Australia College of Interior Decor

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You have no idea how many Australians cannot discuss “price”. Rediculous isn’t it! If you are a talented, licensed, professional and you provide a service for someone, then you should have no fear about asking for the money! If you completed substantial amounts of work on a continual basis, then ask for payment on a continual basis!

As an interior designer and manager of a landscape business and demolition company, I have been on both sides of the question of payment

As a consultant, I expect to be paid when I leave the clients premises. And on only one occassion did this not happen in 17 years. How do I get paid? I simply ask for it. I explain to me clients from the first phone call what my terms are and allow them to understand my expectations of the terms of payment. In a way I am educating them. Because they just don’t know what is expected. Why should they? How many times do they have a professional consultant come to their home?

Decorating by the sea Believe it or not there are very specific rules that should be followed when decorating a home by a waterway or by the open sea. The very same elements and principles of design still occur as with any other type of interior design or decoration work, but the way in which the home functions and should be coloured and decorated will change considerably.

To begin with there are some assumptions that we can make in Australia about homes by our waterways. These are that;

1. Land on a lake or the beach will have been purchased at a much higher inflated price than the land in the neighbouring streets that have no direct water access
2. Land in areas where there is a view of a waterway will be higher priced that areas where there are no water views
3. People who purchase inflated prices for such blocks of land are doing so for a view
4. People who are attracted to such areas are those who appreciate nature and the serenity of these watery retreats.

There will be some differences to how such homes are decorated which will rely on the actual out look of the home. Interior design and decoration of these homes will thus depend on the following;

1. Orientation
2. Distance from the water
3. Whether the water is stagnant or moving
4. What rooms face the water
5. Whether or not the house has exterior protection from the effects of the water’s glare

Let us discuss each of these in detail;

Orientation

Where the sun rises and sets over the water view in a waterside home, will have a direct affect on the type of decoration and colour within such a home. It all has to do with the colour and intensity of the light as well as how low the sun’s arc is across the sky.

Distance from the water

How close the house is to the water will determine how much reflection there will be upon the home. When a house is within metres of the waters edge, then the reflection of light on the surface of the water will become part of the lighting within the homes interior. The sharpness of the light will defuse the colours within the home and they will appear washed out. Thus when choosing the colours for walls near to the water’s reflectance, the depth of the colour will need to compensate for the loss of colour, especially if the room is used all day long. The furnishings near the waters edge will also need to have much stronger insulation; to be light reducing and also light fast. Such furnishings will always fade, but wise selection of special darkened reflective linings will minimise the glare into these rooms, when it becomes unbearable to see in them.

Believe me there will be times where the reflectance of such light off water will become unbearable and the rooms will need to be shut up in order to use it. Such time will be when the sun is rising or setting on the room across the water that it is closest to. Even living near water has its complications.

In such rooms exposed to such high reflectance off the water, whites should be avoided. In any situation white as a colour reflects all light off its surface and does not in fact absorb anything at all of the suns rays. Thus as it reflects the light of a white surface, this light simply bounces back into the eyes of the person near it. When white tiled floors are used in a room near to water with a high reflectance of light the use of this colour will double the intensity of the room and just should not be used as it can become absolutely unbearable.

Whether the water is stagnant or moving

When the water is moving as in the case of the sea and waves the reflectance of light off its surface is actually broken up and more diffused and thus the effect on your home less intense than if the water was slowly flowing as in a river or late.

What rooms face the water

In many cases only a part of the home will face the water or have water views. Not everyone can have 180 degrees view! In this case the room that faces the view should be a room where the majority of the family can appreciate the view and hopefully a room where guests may also feel comfortable. Thus if designing a home by the water from the beginning, one must consider this carefully. If however the home is existing and nothing can be done about the room arrangement, then perhaps cantilevered verandas can be added to the exterior wall of the home so that outdoor living can make use of the view. When a family room or kitchen faces the water view, this is a room that will see all aspects of the view with the morning, mid day and afternoon light. The interior decoration and colours should thus be chosen for the time of day in which the most use of the room will be made.

In the family room for example it may be used mostly in the afternoon and evening and the family will probably watch television. They may watch the view for the first few months, but this will wear off after a while). The television will need to be positioned on the wall, which is furthest away from the view, so that it is watched in shadow and not against a backlit backdrop. Otherwise the glare will be behind or beside the television and harm the eyes of the person watching. However the glare from the water view cannot reflect upon the television either or the screen will appear faded or washed out. Thus there will need to be dark isolative window treatments that will act to block out all light when this occurs.

Thus you can see the positioning of rooms in a newly designed home need to be considered be very carefully so that rooms with specific a function can be catered for as well as the water views. Or in some cases rooms with no function other than enjoying the view are placed nearest to the water.

Does the house have exterior protection from the effects of the water’s glare

Exterior blinds, awnings, verandas and pergolas are all forms of exterior protection that are almost essential for all homes near water. They allow for an extra layer of window treatment from the outside.

The reason for this necessity is that all homes by the water have one feature in common, lots of windows. Glass is a poor insulator and lots of heat and coolness is lost through glass. That is of cause unless steps have been taken to use laminated or heat resistant glass, which is not only a new feature of the past decade, but also quite expensive.

Thus it is an easy option to be able add a layer of protection to your windows for light and temperature control from the outside of the glass. Some awning options simply block everything out, whereas some of the more decorative metal or timber slatted louvre blinds allow for internal control of light and heat.

Colour themes

As with all styles of decorating the selection of colour for a sea side or riverside home is often limited. As already mentioned is there is a reflectance of light issue off water close to the home, then white should not be a predominant surface colour for walls, windows floors or ceilings. If white is desired, then it should be left for furniture and accessories rather than other treatments.

Before colours are chosen it is best to consider the following questions;
At the time that the water view is enjoyed the most;

1. Is the view a warm one or a cool one?
2. Is the view in morning or afternoon light?
3. What direction / orientation is the view to the house?
4. When it the water view the dullest?
5. What is the function of the room with the view? (or does the whole house have the view)

Let us use an example of a beach side home on the east coast of Australia. If the house faces east and the living room is the room with the view, what colour scheme would we be best to choose?

1. Is the view a warm or cool one?
2. What the predominant colour of the sea is?
3. Does the view have morning or afternoon light?
4. When is the sea vista at its dullest?

That’s when the sea is at its worst, cold, dull and grey. What is the function of the room with the view? Now that you have ascertained the details there are several decisions that will have already been determined for you. For example the view is predominantly a cool one, especially through the winter months where it is at its worst. Therefore the interior colour scheme should be a warm one to contrast with this.

Secondly what do we all like about the sea the most? Its blue colour! When is that blue colour depressing? When it is underneath dull dark grey clouds and takes on this depressing colour. How can we make this dull view look its best at this time of year? Well we use a complementary colour scheme.

This is a scheme including any two colours that lie directly opposite each other on the colour wheel. Why? Because these two colours can be used to make each other look their brightest and most brilliant, especially when one is used in a small percentage than the other.

Therefore with our dull grey blue cold colour scheme by the sea in winter, if we decorate the interior of the room looking at the view with an orange colour scheme and make a point of dominance of the window framing the view, then the smaller percentage of blue in the view will be made to look “bluer” and more brilliant due to the orange used in the room surrounding it.

Now please remember when I speak in terms of orange and blue I am discussing the vast array of colours available within the full spectrum of these two colours including tints, greys and shades and complementary reductions of each of these colours. The scheme is not limited to the primary and secondary features of basic orange and blue alone. There are even extensions of this colour scheme using a split complementary or double split complementary colour scheme. All of which will create the same function but perhaps introduce a more complex array of colours to use.

This does not mean that the whole house should be coloured in orange and blue either! Because with the various different colours used in any complementary scheme, the main colour in each room can change room by room, so that each area looks independent but somehow part of the whole family of colours used in the whole hole. As long as the scheme is predominantly warm, the contrast will still exist.

Easy isn’t it!

Every day a home owner asks the question, “should we renovate and sell or sell this home as it is?” And every day a home owner gets the renovation bug and spends thousands of dollars on their aging home only to find that they really made no profit on the work after sale.

DIY and home renovation is an extremely enormous trade and market in Australia and with all the inspiring shows we see on television and the radio each day, it is hard not to get the bug! Absolutely everything we need is available at the local hardware and there are even hardware outlet who offer free reno classes.

All that is missing is experience. The experience required to select professional materials and not just buy what is presented in the sale catalogue; the experience to handle the difficulties of the job, to prepare the many different types of surfaces that people are confronted with, and the experience to know what can and cannot be achieved without council permission, without specialised tools or without time to cure products or allow them to settle so that inherent problems do not affect how the finish performs over time.

I can imagine a renovator reading this and saying what rubbish! We finished our home and it looked fantastic and also added $40,000 to the price of our home after selling at auction. But may I ask you who valued the home before and after auction? How many people have you surveyed to find out the percentage of those who lost money revamping their homes because they went to far and over capitalised and were not paid for what they put into their physically time consuming renovation?

The various home shows on television are unfortunately extremely misleading. They price the hundreds of projects that they finish in 2 days for the audience with materials and usually with no labour. They show their teams racing against the clock to finish jobs that should be done carefully over weeks. They paint walls without surface preparation and proper drying time and then the cameras don’t allow you to see how rough the surfaces are unless the light gives away their secret. It all looks so easy.

So what do we do if selling the home is intentional and a profit essential? You need to do a serious market survey and compare your home with what is in your street and area and what they had that you don’t. If you are the best home in your street, then you have already hit the top of your market and it will be hard to predict what you will get. In this situation you are reliant on finding a buyer who is simply as passionate about your home as you are, and hope that an emotional bid may allow your home to hold the new highest street price as a future comparative yard stick for others.

Ask any real estate agent and they will agree, that people are very house proud in Australia. It becomes an issue when they have spent many hard hours of renovation on their home, supposedly increasing the value of their home, and they are then told that it is still worth what it was before the improvement. That they have in fact simply over capitalised. No one wants to be told that such a thing. And because they have seen again and again on Hot Property people renovating and making huge profits on their old homes, that it must always be the case.

I must say that as an Interior Designer and someone who was looking over the past 3 years to purchase investment properties, I was able to walk in and spot the DIY jobs within minutes. Seeing this made me just look harder, for faults that the owners may have been hiding with fresh paint or new floor covers. In eight out of ten cases the paint job was appalling in both the finish, brush strokes and lack of coverage, or in the horrid array of brightly painted walls here and there as supposed features.

Then there were the many curtains that were actually stapled to the walls and pelmets that I knew could never be laundered without pulling them apart and fixing properly. The doors that I saw hung crookedly, the kitchen splash tiles that ran off on angles instead of straight rows and the holes in walls that had been filled not properly sanded and painted over. All of this will cause extra work later to a professional with a high standard of work.

Now let me say that to many people home renovation is fun, exciting and gives you a feeling of such achievement. For this reason I understand exactly why everyone wants to have a go in their own home. That’s the reason why I am an Interior designer myself, its fun! If funds are limited, fun is your motivation and you just want to live in a brightly coloured home that means a lot to you emotionally, then go right ahead! Our homes should be our safe haven, a place where we can do exactly what we want, when we want to.

However if you are redecorating your home to attract attention to a new buyer, then you need to look at the situation from a different perspective. Believe it or not I have seen a brand new granite / polyurethane 6 x 5 m kitchen removed and thrown out because the layout and colours were not the preference of the new owners. I have been called in on thousands of occasions to newly purchased homes to select new colours for new owners.

It actually costs new owners more money than usual to have walls that were painted in deep base colours repainted in lighter hues. Simply because the walls either have to be stripped if the paint job was bad or many coats of paint used to fade out the base colour and then recoat the wall with the new lighter colour.

The most obvious question to ask when renovating a house for sale is what colour to paint it. Colour psychology is a very real area of concern. If you have ever studied colour psychology then you will have some understanding of the effects that specific colours have on individual people. In my experience over the past 17 years, you will be psychologically turning some people off by the colours that you select for your home.

For example did you know that red makes you eat more and that orange / reds should not be used in kitchens unless you have people in a family with eating disorders. In very real and practical terms, if a diet conscious athlete was looking to buy your home and was confronted with an orange or red kitchen (or any combination of these colours, (tints, shades or greys) they may indeed be turned off buying the home based on the way it psychologically made them feel in one of the most commonly used rooms in the home. Blues and greens in contrast are colours that calm the nervous and digestive system down and do not initiate hunger in the majority of people in fact may even act to suppress hunger in many.

Colour is thus a very important addition to any home. You also need to understand it physical characteristics beyond its psychological ones. For example you must understand what colours are warm and cool. Yes this is a very fundamental trait of colours to reflect a warm or cool glow that many people do already know yet last night I actually saw a supposed “interior designer” refer to a grey green roman blind that she had just added to a warm coloured room as “giving the room such a beautiful warm glow”! A silly error.

Why a silly error? Because if you were to put a cool grey green in a room that happened to face due south, then the room would become cold, depressing and dull. Simply because the light is indirect, the room is in shadow most of the time and the colour light given to a room from the south is nothing like the warm glow of the northern sun. Thus a home should be analysed as to what orientation the room face and the colours chosen accordingly. If predominantly cool colours are added to the northern and western rooms, then this will balance out the warm heat applied to these rooms from the northern and western sun that will fall upon them. The same of the southern rooms and to an extent the eastern rooms, where they will have either no sun or just early morning sun and may do well with a warmer selection of colours.

Again I come back to the question of how far do we go when renovating a home for sale. I believe that a professional finish can be achieved with a very minor budget. It would be very worth bringing in a professional painter and painting the home in soft colours that provide the warm or cool contrast that we just spoke of, but that did not dominate the colours within your rooms. That you also invest your budget in hiring new, fresh furniture for the auction or sale period, so that the furnishings were not tired and worn and perhaps modernised the feel of the home.

But do remember to ask agents or companies like Residex for advice on what is an acceptable limit for your renovation work given the area you live in. Who knows the time you waste in redoing the decoration of your home in this economic climate and falling market may even mean a loss of dollars as the market falls if you take to long to get it on the market! I will not forget the many auctions of dilapidated homes that look as if they should have had defective notices from local councils, actually sell for the same or higher prices as newly renovated homes in the same area.

Remember, everyone out there wants to purchase a bargain. And they all hold the same opinion about freshly renovated homes; that have already been purchased and redone by someone else in order to make the profit they may be looking to make also. Why not give your next buyer a home worth renovating! It might be just the thing that attracts them to it.

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Australia College of Interior Decor has recently merged with the Thomson Education Direct.

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