Style your bathroom to perfection with these stunning and functional lighting ideas.

When building, renovating, or even just decorating a home, most people think first of how they’ll style large spaces such as their kitchen, living room or master bedroom. The humble entryway is often overlooked as a key design area, even though from a style perspective, it’s actually one of the most important rooms in the house.

You only have one chance to make a stunning first impression, so it’s important that the first area your guests enter feels welcoming and reflects your personal style. Additionally, a well-styled foyer can affect your own mood – making you feel happy and comfortable as you arrive home or head out for the day – or not.

In this week’s episode of Selling Houses Australia, Shaynna flaunted the power of smart lighting to transform a hippy home into a cool coastal retreat.

The challenge
In order to live a more sustainable lifestyle, yoga loving David and Margie wanted to relocate from their 4-bedroom Central Coast home in Bensville to a smaller house. But the badly renovated kitchen and dated interior was putting off buyers more interested in modern living than good karma! Shaynna and Charlie used all their renovating smarts to create a beautiful, contemporary coastal home.

Facade Before & After

This blog was written by guest blogger and Design School founder Jenna Densten.

Dreading the winter blues? Many of us experience mood shifts during the colder, darker days of winter – me included! But luckily, we’ve found there are easy ways to boost your spirits with the right lighting.

When Josh and I design any home, we look to create a haven that evokes feelings of softness, warmth and relaxation – styling with the Naturals trend is our perfect antidote to the craziness of the outside world.

Setting the scene
Natural styling using neutral tones is becoming increasingly popular in the interior design scene this year, as is touchable textures and organic shapes. In my eyes, using these colours in combination with the right lighting throughout our home sets the scene for relaxed living. For our most cosy Winter yet, I’ve selected a few new lights for our home that fit our style while keeping us happy and healthy.

The

It might surprise you to know that the one design element that has the most impact on how your home looks and feels is lighting. And yet, it’s also one of the most overlooked, and one that people often get wrong.

Follow our 5 fail-safe rules to get your lighting right
1. Keep it simple.
Decluttering is much more than a fad, it’s also a great concept to apply to your lighting. You should create a sense of simplicity in your home and choose designs that are sleek, functional and cohesive. Oversized lighting pieces work beautifully as a standout feature, so avoid the urge to add other large elements that will create a sense of clutter.

Quirky styling and off-beat art may be cool, but unfortunately, it’s not a great idea when you’re trying to sell your home. In this week’s episode of Foxtel’s Selling Houses Australia, Shaynna, Charlie and Andrew had to convince a real estate agent in Inverloch Victoria that her unique style might not be a match for buyers.

The challenge
Yes, you can have too much timber! This house was filled with timber beams and high wooden ceilings which made it feel dark and dated. Coupled with leaky skylights, mad mosaic flooring and chunky architecture, even Fleur’s real estate credentials didn’t help find a buyer.

Before:

While it’s always a good thing to be up to date with the latest design trends, it’s another thing altogether to be a slave to them. The key to creating a home that reflects your personality and feels liveable is to avoid anything too ‘matchy-matchy’ and explore the amazingly fresh effect mixing materials, colours and textures can have in your home.

More and more we are seeing interior designs that use a mix of contrasting trends. Whether it’s a subtle or striking contrast, this concept delivers a delightfully unexpected look and provides depth and dimension to a space.

This blog was written by guest blogger and Design School founder Jenna Densten.

In all our renovations, including our not-so-huge (think tiny) cottage, I’ve always adopted the theory that lighting, texture and colour are the three most important design elements to consider if you’re looking to create a feeling of space and continuity.

The Naturals trend
I’ve always been a huge fan of the Naturals trend

Who would have thought a home smack bang on Sydney harbour would be unsellable! But that was the case in this week’s episode of Foxtel’s Selling Houses Australia when Shaynna, Charlie and Andrew were faced with transforming a run-down disaster in Balmain East into a home worthy of the multi-million-dollar views.

The challenge
Would you pay $4 million for a 2-bedroom home with one tiny bathroom? Neither would anyone else as Fran and Fred discovered. While the house had magnificent harbour views, the restrictive heritage listing and half-finished renovations turned buyers off.

“Hey Google, turn my house into a buyer’s dream!”
With its heritage listing, Shaynna had to work with the original blueprint of the house. Using a Google Home Mini