From cushions to flooring to house plants – gorgeous inspiration for your home design

Juliet Love packs a stylish punch with her beautiful hardcover book Love Style. Complete with pink trims and a bright pink ribbon place marker, the book is a picture of elegance without even opening the cover.

Juliet is the interior designer, stylist and presenter who has appeared on Chanel 7’s Morning Show. Juliet has her own business, named Love Style, and has now authored a book by the same name. The book has eleven chapters beautifully illustrated with full-colour photos, dedicated to inspiring readers to create beautiful surroundings in their own homes.

I admit to being a big fan of the home renovation shows on television although I haven’t applied much of the information to my own home, unfortunately! I loved the advice on where to find your inspiration. Juliet listed a number of ideas such as identifying a piece of furniture that you want to keep and using it as a foundation for the rest of the room.

Juliet does the hard yards, explaining how to maximise space in your home, putting lighting to the best use, choosing colours and textures and sticking to a budget. What it often comes down to is being able to get rid the space of clutter so that you can make a fresh start. Juliet explains this beautifully – it is much easier to see the room through fresh eyes with the room emptied of your usual possessions. She then advises buying a couple of show-stopping articles for the room, which do not necessarily have to be pieces of furniture. Juliet points out that light fittings are great attention grabbers which allow you to spend less on other furnishings.

Let colour be your friend, advises Juliet. Paints are now made to adhere to almost any surface, providing you prepare the item beforehand. A glossy surface can make an old piece of furniture feel like new. Juliet demonstrates the difference colour can make by repainting a dark timber kitchen with white paint and adding new cupboard handles.

Chapter ten is devoted to flooring, and Juliet points out that we need to consider such things as the amount of foot traffic that a room with receive, along with the acoustics of the room, colour, durability, the climate and any allergies of household members.  Carpets will always harbour dust and dirt because of their nature, so hard floors are the best option for allergy sufferers. Juliet covers all the hard floor options available in the showroom, pointing out the advantages and limitations of each.

The final chapter provides guidelines to accessorising your space. Here Juliet provides guidance so that we can all achieve the finishing touches to a room which are so pleasing to the eye. As well as discussing cushions, mirrors, art work and architectural features such as moulding and panelling; Juliet gives a list of unstoppable house plants which will survive inside the house. Among her suggestions are ones that I have tried and found to be hardy indoor specimens – spider plants, peace lilies and philodendrons.

Styling tips for the coffee table are included in the last chapter. She advises us to think about giving your coffee table a makeover with new paint or a new surface on top. Place a rug under the coffee table, and then consider what you will place on top of it. Juliet’s recommendations are to include an ornament, an element from nature, something to add a punch of colour, and perhaps a candle to lend a pleasing aroma to the room. I think a copy of Juliet’s book will add a little something to my coffee table.

Love Style by Juliet Love is available now.

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