Top decorating trends

(NC)—For the many homeowners who want to update their décor, Sue Rainville, director of marketing for leading window fashions manufacturer Hunter Douglas, spots the trends and offers easy tips to bring them home:

1. Comfortable and Cozy– Transform your home into a sanctuary with the addition of a few down-filled pillows and some soft rugs. Window fashions are key to achieving privacy. Silhouette window shadings from Hunter Douglas offer a combination of sheer fabric to maintain a view of the outside and rotating fabric vanes for variable light control and privacy. If noise is a problem, fabric window coverings offer significant sound absorption to add to the serenity of your home.

2. The Modern Mix– Clean, contemporary furnishings remain popular but are now mixed with traditional and organic elements. A contemporary glass coffee table looks great placed in front of a soft, curvy sofa. Natural, organic elements add warmth to contemporary décor. Hand-woven from grasses, woods, reeds and bamboo, Provenance woven wood shades from Hunter Douglas bring natural texture to your windows.

3. Personal Chic– Your home should be all about you. Don't be afraid to mix an inherited sideboard with art collected in travels and new acquisitions. You may be surprised to see how well they all get along, just like mixing guests from different areas of your life to make for a lively party. It is not so much the individual furnishings but the artful merging of styles and colours that add personality to a room.

4. A More Colourful World– Colour forecasters agree that purple is king. Other colour trends for 2009 that forecasters predict include 'blue as the new green' with ocean and sky blues being especially desirable. Also, look for pungent, natural colours from the garden, such as radish, tomato and eggplant. Yellow, which equals energy, will be the main accent of the year along with strokes of orange and turquoise. Window fashions like the Silhouette Matisse Collection of Coloured Sheers and Vanes update a room with fresh, fashion-forward hues at the window.

5. Light and Airy– As homes become more colourful, more light is needed in a room and nothing compares to natural light. Window fashions like Silhouette shadings and Luminette Privacy Sheers, a product similar to Silhouette shadings, but on the vertical, beautifully filter natural light as it illuminate enters the home to achieve a relaxed and serene atmosphere.