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Eight Design Tips
- COLOR! — Color is an essential element in all design projects. In a room, color can be incorporated through wall color, wall treatments, flooring, area rugs, artwork, and fabric selection for furniture. The majority of the time, variation in color is important in achieving an interesting and warm space. A room that is entirely beige is extremely boring. A room should tell a story and a story typically has some color (depth).
- Too Much of “The Same” — Don’t fall into the trap of going to a furniture store and buying the sofa/loveseat collection. Mix and match pieces of furniture. This allows each piece to add something to the overall look of the room. Mix and match furniture pieces, fabric colors, fabric styles, furniture color/tones.
- Floating Objects — Many times people place all furniture against the walls of a room. Furniture can many times be “floated” in a room. Floating entails placing a piece of furniture in a location where it is not abutting a wall segment. For example, floating a sofa in a living or family room can create multiple spaces within the same room. One may create an intimate setting for conversing and another more private setting for reading a book or newspaper.
- When selecting furniture or designing a room, take into consideration functionality, practicality, comfort and “the look”.
- Pick something to be the focal point at the start of your design project. Let that item drive the color scheme, inspiration and initial look of what is to be achieved. Sometimes, that focal point shifts or even becomes removed from the project, but it provides a place to start organizing ones thoughts on a project that can initially seem overwhelming.
- Generate three design concepts that drive the overall design throughout the project. As each choice is being made (i.e., fabric selection, wall color, furniture), check the item to see if it fits within what you perceive to be the definition of the design concept. Although not a necessity, a good way for a homeowner to start the sentence is with “A space that…” or “A room that….” Examples of design concepts include:
- A space that is luxurious and intimate
- A space that is warm and calming
- A room that is professional in nature.
- Back to COLOR! — Be careful when “sampling” a wall color on the wall by painting a small swatch. A small sample does not necessarily give the true feel for what the color will look like when it is painted throughout the room. It’s easiest to illustrate this through an example. Select a paint chip that is blue, and place it in the center of an 8x10 piece of blue construction paper. Look at the color and memorize what it looks like. Now, take the same paint chip and place it on a white piece of paper. Look at it again; subtle differences will appear. Now, take the same paint chip and put it on a black piece of construction paper. Look at it again. Now, take the same paint chip and hold it up to the wall in the room you want to paint. Again, look at it. You will see subtle (or sometimes, not so subtle) differences in the color. If you are repainting a room, the color that you are painting in a small space to “sample”, will not appear the same when the entire room is painted. To take this tip even further, if you wind up painting the room yourself: After painting a few strokes, look at the wall and see what you think of the color. Then do the same thing once one entire wall is painted. Then do it again when the ENTIRE room is painted. The color will take shape (hopefully in a good way) at different stages in the painting process.
- Each room is its own entity. There are certain items that one may want to match throughout the entire house. For example, crown moulding is a good one. Typically, if it’s found in one room, it’s found throughout much of the house. When designing a room, however, the overall feel of a room does not need to be the same as that of another room within the house. Two colors that would absolutely clash if used in the same room can be used in different rooms within the house. This is true for color, style, feel, etc.