so it’s worth the effort.

If your radiator has not been painted before, or has chips or wear which reveal the metal work underneath, you will need to use an oil based undercoat or metal primer. A standard Undercoat or Primer won’t prevent cracking or discolouration but an anti-corrosive primer like The Little Greene Universal Primer/Undercoat applied to bare metal areas will help to prevent rust re-occurring – this is particularly important with a radiator because it will get very hot in use.

If you can see any rust, treat it before you apply the primer. If there is only slight surface rust, you should be able to get rid of it with sandpaper, but if there is a lot of rust visible, you would be better replacing the radiator.

Stir your paint well before you start.

To paint the radiator, a standard paint brush will do the job, but you might find it easier with a raditor paint brush – this is angled so you can get into awkward places.

You have a choice of paint finishes for radiators, choose based on the style of your room, whether it’s in a high moisture area like a bathroom, or if you want a particularly environmentally friendly or low VOC paint:

• Oil Based Eggshell Paint – which is a very tough and durable, low odour, paint with a low sheen finish.
• Acrylic Eggshell Paint – which is moisture and stain resistant, hard wearing, with a subtle low sheen finish.
• Oil-Based Gloss Paint – which resists weathering, cracking and flaking, and has a high gloss finish.
• Acrylic Gloss Paint – which is tough and washable with a high sheen. An environmentally friendly and hard wearing paint.
• ULTIMATT Emulsion Paint – which is environmentally friendly, and has a superb depth of colour and a flat matt finish.

Avoid painting nuts and bolts or any moving parts, or you will have problems in future.

You will usually need 2 coats over a primer for a nice finish.
Leave at least 4 hours between coats for a water based paint, or leave overnight drying for Oil based paint.