The most important thing to consider before you start decorating, or redecorating, your home or apartment, is what you like. What you want. Do not concern yourself with the current trends, that many home owners seem to follow like lemmings. The most important thing is that you are comfortable in your own home.



There are a few factors that you have to consider. Are you a business person, and will you be entertaining colleagues and bosses in your home? Or do you have a lot of friends whom you'll be entertaining on a regular basis? Or do you prefer to keep yourself to yourself, with only an occasional friend stopping by? In each instance, you may want to decorate your home in different ways.

It's not necessary to decorate your entire house in one single style - you can always use several different styles, one per room. It all depends on what works best for you.

Having said that, the Contemporary style of home decoration is currently popular, and like all other styles, it will never really go out of fashion.

The joy of the contemporary style is that it is a "no muss, no fuss" style. Clutter has given way to sparseness, in-your-face designs to a more subtle decor. Simpleness is the watchword.

The contemporary style extends to all aspects of a room: the walls, the floor, furniture, windows, and accessories.

The minimalist contemporary style eschews bold floral patterns such as you'd find in wallpaper, and replaces this with plain colors - shades of white. In this way, photos, paintings or other wall hangings will stand out the more. Also, the walls should not be overloaded with these wall hangings - to do so blunts the impact. It's like the old cliche, "You can't see the forest for the trees" or in this case, you can't see the trees for the forest!

Simplicity must extend to the floors as well. Hardwood floors with their golden gleam add a warmth to every room, although in winter time they can be cool on the feet! Throw rugs in bright colors can add that necessary "je ne sais quois" to any room. If you like wall-to-wall carpeting, again, choose neutral colors - shades of white, once again to highlight the furniture that rests upon it.

Modern furniture is a question of simplicity, of sleekness. There's no unnecessary ornamentation, Chairs and couches with metallic frames are ideal, although solid wood will never go out of style and will serve to complement a hardwood floor. Sleek occasional tables look nice, but don't clutter every room with too much furniture. You want room to move around.

What about windows? It's always nice to have sunshine pouring into your home, but sunlight does fade the color out of your furniture, paintings and carpet. If possible you should get windows with glass that filter out those harmful UV rays. Shutters or blinds made of wood or metal make a nice touch, and curtains or draperies in a neutral color add the finish.

Going for the contemporary look doesn't have to be expensive. Indeed, since you're going for the minimalist look, you can cut out quite a bit of furniture and save money that way! But the main thing is for you to be happy with your design - for you to feel that it is "livable." With its emphasis on simplicity, contemporary home design could be just right for you.