Designobsessed2's Blog

I talked the other day about the steps to take in tackling a room from scratch.   I mentioned the importance of doing the room “to scale” before you even begin to pick out paint colors or find a fabric you love.  This is the technical part – but the part that every good decorator does before starting a room.  It’s really important to measure every wall, window, fireplace and put it on graph paper to see what you have.  In many ways, doing this simple but important exercise on paper really makes you look at your room in a different way.    Once you have this drawn out (use regular graph paper from the office supply store), start asking yourself the following questions:

1)  How do we plan to use this room.  (Lounging, entertaining, sleeping, eating, as a game space, family get togethers etc.  Prioritize what you do most often or how you intend to use the room most often.

2)  How many people will typically be in this room -

3)  What kind of seating preferences do the people using this room have?  Some people will only sit on a sofa – some want a recliner.  Others like to lay on the floor.

These three questions determine the type of furniture and flooring you need which drives the furniture placement in the room.  If you don’t know what furniture you need and how it’s going to be placed, you can’t begin to figure out how you want the room to look and feel.  Your “to scale” drawing helps with this.  Once I draw out a room, I always make at least five copies of the empty space.  This gives me the opportunity to draw out at least five different seating arrangments.  Once you decide on one you like based on the furniture pieces you need, keep the four others on file in case you want to re-arrange your furniture in the future.  Doing this many room arrangements also helps you to get the most furniture bang for your buck. 

The graph paper is usually in 1/4″ squares and typical floor plans are drawn 1/4″ equals one foot.  So, go around your room and measure each wall and placing every door, window, built-in, fireplace etc.  Measure the openings in the room as well.  Then, use these common furniture sizes below and cut out little squares from your graph paper to represent furniture pieces.  You can color or outline them in black to show up on the graph paper.

Sofa – 84″ long x 38″ deep

Loveseat – 60″ long x 38″ deep

Chair – 36″ wide x 34″ deep (this can vary alot depending on how big the piece is)

Coffee tables – 42″ round, 48 x 32″, 42″ square

Rugs – 5 x 8, 6 x 9, 8 x 10, 9 x 12 (standard sizes)

End tables – these vary greatly in size and shape.

Tomorrow – more on doing a scale drawing.

If you’re thinking about redecorating a room in the next few months, the following “rules” are followed by every decorator as he/she starts and moves through the process:

1)  Decide which pieces, if any, from the existing room have to stay.  This may be for financial reasons, sentimental reasons or a piece the family loves and can’t give up (this should be a piece of artwork, sculpture, baby grand piano etc. – not a sofa because it’s comfortable.  If a piece is kept for financial reasons, have a plan in place to change out that item when it’s financially feasible.  That piece and it’s fabric should be incorporated into the new plan but held back until it makes economic sense.

2)  Take pictures of the room on your phone to have with you when you shop.  Take pictures of all walls, flooring and any interesting details on the ceiling.

3)  Decide on your inspiration piece.  This could be an existing piece you want to keep in the room.  This could be a painting you found.  If there’s nothing you have that’s existing, the three items most often used for inspiration are:  a new area rug (if there’s hardwood flooring), a piece of artwork you fall in love with or 3)  a piece of fabric.  I once did an entire condo off of one piece of fabric that set the tone for the entire space.

4)  If you have or want an area rug, let that be your starting point.  It is much easier to pick a paint color or find a few fabrics that go with an area rug than the other way around.  Don’t settle for a rug until you find something you truly love.  It can make or break the space.

5)  Develop a “to scale” floor plan so you know exactly where the furniture will go in the room and you know exactly  how many pieces you need to buy and the size they need to be.  * I’ll discuss “How to do a ‘to scale’ plan tomorrow.

Tomorrow:  A “to scale” floor plan and the next steps designers use in decorating a room.

I was suprised, recently, when I found a client who didn’t know about working with odd numbers in design.  And when I was working with two more clients in accessorizing and hanging art who didn’t know about this, I decided it was worth writing about.   

  When accessorizing, when hanging artwork, when placing candles on a table or a mantlepiece, always use them in odd numbers.  One’s, three’s, five’s seven’s – they always look better and somehow more pleasing to the eye in odd groupings.   I don’t know why but they do.  Try this when you’re decorating for the holidays or placing candles on the table at Thanksgiving.  Put an even number down and then remove  just one.  Whatever itis that you’re putting in a group  - it just looks better. 

Don’t forget about artwork.  Hang your art in odd numbered groupings unless it calls for a piece to go over each symmetrical nightstand or end table on each side of a sofa.    Happy accessorizing.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is not to get hung up on perfection when doing a room.  I’ve just had a rash of people I’ve worked with that have been so obsessed with everything matching within an inch of it’s life that the room lacks personality and a sense of style.  It feels contrived and without soul – and no matter how often I told people to relax their ideas about “design rules” – they couldn’t free themselves to look at more interesting and attractive options. 

It is so important to have fun decorating your home.  After all, it’s a reflection of you – warts and all.  Introduce something unexpected into the space.  Move out of your comfort zone and try something that speaks to you even if you don’t think it should fit.  You may love it – but you’ll never know unless you try it.  What’s the worst that can happen?   You may have to return something to a store.  Relax and try things you may not normally do – Like:

1)  Put a little black into every room

2)  Put a little animal print somewhere – could be a pillow, lampshade, ottoman – whatever.  It puts a modern day twist on the most traditional of rooms.

3)  Don’t be afraid to mix finishes – that means metals as well as woods.  Put satin nickel with an oil-rubbed bronze.   Put light woods with dark and everything in between.  Additions like this make the room appear like they’ve been accumulated over time.  Not picked out of a catalogue.  Live with things for a few days before you make a decision.

4)  Try different kinds of window treatments that you typically think should only work in certain spaces.  This means hard blinds as well as fabric treatments. 

Have fun, mix it up and put something in a room you’d never consider before.  It may be the final touch to a terrific and interesting space.

Having a room in scale is as important as having the color scheme work, the room layout functional and finishing it off with the right art and accessories.

If you fail to take into account the size and proportion of everything coming into the room – it will never look right.  Avoid impulse purchases because it’s on sale and you think you’ll find a place for it.  If you become a disciplined shopper who carries their scale drawings with them whenever you shop for furniture, you’ll eliminate a lot of costly mistakes.

This is one topic I’ve been itching to write about for awhile.  Scale is like lighting – oh so important in design but often overlooked or placed on the backburner.  In reality, I think that scale is at the top of the list when it comes to achieving success in a room.

So, what is scale and why is it so important?  Scale is the proper balance of all materials in a room.  By this, I mean, that all elements complement each and every other element in the space.  This applies not only to furniture (the biggest mistake with scale) but rugs, fabric, accessories and draperies – to name but a few.

Every element brought into a room needs to be examined with a critical eye.  It doesn’t matter if you fall in love with something.  If the piece is too big for the room or the fabric overpowers a chair or the rug is too small for the space – it will never complement the space or the other elements in the room.  Your eye will instinctively know that something is off – you may not know what it is but nine times out of ten, it will be related to scale.

The most common mistakes made with scale are:

1)  Furniture is either  too big or too small for a room.  It’s very important not to buy a piece of furniture just because you love it.  The bigger decision is whether it’s the right size piece for the overall room and how it will look and feel with other pieces in the room.  So often, I see these huge sectionals in a room that shouldn’t have more than a sofa and chair.  People are too oriented to what big, padded andcomfortable.  The problem is that these big, overstuffed pieces quickly overtake a room.  The other extreme is to have lots of little pieces of furniture pushed against the wall to create that huge wasteland of space in the middle.

2)  Not considering every piece in relationship to every other piece is the second biggest mistake that people make.  Nothing looks worse than a large sofa matched up with a small coffee table and an area rug that looks like a postage stamp in the room.  A rug should fill a seating area  so that every piece of furniture in that grouping at least has its front legs on the rug.  A coffee table, put in front of a sofa, should be 2/3 the length of a sofa.  So, an 84″ sofa should have a coffee table 48″ in length.  Or, if you like using bunching tables, consider two 22″ square tables with six inches in between.

3)  Along these same lines, people are often thrilled when they finally find the right color and pattern of fabric for a chair, bench, sofa or whatever.  What people don’t often consider is the size of the pattern may not look right with other fabrics in the room.  You never want to have two similar sized patterns fighting each other.  A general rule of thumb is to have one plain, one large and two smaller scale prints in a room. 

4)  Artwork is a big mistake with scale.  People find a piece of art they like and then hang it in a space that doesn’t do it justice.  The size of the art should be in proportion to the wall size.  The same goes for side tables, accessories, mirrors and even draperies. 

5)  It’s important to carry a tape measure with you when you shop and to do a scale drawing of each room so you know exactly the dimensions you cannot exceed for every item you buy.  If this sounds like too much effort or you’re not comfortable doing this alone, this is the perfect time to call an interior design and pay for a space plan.  A good designer shouldn’t take more than 1-2 hours to space plan a room.  The couple hundred dollars you pay him or her will save you thousands in buying pieces that simply won’t work in your space.  I often see rooms in homes filled with impulse or sale purchases that never worked in the space they thought.  These “mistakes” can often run into the thousands of dollars.  A scale drawing also keeps you focused on exactly the size piece you need.  That way, you can avoid even looking at everything in the store.

Tomorrow – more thoughts on scale.

9.  Change your rooms around to reflect the seasons.  In fall and winter, add extra rugs to the floor and  more sumptuous pillows and throws.  Put more lamps in rooms to ward off the late day cold and darkness.  In spring, roll up your rugs and feel the wood or tile under your feet.  Pack the throws away, use cotton or linen pillows and introduce fresh and light patterns.  Open the blinds, take heavy draperies down, put new linens on the bed.  Constantly look at ways to minimize your space in the warmer months and layer your space in the colder months.

10.  Finally, streamline everything in your home.  From bookcases to china cabinets to piles of paper to kitchen counters.  In these hard economic times, it’s time to “nest” again.  Since we’re not shopping and spending, this is a great time to de-clutter, clean, throw-out, re-arrange and minimalize what we have.  If you do nothing but these things, you will feel like you have a new home.  I believe that the time of excess and “stuff”  for the sake of having more is over. 

A great exercise is to empty a room completely of its contents and furniture and slowly bring items back into a room.  Do this with a friend who’s taste and opinion you trust.  Or, invest 1-2 hours with a decorator who will help bring a critical and creative eye to the process.  Slowly bring only items back into the room that you absolutely love or that provide a strong purpose or function.  This applies even to artwork and accessories.  If any object doesn’t  give you absolute joy, don’t bring it back.  Then pack everything else away.  Either  use those items  another time or season, donate  them to charity or have a rummage sale.   I think you will find that one item on a coffee table that you really love will make you happier than 10 items that add clutter and excess to our lives.  It’s a time to look at our homes in a new way knowing that less is definitely more.

Tomorrow:  The importance of scale in design.

4.  Speaking of artwork, if you can’t afford or don’t want to purchase art right now, a lot of local libraries offer an art rental service.  You can check out artwork  just like checking out a book.  And, most of these check-out services offer a much longer time to keep the artwork.  It’s a great way to fill up empty spaces until you find the perfect piece for any room in your home.

5.  Buy a bouquet of fresh flowers each week – nothing brings a room to life like fresh flowers.  This is especially true during the winter months.  Grocery  bouquets for $10-12.  It’s a little indulgence that’s budget friendly and food for the soul.

6.  Paint the ceiling in a room.  If it’s a small room, like a powder room, go bold and dramatic.  Pick a strong color you love and put it on the ceiling.  Watch the room transform itself.  If you’re less adventurous, consider  10-20 % of your wall color.  Unless, of course, you have off- white walls to begin with.  Everyone says it but it’s true.  There is nothing that will change a room more than paint.  But always add the ceiling to the mix – it’s the forgotten wall in the room.

7.  Speaking of powder rooms, if you have one,  consider wallpapering it for a big punch for little money.  Most powder rooms can be done with 4-6 rolls of wallpaper.   Wallpaper is back in a big way.  Patterns are bigger and bolder and color is everywhere.  Use strong color or go really large with the pattern even if the room is small.  You will be amazed at how good it looks.  You can paper it yourself – or – even hiring someone will be a few hundred dollars at most.  Add a new, inexpensive mirror (look online at Uttermost, Target, Murray Feiss to name a few) and some fresh towels and you have a whole new room.  Powder rooms are the one room that you can go really express yourself  and move out of your comfort zone.

8.  If you’re one person who loves to display family photos, go around your house and look at them with a critical eye.  When was the last time you changed out the pictures.  Like everything else, keep your photos current.  Just updating the family photos (everyday pics as well as the special family ones) will make your room feel fresh and new.  As you’re updating these photos, consider editing the total number you have on display.  If you have to display a lot of them, it’s best to keep them in bedrooms, hallways and in family rooms.  Living rooms and dining rooms are not the place to display such personal items.  For an added punch, buy some inexpensive new frames and try grouping them in clusters rather than scattering them around the room.

Tomorrow – my final ideas for bringing new life to your home in these budget-minded times.