How to turn your home into a relaxing winter haven
Anthea Turner gives her top tips on how a few simple touches can turn your tired rooms into a blissful home
With winter now upon us, having a relaxing, cozy and blissful home is even more important as we draw the curtains on the cold outside and try and get comfy for the long dark months ahead.
But if, when you look around your rooms, all you can see is clutter, mess and tatty old furniture and fittings, then that blissful feeling of winter coziness can be hard to achieve.
Anthea Turner, the queen of good housekeeping, knows all about how to turn cold and unwelcoming rooms into a homely haven and she’s joined up with COTTON USA to help Brits get their houses looking stylish and cozy for winter.
Watch our video where Anthea gives her advice on using simple techniques and quality, natural fabrics to create the home you’ve always dreamt of.
Popstar turned home wear designer opens the doors to her beautiful country home
In a rare and exclusive glimpse into her private life, Pearl Lowe grants access to her beautiful Somerset home. Pearl swapped the Primrose Hill set for a move down to Somerset and shows us around her favourite rooms, showcasing her innovative design ideas in her country abode.
Pearl’s passion for design extends beyond her own home, having previously demonstrated a keen eye for interiors as a cushion and curtain designer. Pearl’s enthusiasm is evident as she shows the viewer from room to room, highlighting her love of colourful, unique wallpapers, which adorn the walls throughout her house.
Whether you are an occasional decorator, or a seasoned pro at home improvements, keeping a consistent theme throughout your home without compromising each individual style can be a challenge. Melanie Adams, a wallcoverings expert, suggests picking the right wallpaper for your hallway is the key to tying together all the different design themes.
In this video in association with wallpaperdirect.co.uk Melanie advises Pearl on how best to dress her hallway, with international designer Jeff Banks on hand to help pick the perfect wallpaper to compliment her existing decor and complete her country home.
Top Tips From Interior Designer Linda Barker Create A Boutique Hotel- Style Oasis In Your Bedroom With Small Touches Of Quality
Spring is the perfect time to spruce up your living space, and you don’t have to pay designer prices to transform your bedroom into a boutique hotel-style oasis. Interior designer Linda Barker has teamed up with COTTON USA to reveal how to revamp your home with small touches of quality and a little creativity.
1. Inject Colour: Indulge you creative side in the bedroom by decorating with beautiful restful shades of lavender or deeper mulberry colours. Paint a panel behind the bedhead wall or along the largest wall in your room if you want a clean fresh look, or paint all walls for a 'wrap around' comforting nest of soothing colour.
2. Crisp, Clean Sheets: Refresh a tired bedroom decor using gorgeous new sheets, pillows and duvets. Classic whites will always look great and treat yourself to luxurious U.S. cotton sheets, for comfort and softness. Keep an eye out for the COTTON USA Mark - its trusted trademark can be found on products featuring premium U.S. cotton. It is quality fabrics and finishing touches like this that make a significant impact to the overall look and feel of a room.
3. Keep It Fresh: Throw open the bedroom windows at the first signs of Spring to make your bedroom smell fresh. A posy of flowers placed on the bedside table is a simple but elegant touch. Seasonal flowers are always best - cut the flowers low and arrange these casually in a sturdy glass vase.
4. Stay Natural: Natural materials are a 'must have' for the bedroom - anything else simply doesn't come close. Combine breathable cotton bed linen with a casually draped throw at the base of the bed for simple but chic bed dressing and additional comfort if the nights are chilly.
5. Define Your Room: An area rug is a wonderful way of defining an area. Try one that complements the room. Lay it at an angle beneath your coffee table.
6. Go Bold In The Bathroom: Bathrooms are often overlooked in decorating terms but these are intimate rooms where often a bold choice of colour can be uplifting and invigorating. Match a teal coloured eco wall paint with gorgeous, vibrant cotton hand and bath towels for a bold new look that will bring renewed energy into your bathroom.
7. Hide Clutter: Hide bathroom potions and pills away in a mirror fronted cabinet and display only those that are seriously pretty or expensive. A lovely vintage metal table is often a perfect place to display gorgeous glassware and bath and body lotions. Also make sure your bedroom is free of disturbing clutter. Use natural wicker baskets to hide away laundry, magazines or books to keep everything in its place.
8. Get Hanging: Towel rails can often use up valuable space in a small bathroom, but often the consequence of not having one is damp wet towels cluttering up the bathroom floor. Fix attractive clothes hooks in a neat line along an uninterrupted wall to encourage good 'hanging practice' and make your coloured towels into a kind of living art work, using a combination of attractive colours.
Anthea Turner’s top tips for making sure your home is always guest ready
If the first thing you do when you walk into a friend or family members home is notice how tidy it is, then join the club. According to a new study, a picky two thirds of us admit we notice if a house is messy, smelly or untidy within five minutes of entering. A whopping 60% of us pick up on the smell, while over half of us admit we scan the house to make sure it’s clean.
This is probably why a fifth of us are constantly stressed about not being ready for unexpected visitors and why an overwhelming 45% of us would even consider hiding out and not opening the door when friends and family turn up without warning.
And who is the one person we most dread turning up unexpectedly? Well, a quarter of those polled by Ambipur Destinations say a knock on the door from the mother-in-law is enough to get us breaking into a cold sweat, while a fifth say it’s our friends who induce the most panic.
To help you make sure your home is guest ready this summer, domestic goddess Anthea Turner and have teamed up to share their “essential entertaining tips” to stop you from cowering behind the curtains;
1.If you need to make a quick sweep around the house to clear up, make sure you keep a box or cupboard free where you can put all your unwanted clutter so surfaces look clear, neat and tidy.
2.If you have more time to clean, make sure you only tackle the surfaces that are going to be seen or used. Allow yourself ten to fifteen minutes for each room if possible and grab a new clean cloth and wipe every surface you see.
3.Ensure your home is filled with wonderful inspiring scents to welcome guests when they enter. The new AmbiPur Destinations collection uses real perfume essence and essential oils and fragrance inspired by nature, guaranteed to create a rich scent sensation and exotic ambiance in your home.
4.Make sure you have a few chilled beverages kept in the fridge to offer guests and make you all feel at ease when they first arrive.
5.Take a minute to breathe and relax before your guests arrive. Ensuring your mood is calm can set the mood for the remainder of the evening.
