A Design Plan is Essential to your Decorating Success

Have you ever been lost? I know I have.  I thought I knew where I was going. I set out, without a map, because, you know, I know where I’m headed. Right until I got myself lost…


 Why didn't I get a map? Oh yeah. I was smart enough to get there. What kind of idiot doesn't know the way to _____? Or, more likely, I was in a hurry and too busy to prepare with a map. I was anxious to get there and skipped my preparation. You can bet that the next time I set out to a new area I got myself some directions, both from the cell phone and a printed version, in case I had no cell coverage. Smarter the second time around.
 
 Decorating without a plan is a lot like setting out without directions. You stop into a furniture store or on a website, maybe just to browse or get ideas. Then you start purchasing blindly. Like going without directions, you’ll end up lost, and with a hodge-podge of stuff that kind-of, sort-of works together. And probably a side helping of disappointment.
 

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We all make mistakes. The key is to learn from them. That’s why you will do better next time you decorate. You need a plan… a map. And the map starts with an honest inventory of your life. Decide what you need and want. Determine your {real} budget and if you can accomplish what you need and want within that budget. It seems so simple, doesn't it? It is. The key is having the patience to do it right the first time.
 

I’ll teach you to be your own client. Listen to yourself and your family and be honest about what works. What’s all this about honesty? Here is an example: I love velvet. It’s rich and luxurious. I have a penchant for glam design in my own home and velvet fits right in. I also have an adorable 60 lb dog, who is allowed all over the furniture. Velvet is an absolute magnet for fur. So, will I change the rules for the dog? No. Do I want to battle the fur on velvet? No. Is a velvet sofa a good choice for me? No. I’ll have to consider another option. Perhaps a velvet ottoman or pillows will be a more practical solution.
 

Not planning and assessing your life and needs results in spending money on things that don’t work for you, or that you’ll have to replace sooner than you anticipated.

Let’s get started with your own design plan.  Below is a mini version of the design questionnaire I use with my clients before I start designing or decorating their homes.

• How long do you plan to stay in this home? This helps you determine how much time and money you really want to put into a redesign. Will you be focused on your long-term comfort or resale value?
• Who lives in your home and what are their ages? Do you have children that will be off to school soon or an elderly parent living with you and need to incorporate Ageing-in-Place principals?
• Do you have pets? Think about the finishes you want to install in your home and whether they are adequate for those furry friends in your life.
• Do you entertain quite a bit? Is your home functional for your entertaining needs?

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• Write a list of your family’s regular activities. Does Bobby like to do puzzles in the living room, or does Missy like to paint in the kitchen? Defining where you need to make rooms dual purpose or where to relocate these activities help you determine how to best use your space.
•  Is there enough storage space in your home?
• What colors do you like? What colors do you dislike? What colors do your family members love and hate?
• Does everyone in the house have the same design taste? If they are different, have you figured out how you are going to reconcile the differences?

• What style do you want for furniture and accessories? Modern, traditional, formal, casual… the list goes on.
• What is the style of your current home? If your house is very Traditional, but you like Modern styles, how will you bridge the gap?
• Do you have a favorite piece of furniture or artwork you absolutely love? This could be the perfect starting point for your design.
• How much are you going to invest in this project? Add an extra 20% to that number to cover the incidentals that always pop up. Is this based on real prices or total guesswork? If you haven’t done the homework to see what items really cost, you may be unable to complete this project once you start or you may have to downgrade your selections.
• Is anyone in your home a handy person? If so, you may be able to save yourself money if you can do things like painting yourself.

This list is not exhaustive. In fact, I have a 7 page questionnaire that I review with new clients. However, it will get you thinking honestly about your needs and wants in your home. This is the important first step before you make a single purchase.Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Beautiful Habitat in Homes & Real Estate Weekly!

Beautiful Habitat was recently interviewed by the Longmont Times-Call Weekly Homes and Real Estate section. The article is Instant Upgrades: Add Luxurious Touches to your Home. Check it out for some great ideas!

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Ask the Designer - Choosing Paint Color

I would love to paint my living room but having a hard time with picking a color.  I would love to do a dark color but I'm afraid it will make my already small space look smaller.  And if I go like, I'm afraid it will clash with my floors. ~Monica

Despite what you may see on HGTV or read in magazines, choosing the right paint color isn’t easy. The real proof of that can be heard from friends and family who’ve repainted their room 3 different yellows. Or it can be seen any day in the paint section of a local hardware store where you will find at least one shopper staring at the wall of paint swatches looking more than overwhelmed.

Understand Your Undertones
The most difficult part of selecting paint is working with the correct undertone. The undertone varies by color but it vitally important. An undertone is what Designers mean when they say things like “that is a blue red”. While that statement appears ridiculous, it actually means that the red has an undertone of blue (or cool colors) instead of an undertone of yellow/orange (or warm colors). And this undertone makes a big difference in the success of that paint color in your room.
Step #1 in your paint selection process is to look at your room and understand the undertones in the pieces you already have. Overall, does your room have more cool undertones (blues, grays) or warm undertones (yellows, oranges).  Then opt for paint colors that have the same undertones.
If you’re not sure of the undertone of a paint color, place the sample on a white piece of paper. The neutral background will usually make the undertone easier to identify, even if you don’t have a lot of experience with colors.

Here the colors are very similar, but the color on the left has a cool undertone while the color on the right has a warm undertone. 

Go Bold Or Don’t Go At All

If you do decide to go bold, then really go bold and pick the darkest color of the paint swatch. If you ease off and go with a lighter color, your red will really be pink and your Navy Blue will be a watered down overcast day. Dark colors don’t always make a room feel smaller. That’s a blog post for another day, so stay tuned!

Making The Final Selection
Be warned, making the correct selection will involve multiple trips to the home improvement or paint store over the course of a few days.  There is no way around it. Never make your final selection under the fluorescent lights of the home improvement or paint store. Always take a few samples home to see what they look like in your room, with your lighting and next to your furnishings, flooring and artwork. After you look at the samples at home, choose a favorite or two and buy the sample pots.
Here is a point when buyers go really wrong, again. Typically people will buy sample pots and paint a 3” x  3” square on 2 different walls in a room, then make a selection. This sample is not nearly enough to make a good choice. Instead, I recommend painting the samples onto 1-4 poster boards that you can get at a craft store for $0.50 or less. The boards are much larger and can be moved around the room, placed next to flooring, or behind furniture, draperies or artwork. 

Live with these samples for at least 3 days. Look at the samples on each wall that will be painted and at different times of day. The direction and type of lighting will dramatically alter the color. What looks beautiful in daylight may look terrible under artificial light. Now you should have enough information to select one of these paints or to know if you need to try more colors or a different undertone.

Good luck!

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Ask the Designer - Decorating Bookcases and Shelves

 

I have a hard time knowing how to decorate shelves and bookcases.  Any suggestions? Monica

 It can be difficult to  decorate bookshelves, whether they are built in or freestanding. Most people prefer their bookshelves to not only be a storage place for their books but also an area that adds style and personality to the décor. So how do you achieve the right look for you?

 The first idea for bookshelves - use books! Novel idea, I know. To make it interesting, you can hold the books in place with stylish bookends. Arranging some books horizontally and others vertically, creates even more interest. 

Or you can take another approach and arrange the books by color or size. 

Decorate with sculpture, vases, framed artwork or photos, etc. Group items together to make more of an impact, especially if most of your items are smaller. Grouped together, small items will make a bigger statement and be more interesting.

One key tip I use when decorating shelves is to adjust the shelves to varying heights. For instance, create a shelf or two that are big enough so you can fit taller books or artwork. You might have a small space just right for smaller books or figurines on another spot on the bookshelf. Whatever you decide to do, adjusting the shelves is one of the best ways to add some real style to the space.

 The key to making it all work is balance. You want to balance larger and smaller pieces by intermingling them. If you have a large vase on the bottom shelf, put books or smaller items on the next shelf up, then maybe a medium item on the next shelf. If you have multiple shelves next to each other, don’t put the same sized items horizontal to each other, but put one higher and one lower to create interest. 

If the side of your bookcase is visible when you enter a room, make it more interesting and use it as wall space by hanging artwork or accessories.

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design www.beautifulhabitat.com

Ask the Designer - Matching Wood Tones

What do you do when you are merging existing furniture with new and the wood is different colors?  (i.e. mahogany desk, darker coffee table, light wood floors).  Is it ok to mix different kinds of wood or should you match? ~Kara

The importance of matching wood tones depends on your decorating style. If you prefer a more modern, contemporary or streamlined look, then matching your wood tones will be important. The similar wood reduces the visual clutter and contributes to the streamlined look of the whole room. If you prefer a more eclectic or bohemian look, then it is perfectly fine to mix wood tones and finishes (i.e. stained woods and painted woods together). So the first order of business is to establish your decorating style.

Regardless of your decorating preference, you do not need to match your furniture wood finishes to the flooring. The floor is an element of its own in a room and can stand alone in that regard. Imagine that the flooring is carpet. You wouldn’t paint your walls and match your upholstery color exactly to the carpet as that would create a very monotone and uninspired space. The same thought can be applied to woods. In fact, a contrast between the flooring and the furniture makes a room more interesting as a whole.

Overall when merging old and new furniture, it works best when there is a common element that coordinates the pieces to one another. This can be in the wood tones or upholstery. Where a common element does not exist, you can use coordinating accessories to pull the items together. For example, if you have a brown leather sofa and a red fabric upholstered chair, use a red and brown fabric on the throw pillows and window treatments to tie everything together.

The photos are examples from a client project. I would call their style Elegant Eclectic with a touch of Fun and Funky. The custom kitchen features beautiful wood cabinetry that nearly matches the flooring, while the island contrasts in cream.  We chose to make a bigger contrast and statement by mixing in bar stools in a crimson stain. 

In the dining room, again the built-in hutch matches the flooring. To break up all the brown tones, we chose black painted finishes for furniture and the framed artwork. Throughout the entire space we continue the vivid reds, olive greens and golds to tie everything together, including the mixed woods.

I hope that helps to answer your your Interior Design dilemmas. Please keep the questions coming - what design problems are you facing in your home? 

Beautiful Habitat: Luxury Interior Design www.beautifulhabitat.com

Ask the Designer - Vaulted Ceilings

A new feature - Ask the Designer
Send me your Interior Design or Decorating questions via blog comments, email, Facebook or Twitter and I'll blog an answer with some visual examples. Our first question is from Meri via Fabebook. Enjoy and send in your questions!

“If you have high or vaulted ceilings and you hang pictures at eye level (so you can see them) what do you do about all that empty space at the top?” ~Meri

How you handle vaulted or high ceilings depends on a couple of variables about the room and how you need the room to feel or function. Before you begin your decorating plan, look at the room and determine how you want it to feel. Is the room very large and open? If yes, do you need to create a cozier, more comfortable environment? If this is the case, it is best to hang artwork in the lower area of the wall, leaving the upper area blank. This will create the illusion of a line where the room exists and the space above feels as if it is not really part of the room. This could also be emphasized with painting the lower area of the wall a darker color. A slightly different effect can be achieved by hanging more and/or larger pieces at the bottom of the wall and moving up with smaller, lighter pieces. This adds a visual weight to the lower portion of the wall that will make the room feel cozier.

However, often I see high ceilings in rooms that actually have quite a small footprint.  Here you will want to use the height of the walls and ceilings to add a feeling of additional space in the room. In this case it is best to hang art either higher or on multiple levels of the wall to make that tall space a part of the whole room. 

The photos are an example from one of my client projects. The room has very high and steeply sloped ceiling while the footprint of the room is relatively small. To emphasize the height and thereby the overall volume of the room, we chose large artwork to really utilize the total wall space. We also chose to emphasize the slope of the wall by using long, narrow pieces and hanging them to follow the slope of the ceiling.

Before - there is a tiny painting to the left of the TV that you can hardly see and makes no use of the wall.

 

After - the large artwork draws the eye up, making the whole room feel larger.

Beautiful Habitat: Luxury Interior Design www.beautifulhabitat.com

Design for Dogs

The article below is a Q&A I recently wrote for the Denver Post. As my blog readers you get to read the article with many more photo examples. Enjoy!

Q:
I am a dog lover, but I also want my house to look nice. How do I select furniture that will be beautiful and work with my pets?

A:
A truly good design must consider the needs of all family members, including our pets. Unfortunately, there are no concrete rules when it comes to designing for dogs. Before starting a design plan, look at the quirks and characteristics specific to your dog. Is he a chewer? Does she dig or scratch furniture? Is she crazy about ball playing? Is she allowed on the furniture? And, of course, how much does he shed?

Considerations for Furniture Base and Legs
If your dog has a love of balls, the top preventative measure is to stop the balls from rolling under the furniture. A ball under furniture results in dogs scratching or chewing at the legs and base of furniture to get at the ball. To avoid this, look for furniture with very short or no legs where the base is close enough to the ground that a ball will not go under. On the flip side, you could seek furniture that has a high clearance underneath, allowing a ball to roll through or allowing your dog to reach it without scratching or biting at the furniture base or legs.
Another concern for wood furniture is the color of the stain or paint finish. The darker the wood stain or paint, the more scratches will be visible. If your dog is prone to scratching or chewing, it’s best to stick with light stain or paint, or metal legs.

Considerations for Upholstery
Leather is a great option for homes with pets. It acts as a barrier that will not absorb odors, hair, or pet dander, making for easy cleaning. However, leather does not do well with pet “accidents” and is not a good choice if your dog digs, scratches, or attempts to retrieve balls under furniture. Leather will stain and scratch and can be difficult and costly to repair.
Microfibers, such as Ultrasuede, are an excellent choice for most pets. Ultrasuede has a non-woven structure that resists scratching, pulling and fraying and hairs will not get caught in the weave. It is also easily washable and resists stains and discoloration.
Other fabrics are typically woven and are still an option with many pets. However, hair can get caught in the weave of the fabric, requiring more work to vacuum or pull them out. Loosely woven fabric combined with a heavy shedding pet is not the greatest option to keep your furniture looking its best.
I always advise adding a stain protector to your upholstery, with or without pets in the home.

The room featured in the photo was designed with a yellow lab in mind. The leather sofa resists hair and is low to the ground. The other furniture pieces all provide enough clearance for a tennis ball to roll through or be retrieved without damage.

A determined pet will not be stopped, but by using the best preventative measures your pets and your furniture can live in harmony.


And for the blog, here are several furniture examples that wold work well with the ball issue as described above. All pieces are from Century Furniture.

Pieces that provide enough clearance for a ball to be easily retrieved.

The Colson Chair

Century Signature Sofa

The Vernon chair has the added benefit of metal legs and leather upholstery.

And on the other end of the spectrum, we have pieces that prevent the ball from rolling under.

Salvador Chair

Lassen Sofa

Do you have design questions? Send them in and I'll be happy to answer here and/or on the Denver Post.