Kickstart 2018 with some red hot but not very expensive decorating ideas for your home. Shake off the winter doldrums, and get creative when it comes to your kitchen, your floors and even your ceilings. Read on for some ideas:

Decorate Your Ceiling

When you look up at your ceiling, what do you see? An uninspiring pendant lamp? Water stains? Now is the time to make your ceiling as much an area of interest as the furniture or your Oriental-style rug. You can do this easily by decorating it with geometric patterns. This does not have to be at all expensive if you use stencils.

Pick out a design that will complement the decor of the rest of the room. The bigger and bolder the pattern, the better. Buy the stencil and a light adhesive to make it adhere firmly to the ceiling. Next, find the center of your ceiling. It is probably not where you think it is. When you find it, start stenciling from there and move outward. Use a foam roller, dip it in paint, blot it until it is almost dry, and pass it over the stencil vertically.

Match Your Timber Flooring With Marble

Wood and marble are beautifully contrasting materials, with wood being a warm, living material and marble cool stone formed by millions of years in the earth. The combinations can be nearly endless. You can pair white marble counters, peninsula tops or kitchen island tops with dark walnut flooring or pale European oak flooring with a fireplace surround of black marble with gold veins. Another lovely idea is to use radiant heat beneath the timber flooring, which imparts a lovely, sensuous warmth to bare feet on chilly mornings.

Marble in the Kitchen

Don’t be afraid of marble in the kitchen. Marble is not only beautiful but retains coolness. It is just the thing for rolling out pastry. If an entire counter of marble is too rich for your blood, a marble insert in a granite or slate countertop might do the trick. Just make sure to seal the marble every other year or so. You will know it needs sealing if water no longer beads up on the surface. Even if marble is stained, a poultice should clear it up if it’s put on right away.

Moody Dark Colors

Dark, moody colors don’t necessarily have to be depressive. Sometimes, they make you calm and contemplative, which is why they are good to put in bathrooms. Imagine soaking in a tub surrounded by slate gray walls with black ceramic tile on the floors. Maybe the wall mounted vanity has a black granite top with a copper vessel sink and an angular, wall-mounted waterfall faucet. If it’s all too gloomy, relieve it by installing a skylight or a sun tube that drops light straight into your bathwater, a spray of white orchids on the vanity top or bright, sunken lights in the ceiling.

Bring Out the Plants

Healthy, thriving plants are not only beautiful, but they even clean the air in a room. Some plants do this better than others. The weeping fig, for example sucks up formaldehyde. Put it in a bright window and make sure the soil is kept moist but not soggy.

When it comes to plants that don’t need much care, the snake plant must be the champion. This plant can thrive in conditions of low light, bad soil and neglect. If you put it in a north facing window, water it now and then and fertilize it every month or so during the growing season, it may reward you with a stalk of greenish white flowers. It is also great for cleaning the air. The snake plant even produces oxygen at night when other plants are busy emitting carbon dioxide.

Spots of green around the house, such as green toss pillows or green ceramics, put people in mind of spring and freshness.

Adding a bit of pizzazz to your decor in the new year says a firm goodbye to the old year, which is especially lovely if the old year was a bit stressful. It allows you to welcome the new year with hope, optimism and boundless energy.

By Bob Gorman Freelance Write

email: bob.gorman@go8.com.au