You know how sometimes, in the depths of winter, it seems almost impossible to imagine how you ever walked around the same town in your shorts and flip-flops? And equally, when the days are long and hot (perhaps a little too hot, as it has been of late for some), the nights curled up under a blanket in front of the fire seem to have taken place in a different place entirely, now everybody is desperate to be in a place with air conditioning!
If you live somewhere with a climate that is very different in summer to winter, no matter how much we expect it and how many years go by, we are not very good at remembering what it is like at the other end of the weather scale to what it is now, or accepting that all too soon, it’ll be like that again!
How the Weather Can Affect Our Interior Design Choices
We tend to make a lot of our design and buying decisions based on how we feel ‘right now’. This is why if you go shopping for food when you are hungry you tend to end up with far more than you need and make less healthy choices, and why you shouldn’t test out new mattresses when you’re tired (they’ll all feel good). If you move into a new property and are working on the design and decor for it then, you are likely, if you’re not careful, to focus on making it comfortable for the season we are in now, and not making sure it’ll be great all year round. This is only natural, but you can get around it by giving a bit more thought to the future as you make your decisions.
Staying Cool, and Staying Warm!
One of the most practical decisions you’ll need to make is about keeping your home cool in summer and warm in winter. There are of course lots of ways to do this, but you must make sure the current climate doesn’t cause you to prioritize one over the other. Is that AC you may only need for a few weeks a year really a more important investment than getting really nice looking radiators ( such as the ones at Warm Rooms), considering you may need these on for about a third of the year and they are also a more obvious design feature in your rooms? When it comes to things that affect temperature like windows, flooring, insulation, heating, fans and air conditioning, consider your needs on a year round basis, not what will offer the best solution for the weather today!
Colour
You may love bright, summery colours right now, but yearn for cosy, warming or festive colours in winter. You can actually make it so that you can change the look of your home seasonally, by opting for neutral colours for walls and significant furniture, then changing things like curtains, rugs, cushions, lamps and other smaller accent pieces each season, creating a new look.
When designing your home, think always about how you will make it meet your needs and changing tastes as the seasons change, and don’t be distracted by the current time of year!
Oh, good to know these things. I’m always so clueless about designs and home decors.
I know what you mean @SuperLux:disqus. When we moved into our apartment it was spring, so we didn’t think about heating during the winter. Kind of wished we’d moved in on the 2nd floor instead of the 1st floor. Lesson learned!