Does your living room need updating but you don’t know where to start?

Step 1
“Start with a fabric you love and then worry about what to do with it.”
High street department stores, specialist haberdasheries or even markets are great places to find a good selection of materials. Or you may find an accessory, such as a rug, throw or cushion that catches your eye.
Whatever you choose, this will form the basis of your colour palette for the room and gives you something to build on.
Step 2
Use pattern to pick up colours
Patterned fabrics are great for dressing up a room and giving it a fresh look. They can be used in a number of ways:
Cover furniture or parts of furniture, from a chair cushion to an entire sofa
Create panels or borders for curtains
Cover a screen. A useful style tip for the ‘pattern-novice’ as the screen can always be re-covered or moved to a different room if you change your mind. Another benefit is that you can take it with you when you move house
Stripes can bring together a range of colours and can be useful for giving you a palette to work with.

Texture
Texture is a designer's way of adding three-dimensional quality to a space.
Texture relies on natural light and lighting effects within a room, to show its diverse character and ability to change colour and pattern.

Matt versus gloss
Different types of texture can either add a feeling of luxury or simplicity. The smooth, hard surfaces, often associated with sophisticated contemporary interiors, can be complemented by deep pile rugs and soft upholstery.
Matt surfaces in dark colours soak up light and will add depth and distance eg deep blue ceilings imitating the sky. Traditional distemper paint gives a beautiful powder-matt finish to ceilings or use matt emulsion for easy application.
Glossy lacquered kitchen doors are smart, chic and reflect light, but they can accentuate noise levels, particularly when combined with stainless steel, granite or slate work surfaces.

The current, consumerist habit of chucking out furniture every few years is bad news for the environment. In order to begin being more eco-friendly in your interior, the first question to ask yourself before you buy is "Do I really need it?" Do you have anything else that will suffice? For example, can an old table be restored? Can chairs be re-covered or mended?

Tips for buying
Prices for items vary enormously depending on where you are in the country and the condition of the product. Do some research before you start so you have an idea of what to expect.
Take someone with you who can give you an honest second opinion and help you check the item over.
Take a tape measure and relevant measurements from your house if necessary (for example, if you're buying a bath or sink).
If you do want an old sink or bath, you need to consider whether your bathroom/kitchen can support the weight - cast iron baths are extremely heavy!

The talking washing machine - now there are no excuses for being able to use the washing machine. The Zanussi Voice washing machine talks you though the controls and even offers some words of comfort for those who get stressed out by the experience, advising the user to 'relax' once the relevant programme is selected.
Cool communication - as well as doing everything a fridge does, the Electrolux Screen Fridge has a 38cm (15in) touch screen which is connected to broadband, TV and radio. It also features a calendar and organiser, a message system and phone and MP3 connections. This means you can do your shopping, book a holiday, watch your favourite programme and know when your kids' dental appointment is just before you reach for the milk.
Clever cleaner - never before has vacuuming been so much fun! The Trilobite from Electrolux is a robotic cleaner that uses ultrasound to scan the room for dirt. Then it simply gets on and does the job. And it even knows when it's had enough, making it's own way back to the charger when it runs out of battery.

The trend for covering one wall means you can be more adventurous in your choice of wallpaper as it’s not as daunting as papering a whole room. It also enables you to make a feature of a wall or enhance a focal point, such as a sideboard or painting.
Instead of giving that old side-table the car boot treatment, give it a new lease of life by covering the top with some brightly coloured fabric wallcovering. Could be perfect for a kids playtable or a new addition to the conservatory.
Add some colour to doors and cupboards by putting wallpaper on panels. Choose the scale of the pattern carefully though: if the space is too small and the scale too large, the pattern will get lost.
Large-scale prints will make a wall appear smaller. Similarly, small-scale ones will give the illusion of space.
For the really adventurous, add a twist on tradition by wallpapering a ceiling. This works particularly well with high ceilings, such as those in period properties.

The revival of wallpaper
As 90s minimalism makes way for a colour revolution we see the return of wallpaper.
The use of digital technology means that a new range of complex, detailed imagery is possible, offering an alternative to more commonly-used patterns and prints. Examples include photography, 3D images and geometric designs.
One new innovation is magnetic wallpaper, which enables you to continue the design process at home. Companies such as Magscapes provide magnetic motifs which can be placed anywhere on the chosen background.
For those with a bit more ambition (and cash), there are moving wallpapers which create constantly changing images. These are not yet widely available and are very expensive but guarantee a talking point if you can afford it.

Children's rooms
Kids have slightly different lighting needs from adults. Safety takes centre stage. Next, the most important thing to remember is that the scheme should change as they get older. There are all sorts of fun, decorative lights aimed at children, from aeroplanes to rotating carousels.
For babies, you need low-level lighting so you can see during those frequent trips in the night to feed, change and comfort. Try a plug-in nightlight or small lamp with a shade and low-wattage bulb - no more than 12V.

Ensure prying fingers can't open the fitting or get at the hot bulb or electrical wiring.
Use wall-mounted lights rather than freestanding lamps that can be knocked over easily.
Dimmers work wonders - they help to prepare a child mentally for bedtime.
If your child has a computer or television in their room, don't let them watch it in total darkness. It's better for their eyes to use low-level light, either from a dimmed light or from a table lamp with the beam directed at the ceiling.

Bedroom delight
The right light will help you wind down and get a good night's sleep. But you also need strong lighting so you can get dressed in the morning - you don't want to leave the house wearing one brown sock and one blue.
The most important bedroom light is the one beside your bed - useful for when one of you wants to read or watch TV and the other wants to sleep. You can mount bedside lights on the wall, hotel-style, or fix them behind or into the bedhead, use wall-mounted downlighters or simple table lamps beside the bed.
Lights that are built into the bedhead don't cater for extremes of height, and you might also find you have to lie at a certain angle to be comfortable. If you do use them and you have a double bed, put them on separate switches. An inexpensive table lamp on a bedside cabinet or chair is a great solution - make sure it's high enough to read by and shaded so it doesn't shine right in your face.