Tell Asda about accessorising and personalising the rooms in your home - £200 Asda Direct voucher up for grabs! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

The folks at Asda would like to know how you accessorise and personalise the different rooms in your home.

Here's what Asda have to say, "We've recently launched our Autumn / Winter Home catalogue in store and online at Asda Direct, full of inspiration for your home at affordable prices. With more than 1000 stylish solutions for your home, we're interested to find out how you accessorise and personalise your home"

So how do you refresh the rooms in your home? Do you add cushions and candles or replace furniture and repaint? Does each room have a particular colour scheme or do you prefer the white, minimalist look? Do you re-arrange or re-accessorise the rooms in your home often, or have they looked the same for the past few years? Is there a particular room youre especially proud of?

Please also take a look at Asda's Autumn / Winter Home Collection and let us know if theres anything that inspires you to get creative in your home

Whatever you do to personalise and accessorise your rooms, we'd love to hear about it.

Everyone who adds their thoughts and ideas will be added into a prize draw to win a £200 Asda Direct voucher.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

[wallartsuk]

Some people choose fabric wall hangings to add that finishing touch to a room that’s walls can sometimes look plain or empty. However how do you know where to hang the wall art?

People think that wall art should be hung at eye-level, but who’s eye level; A child below three foot, a short lady of 5ft or a tall man of 6ft? However this is just hear-say, the best way to hang your wall art is just 6 - 8 inches above the top of the furniture (e.g. table, chair or sofa). This way the hanging wall art looks connected to the room and the furniture.

Have a look at the size of your wall and you may decide that a piece wall art measuring 120cmx90cm is just the right size for your room.

[MichelleMumsnet]

Thanks to everyone who added their comments. The thread has now closed. Congratulations to LaTrucha who won the prize draw!

[lolancurly]

I collect vintage china and ornaments as well as vintage and quirky fabric. I like to make cushion covers with unusual prints and add some of my kitsch vintage china around the house. We also frame our favourite pictures drawn by our little girl and use these as wall art; my eldest son is a design artist too and we have lots of designs that he's done, dotted around the house.

[Aethelfleda]

We love bookshelves and good storage. Our chosen "look" is quite traditional (as opposed to "on-trend") so no teal curtains and everchanging colour schemes over here! I would love to see a greater range of storage with some more innovative designs (your current selection is very standardised).

I've never bought any large-ticket items from Asda but like the selection of small things (cushions, photo frames, fleece blankets) are more my thing as everything has a practical use (my children are too small for ornaments to work! )
And your clothing range is a total lifesaver (esp school uniform).

[LoveSewingBee]

We have a number of very nice furniture pieces which were bought to last. We update rooms reflecting the seasons. So in Autumn, Winter I hang much thicker fully lined curtains in warm colours (our Spring, Summer curtains are in very light, neutral colours). I put warm cushions and throws on the sofa (I tend to make everything myself, either knitting or sewing) and I put thick rugs on the floors.

I also use plants and flowers to accessorize and contribute to the colour scheme. In the winter months I use lots of (fragranced) candles as well. All in all this creates a very different atmosphere. Spring & Summer are very light, fresh, airy. Autumn & Winter, heavy fabrics, warm colours, more closed, bit darker (lots of candles) and nice fragrances (orange, cinnamon, green mandarin, cloves etc.).

I do a similar thing with all other rooms throughout the house.

So basically: changing colours, fabrics and fragrance.

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

When refreshing a room, we might repaint but only if we need to. Mostly it's a change of bedding/cushions etc or something larger occasionally, like an armchair. We recently bought bright pink accessories to give a splash of colour to our black and white bathroom. Cheap, easy to do, and bathroom is still a blank canvas for when someone buys our house.

We enjoy buying local artwork (DH went to art college) so we've got a couple of lovely unique pieces. We tend to then work the room colours around those items. We mix more expensive items with cheaper accessories to keep the cost down. A good choice of functional items (Ikea-style) rather than fussy things, is what I'm most like to buy.

I am especially addicted to white crockery items (easy to mix & match from items bought anywhere). And clocks... love a good clock. I also love good quality storage items, we bought our wicker baskets from Habitat. Expensive but brilliant quality, I wouldn't buy cheap ones. They also had a brilliant range of sizes to choose from. Quirky kitchen storage or functional lounge storage (especially for toys) is always on my radar.

I guess, looking at Asda Direct, lots of it isn't to our taste, we're much more Ikea/Habitat, mixed with unique pieces. I'm much more into function than trendy colours. Probably not helped by the fact our house is tiny so every item in it needs to have a purpose or it's out!!

[WhereAreMyShoes]

We rent and the house is all very beige. Walls, carpets and laminate.
I've got nice colour sofa cushions but the rest is just our furniture plonked in someone else's house.
Being skint means it all looks so unfinished, unsettled and temporary. Even though we'll probably rent forever :(

Maybe I'll look at getting some pictures on the walls (there are loads of nails up already, they're just empty)

[NorkyButNice]

When we moved into our house I was obviously feeling a bit glum as the majority of our rooms are various shades of grey. 3 years later I'm a bit sick of it and could do with lightening the place up!

We've inherited the in-laws' old sofas which are a dingy brown too, they could really do with a nice woollen throw and some cushions.

[serin]

We have 3 DC's, a dog and a cat so we have gone for practicality all the way

Wooden floors on the ground floor and tiles on the kitchen floor.

Living room was meant to have a bit of a French theme going on, but in truth it didn't work very well as the blue paint I used was more 'Tesco Blue' than the faded sophisticated look I was hoping for. We are going to re do it and are in discussion!!

Dining room is more of a music room and has a wall full of books, we don't even have a dining table in there as we eat in the kitchen.

Bathrooms are white and silver and the kids rooms are semi themed.

DS1 has a city scape thing going on in black, white and apple green.

DS2 has a woodland theme (Thanks IKEA)

DD is 16, I think her room is white with lots of Tim Walker prints but to be honest I try not to go in there.

[VanitasVanitatum]

In the kids rooms I bought a lot of second hand solid wood furniture, then painted it cream and used a gloss paint to highlight edges/patterns so that all the pieces matched. The kids chose the gloss colour, and curtains /bed linen match the chosen colour. Works really well..

[HootyMcOwlface]

We have colour themes in the bedrooms, and living/dining room are neutral. One of the bedrooms has a blue theme (curtains, bedding, cushions) and my son's room is yellow with white wood and he has multicolour curtains. I don't have many ornaments as I have allergies and dust frequently. To personalise rooms I mainly put pictures of the family up. I also like adding rugs to give a room a different feel.

[pussinwellyboots]

we've just repainted our bedroom so will shortly get our heads around accessorising. I love photos/pictures, also lots of fabric textures eg blankets/patchwork quilts/cushions etc.

We generally buy furniture second hand as you get a lot more for your money, so we've got quite a mix, some of which I intend to paint to match one another.

I also think lighting is key to making a room feel homely and so we have lots of lamps and different lighting.

[Multilayermummy]

I like to change things up so have plain pale walls (I'm the same with nail polish, like a different colour every 3 days!) that can blend with most colours. I change cushions and swap round the pictures with other rooms, for the girl's room I add fabulous bunting or rugs that can double up elsewhere too.

[FannyPriceless]

We personalise with items that mean something to us, like antique prints or maps we've given each other over the years. The kids' room is basically white but looks bright and colourful due to choice of bedding and being crammed full of favourite toys.

[maxmissie]

We've recently moved into a new house so all the rooms are fairly neutral with no wacky colour schemes/wallpaper. We're just in the process of deciding what to do to each room as most need a lick of paint but none are so bad that we can't live with them for a while.

We would only buy large pieces of furniture if our old ones were no longer useable or broke or were really scruffy or we really needed something in particular! We don't go for full on minimalism (as we have two kids!) but try to keep clutter to a minimum and personalise our rooms with photos, pictures, lamps, cushions and the odd candle or vase. We have been moving furniture round recently to try and get the rooms to work well and might buy the odd bit of small furniture, e.g. shelves, if needed.

[mummyofcutetwo]

Money and space is a bit tight so the way we achieve a new look is to change the little ones' artwork on display. We keep trying to find clever ways of adding more storage too, but we've kind of run out of ideas.

Having looked at the Asda home catalogue I'm thinking of getting a new duvet set for DH and me and some bright towels for DSs.

[DoctorGilbertson]

Well, we have lots of books that are on every surface and half of the floor in our house. I really want book shelves to put them on. Like this direct.asda.com/Reykjavik-Bookcase---Black-Ash/001710641,default,pd.html but full height. If ASDA is looking for some customer requests I would happily pay an extra fee for them to assemble the cheap flat pack furniture that I have bought at the same time as delivering them.

[Katz]

We tend to keep the walls and furniture neutral meaning that colour can be injected through the small things such as cushions. I'm not into nics-nacs so we don't have many if those. Just the odd thing.

[lottietiger]

I tend to stick with the same furniture and re paint it every year for a new look. Curtains are pretty expensive so i tend to get plain ones that last and accessorise with cushions, pictures, vases etc. Kitchen wise i do buy new crockery & glasses and i find that table mats need replacing fairly reularly so keep the colour theme with those, a blind and seat cushions. We like to pick things up cheaply from travelling and charity shops and adapt to suit our rooms.

[Geniene]

I tend to refresh rooms, rather than give them a complete haul over. I use accessories such as candles, decorative hearts, wall stickers and photos to update a room, or add a colour accent.
The bathroom is the easiest to do - every now and then I buy really bright towels and a bath mat to match, then a candle in a matching colour, it makes a huge difference.

[everythinghippie29]

We bought our place a year ago and it certainly needed 'updating' due to redundancies and now a surprise pregnancy, we've not got as far along with that as we would have liked but its still home! Its amazing how little accessories and quality bits and peices can improve a room!

[beeelaine]

i like to change the least expensive items to make a new look. We are doing up our home now but in my last one I kept to the same colour scheme in each room and just changed the accessories/curtains and ornaments. I used to refresh now and again with a lick of paint usually of the same kind of colour but a different shade slightly, its just too much money to change carpets so usually the colour scheme ran with the colour of the carpet although i once had a purple carpet on a staircase and that was a nightmare! I think its nice to get new cushions now and again because they look tired after a year of being crushed. Sometimes i just re-arrange the furniture for a change and to make it feel different.

[mindingalongtime]

Neutral tones throughout the house, same for the carpets, gives a feeling of calm. I hate 'busy' accessories, fine in other peoples' homes, not mine!

[KnottedAnchorChief]

Our rooms are full of books, inherited furniture, soft furnishings I've made or others have made for me and paintings I've collected over the years from places I've travelled. I love it as everything around us is personal, filled with memories and is irreplaceable. It started when we first bought a house and had no money to furnish it and since then we've just kept on collecting rather than choosing to buy stuff.

My house is a minimalists nightmare! It's also a bit scruffy as we don't replace things unless they cease to be functional really. It's also not a fashionable house, although the whole shabby chic movement made us ahead of the trend for a while!

I can't imagine decorating just to keep up with fashion but I do remake cushion covers now and again as that's a no cost way to ring the changes.