Like the famous serenity prayer, when in re-design mode we change what we can, and ask for God's help in accepting what we cannot (yet) afford to change! I have always decorated with very tight limitations and my default mode is "make it work". Necessity being the mother of invention, my desire to create a beautiful home despite having small children, small square footage, a small pocketbook and small pockets of free time has had an unexpected resulted: loads of creativity and know-how which I wouldn't have ever developed, if the coveted funds to shop 100% via the Pottery Barn catalog had been available to me, years ago!
But what if the constraints aren't there? How does one choose if your choices aren't very limited, and you have so much freedom you become paralyzed? Too many options can be even harder than too little, when it comes to choices!
When you hire me to collaborate with you on a re-design, we sit down together and go over a few questions in an initial consultation. I'll ask about the room, the people using it, the colors you love or hate, the changes you desire. This can reveal some of the difficulties or frustrations you've experienced, and why you may be "stuck". When asked "What would you say your preferred style is?" I've had clients laugh and say "I don't have one! That's why I called you!" and that is totally okay. My job IS to help you discover what makes YOU, and your family, feel "at home." I'm there to walk you through the decision making process, and hope to use this blog to help in that endeavor.
Decorating articles often recommend first choosing an "Inspiration Piece". A painting, rug or fabric you LOVE and then designing the room around that by pulling colors and style from it. This serves as a perfect jumping off point for choosing the rest of the items in the room. This is great, time-honored advice. Most of us already have something that makes our heart sing (and if not, I am available to shop with you and together we can design from there!)
Another way to go about it, is to start gathering pictures that make you say "Yes!" and then find the common denominator in those images. In the old days, you could tear out pictures from magazines, and, I suppose you could go low tech and still do that, but I prefer Pinterest or even Google images. Just start collecting ideas. Do this without stopping for judgment of "that won't work", just keep every image that makes you happy, later you can decide on the "why" (or do this as homework before consulting with me, and we can go through them together) Soon you notice that white kitchen cabinets keep appearing, or red walls thrill you, or a lime and teal combination in a living room makes you swoon. Maybe it's nothing that specific, just the pattern of the collection is that, to you, "neutrals feel calm" or a mid-century vibe keeps re-occurring.
These are both excellent ways to decide on which direction to go, and help you to break out of a rut. I've used both in my own home and with others and nine times out of ten that's enough.
But that one in ten? What to do then? The trouble is when you collect 500 pictures and can't choose a top three (or forty!) Or you have fifteen pieces of art that clash but ALL of them make you happy. What if you like a little bit of all styles? If french country and modern style BOTH have appeal? If you do so love quiet calm colors but need orange in your daily life, too? This is harder!
I am usually all about focusing on the positive but you CAN be too positive, Miss Pollyanna. I feel that even "Eclectic" has its limits and can become a chaotic style I mentally refer to as "Visual Noise". Well, then...you need some constraints, honey. You need to narrow it down with a game called
"What DON'T you like?"
Lets start eliminating the choices that are no-brainers:
what color makes you retch?
what design style leaves you cold?
what do you like but can agree that it doesn't work in this particular room?
what do you like, but know your spouse would hate?
what would work, but is too expensive or time consuming?
what do you like but it's too trendy? too commercial? doesn't flow with the rest of your home?
what major factors come into play, like re-sale of your home, toddlers, a Great Dane for a pet?
Turning away from positive (that inspiration piece, those images) to the negative (a list of problems) is a solution to help narrow our choices a bit, and--like my budget and time shortages did-we have now automatically simplified the decision process!
This was a long, wordy article to get to my point, but I hope it helps "unfreeze" anyone stuck in their decorating. As an example of how it can work, here is a recent job I did...
In November, I helped our church design the new Children's Ministry area. It's a large wing, completely remodeled to provide a large space where children ages Kindergarten to Fifth Grade can learn about God, together. The Children's Pastor called me and kindly requested my help saying "I'm not sure if you DO commercial projects, but...?" I haven't, and let her know that, but she was gracious and happy to deal with my inexperience in this area, because otherwise she would be deciding on her own...and two heads are always better than one, right?! So we met, and chatted in the newly created room and I'll be frank...I was overwhelmed! Not just because I am new to commercial jobs but because of all the wonderful directions we could go. Fresh white Sheetrock can be intimidating! Not to mention that most of my jobs are about pleasing one Client, and maybe a spouse and kids...this room would be seen and judged as good-or-bad by maybe 500 people? Ack! Where to start?
We could choose any design. Any color. There was no inspiration piece to go on, just two women standing in a construction zone, scratching their heads. So, as I suggested above: I focused on the negatives, looking at the constraints in order to eliminate possibilities and simplify the decision making. Sometimes, focusing on what won't work leads you to what WILL. Here is what we decided:
--No themes.
--A design that even kindergartners liked and understood but that didn't feel at all "babyish" to fifth graders.
--No murals that would quickly be outdated.
--Nothing too feminine or too masculine, should appeal to both boys and girls equally.
--Something bright and fun, but not distracting from learning or worship.
--Something modern and graphic, but not trendy.
--A tight, fixed budget for paint and supplies, and a design that volunteer help could easily finish in a short matter of time.
--A color group that didn't automatically make one think of something, particularly a sports team. (This was more difficult than I thought! Seems the NFL has cornered the market on great color combos)
Here is the completed room!
The colors chosen are gray, red and teal with accents of black. The iPhone photos here look very blue but it's actually a deep teal, with bright red. This coordinates well with the new carpet that is dark charcoal with flecks of brighter colors and black in it. Painting all of the baseboard trim, window frames and doors a deep glossy black really helped the bright colors pop and made a good foundation. Glidden at Home Depot makes an amazing oil based trim that is expensive, but worth it. Painting the church logo in a huge font along this long wall was my favorite part of the design and turned out even better than I'd hoped!
Here you can see the opposite wall, where I painted a red heartbeat signal along the middle of the room. It ties in the other colors and adds a graphic punch to this side of the room, without being overly busy. The drywall juts out about 20 inches along the ceiling (hard to tell in this photo) and will eventually have a Bible timeline painted across it! I was excited about the "heartbeat" reflecting the Word of God above it, showing the Lord's heart for us, His children. My youngest son commented "Uh, nice idea but I don't think anyone is going to catch that, Mom!" I think they might!
The right side is a projector screen, framed out in the black trim. The back wall is a few shades lighter in the teal color (and I so dislike how it looks blue here) I wanted the shortest walls to have a bold accent color so they would "end" the room, visually. Keeping the gray tones along the largest sight lines, plus the black contrast trim, helped calm down these really bright colors and keep them fun, not overwhelming. It's really important when choosing two contrasting colors like this to make sure they are in the same tonal family. For example, if you are choosing the darkest color on the paint card, make sure the other color is ALSO the darkest, is a good general rule of thumb. Think of balance. Remember in the 90's when forest green and burgundy were such a hit together? They worked because they were the same depth. Keep your tones of colors the same, to coordinate. Deep rich green combined with a soft pastel pink would not have a pleasing effect, at all.
For the words and heartbeat it was all done "old school". Using a projector, and adjusting that back and forth until the size of the print looked right, then pencilling in the outline. Painting it in by hand with small brushes worked best with the texture of the drywall, and though it was tedious the friendly chatter of working together with my church family made the job fun. For the heartbeat, I googled images of heartbeats (shocked by how many different styles there are!) Then I chose one that was sharp but not too "pointy", does that make sense? One of the volunteers used his fancy laser level to help me mark an even mid-line on the wall, and then I made sure the design was spread out in pleasing but not equal widths across the length of the wall.
Some tips on working with bright colors like this:
Always use gray primer under red. The darker the red, the more pigment is in the paint, thinning it, basically, and the more coats you will need to "hide" the wall underneath. My rule of thumb is that the deeper the shade, the more important quality is...go ahead and get "Navajo white" at Walmart if you like but if you are doing medium to deep tones? Buy the best you can afford. My preferred choice of paint is Benjamin Moore but I also like Devine paints by Miller and Behr. Using gray instead of white primer blocks all the "light" showing underneath the pigment. You can get away with 2 (maybe even one, depending on the shade) coats, unlike the 4-6 you might need, otherwise. Red is also notorious for showing brush lines so be careful to keep a wet edge and don't let your cutting in line dry before rolling the walls.
It was a wonderful experience and I am so glad I was included in the process!
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