Easy tips for decorating every room in your house, according to cult designer Beata Heuman

When it comes to creating comfortable homes that are filled with character and detail, the interior designer Beata Heuman is among those leading the charge. Since she launched her own studio in 2013 she has gained a cult following, partly due to her accessible approach, which is geared completely towards designing beautiful homes that make life easier for their inhabitants, and helping her clients to find their own style.

“I think interior design affects us so much, much more than people might realise,” she says. “If you really get your head around how to do it, it’s kind of life-enhancing.”

Heuman, who trained with the decorator Nicky Haslam, is an original thinker full of ideas for making every room both functional and inspiring to be in, whether that’s through a clever layout, an unexpected piece of furniture, or an innovative decorating technique. Now, she is sharing her advice in an online interior design course with BBC Maestro, where she reveals many of the tricks of her trade, from coming up with the initial design scheme for a home, through space planning, time management and budgeting, to executing the design room by room.

When she filmed the course, she was also in the process of doing up her own London home, using some of the paint colours she has designed for a new collection with the paint brand Mylands. “We renovated the house eight years ago, and I was very happy with it as it was, but a few things needed fixing and it was amazing what a big difference it made,“ she says.

Here are some of her expert tips for creating an interior that works for you, as put into practice in her own home.

Look for inspiration, but find your own style

“Sometimes, people get too focused on a specific image they’ve seen and they want exactly that, which is a bit of a mistake,” says Heuman. “It’s really great to gather up pictures that resonate, but then you have to analyse each one and ask yourself what you like about it. If it’s the amazing sea view through the panoramic window, maybe the image isn’t that relevant to your home. There’s nothing wrong with getting inspiration from pictures, but it’s always going to fall flat if you try to copy that exact thing, so spend time on finding your own expression.”

Make a plan

“If I could only give one piece of advice to people, something that you absolutely have to do right at the start is a furniture layout of your home; I really must insist on it,” the normally mild-mannered designer says, rather sternly. “If a room doesn’t work practically it’s never going to be right, and that’s got everything to do with your furniture layout.”

Unless you’re au fait with using computer-aided design (CAD) software, her advice is to get a scaled plan, preferably done by a surveyor: “You have to think about not only the size of each room, but the ceiling height, the door height and the door swing. Then you can start populating it by drawing in the furniture that you have, or cutting out furniture shapes and moving them around on the plan.” This will also help you to work out what’s missing, and the sizes of the pieces that you need to buy. “It can seem a little bit technical, but it’s so helpful and anyone can do it.”

Once you have your furniture layout, you will be able to decide on flooring, tiling and fittings, and plan where your light sources need to be. “I don’t think people think about lighting as much as they should, and that’s really how you create atmosphere,” says Heuman.

Don’t get overwhelmed by paint

Heuman’s advice is not to “overthink” paint and spend hours deliberating on the right shade of white. “Look for some calm neutrals that you really like,” she says. As she points out, while she is known for her colourful aesthetic, the rooms she designs often have quite pale, understated walls, and the colour and pattern comes in the furniture, artworks and accessories. “I think it’s better not to be too experimental with paint as you’re committing quite a lot then,” she says. “It’s much easier and more fun to do that with furniture, fabrics and bits of accent colour, not the entire wall and ceiling.”

Another tip is not to decide on paint colours room by room: “Sit down and think about the house as a whole. You can pick a room where you might put a fun wallpaper, but don’t do it in isolation.”

Allow yourself space to make changes

Heuman acknowledges the urge for newness that many of us experience, which we might associate more with fashion than with our homes. “Most people probably recognise that feeling of wanting something new and getting excited about it, and it’s the same with interiors,” she says. “I think a lot about creating interiors that can take that change we all crave over time, so if you find something really fun in a flea market, you can take it home and it still works.”

Her signature pale walls allow for this flexibility: “It gives a real feeling of ease and freshness, which allows you to make changes more easily – you haven’t committed to a dark red wall where hardly anything goes; you’ve got a more neutral wall where you can basically stick anything in the room and it works.”

If you’re redecorating or renovating, leave space to add new things down the line, rather than feeling under pressure to have a room “finished” all at once.

Think of small tweaks that will make a big difference

As she was working on her own home, Heuman made some easy changes in some rooms that transformed the way they functioned. For instance, in her dining room, she previously had a couple of chairs in the alcoves either side of the fireplace. “No one ever sat in them, so I replaced them with small tables,” she says. “One has a drawer beneath for tableware and a plate warmer on top where we can put dishes if we’re doing a Sunday roast. In the other alcove I put a sideboard where we now keep our toaster. Our kitchen is really small, so having these two new, quite tiny surfaces has made the kitchen and dining room feel so much better.”

Consider how to use a room a different way

A job that required a little more work was to change what was previously Heuman’s home office into a laundry room (as she now has an office nearby, she no longer needs a dedicated workspace at home). “I made a cupboard behind some panelling to put towels and linen in – before they were in various places all over the house – and added a Pulleymaid for drying laundry. My life is now 30 per cent better,” she says. “Simple things like this can make a huge difference.”

How to maximise your home, room by room

The kitchen

The kitchen in Heuman’s own home is relatively small, so she has had to think creatively to maximise the space. “It’s worth investing in bespoke joinery by a carpenter, especially if you have a really small kitchen, as it allows you to make use of every corner,” she advises.

She has fitted cabinetry, with glazed doors on the over-counter cupboards: “The glass doors add depth to the room, and they reflect the light, which makes the room seem bigger.”

Space planning is especially key in a small room: here, she has made the cooker the focal point, with a sink below the window, and the fridge and larder concealed behind bespoke cabinet doors: “If you have a tower fridge, it’s an idea to put it in a corner, not in the middle of a run of cabinets; it sits more comfortably in the space,” she says.

She has opted for a neutral palette, with subtle pops of colour: the green granite worktop, and the rusty red of the circular window, for contrast: “Every room needs a pop of red.”

Recent practical updates have included tiling the right-hand wall – which was previously painted, and was harder to keep clean – and adding a rail of “super useful” Shaker pegs above the tiles.

Where possible, she advises keeping the washing machine and tumble dryer out of the kitchen: “Even if they’re just stacked one on top of the other in a small cupboard, it does improve day-to-day life.”

The living room

The living room, says Heuman, “should be all about having a nice time, whether that’s reading a book, having a drink with friends or being with your family. You want to make it as comfortable, welcoming and relaxing as possible.”

The first consideration is usually the sofa. Heuman advises a sofa with a depth of 100cm, or no less than 90cm, and her preference, if there’s space, is for two facing each other, to help conversation flow more easily. She says: “There’s definitely such a thing as too many scatter cushions, but it’s nice to have a couple. I’d make them 60x60cm or 50x50cm, but not less than that.”

Her own living room isn’t big enough for two sofas, so she has one deep sofa and a daybed in front of the window – on legs so that the daylight can flow beneath it. Again, there wasn’t space for a big armchair, so she has a side chair, “which has a lot of character, and it’s also light and easy to move. Be realistic about what fits and what works.”

She has an ottoman, rather than a coffee table: “If it was a coffee table this room wouldn’t be nearly as inviting,” she points out. “It’s much more welcoming and it’s also more flexible: it can be used as an extra place to perch, but you can still use it as a surface, and add a tray for drinks.”

Books are also key to the room: “Bookshelves add height, and the books add such life,” she says. She has incorporated a lockable drinks cabinet within her bookshelves, both to add a bar to the room and to break up the line of books visually. While the walls are white, she painted the backs of the shelves blue: “You don’t see it so much but it adds a bit of depth and texture.”

The bedroom

“It’s nice to get as big a bed as you can, and I like to place the bed facing the door if possible: it’s unnerving if you can’t see the door when you’re lying in bed,” says Heuman. “I also always want a headboard: it’s a lot more comfortable to have something upholstered when you sit up in bed, and it gives a bit of shape and a focal point to the room.”

In her own bedroom, she has created a canopy over the bed, using a swathe of fabric that covers the wall behind the headboard and is draped over bars attached to the ceiling. “It’s quite simple to do,” she says. “It brings height to the room and it’s lovely to look up at.”

Another thing you might look up at when lying in bed is the central pendant light, so make sure you choose a fitting or shade that conceals the light bulb. “An overhead light is a good idea when you need to see what you’re doing,” she says, but the rest of the time she uses bedside lamps for a softer glow. “I’d also put in adjustable reading lights which can be switched on and off individually: lamps won’t do it for most of us as we get older,” she says.

Rather than white walls, she leans towards soft greens and greys in the bedroom, and floor-length curtains: “They’re better than blinds for closing up the gaps around the edges of the windows and blocking light.”

The bathroom

“If the kitchen is the heart of the home, the bathroom is your sanctuary,” says Heuman. Her tip is to create a room that looks decorative, rather than clinical, so that it creates “a nice vignette to look into from your hallway”.

“Leaving doors open expands your home and the views that you get through the house,” she points out. “It can really add depth, so it’s important to make a bathroom look beautiful, as well as making it functional.”

In terms of the practicalities, Heuman says that when you are designing a bathroom you should have 800mm of free space on all sides of the loo. And if you don’t, “adjust the size of your sink unit if necessary to make sure you have enough space”.

Equally, she feels it’s important to have enough counter-top space around the sink, even if that means the sink itself is smaller. “I choose taps that look timeless and not too modern,” she says. “It’s something you want to keep for a long time, so go for a classic style.”

She is a fan of tiled walls which, as they are reflective, can make a small room feel bigger, and adds: “Grout lines are even more important than the tiles – they should be as thin as possible. The grout is not supposed to be a feature.”

Beata Heuman’s online course, Interior Design, Is available for £79 from BBC Maestro

Beata’s new paint collection, The Dependables, is available from 12th February from Mylands