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Decorating
Resources Free in Everyday Places
Solve
Your Decorating Challenge
Visit
a Model Home Decorated in Your Decorating Style
By
Vickie Morrow
You’ve
moved into your new home, unpacked the boxes, arranged and
rearranged the furniture, hung a few things on the walls.
Hmmm. You
know, or think you know how you want your rooms to feel but
can’t get from the builder white walls and your old stuff
to that wonderful comfy inviting look you got when you were
in the model of the home you purchased?
Before
you panic and true anxiety sets in know there are more easy
solutions at your fingertips than ever before.
There are decorator magazines, home decorating shows,
web sites, retailers, great books with very good
instructions. Visiting
model homes again will help.
“Okay, “ you say, “I see them, I buy them, I
visit them, I like them, but how do I do it?
I don’t know where to begin.”
Start
with one room you love in a magazine or model home.
We’ll call it your dream room.
If you can go to the model home to feel and study the
space or the room you will get the best results.
Ask if you may take pictures in the models too.
This will help when you get home and when you shop.
Take a tape measure and a spiral notebook with you to
make notes and draw sketches.
I like the ones with plastic tabs and pockets inside.
Let’s
start decorating by seeing what we like.
Are
all the walls the same color and the ceiling too?
What color(s) is the room?
Write this down. Is there a chair rail or decorative molding at the ceiling,
wall covering or faux painting? What is on the floor? Is there tile, wood, carpet, area rugs? What color and texture and pattern? Is the area rug braided or a Persian rug or a
contemporary design diagonally placed partly under one of
the chairs and sofa?
What style is the furniture?
Is it all a matching set?
Do all the woods match?
Maybe the sofa and club chairs are the same style and
wood finish but the chairs have a patterned upholstery and
the sofa is a solid or striped fabric.
Write this down.
How is the furniture arranged?
Does the sofa sit in the middle of the room
separating the conversation area from the game table, or is
all the furniture pushed up against the walls?
Draw a little floor plan so you don’t forget when
you get home.
The
windows. Are
there blinds, shutters, a valence or draperies? Are the rods large or small, wood or metal with huge finials?
Make a note of it.
If there are panels at each side of the window, do
they go all the way to the floor?
What color are they?
Do they match the walls or are they the same fabric
as the toss pillows on the sofa? Is
it the drapery hold back that catches your eye?
You will have to consider the exposure and privacy
out your own windows when you make your final window
treatment selection.
The
pizzazz is the accessories. This is often what many people love most about the model
homes or magazine pictures that inspire them.
The details, the little things we all love to collect
and buy when we shop. This
is what pulls the room together and gives it your
personality. In
the room you love, what kind of lamps are there?
Is there a place to store the things you will need to
put away? Are
there several things grouped on the coffee table?
What sizes are they?
Is there something pretty tall, a large round platter
set on a stand and a box all grouped together?
If there are photographs on the end tables, how big
are they and how does the frame style work with everything
else in the room? What
is on the walls? Is
there one large picture over the sofa or is there an
arrangement of black and white photos in different size
frames? What
color is the matting and how much space from the photo to
the frame? Details,
details, details. Draw
a sketch of the picture arrangement and the sizes in your
notebook.
Congratulations.
You have just completed the first step to decorating
your own home.
You
know what you want, how it goes together and what it will
look like. You
don’t have to break the bank now to create your room.
You probably already have the furniture pieces and
accessories. You
may already have the lamps and area rug as well.
You may just have to recreate and rearrange.
Get
started. Go to
the paint store and select the paint chips you think best
match your dream room.
Grab several samples, color can be deceiving and they
can look different depending on the light.
Take them back to the model home and see which ones
match the best. Buy
the paint and paint the room.
Your
window treatment. If
you copy your dream room exactly make sure you have the
right privacy and exposure considerations covered.
This is where a lot of people go astray. They think they like shutters and buy them.
Then they don’t like them and also wonder how their
dream room went wrong.
Your dream room may have been more airy with a shade
and drapery panels on large wood poles.
The wrong blinds, shutters or draperies and hardware
can be a costly mistake that you probably won’t change.
Arrange
your furniture for conversation, TV watching, family fun,
reading, eating or homework keeping in mind your dream room.
Was all the furniture lined up on one side of the
room? Your sofa
may be the wrong color and your chairs may need to be
redone. That doesn’t mean you have to buy all new;
consider slipcovers. You
can buy them or make them.
Be sure your accessories are things you want around
you and are of a grand enough scale for your space.
Voila! You’re on your way to decorating confidence
and living in the home that makes you and your family happy.
Check
out shopping in unusual decorating places here.
Vickie
Morrow is an interior designer and artist with her decorate
it yourself web site www.inoutdecor.com.
She is also a designer at Presidential Pools and Spas
in Gilbert.
For
free workshops on decorating, finding your own decorating
style, decorating budget work sheets and online shopping go
to her web site or email her at inoutdecor@msn.com.
Art festivals
are great decorating resources and one of the best places to
be inspired and get ideas. Find
the next Art Festival in your area here:
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