The Basics of Decorating

First of all, thank you for joining me again! I truly appreciate being a part of your valuable time. I will try to not disappoint!

Whether you are moving into a new home or simply giving your current space a facelift, furnishing and decorating are easily accomplished with a few basic guidelines.

We all get so excited to create the room of our dreams that we sometimes do things out of order. Let me ask you this ~ when redoing a room what is the first thing you want to do? Did you say paint? Well if you did, you are right! And wrong! What ??! Right in the fact that that is the first thing you should do; and wrong in the fact that it is the last thing that you should select. You want to select your items (furniture, carpets, window treatments and paint) in the order of availability. Paint, having an infinite amount of choices will be the last thing you select (and the first thing you do). Your selection process should start with your furniture. As I recommended in my last blog post, when choosing a sofa, selecting a neutral is really the smart thing to do. Making sure it fits and is the right scale and proportion is even smarter. Please, first of all, measure your door openings (and stairway or other obstacles) to make sure it will fit. Is there a corner to turn when bringing it into the room? A long sofa or case good piece may not make a sharp turn. Think about all of that and take some measurements before you go shopping. Are you refurnishing a bedroom? Will a king-size mattress fit up the stairs? Will that triple dresser make the turn into the room? If you are unsure, take measurements and pictures to show your sales consultant or delivery crew. Ok, now you are ready to shop. When selecting your furniture, pay attention to scale and proportion. The most important tip to remember here is: Things look bigger in your home than they do in the furniture store, but you have your measurements so you will make wise choices. That huge, overstuffed chaise sofa is sooo comfortable! But if it takes up your whole space and is crammed with no room to move around it, you will soon realize it was not a good choice for you. Make sure not only to pay attention to the length of your furniture, but also how far it sticks out into the room. If you have a long narrow room, that 100" sofa may fit great along that long wall, but if its 42" deep, make sure it doesn't obstruct a doorway or interfere with the chairs that you want to place perpendicular to it. Also make sure it is not crammed into a corner. You want some breathing room around it, and an end table or 2. Keep the size of the sofa in mind as you make other selections for this room. Make sure the end tables, coffee table, chairs and other pieces to go alongside it are of the same scale. You don't want to end up with Goliath's chairs next to Tinkerbell's sofa.

Once you have the main pieces selected, now you can move on to the carpet/area rug/flooring. What kind of sounds in this room do you want? The harder the flooring, the louder the sounds and the more the sound carries throughout the rest of the house. Also think about traffic paths through the rooms. Will you be walking around the outside of the room? Through the middle? Is this room the main thoroughfare? The more traffic the room will see, the more camouflaging you may want the flooring. Perhaps a patterned area rug that can be rotated from time to time is best if there's a lot of walking through. A solid carpet will show wear faster than fast if its low quality and has no variation to the color or cut. However, this same carpet would be perfect in a bedroom where you want a little more sound absorption and coziness. And it will have less traffic and will wear better than if it were in the main part of your home. One last thought about area rugs. Make sure they are sized to the room and the scale of the furniture. If you have a 15 x 20' room, and an oversized sectional, please do not think a 5x7 rug under the coffee table will suffice. It does not need to cover up all the beautiful hardwood by any means, but please make sure it's large enough to look in proportion to your new furniture.

Ok - NOW you can paint ! and hurry up before all your beautiful new pieces arrive.

PS - Don't forget the ceiling! You may not think it needs it, but if it's been a few years, trust me, it does. And you certainly won't do it after the new furniture arrives.

Again, thank you for sticking with me till the end. I will see you next time!

Until then, Happy Decorating!

Deb