Every once and a while I get questions about my process when it comes to designing a room. I think my process has evolved over the past few years and I have settled on a system that I feel works very well. The process I go through to come up with a design that fits the client’s needs, wants, budget, and space takes a lot of initial research/planning.
I know many people just aren’t sure where to start when it comes to tackling a room in their own home, so today and through the next few weeks I wanted to start a series to walk you through the process of designing your space. Here are the topics we will cover:
– Creating Your Basic Needs/Wants List
– Accessing Your Space, Time, & Budget
– Add Your Passion and Personality
– Creating a Plan
– Implementing Your Plan
– Tweaking/Changing Your Design
– Finishing Off/ Accessorizing The Space
I wanted to be able to provide an actual room that I’ve worked on to serve as our visual as we walk through this process, and I think Mrs. B’s living room will be the perfect example for us to follow.
1. The very first thing you want to do when designing is to identify your basic needs and wants for the space. Ask yourself, what would make this room function perfectly for our family’s needs. I always start with a comprehensive list knowing that some things may have to be sacrificed due to budget, space, or time constraints. Also, don’t limit your list to only functional needs for the space. If you know you want to use a certain wall color or have a certain strictly visual piece in the space, include it on this list. Here’s what was on B’s list:
– Wants to be able to watch tv, sit and talk to family and friends, play board games,
– Need a space to store Jaxon’s toys so he can play in space but not take it over
So, after reviewing all the photos B collected, I tried to identify any themes that ran through them. After accessing all the photos (many of which are not in this post) and talking to B a little more, I could identify a few more things to add to our design list.
1. B is drawn to pops of yellows and golds
2. B likes wainscotting/bead boards/wood moulding on walls
3. While B like clean modern lines, she is also drawn to softer, curvy pieces as well.
After adding these notes to our needs/wants list, we were ready to move to the next part of the process- Accessing The Space. I’ll be back to share about that process in a few days!
PS- Maybe you have a room you’ve been dying to redo, but haven’t known where to start. I would love for you to walk through this process with me over the next few weeks! How fun it would be to see your space totally transformed as we go through each step! I’ll break it down and make it doable for you. So pick a room, find some inspiration photos, and make your list!
access your space. If possible, it’s a great idea to move things out of the room, essentially starting with a clean slate. This was easy at B’s home because they had just bought their new home and had not moved in yet. If you can’t move everything out, do your best to look at the space and focus only the items that are immovable (walls, fireplace, doors, windows, ect). Of course if you are open to renovations, anything can be changed, but for the purpose of this series and the fact that renovations overwhelm most people we are going to focus on working with the space you have at hand. Anyway- this is what I saw when I walked into B’s living room for the first time. . .
The very first thing I wanted to do was assess the room, decide what features we wanted to highlight, and then figure out what we already had to work with.
Since B had just moved into a new house, she wanted to start fresh and only asked that we keep the couch and media center that were fairly new. No problem. Of course the main feature that I wanted to highlight in the room was the fireplace, therefore I placed the couch directly across from it. The fact that the fireplace: is centered in the room, that it stretches all the way to the gorgeous wood beam ceiling, and simply the fact that a it makes a room feel instantly cozy are all reasons that you would make a fireplace the focal point. Of course the TV is going to be a focal point in most living rooms as well, so creating a seating arrangement that allows for easy viewing was important as well. Once I placed the two current pieces of furniture, it was time to decide on the rest of the furniture arrangement. Two chairs flanking the fireplace, a rug, large coffee table, and sofa table were easy and obvious placements. I also wanted to place something directly opposite of the media center to not only fill wall space, but to balance the room.
This piece not only needed to balance the room, it needed to serve a function- holding tons of toys. So this brings us to the next thing you need to think about when coming up with a design- How do you want this room to function? Here were B’s requests:
– Place to store toys
– Large upholstereed coffee table to play games on (upholstered for kid friendliness!)
– Seating for around 7 people
– A rug because dad and son like to wrestle around on the floor
Besides functional requests, B wanted the room the feel elegant and simple (not too fru-fru). In order to achieve this affect and further enhance the fireplace as a focal point, I chose to hang royal purple (B’s favorite color) curtains extremely high. Their height adds impact while also adding color and keeping the focus on the fireplace wall.
We are definitely getting there at this point. In the picture above you can barely see the media center on the left. . . see it? As I said, the furniture piece on the opposite wall is meant to balance the room. The problem was it was a little too small to effectively balance the space.
So, what do you do? Well that’s easy! Add some height with art or decor and little bit of bulk with some lamps. You can see below how I am starting to get the set-up together.
In the photo above, you can also see some color samples painted on the wall.
