The idea of the perfect interior for your home varies from person to person. This is the space where you and your family return to after a long day at work to kick back, relax and get comfortable. One of the most significant parts of this relaxation is to have a comfy sofa set, where you can relax and unwind while watching your favourite movie or web series.. So, the sofa not only is a functional focal point, but it also works as a centrepiece that completes the living room. Therefore, sofa sets need to be aesthetically attractive yet functional.

Living Room Renovation Hacks

While choosing a sofa set, there is a mind-boggling number of choices available in the market: L-shaped sofa, U-shaped sofa, minimalist sofa, over-the-top maximalist sofa, two-seater, three-seater, five-seater, loveseat or even a sofa bed — the options are unlimited. Check out our top criteria when looking for sofa sets to revamp your interiors and plan your living room renovation easily!

1. Add an Old-World Charm

A wooden sofa set doesn’t necessarily have to be flashy or over the top. Nowadays, wooden furniture is trending among homeowners and even renters. Its unique design makes the room look bigger and heavier than it is. Wooden sofa sets come in various designs and of various wood types. However, this furniture needs continuous maintenance & care, like polishing because solid wood furniture is prone to attracting termites. Therefore, if you consider a modern wooden sofa set, opt for engineered wood over solid wood.

2. Increase Seating Space

If your living room has space to spare, then a modern L-shaped sofa or sectional is the perfect addition to your home. With one side open, these sofa sets can be rearranged and are versatile. Increase the seating when hosting a house party or arrange it as an extra bed when an unexpected guest stops by. The L-shaped sectional is perfect for a bigger open space apartment. On the other hand, this black and grey combo sofa fits well with white flooring and walls which gives an elegant look. The two wall hanged paintings complete the aesthetic of the living space, giving it an ultra-luxurious look.

3. Let the Conversations Flow

If you are a part of a large family, your home needs a large U-shaped sofa set since it offers a lot of seating. A central sofa connects two equal-sized side sofas in this type of set, giving it a U-shape. The picture below shows that the large U-shaped sectional is perfect for this family room. It is accentuated by two large windows that let light in.

4. Small Families Three-Seater Sofa

This modern three-seater sofa is commonly opted for by small families. Nowadays, sofas are widely made as three-seaters. The mid-sized living room looks complete with this modern-looking grey coloured three-seater sofa. While the floor lamp adds height to the room, the shaded area rug and a modern large coffee table add dimension to the light colour scheme of the living room. This modern living room design can easily be DIY-ed.

5. Large Homes Five-Seater Sofa

The coffee brown five-seater sofa shown in the picture below is an excellent example of how colours can be incorporated in an apartment with an otherwise muted colour palette. The wooden and glass coffee table has given the living room a cosy, stylish vibe. This five-seater sofa can be a great addition to a large apartment or modern villa which gives your interior a “Royal Look”.

6. Timeless Leather Sofa

Leather sofas are timeless. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be boring. It is a theory that has withstood the test of time. It is now a fact that a leather couch perfectly complements the luxury living room. White marble flooring, fancy marble-top coffee table and massive paintings on the wall. These all come together elegantly with this brown sofa. The living room screams luxury.

7. Compact And Versatile Sofa Beds

If you live in a studio or a 1 BHK apartment that doesn’t have much space for a separate living room, sofa beds are perfect for you. These are now popular among young professionals who wish to have a sofa and a comfy bed but have a limited budget. Sofa beds can easily seat two people in the sofa position. At night, flatten it out to make a comfortable bed. These can also be used as a guest bed if someone comes over unexpectedly.

If there’s one room you can enjoy experimenting with in terms of colour, pattern and design, it’s your living room. It’s the space where you’ll have family and friends around for gatherings & special occasions. So, planning to design a space is quite tough. The above suggestions are just a few of our favourites to enhance your living room. Join Hamstech Interior Designing Course to learn more about Interior Design and design much more unique and trendy interior.

Guide to a Dream Home Makeover

Are you worried about designing the interiors of your dream home? Don’t know how to plan or what to pick out of the numerous designs in the market? Don’t worry, we have got your back! Enhance your interiors with the help of our guidelines. So, let’s dive right in.

• Function of the space – While planning a living room makeover, first of all, think about the function of the space. Do you have a large family, do you need a vast corner sofa? Do you love reading? Would you love to curl up on your sofa with a book? Or do you spend a lot of time playing video games and therefore need a large television? Think about how you’ll really use the space and that will dictate how you lay out the room.
• Likes and Dislikes – These could be your favourite colours – the ones that make you feel happy and alive. Then start compiling your mood board, pulling together samples of paint, wallpaper, carpet, fixtures and fittings and images of furniture you love. You can do this on a physical board or create it all online before you place your sample orders. That way, you’re sure of what you like before you spend any money.
• Sampling – Once you’re happy with your colour choices, purchase some paint sample pots. There are a few new paint companies, which send out ready-painted swatches on resealable backs, so you can see how they look on different walls before you decide on your shade.
• Perfect Match – If you want wallpaper and paint in the same room but are concerned about whether they’ll sit well together, just match your paint colour to one of the shades in your wallpaper and you can’t go wrong.
• Importance of Lighting
• The living room has many functions, from parties and family gatherings to quiet reading nooks and binge-watching TV shows. So you’ll probably need to layer the three main types of lighting – ambient, task and accent in the room. Ambient lighting tends to be chandeliers and pendants and would be used as the main light source. Task lighting is what you need for carrying out specific purposes, such as reading and would include. For instance, a floor lamp next to your armchair. Accent lighting includes wall sconces and table lamps that add atmosphere.
• Though bedrooms are primarily for sleeping, they aren’t meant to be dark all the time. A bedroom should have a combination of both portable and installed lighting to provide illumination for tasks like dressing and reading.
• For the kitchen, incandescent light provides soft, warm yellowish light, usually used for recessed cans or downlights. Halogen lights produce a crisp white light that is appropriate for task lighting. Fluorescent lights, which have a long life and low energy use, now come in many different shades, ranging from warm to cool.

Tips to Style Your Home

When you want to design and build your own dream home, you have the opportunity to make your dreams become a reality. Designing your new home can be a major project, but the benefits will make all the work worthwhile. Here are the tips for designing a new home that will not waste you even a penny by disturbing your plan. We will go one by one through the tips.

1. Choose Your Style – The exciting thing about designing your own home is your chance to create precisely the layout you want to fit your needs. Whether you prefer something more rustic or elegant, you can design precisely the house style you want. Peruse home plans with prices to learn about your options. Make a note about the features you want, floor plans that will fit your lifestyle, any restrictions, number of rooms, structural features and more. All of these details will come into play as you design your home.
2. Home Plans and Prices – Some people opt to start with a pre-drawn plan instead of hiring a team to create a custom home. Pre-drawn home plans can be cost-effective and you’ll have many features and options as you narrow down your selection of a home plan. You can choose the total number of square feet, width and depth of the house, number of stories, number of bedrooms and number of bathrooms. You can also choose the style, whether it’s a cottage, a craftsman’s bungalow, a log cabin or a farmhouse.
3. Custom Home Team – If you decide on a custom home, you’ll need a team to work on the project. The team will include an architect, a general contractor and additional subcontractors. The architect will consult with you to learn all about your plans & vision for your home. Don’t leave out any details and share your ideas with the architect so that they can make it happen. This is your chance to get a kitchen bathed in the morning sunlight, high ceilings and all the walk-in closets you could want.

If you are designing a new building or considering a makeover for your house, then you have most probably heard of minimalist interior design. So, what is this trend about?

What is the Minimalist Style?

Minimalist style in architecture and interior design is featured by only including the necessary elements and focusing on perfect lines and surfaces. This style highlights the connection of shapes, elegant lighting and honours voids!

Fundamentals of Minimalist Interior Design

What makes a minimalist interior design “minimal”?

1. Colour Palette –Limit your colour palette. Minimalism applies to everything, including colours. All-white interiors are very popular with minimalists. Greys and tints of Earth-tones also do the job.
2. Geometric Forms – Minimalism is about straight lines, smooth curves, simple shapes and flat planes. So, stay away from complicated pieces of furniture, engraved with the most intricate details.
3. Balancing – Balance through a focal point. Centrepiece, art pieces or even furniture can play the role of the focal point in your space. The centrepiece could be an iconic vase on a central table, an electric heater or a painting. Relatively large paintings with vibrant colours that contrast with the generally neutral atmosphere that naturally grabs the eyes.
4. Order – Pay attention to the order. Minimalist interiors are all about neatness, purity and neutral colours, which is the perfect context for highlighting the slightest bit of disorder.

• Decorating – Decorate wisely. Well, you can decorate, but take care not to overdo it. That’s the motto! What kind of decorations can you introduce to your minimalist interior space? Greenery is a perfect choice! Home plants in same-sized pots or different sized pots but of the same shape and colour, would look perfect.
• Patterns – Be careful with the patterns. Can you use patterns? Well, if you can do without it then go ahead. But if you need patterns in your life, then this is how to do it. Rules of colour and form apply to patterns as well.
• Natural Light – Let the natural light in. Natural light complements your white and light-coloured surfaces, making your space feel comfortable and spacious.

Minimalist Interior Design Style Ideas for Home Interior

Minimalist design has a lot to explore for the home interiors. Even though it looks strong shaped & very simple, you can very well express yourself through it! To know how we can do it?

Here are the several ideas you can try for your home interior!

• Create an Open Space Plan for Minimalist Style

The minimalists like open space. It is not always necessary to have a large open space, but for that, you can reduce the number of walls in your room. Instead, divide the rooms into sections using bookcases, low cabinets or partitions, decorative tables for fulfilling these criteria.

• Create a Clutter-free & Concealed Space

Clutter is one of the greatest sources of stress in your home. Adopting the minimalist approach will not only bring order to your home interior, but it will give a streamlined and organised appeal. You can conceal all the stuff behind cabinets or in a series of tasteful boxes or baskets & anchor tabletop items on a tray to tie it all together!

• Simplify Your Colour Scheme

If you are going for minimalism, you have to stay away from those crazy colours. The common hues used are white & black if you are going for the cleanest & smooth look. But on the whole, when you are aiming for a truly spectacular minimal environment, just stick to neutral colours & those that show up in nature for a comfortable & sophisticated space.

You should choose a single colour theme to bring the minimalist harmony to your home. If you have a monochromatic space & are using one dominant colour on all key pieces of furniture. It’s important to alter the textures within the colour for contrast and interest. For example, if you have grey sofa/sectionals in your living room, try layering the same colour in different textured pieces. For this, put grey wool pillows on a grey sofa/sectional or if you already have a neutral coloured room, add a burst of colour for an artistic focal point!

The other way to explore minimalism. Look around your room, including accessories, rugs, artwork, window treatments & even furniture and see how many colours are there? Now simplify your colour scheme by eliminating the extraneous colours by keeping it to two or three!

• Balance-Proportion-Harmony

Balance, proportion & harmony are very important aspects to pay attention to in a minimalist design. When space doesn’t have a lot of actual items in it, you have to be even stricter with its basic design rules like balance, proportion & harmony. For e.g. arrange your pillows, artwork or lamps in flanking pairs or asymmetrically to one side. This will make a big difference in how you perceive the space if the placement of items builds up each group through balance or juxtaposition!

The minimalist furniture should be in proportion, which means nothing sticks out as too big or small! There should be harmony among your furnishings; not necessarily everything has to “match” but they should complement & coordinate. If you are going to add something too big or small for remarkable effect. Then either do something really big or small to exaggerate that you are doing something intentionally!

• Accents Materials for Minimalist Style

Minimalist style tends to avoid the ornaments. They keep it simple & strong shaped! However, the accents of colour using flowers on view tables will give the nice touch. Try to use the minimalist designed vase for home decor. You can also use your own idea; the key is function & minimal look you need to achieve. You only need to focus on form, colour & texture!

For e.g. when we talk about textures & colours, keep it simple. Metal is a charming accent to your colour scheme & it doesn’t distract from the flat surfaces of your walls & decor. Glass can also add depth & hard stability to your design without complex textures. Wood can also work to your advantage. If you want to add a natural feel to your minimalism, keep it smooth and polished!

• Light Pattern

Here is where some true art comes from your design! Light can either reveal all the imperfections of a minimalist room or highlight the streamlined simplicity in the simplified horizons.

Sunlight should be able to get in & flow through your room, casting a few strong shadows. The interior light can be diffused or bounced to cause few distractions in your overall design. Lighting in the corners can do an excellent job in place of an overhead light by illuminating a room from all sides & fading in quietly.

• Home Décor

Minimalism is a physical representation of your psychology. The decorations should be simple & thematic. For e.g. If your room is angular, then keep statues, appliances, artwork angular!

Have a focal point in your room, such as a centrally placed piece of minimalist furniture, from which every other element radiates out. To follow the minimalist interior design principle, the interior designer recommends thinking of your room as a grid and being aware of the vertical and horizontal lines you are introducing within it with objects, furniture, art, colour, etc.

By considering all the above ideas, you can create your own minimalist interior design for your home. We hope these minimalist interior design ideas will help you to make perfect minimalist interiors.

What Exactly Does an Interior Designer Do?

An interior designer studies spaces’ and users’ requirements to design functional, safe and beautiful spaces. An interior is in charge of choosing determining features of space including colour, texture, forms and patterns.

Know More Before Becoming an Interior Design!

• Explore and Hone your creative skills

To be an exceptional interior designer, one needs to have an eye for detail, a natural understanding of colours and intuition about space, harmony, balance and a keen eye. One can build on these skills and create a strong foundation to become a successful interior designer.

• What’s the difference between an Interior Decorator and a Designer?

Interior Decorator is not equal to Interior Designer. You might have received a lot of compliments on your design, colour and placement of home decor, but those decoration skills alone aren’t enough to be a good interior designer.

• Interior Design is more than just design

An Interior designer has more technical skills than just designing the spaces. He/she needs to know about different materials, furniture design, be familiar with interior design tools and be able to maintain good relationships with suppliers and clients.

Interior designers need to know about the history of design, the structural integrity of buildings, local codes, regulations and standards, anthropometry, ergonomics, spatial concepts, psychology, computer-aided drawing (CAD), ethics etc. Interior designers, like architects, are supposed to be the Jack of all trades. They need to have interpersonal skills because they need to interact with other interior designers, homeowners, builders, architects, government agents, etc. To become a good interior designer, one needs to be well-rounded.

• It’s NOT about having the same taste

Design is subjective and therefore it is not reasonable to expect the client to like the same things as you. They have hired you as their interior designer for their project, so it is not nice to force your style upon them.

You may work for years as an Interior Designer and never design a home that suits your taste. And that’s okay. You are designing for your client and for their users. It’s about resonating with and implementing their vision. If they insist on bright green walls and red furniture, all you can do is smile and implement it. However, if their decisions might hamper the safety of the users, you can put your foot down.

• You need to have a knack for design

An obvious point but an important one nonetheless. A prospective Interior Designer needs to have a flair for colour, arrangement, architecture and textiles. Interior design is the direction one would choose if they get compliments on their home decor but here are a few other career options.

• Design your schedule

As a freelance Interior Designer (if you chose to go that way), you get to decide your schedule and your hours. However, there might be sleepless nights, hours of revising one drawing as well as hours where you might be doing nothing. In addition to blocking away time for projects, time should be set aside to better your skills, read more about Interior design and learn new software.

• Multi-tasking is essential

As interior designers become successful, the number of projects under their belt increases. To work on multiple projects and juggle multiple clients, suppliers, consultants while making multiple design decisions, one needs to be exceptionally good at multitasking.

• The salary isn’t always great

It is not wrong to expect professionals with a vast (and expensive) education to be paid well. But statistics show that an entry-level interior designer gets paid, at an average, $42,380 per year.

Of course, this is highly dependent on education, work experience, size and location of the company, etc. For example, an interior designer at a furniture company will get paid less than an interior designer working at an architectural firm. Exposure and experience will increase the rate of pay of any professional. And any additional skills like knowledge of local building codes and bylaws will tip the scales in your favour.

• It will take time to build a name

Interior Design is a competitive field. It will take time to build a solid foundation for your business and to get noticed by prospective clients. In the beginning, it is normal to assist family and friends (often on low pay) to build your portfolio. To showcase your work to future clients, you need to have a dazzling and diverse array of works.

One important tip to set yourself apart is to keep updating yourself. The more you know, the better your chances are to get noticed. It is a good idea to follow blogs, twitter profiles and websites to keep in touch with the changing trends. Being in touch with mentors and fellow designers will help you stand apart from the crowd. An added benefit is that new clients are always on the lookout for people who know the history of design as well as the latest design trends.

• It will not be a boring office job

While it might seem like Interior designers just need to sit in front of a computer, in reality, they have to move about quite a bit. There might be meetings with clients, architects, suppliers, consultants, contractors, etc. Moreover, they will have to occasionally visit the site and review the work.

Interior designers need to go to various showrooms, sometimes with clients to understand their needs and limitations.

Are you always being praised for your designing skills? Is your opinion always asked when any room is being redecorated? Are you the first to volunteer for opinions if the furniture is being rearranged or wall colour is being chosen? So, Interior Design might be your forte.

Everyone thinks that Interior Design is not that easy to handle, but it’s not true. To be skillful in any area, one must be consistent and should choose the right place to step in. If you are a creative person thinking of going into the field of Interior Designing, then it’s time to take the leap! There is nothing quite like witnessing your creative ideas come to life. Join and step into your interior design dream to make everyone’s world look beautiful and comfy. Hamstech is the best institute for Interior Design in India with 29+ years of experience. Hamstech offers 5 different courses in Interior Designing including weekend courses. If you don’t want to disturb your daily schedule and pursue this field, join the weekend course to make your dreams come true.

So, why wait? Enroll in the Hamstech Interior Design Course now!