Home Design Sense Blog

A log cabin makes a fabulous getaway, whether for a Christmas break or to enjoy the summer months, and can be used for your own personal enjoyment or rented out to make some extra money when not in use.

If you have recently purchased a cabin, you are probably considering decorating options. Like any property, there are many ideas, themes and styles to choose from when it comes to decorating your cabin.

One of the most popular and recommended themes to follow when decorating a cabin is to choose a natural, countryside look. This maintains that traditional, rustic look that many people associated with cabins, especially log cabins, and is easy to create.

For a wonderfully rustic, cosy and welcoming look in your cabin, opt for materials such as wood and stone when choosing your furniture and furnishings. In the living room and kitchen, go for wooden tables and chairs alongside stone work surfaces, as opposed to plastics and metals. This will give your cabin that lovely countryside look and feel.

In the bedrooms, invest in wooden beds and wooden children’s’ beds to continue the theme. You can find a range of wooden sofa beds and other wooden bedroom furniture at Bensonsforbeds.co.uk at very reasonable prices to create this look.

For the bathroom, consider large, old fashioned sinks and baths to give your cabin that traditional feel. Exposed brickwork will look very rustic in the bathroom, and indeed throughout the house, and will create a much more welcoming and authentic look than the more modern white tiling.

Finally, consider additional extras to really finish off the countryside look and feel in your cabin, such as traditional fireplaces and paints or wallpaper in natural shades and colours or in designs reminiscent of the countryside, such as floral patterns or those featuring birds and woodland creatures.

I love my leather biker jacket like an old friend. It’s been through thick and thin with me and it never lets me down. In fact it gets better with age. The feel of leather can’t be beaten; it’s a rich, natural material that stands the test of time.

So, if, like me, you love the leather hanging in your wardrobe, why not consider using it outside the wardrobe too? With leather bed frames becoming more and more popular, leather is becoming the hot new bedroom scheme, complimenting both modern and traditional décor. 1950s kitsch or Old Colonial – both have a place for leather.

You can use leather as accents in the bedroom, whole pieces of furniture, and even as wall-coverings! It’s a real luxury statement and easy to overdo, so make sure you get some professional advice from the experts at http://www.sleepmasters.co.uk when planning your dream bedroom. One sophisticated idea is to use black or dark brown bookcases in a room with a leather headboard to keep the furniture colour-scheme consistent. For an even sharper look, consider using a shelf unit that fits around the headboard.

Every room in a house benefits from the addition of plants, but a bedroom with dark furniture especially does. Look for plants with light green leaves and showy, warm flowers. Palms, tulips and citrus trees would all complement the headboard perfectly and bring some nature inside the room. If you are a little wary of overwhelming the bedroom with leather than try it as an accent.

Start with some leather-framed pictures, photos or mirrors. A neutral colour scheme works particularly well, as does deep mahogany furniture and wooden flooring. To make your sturdy leather bed appeal to both sexes, choose a subtle, neutral or pastel-striped bedspread, favouring warm colours rather than cool tones. Avoid any additional dark colours, or your bedroom may become too dark. And sophistication and decadence is what you’re aiming for, not a bat cave!

If you’re a man living in your own as I am – my advice is not to listen to anyone’s advice but your own when it comes to interior design.

Most men are simply born different to women. We aren’t homemakers in the traditional sense in that we haven’t evolved to create a comfortable environment in the same way that women have over hundreds of thousands of years. We have no innate instinct to create a soft internal environment for our young – but we certainly have evolved to enjoy our home comforts in our own way.

Just imagine you’d never been to another house, never seen a picture of an internal environment and were going at it from scratch. How would your home look?

I’m imagining your boundaries wouldn’t be defined by convention? If you can start with that as your baseline, then you should try not to be constrained by anything other than the absolute practical necessities; house size, room layouts etc., otherwise – your world is as much your oyster as is a truly creative artist with a blank sheet of canvas and all the colours of the rainbow at his disposal.

Beyond the practicalities – you should create the environment in exactly the same way as your nature tells you. If that means a motorbike in the kitchen, a fridge in the bedroom and sleeping bags only instead of bedding – then go for it. Just make it an internal environment you truly love without feeling constrained by other people’s expectations, by convention – or by what your Mum / girlfriend or anyone else will think.

Believe me; people will love you for who you are if you really let your honesty shine through.
Personally, I ignore each and every all furniture sale I see with one major exception; the sofa sales. I now own five of the things – and have one in a bedroom and another in the kitchen.
But then I like sofas!

Solar power is a very seductive concept. After all, the sun’s not going to run out (well not for a few millennia) and it feels like you’re getting something for nothing. Sadly, it may not work out quite like that in reality.

As a method of electricity generation, solar power can certainly work, but may not meet all of a household’s power needs. However, it can be an excellent way to create hot water. Despite the UK’s notorious lack of sunshine, it is possible to get solar-power hot water for washing-up, mobility baths, bidets and basins, and laundering clothes by hand, even on a cold winter’s day.

With this system, you don’t try to supply all your hot water needs with solar panels. What you do is pre-heat your water, so your main boiler has less work to do to supply hot water. This usually means you’ll have to install an additional water tank, but it can be problematic if you have a combi boiler which is designed to heat mains pressure water. If you have some building and plumbing skills then it is possible to build your own solar panels out of recycled old radiators, but this isn’t a project for a novice. It is worth getting some expert advice about fitting the system into your existing set-up, and also ensuring its operation meets any mobility-related or visual impairment issues the household may have – speak to a specialist like www.mobility-plus.co.uk, if this is relevant to you.

Solar power is not just about panels though. The kits you can buy designed to power a shed light or water feature make good sense, since running a main supply down the garden can be costly. It’s also possible to recharge batteries using a solar-powered charger; they don’t cost any more than a mains battery charger and it feels great to get free power, even on a small scale.

Some close friends have just moved into a beautiful, classic Victorian townhouse and I’ve dutifully been round to admire the place. I have to say it is absolutely stunning and I’m more than a little bit jealous. It’s not just the lovely appearance on the outside either, the rooms are perfectly proportioned with high ceilings and lots of natural daylight, and the place is crammed with original features. I am guessing that our friends will be spending lots of time at reclamation yards over the coming months kitting out their pride and joy with lovingly restored treasures.

One of my favourite things about properties from this era is that the bedrooms have fireplaces. There is something so cosy and romantic about peaking over the duvet at a roaring fire from the depths of double beds whilst outside the world is cold and snowy! Choosing a fireplace for your bedroom is only really advisable in a period property otherwise it might look slightly odd. Any room without a chimney breast in fact may well look strange with a fire in it – particularly on the first floor.

To pick the best fireplace for your bedroom then start by working out what is most appropriate for your house. Different styles of fire will work better with certain types of chimney so make sure you consult an expert. If you are trying to retain the integrity of the property as well then go for a fireplace which matches the style prevalent in the period which the house was built in and get an original model if at all possible. Make sure you position furniture carefully too – that gorgeous new wooden bed frame from Bensons For Beds will not look great with an unsightly scorch mark down the side of it!

A fireplace can make a bedroom perfect so choose wisely and enjoy the results for years to come.