After many years of planning, and saving you are finally getting ready to move into your dream home! It's the perfect place, but right now it's still empty, so you need to kit it out! This is your chance to start fresh and make a personal statement with your new environment, so we will just assume that you want new everything for it! Let's go shopping!

Window Treatments - Too often an afterthought, consider all the time you put into choosing just the right windows for each room, wouldn't you want to do the same for their coverings? It's time to pick up some good quality curtains and blinds to match your overall style and the unique style of each room! They come in just about any pattern, material, and colour you may desire, whatever suits your fancy! Pick out window treatments that are going to be effective when it comes to keeping the sun out, or letting it in, that will also be attractive so your new home looks fantastic!

Flooring - To carpet or not to carpet? It really depends on you, both have advantages as well as disadvantages. For example, hardwood flooring looks great and is extremely rugged and long-lasting, plus its super easy to clean, but it tends to amplify sounds like footsteps into eerie echoes throughout the house. Carpeting feels great on cold feet, can be had in a huge variety of colours and patterns to match the curtains you chose, and also deadens sounds like footsteps, but it can stain easily and requires frequent vacuuming and occasional deep cleaning treatments. You could have the best of both worlds by having a base of hardwood floors and throw rugs and area carpets in the places you really want them, like a cosy faux fur rug to lounge on in front of the TV!

Interior Paint - We almost forgot, do this before you do the curtains and carpets! All right, so somehow over the last few decades, most homes feature whitewashed walls. In our opinion they are sterile, and remind us of a hospital ward, sure, they are clean (to begin with!) but they are also boring. It wasn't always that way, home interiors used to be painted in a variety of hues like navy blue, rose red, and forest green, as well as every colour in between! Don't just settle for blasé white, this is your chance to be creative and really set your new home apart from the rest! Whatever you do, avoid other blah colours like grey, creme, mauve, and taupe- we aren't even sure taupe is a colour, in any case, it should be banned from the paint store's palettes! You don't have to be avant-garde and paint it all purple unless you like purple, but consider some lighter, brighter colours, for example-

-The kitchen in bright, sunny yellow. In this case, white would be all right if used sparingly as an accent.

-The dining room in a rich gold, every meal would feel sumptuous and stylish. 

-The living room in a friendly orange that brings the warm hues of firelight to the space.

-The bedroom in a nice cool blue that can soothe you to sleep.

-The bathroom in a cheerful spring green to help freshen you up on those early mornings.

-The utility room, usually a terribly dull space, can be made perky with a pretty pink.

-The den, if the man of the family desires one, in the warm russets and ochres of the autumn.

-The sitting room, this one is for the ladies, and lavender is simply lovely.

-The game room is your chance to paint something purple, make it day-glo and wild for extra fun!

Remember, this is your new home and it is an empty canvas, paint it in a way that brings you pleasure! And, if you change your mind about your colour choices later, you can always repaint it!

Furniture - As a rule of thumb, never sacrifice comfort for style. Nearly every house we have ever been in, and that's a lot of them, has a chair that no one ever sits in. It's a beautiful thing, sleek, stylish, an unusual form, but it would be more comfortable to perch your bottom on the end of a broomstick than to actually attempt to sit on the darn thing, it's an art object, not a viable piece of furniture, a chair only in name, not in function! If you want your living space to be an art gallery celebrating awkward discomfort, fine, but if you want to have a place where you, your family, and your guests can sit back and relax, then shop for comfort over style. Your easy chair should be just that- easy! Make sure to actually test drive every sofa, settee, stool, and sitting device you are considering before actually purchasing, if it passes the comfy sit test, it's in! 

The same can be said of every item of furniture in your wonderful new home where you are the interior designer! You want a bed that's big enough to stretch out in for a good night's snooze, that's not so high off the ground you have to use a step stool to climb up into it, or so low to the ground it may as well be a futon! Your dining table should be large enough to accommodate your family and a few guests with plenty of elbow room, but not so vast and wide that you need to get up and walk to pass the salt shaker. If you are going to have a big event like a holiday or birthday dinner that's what extra table leaves are for! The kitchen table on the other hand, should be cosy, but not too cramped, you should be able to sit at it and read the newspaper without having to balance your cup of coffee on your knee. We have talked about chairs, but haven't really dived into the sofas yet, they should be soft and spacious for long afternoon laps, or marathon binge-watching of your favourite TV shows, again, comfort is key!

Welcome home!