It must be lovely to own a brand new property, all rooms empty like blank canvases waiting to be decorat-ed!

Some of us have a hotchpotch of furniture – maybe chairs that don’t match – or it might be that the home you are living in right now isn’t yours anyway because you are renting, or you simply can’t afford to up-date.

Traditional Portuguese homes – indeed all Mediterranean homes – follow a similar pattern that works so well, white walls, dark wood or wrought iron furniture, beautifully decorated tiling on floors or walls, the starkness lifted by warm colourful throws, cushions or curtains, with kitchens and bathrooms often having various shades of strong blues - all being very traditional – together with glimpses of blinding sunlight through slatted blinds.

I am sure you, as a reader, must have an interest in home décor – you probably wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t. It might be that you are looking to redecorate, or are looking for cheap ways to put some ‘pizzazz’ into your home, but there are a few things that must be absolute no-nos for the discerning home decorator, and should be avoided like the plague

These are a few trends from the past that are on my list of my personal hates:

  • Things preserved forever in clear resin toilet seats – barbed wire, fish, shells, whatever - all should be binned!
  • Crocheted dolls with skirts covering a lone loo roll (how sad they look when you take the loo roll out, and why disguise something that has to live in the bathroom?)
  • Overdoing a colour scheme- I saw an all yellow bathroom once, everything was yellow from towels and walls to soap, handbasin, floor, the lot.
  • Wallpaper covering everything – fronts of doors, cupboards, drawers, walls (how do you find your way out I wonder)
  • Floral Wallpaper and matching bed sheets – and probably lamps and lampshades too.
  • Round beds – I always wondered why.
  • Fitted carpet in bathrooms – urgh for obvious reasons!
  • And last, but not least, taxidermy - anything stuffed and hung on a wall is just a bit too creepy for me!

But ultimately it’s always down to personal choice, after all, you are the one having to live with it, and maybe you have your own items you could add. But it could be that something on my list is something you can’t resist!


Author

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan