WALES AT HOME GUEST COLUMNISTS | ABIGAIL AHERN ON HER NEW BOOK
Interiors expert, Abigail Ahern
Photography by Graham Atkins-Hughes
ABIGAIL´S WAY: UPDATING YOUR HOME
With her new style guide having just hit the bookshelves, and women everywhere racing to bag their own copy of Abigail Ahern´s ´A Girl´s Guide to Decorating´, Wales at Home with thought it only right that we ask Abigail to share her top design tips with us first hand.
Q. Wales at Home asked: ´How can we easily update our home and what are your best interior design tips?´
A. ´My inspirational new interiors book, ´A Girls Guide To Decorating´, Quadrille, £16.99, is all about updating your home with simple quick fix ideas that don’t cost the earth but do make your friends jealous…Often, at times , our homes tend to be a little more crash than flash, a little more sad than happy – busy work schedules and hectic social lives means our homes take the brunt – but listen up! There is nothing like a few quick fix revamps to sort things out.
A beautiful home is a happy home and with a pinch of creativity you can turn gloomy ´Plain Jane´ rooms into an Aladdin’s cave of gorgeousness without spending loads of money. Yes it involves DIY but DIY in a very lazy Sunday afternoon kind of way – AND its easy, it ups your style ratings and its super addictive.
1. Decisions, decisions
First things first: choose your style. The hottest trend in decorating today is that anything goes. In designer lingo this is called eclectic – unrestrained, without rules and individual. If this hodgepodge style bothers you then opt for something more uniform and structured; anything is OK as it’s all about filling your homes with things you love.
2. Hey, Good Looking!
The key to achieving a very successful look is to continually think about the basic proponents in design. So you want a gorgeous pad that is harmonious and balanced but at the same contrasts and surprises the eye. Play around with scale, play around with colour but have a unifying element which seamlessly holds the whole design together – that could be colour, texture or your choice of furnishings.
3. Style-wise
Style is completely determined by personal preference and it´s totally acceptable to blend and mix styles and eras or keep it all the same. In my pad shabby chic sits alongside industrial high tech, coupled with a combo of glamour and quirkiness. Yikes – but it works
4. Some quick fix ideas
There are tons of quick fix improvements you can make but it´s all about being creative, re-working and reinventing pieces that cost next to nothing. For instance you can add character to your pad by affixing plaster or polystyrene mouldings to ceilings to give some architectural pizzazz. Boring old door handles can be replaced with your very own customised ones - think glamorous, glossy and elongated. Walls can be transformed with the intoxicating power of paint and wallpaper, and mirrors can double the sense of space.
Storage can be made stylish. Fuddy-duddy vintage finds can be re-sprayed and embellished to give them a modern jolt; spraying old bits of furniture is one of my favourite things to do. Not only because the power of paint is so transformative – but, if you opt for glossy vividly bright colours, your new piece will look very rock and roll and super expensive.
Off-the-shelf shelves can be fattened up by simply boxing out with MDF to look galleresque and stairs can be turned global by nailing an assortment of tribal textiles to the treads (these are easily found at boot fairs and antiques markets at next to nothing).
A dollop of imagination, a smidge of resourcefulness, coupled with some insider decorating tips is all that you need to create a place of your dreams and your friends exceedingly jealous!´
For more information on Atelier Abigail Ahern - Abigail´s online retail store, visit her website, www.atelierabigailahern.com.
