It’s official! You’ve received the keys for your brand new Shared Ownership property and you’re now a homeowner. The homebuying process suddenly feels all the more worthwhile. Now, it’s time for you to make it your own, but with so much choice available that’s no easy feat.
We spoke with Paul Garland, Creative Manager at Andrew Henry Interiors, and designer of our Horlicks Quarter show home to get you some styling tips for your home.
Find inspiration everywhere
Spending hours searching Pintrest or Instagram to find your dream design can be overwhelming. Why not let everyday life form part of your inspiration – from the calming feeling at your local park, to the flashes of colour in your wardrobe. Consider taking photos of the objects and places that appeal to you; you can add these to a mood board to help create your perfect design.
For our show home Paul took his inspiration from the “organic and industrial style” of the Horlicks Factory and the surrounding area. He brought together the industrial “elements of metals and woods” through the choice of fixtures and paired these with the “natural colours” of the beautiful, landscaped gardens at the heart of the Horlicks Quarter development.
Get creative
Buying a new build home with shared ownership can provide many benefits, including: greater energy efficiency, lower maintenance costs and often a pre-installed contemporary fitted kitchen. It also provides the perfect blank canvas for you to free your creativity and let your personality shine through.
A great example of this is the hallway; often painted in a single neutral colour and very functional in their design. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with this approach, an exciting alternative might be to add a feature paint colour and accent stripe along with artwork to bring the hallway into focus and make for a more engaging space.
Paul commented: “Sometimes what people do in their entrance hallway is add a feature mirror, so when you walk in you see yourself straight away… doing something different such as adding artwork helps to create a new look.”
Find new ways to utilise your space
Deciding how to best designate areas of your home to create useful spaces can be a challenge, especially when it comes to open-plan areas, as there are plenty of configurations available. However, previously unused nooks of space in areas behind doors and under sloped roofs can prove to be very useful ways to create additional zones in your home.
For our show home Paul located the home office space behind the door in the open-plan kitchen/dining/living room, he commented: “It’s an often-overlooked space; I think it’s a good way to not encroach in any other part of the room, but also not take up space in the bedroom… it makes a nice little tucked in area.
It shows that in an apartment you can create lots of zones, here for example we’ve got your living, dining, kitchen, and home office together.”
You can also change how you use current zones in your home to add extra functionality or space. Paul notes: “In the dining area there’s 4 chairs, but you could have benches with upholstered cushions to sit on instead, these can be tucked under the table when not in use and create more space. Likewise, you could experiment with a mixture of chairs and an upholstered bench. Here are some benches we like:
Jackson Dining Bench, £215 from Dunelm
SKOGSTA Bench, £50 from IKEA
Gastro Dining Bench, £179 from Cult Furniture
We’ve also added a couple of bar stools to the breakfast bar, again, this creates an alternative space to enjoy your breakfast, drink your morning coffee, or read the paper.”
Trends to look out for
There’s a constant stream of new trends arising and gaining popularity, so we asked Paul to pick out some we can expect to see throughout 2023.
“For spring you are looking at bright colours, with Moroccan or Mediterranean styles”, picture sea blues, terracotta and brown earth tones, and copper and gold for a metallic twist.
“Also, Pantone have announced magenta as their colour for 2023 so you will be seeing a lot more pinks and fuchsia.” Here’s an interesting article from Elle Décor on colour trends for 2023.
Lastly, sustainability will undoubtedly continue to be a key trend so we can expect to see lots of wooden fixtures in homes, as well as plenty of natural colours including forest greens and browns, citrus and berry hues, and stormy greys.
Want to know more about shared ownership and if it’s right for you? Click here
All of our homes at Horlicks Quarter are now sold. To discover our other properties available in Slough, click here.