Interior Design – Where to Begin
Contributed By Mary Gilliatt
Never forget that good interior design is as much about practicality, comfort and detail as it is about mood and style. However beautiful the window treatments you create, however original or subtle the color schemes, however splendid the furnishings, nobody is going to thank you if the overall room is not comfortable to live in, or does not function as it should.
I always advise clients and readers to start by assessing the optimum requirements, to price them out, and to work backwards from there in the light of the budget available for the project. You need to spend a good deal of time at the start of the job assessing just what really is needed, as opposed to wanted. Questions to ask a client (or yourself) at the outset include:
- How long do you expect to stay in this home? As long as possible? Fairly short term? (it will make a difference to priorities)
- Are there, or are there likely to be, children or pets in the house (this will make all the difference to surfaces and textures chosen)
- Are there any elderly relatives living or staying for any length of time, or likely to be in the future? (If so you will need to think about especially good lighting for stairs and corridors, and easy to reach bedside lighting. Bathroom floors must be non-slip, and grip rails and seats in a shower are a good idea and easy to install).
- How many people are likely to be at home all day? (This might affect colors and lighting)
- Where does the family feel most comfortable eating? (This will certainly affect distribution of rooms and choice of furniture)
- Who uses the living room most and for what? (just relaxing? Bridge? Listening to music? Looking at TV? Working as well?)
- How often do you entertain, how and in what room? How many people do you generally entertain at one time?-(This will affect furniture and furniture placement. Also its amazing how many people look at houses with a view to parties who never actually give them…)
- Do you feel that in general the overall space is adequate for your needs, or would be capable of being put to better use if only you knew how? (Partition walls can be taken down or put up quite easily to expand or contract space. You might find more living space in the attic, basement or even garage)
- Is your home, in fact, in need of a complete re-think as well as re-decoration?
- Do you and your partner have similar tastes or decidedly different ones? Have you agreed to each have your own way in different rooms or will you have to form some sort of compromise?
- Is it possible to make the best of existing furniture, furnishings and flooring, if any? Remember you can paint, strip, lacquer, dye, or stencil pieces (and wood or cement floors) not to mention recovering and reupholstering upholstery or just covering them with throws. This can give a whole new look as well as freeing up more of the budget for possibly more important work.
- What colors and styles are you most comfortable with?
- If you could list the ten luxuries that would make your home seem more attractive and work better, what would they be?
- What is the maximum you can spend on your project bearing in mind that you must always put a sum aside for contingencies?
- What absolutely must be spent? Where can you make savings? Can you form a long- term plan so that the urgent things can be done now and other things can be fitted in as and when you can afford them?
Answers to these questions will certainly help you to determine the way your clients ( or you) want a home to function, how much can be comfortably afforded and how it should look. So always take the time to assess and re-assess right from the beginning.
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