Category Archives: Styleboard

Our styleboard is home to dozens of tips and tricks from our interior stylist at Nunawading Homemaker HQ to find the right pieces and transform your space.

Interiors Trends For 2022

Hello and Happy New Year from everyone here at Nunawading Homemaker HQ. We are so excited for the year ahead and helping you along on the journey of creating a beautiful home you enjoy spending time and entertaining in! To kick off the year and reinvigorate a desire to decorate in your home, we are sharing with you what we believe are the top interiors trends for 2022. We like to opt for trends that will withstand the test of time and encourage you to build upon and elevate your current interior. We would love to know what your favourite trend is for the year ahead in the comments. Or head over to our Instagram to share your thoughts!

Don’t Be Afraid Of Colour

Neutrals have been reigning supreme throughout the 2010’s, but as we enter the roaring 20’s, we are finding people embracing colour a whole lot more! For a long time, we have been encouraged to use colour only in decorative accessories and avoid choosing a bright tone in anything that is a hard fixture or large furniture item. 2022 is going to be very different! We are seeing a lot of interior designers and home renovators embracing colour in permanent fixtures such as tiles and kitchen cabinetry to make a bold statement. We are also seeing the rise of large furniture pieces such as sofas, occasional chairs, and bed frames in colours such as forest green or navy blue in beautiful fabrics like velvet or linen. If you are a fan of colour, we encourage you to take a risk and follow your heart in 2022!

Embrace Statement Lighting

One very underrated way to inject personality when decorating a space is through lighting. Often an afterthought, lighting can get forgotten when redesigning or redecorating your home as we usually focus more on the paint colours, furniture, and decorative accessories. In 2022 we will be seeing more of a spotlight on feature lighting and using it to completely elevate and transform a space. Try adding a beautiful pendant light above your dining table or a long pendant above your kitchen bench. Don’t forget about rooms such as the bathroom or your front entrance where you can incorporate some beautiful wall scones. We also love using a statement light in an enclosed outdoor entertaining space to bring the wow factor!

Elevated Home Offices

Over the past couple of years, we have seen home offices become a staple when designing, building, or renovating a home. Once a mulled-over option, home offices have now become a non-negotiable as workplaces have had to adapt and become more flexible with working from home solutions. We are seeing people take their home offices very seriously in 2022 and ensuring they have not only a well design and aesthetically pleasing space but that it is kitted out with the right tools and technology to enhance the workday. Home offices are set to be a statement room in the house that includes beautiful and functional furniture, accessories that inject personality and organisational systems to keep things under control. We recommend heading into The Good Guys or JB Hi-Fi to check out their amazing range of home office technology supplies that will ensure you have the best setup possible. You can also take your home office to the next level by incorporating a Sonos sound system from The Sony Centre. We think you might find it hard to leave at the end of each day!

The Transitional Style

Transitional style is a term that has been created in recent years for a beautiful interior design style that will stand the test of time. Transitional style can be described as the blend of traditional and contemporary styles to create an interior that is both modern but incorporates classic elements to ensure longevity. The look can be achieved by keeping a colour palette of mainly neutrals, with accents colours of black and dark timbers. Furniture should lend itself to a more traditional style, with large comfortable sofas and curved edges. The modern elements can be seen in pieces such as a metal floor lamp, a patterned cushion, or sleek, sophisticated curtains. This design style is perfect for someone who loves a classic look but wants to avoid a ‘stuffy’ or ‘over-the-top’ vibe. Provincial Home Living and Focus On Furniture have some great furniture pieces that would work perfectly with this design style. Whilst Adairs have an array of cushions, throw rugs and accessories that pair perfectly with this look.

Richer Timbers

Light toned timber has been popular for many years now due to the Scandinavian and Minimalist trends being at the design forefront. In 2022 we will be seeing a lean towards darker and richer timbers that create more of a contrasting and bold interior design style. Rich walnut tones will be the most popular when it comes to timber choices in 2022 and we will see them used in items such as dining tables, bar stools, coffee tables and more! Nick Scali and Focus On Furniture have a great range of rich timber pieces that we recommend checking out next time you are visiting. Try incorporating darker timbers into smaller accents of your home to begin with such as floating shelves, console tables and decorative accents to dip your toes in. We love the revival of darker timbers as it works perfectly with design styles such as Hamptons, Provincial, Modern Farmhouse and Transitional style as mentioned above.

Simple & Easy Ways To Restyle Your Home

The past couple of years we have spent more time in our homes than ever. If you are feeling uninspired by your home or feel that it needs an update, then we are here to help! Today we are sharing with you our favourite simple and easy ways you can restyle your home. These are creative ways you can see your spaces with fresh eyes and that don’t take up valuable time or cost the earth. We would love to know if you try any of these tips, so feel free to share them with us on our socials!

Add Some Statement Decorative Pieces

When was the last time you treated yourself to a new home décor accessory? For a few of you out there, this may be a common occurrence, but for many of us it is quite rare. Many of our beautiful retailers offer a variety of on-trend and contemporary home décor accessories to suit any design style and budget. Decorative accessories are a great way to bring personality into your home and create a design style that is reflective of you, your family, and your taste. Use items such as vases, books, plants, artwork, and interesting objects to create a statement in your home. Check out retailers such as Koala Living, Bed Bath N’ Table and Provincial Home Living for a great range of pieces. We love an oversized vase filled with real or fake stems to create wow factor on your dining room table. Or try creating a beautiful vignette with some large coffee table books, a gorgeous tray, candles, and coasters on your coffee table for a styled look. Invest in a few quality pieces spread throughout your main living spaces and your home will feel stylish and luxurious in no time.

Update Your Soft Furnishings

Updating your soft furnishings is a simple and often affordable way to transform the look and feel of your home easily. Soft furnishings include cushions, throw rugs, floor rugs and window coverings and can be swapped out with the differing seasons easily. Restyle your bedroom and living room by choosing a fresh, new colour palette for your cushions and soft furnishings such as mustard yellow or eucalyptus green. Adding new window coverings to rooms such as the dining room, living room or bedroom can completely transform the space. Think beautiful, soft flowy sheers or lovely textural linen curtains for a relaxed and calming atmosphere. Another great way to create a whole new look and feel in a space is to update the floor rug. We recommend opting for a neutral colour that will pair well with various schemes and ensure the rug is large enough to sit under most of your furniture pieces with ease. We love the range of textures, sizes, and colours some of our beautiful retailers have such as Adairs, Deco Rug and Bed Bath N’ Table.

Shop Your Home

Shopping your home is one of the easiest and most simple ways you can update your home without spending a dollar! It is a common concept that allows you to restyle each room of your home using pieces you already own. The process is super simple, to begin with you need to take all your decorative items from each room and place them in one central location such as the kitchen bench. These items include but are not limited to vases, plants, trays, candles, objects, souvenirs, and books. From here you can see your space with fresh eyes and work out what areas can be styled in a brand new way. Try styling your items in a new room or pairing an item with something that was previously in a different location. This gives your home a beautiful new look and allows you to see your decorative pieces in a whole new light!

Play With Layouts And Orientation

Has every room in your home had the same layout and furniture orientation since you first moved in? If you answered yes, it might be time for a little shuffle around and refresh. We understand that it is not always possible for some rooms to change orientation due to the size or another contributing factor, but if you can, we definitely recommend it! The living room is a great place to start. Think about if the sofa can go against a different wall or if the occasional chairs and bookshelves can be swapped around or switched out to create more flow within the space. In the bedroom, have a look with fresh eyes if the bed can go up against a different wall to allow for artwork or if the orientation could be adjusted so that you can wake up with the morning sunlight. Have a play with different orientations in all the rooms you can, and you never know, you might find a layout that is much better than before!

Simplify

Throughout our blogposts we often share how you can add beautiful furniture pieces and accessories into your home and style them up in unique and interesting ways. Sometimes however, to create an entirely new look in your home, it can be about simplifying, not adding. Start my evaluating your styled spaces such as the coffee table, bookshelves, media units, console tables, bedside tables etc. Simplifying a space can be a therapeutic exercise by allowing yourself to look at your pieces with fresh eyes and think about whether they bring you joy or if it is time to let go. Once complete, you will notice your space feels more open and airier and the items that remain will be your absolute favourites.

The Best Practical Styling Advice For Your Home

Your home is not just where you live, but it is a place to relax, to entertain, to build memories and even to work (thanks COVID). This focus on our homes means that it’s now more important than ever to create a space that is not only multifunctional and practical but stylish and beautiful too. An area that makes us feel comfortable, but also makes us happy to spend time there.

One of the easiest ways to change the feel of your home is with styling. We’ve put together a list of practical styling advice that you can use when decorating or designing your home.

Finding the right furniture

Furniture is probably the easiest place to start when styling your home. It’s also one of the most important because the type of furniture you choose can dictate how you use the room, and the style of furniture will dictate the style of the room too.

When buying furniture for a space, measure twice and buy once! Furniture that is too big will impact how you use your room and will make it feel small, but furniture that is too small will make the room look unfinished.

Also, consider choosing furniture that is timeless and won’t date. Trends come and go, but good quality furniture that is simple but classic means that you can enjoy it for years to come, only needing to update the décor around your furniture to suit the latest styling trends.

When it comes to furniture, it’s always good to try before you buy so you can make sure you’re comfortable and it fits its purpose. Sit on dining chairs to see if they are the right height, lay on a bed to see if it’s big enough and look inside wardrobes to see if there is enough storage space.

Styling soft furnishings

A great way to change up the style of your home is with soft furnishings like throws, cushions and bedding. Easily changed and updated, use soft furnishings to dress up your room or refresh a tired space.

The trick to styling cushions is to consider pattern, texture, shape and colour, and layering them up to pull the look together. Pick a colour palette and then choose your soft furnishings with those colours in mind, mixing and matching textures and styles as you go.

The same goes for throws and bedding. While these don’t need to match each other, or your cushions, they should at least be complementary and be part of the same colour palette to create a cohesive room.

You can update your soft furnishings to suit the season. Florals are fantastic for spring and summer, while moody colours like plum and emerald green are best suited for Autumn and Winter. Also, think about colour combinations that work well together. We love blush pink and olive green, neutrals and burnt oranges or black and white with a pop of colour.

Choosing artwork for your home

There are lots to consider when choosing artwork for your home. While it can be an investment, you should think with your heart when choosing the right piece. Spend lots of time viewing different artists and note down artwork that grabs your attention. You may find you like abstract art more than realism, or you want a simple illustration rather than a splash of colours.

You should also think about the colour palette of your room when selecting artwork. As a general rule, you shouldn’t reference more than four different colours in your room, so look at paintings with similar colours to your wall colours or soft furnishings or neutral colours that won’t be too harsh in an already colourful space.

Also, think about sizing and placement. Always measure your space before you buy artwork and even consider using paper or masking tape to mirror the size of the piece on your wall. Oversized artworks (1m wide or more) will act as a focal point in your room while smaller artworks can be grouped together for the same effect.

Upgrading your lights

Changing the lighting in your home can give it an instant makeover. Even if your room has downlights, adding feature lighting like a pendant, wall light or floor lamp will provide you with more illumination and act as a feature for the room.

When placing lighting, you should measure your room to ensure it isn’t impeding on your space but will still provide the light you need for the purpose of the room. Pendant lights in a living room should be hung 30-50cm from the ceiling (on a standard 2.4m ceiling) while pendant lights over a dining table should sit 70-80cm above the dining table. If you’re choosing pendant lights over your bedside tables rather than table lamps, make sure they hang 35-50cm above so you get enough light for reading a book, but they don’t get in the way.

Floor lamps and table lamps can be added to your room if you don’t want something permanent. You can change the shade to complement the style of your room and move them around to create cosy reading corners or stylish décor displays.

Adding decorative accessories

We love using home décor accessories to style a room because although they may be small, they have the power to change the look and feel of a room in an instant! Think vases, candles, pot plants, baskets, mirrors and trinkets that can be placed on shelves, coffee tables, side tables and any surface that is bare.

When decorating with accessories, be careful not to overload the space. Group accessories with similar themes and varying heights to create beautiful displays and choose quality over quantity! Group items in odd numbers such as threes or fives so that your arrangement feels authentic and not too staged.

Plants add life to every room, so play around with different types of plants. A large Ficus Fig or Rubber plant in a statement pot will act as a feature, while succulents or a string of pearls will complement a smaller space. If you want more colourful plants, you can’t go wrong with an orchid or two. If you don’t have a green thumb, you can always use faux plants instead – don’t worry, we won’t tell!

Decorating with rugs

Rugs are often thought of as entirely functional, used to hide undesirable flooring or prevent furniture scratches, but you’d be surprised at how much a rug contributes to the style of a room, often tying the entire space together.

When choosing a rug, think about your lifestyle and the area where it will be placed. High traffic areas will need a hard-wearing material like sisal, jute or seagrass, while bedrooms won’t receive so much foot-traffic so tufted or shag rugs are suitable. You should also consider how easy your rug will be to clean, especially if you have children or pets.

When deciding on the best size, it is a general rule that part of your furniture should overlap the rug so that the space flows. Rugs under dining tables should be large enough so the dining chairs don’t come off the rug when being used and a rug in a bedroom should be positioned from the bottom 2/3 of the bed and extended out to the sides and end.

Play around with patterns and colours. If you already have a lot of features in your room, choose a neutral rug that won’t draw the attention away from those pieces. To avoid a clash, pick out a secondary colour in your rug and match it with a piece of furniture or the soft furnishings in the room.

Want to see your home styling come together? Check out our new Digital Mood Board Tool! You’ll be able to mix and match products to create a mock set up of your space while exploring different styles and colour palettes from the retailers at Nunawading Homemaker HQ. It’s free, and you can share your mood board with family, friends or design experts to get their opinions on your styling.

With over 25 stores, you can find everything you need to style your home at Nunawading Homemaker HQ. Shop from the best homewares, tech and furniture brands like Adairs, Bay Leather Republic, JBHiFi and more. If you’re looking to style your home from scratch, give your home a makeover or want to browse our wide range of stores, visit Nunawading Homemaker HQ today!

Get the Look: Technology + Design

When it comes to technology in the living room. Everything is so small-scale these days.

There’s no need to have that huge sound system taking over half the space.

We’ve partnered with Stylist Briar Stanley, to help show you how you can integrate technology into your spaces.

 

 

Find amazing pieces for your kitchen at JB Hifi, The Good Guys and Sony Centre – all now open at Nunawading Homemaker HQ.

Get the Look: Bringing it all together

Bringing it all together

When you’re decorating, have fun with proportions and the size of pieces you choose.

Bring your dining area together with the right dining table. We’ve partnered with Stylist Briar Stanley, to help you find out how.

Find amazing pieces for your dining room at Focus on Furniture, Nick Scali Clearance Outlet and Provincial Home Living – all now open at our Homemaker Centre.

a small and cozy living room

Get the Look: Feature Appliances

Get the look

Are you wondering how to bring your kitchen to life and bring in your own style?

There is such an amazing range of appliances for the kitchen these days, that you can treat key pieces like a piece of furniture in your home.

We’ve partnered with Stylist Briar Stanley, to help you find out how.

Find amazing pieces for your kitchen at JB HiFi, The Good Guys, Sony Centre and Godfreys – all at Nunawading Homemaker HQ.

Tips: Will your furniture fit?

Thinking of a mixing it up a little at your place?

Take a few tips from Urban Rhythm at Nunawading Homemaker HQ.

Before you order that four-seat sofa or eight-seater dining table you’ve fallen in love with, be sure to check that it will fit inside the room it is destined for, as well as through all the passage ways to get there.

A little thought up front can potentially save you unnecessary expense, inconvenience and disappointment.

Will the furniture fit?

Check that you’ll be able to get your furniture into its final position. 

Make a newspaper template of the furniture footprint, then place it in the intended position on the floor of your room.  See that you can move around the piece, and that it won’t block heating or cooling ducts for example.

Do you have a lift or stairs to navigate? Do you have a tight corner to turn, such as a narrow apartment corridor? 

Such spaces need to be considered, as your furniture will need to be able to pass through these areas to reach its final destination.

What is the parking access like at your place? Do you have a narrow laneway or a steep driveway to navigate? Can a truck park close to your entrance?  

These are questions that need to be answered so that your furniture can be delivered smoothly.

It might simply mean that we organise a smaller truck to deliver your goods so it can fit in the laneway outside your home.

Access concerns

Advise your contultant about any access concerns. 

If you have any doubts, your consultant will provide you with a Delivery Access Questionnaire. Complete it as accurately as possible so that our warehouse manager can help determine accessibility. Photos of tight corners and entrances will also be helpful in our assessment.

From this we will make an assessment whether or not we need to either provide a larger delivery crew, modify construction of the furniture that won’t fit, or suggest to you a more appropriately sized piece.

With a little planning, most access challenges can be overcome. Being prepared is the key.

For more great ideas and special finds, visit Urban Rhythm at Nunawading Homemaker HQ today.

4 simple ways to bring feng shui into your home

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of creating a positive home environment by balancing the flow of energy. Here are some easy ways you can create a feng shui-friendly home and bring more happiness into your space.

  1. Create an energy flow to the front door

One of the basic rules of feng shui is to ensure there’s a clear flow of energy to the front door. Make sure there’s nothing blocking the energy to your front door or cluttering the entrance.

Instead, create an inviting entry to your home by placing beautiful flowers on a nearby side table or a stylish doormat on the floor. Or maybe it’s time to show your door some TLC, whether it’s repainting it or giving it a thorough clean with a lint-free cloth or sponge.

  1. A feng shui-friendly living room

In general practice, good feng shui involves decluttering your space and the living room is no exception. Keep things clean, airy and filled with beautiful natural light to attract positive energy.

If you don’t have many windows, you can decorate your space with mirrors or layered lighting to help energy bounce around your room. Consider using a combination of floor lamps, table lamps and ceiling fixtures, for example. Also, ff you wanna redesign your living room, Aspley Shopping Centre has a lot of furniture stores that can help you, as a Freedom in Aspley or the Nick Scali Aspley.

Place your couch and tables in a circle in your living room to create a warm and inviting space, while adding mirrors to help energy bounce around the room. One of the rules of feng shui involves also creating a home with beauty in mind. It’s still important to select furniture according to typical design principles, such as working with scale and proportion and choosing the best sized rug or sofa for your space.

  1. Embrace your green thumb

Of course, you already know that indoor plants have many health benefits, such as purifying the air, but they also help to activate positive energy in your home. According to feng shui, the best time to add a new plant is at the beginning of the month or year when it symbolises a healthy beginning for you and your loved ones.

You can place plants within a few metres away from your computer to filter electromagnetic energy or place tall plants in the corners of rooms with sloped or low ceilings to counteract symbolic heaviness. When it comes to choosing plants, look for those with curved or round leaves, instead of spikes or thorns. For example, peace lilies, philodendrons, bamboo and ferns.

Not a green thumb? No worries. Silk plants are great, too – just make sure you dust them and take care of them, but avoid dried flowers, as they represent stagnant energy.

  1. Bring water into your home

Listening to the gentle sound of water is a wonderful way to relax at home, but in feng shui, water means wealth, so it’s a good idea to place a small water feature or fountain in your home, ideally near the doorway to attract extra money in. Your water feature doesn’t even need to be a Chinese design to bring wealth into your home.

It’s believed that the best place to put your water feature is either east, southeast or north corners of your home. Avoid placing it in the bedroom or underneath the stairs.