IT'S certainly not the ideal financial climate to move up the property ladder. So if you're bored with your bedroom and your living room is making you listless, why not overhaul your home with a bit of clever decorating instead?
If anyone is going
to inspire you to make some fabulous and inexpensive changes during the credit crunch, it's author Stafford Cliff, photographer Christian Sarramon, and their new collaboration, 1000 Home Ideas. As with all of Cliff's previous books, such as The Way We Live series, the emphasis is firmly on the photographs; this is a coffee-table browse in the most visually indulgent sense. You can flick through images of a thousand desirable residences worldwide, all of which have been picked from an archive of photographs taken over Sarramon's 20-year career as a snapper.
To run alongside this sneak peek into the aspirational houses of the achingly chic, Cliff, previously creative design director of the Conran Group, provides sage words of advice designed to awaken our creativity.
"No home is ordinary or dull, and nor does it need to be. It's just a matter of opening your eyes and seeing the possibilities," he says. "Whether it's a new window, a glass door, an old cupboard or a brightly coloured rug, ideas are everywhere and every homeowner needs as many as they can get. Inspiration can come from visiting a store, a hotel or a country house. But often it's from something in a book, a magazine, or on TV. Sometimes it can be found by simply visiting a neighbour."
Unfortunately we're pretty sure that we don't live next door to anyone who could provide the kind of eye-candy that gets a mention in this book. Anyway, the section entitled Colour/ Texture is a celebration of homes that could surely only be situated in a sultry Mediterranean country. There are halls painted in a pure Yves Klein blue, bedrooms with walls slathered in a sexy fuchsia eggshell and a gorgeous Versailles-influenced dining room painted and furnished in virginal white (the must-have shade of only the very rich or extremely clean).
However, it's even more interesting to view the less obvious effects that unexpected uses of colour and texture can have. A bijoux wet-room and sauna that has been painted black isn't, as you might imagine, as depressing as an angst-ridden teenager's bedroom. In fact, instead of being claustrophobic, it's a soothing, Japanese-style haven. Another unusual bathroom features a sunken bath and all the usual mod cons but, rather than being painted white, everything has been clad in rough-textured chunks of oak. This unexpected finish to a room, which traditionally has clean lines, gives it the feel of a luxury ski chalet.
Of course, these aren't the kind of ideas you could easily replicate in a small city flat. However, Cliff has thought of us too, with his chapter on Quiet Corners – after all, everyone, no matter the size of their pad, needs a cosy armchair by a window. This section of the book shows us how to create this "room of one's own"-style space. You could factor into your pied-a-terre a quiet corner for reading, a slot for studying or a secret place to write your novella. The book shows us old-fashioned bureaus perched in sunny spots and modern Perspex desks making otherwise neglected spaces useful. Whatever you want to use this cubby-hole-sized space for, Sarramon's photographs illustrate the fact that this area of the house must have the best light, natural or otherwise.
"A comfortable chair and an efficient lamp can create one of the most beguiling and special places in your home," says Cliff. "Everyone will have a preference over its position – a spot where you get the morning sun, a nice view or simply a bit of peace and quiet."
Almost all of these rooms appear to be up in the eaves of homes, utilising the huge windows that allow the light to flood in. One of these loft hideaways is being used as a classic study. That is, if you just look at one section. The rest of the room has been ever so slightly upgraded by hanging a glass chandelier from the ceiling, installing a huge roll-top bath in the corner and positioning an ostentatious red velvet throne proudly by the staircase.
Unless the owner has paid for an interior designer to create this room, this could only have been pulled together by an artistic person. The little touches of quirkiness and personality – the red, floral lampshade, vintage mirrors and even the old- fashioned wire wastepaper bucket – are what really make it work. These, and the pictures on the walls, give a little indication of the type of person who might spend their time here.
"Designers and artists love to surround themselves with paintings, prints and framed mementoes of all kinds," says Cliff. "Explorers bring back maps, posters, bus tickets and things that remind them of their journeys. Parents will put up school drawings. But for some, having the confidence to hang personal quirky things on the walls, takes a certain bravery."
In the Walls of Wonder section, our confidence is boosted by the sight of some colourful displays of personal possessions that have been pinned, nailed and tacked to interiors walls. Some of these boast the owner's collections of 19th-century paintings or spiky caricatures.
Others have displayed huge collages of photos of family and friends. It's these touches that really make a house a home, and Cliff agrees that they can be just as appealing to visitors.
Cliff explains: "Displaying such items generates the most compliments and engages the eye for the longest time." sm
• 1000 Home Ideas by Stafford Cliff and Christian Sarramon is published by Quadrille, priced £20.
The full article contains 997 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
