design interior - colour
Colour can drastically affect your mood, so it is important to always bear this in mind when embarking on interior design projects. I am sure you will already have a favourite colour or group of colours, so build these into your overall scheme. Using colours that you know lift your spirits will make your colour choice work for you.
There are no hard and fast rules about choosing colours. Create your own sense of harmony by creating your own colour spectrum. It really is not wise to go for a colour purely because it is in vogue at the moment - you will soon live to regret it!
Where to begin
Begin by considering the colour of all the elements in the room, not just the flat surfaces. It may well be that you already have many items of furniture, accessories or soft furnishings that you will have to incorporate into the scheme, so these will have to form the bones of your plan. If you are starting totally from scratch, then so much the better, you have a clean palette to start with!
When using a large expanse of colour, remember that it will always appear darker and stronger than you imagine from having seen just a small fabric swatch or colour sample. This is particularly true of paint colours or wallpapers.
TIP: Buy a small sample pot and paint a large section on a piece of scrap plasterboard or something similar. Move it around the room and look at it at different times of the day. You will be amazed at how different the colour will appear in natural and artificial light. The depth of colour will also vary depending on the surface to which is applied and the amount of light it receives. If in doubt, always go for a shade lighter.
If you want more than one paint colour on the walls, then its is best not to go for a contrast, stick with the same colour but in a different shade, making it lighter or darker. A slightly ‘muddy’ look in paint colours is particularly popular at the moment. Farrow & Ball, Sanderson and The Paint Library offer a really unusual and comprehensive selection.
TIP: A trick that many decorators use is to chose one colour and paint the ceiling in the lightest shade, the walls in the next shade darker, the dado darker still and the woodwork in the darkest shade using a flat oil based paint for the greatest effect.
Curtains, floor and wall coverings
If you choose a dark colour for your curtains and are thinking of placing them against a pale wall, you will need to be aware that they will make a very strong statement. I feel that it is far better to tone down the colour of the curtains or deepen the colour on the walls slightly to avoid too strong a contrast.
When looking for floor coverings, there are lots of different options to choose from. Sisal and its modern day derivatives will always be popular, although they do not give the comfort and luxurious feel of a woollen carpet. The colour continuity and harmony you get from using the same coloured carpet throughout the whole house is well worth considering but you would be well advised to choose a neutral tone that is easy to live with! It also allows for greater flexibility in choosing the individual colour schemes for each room.
TIP: If you decide on carpeting, request a large sample piece from your supplier rather than the 10 cms square usually provided by the manufacturer. The same rule applies with carpets as with fabric and paint, too strong a shade will be overpowering when seen ‘en mass’, so go a shade lighter.
TIP: If you are re-furbishing an entire room and have the luxury of starting from scratch, then leave the paint colour or wallpaper design until last. This tends to make the fundamental choices of fabric, floor covering and accessories a lot easier.
Pattern and colour in the textiles you use, or perhaps in one very special article like a piece of ceramic or a painting, could form the bones of the colour scheme with wall colour used to tone down the overall palette.
Strong colours
It is best to steer clear of strong colours on the walls in rooms that you use very frequently. Go for paler tones, creams, grey-greens, blue-greys and ivories. Hall and staircases however are often neglected in terms of interesting colour schemes, but they are important as they make a first impression on entering the house and they serve the purpose of linking individual rooms creating an overall feel to the house. As we spend little time in them, merely passing through, then they can take a stronger shade. Hallways and staircases always get a lot of traffic and can quickly become shabby if you have not thought long-term of how your floor and wall coverings are going to stand up to a lot of wear and tear.
TIP: If you would like to experiment with using dark colours on walls, you would be well advised to restrict their use to rooms that are only used after dark.
Dining rooms in particular, can benefit from a darker colour scheme. To have a formal dining room that is rarely used is a luxury today. How about turning your little used dining room into a dining room come library. If you have the room, you could fit in a small sofa or comfy armchair. Your darker colour scheme could well include dark green, navy blue and deep red, colours that we typically associate with libraries. Blue is usually accepted as a cold colour, but the rich, dark blue shown in the example at the top of the page has been teamed with cream and the resulting affect, used in a master bedroom, is anything but cold. The two-tone tasselled trimming and cord bring the two colours together.
This very traditional drawing room has dark oak furniture. The owner chose a variety of different textures and patterns on the fabrics and fitted a deep velvet pile woollen carpet to match. It is a room that is predominantly used in the evening, as it faces east and gets little natural sunlight, other than first thing in the morning. The lighting consists of central chandeliers, matching wall lights, a picture light over the fireplace and various table lamps.
Uplifting
TIP: A trick that many interior designers use is to insert one red article in a room, no matter how small to serve as a focal point.
However, beware of using red as the dominating colour in a room. It is a very strong, aggressive colour and therefore difficult to live with, but one small and imposing red object, be it a chair or a vase of flowers, can give the room an amazing ‘lift’.
The strong red in this lambrequin and cushion is best used in small quantities. In this case, the roman blind picks out the colour of the stripes in the main fabric. The row of double piping on the blind has been cut on the straight so that the stripes run in perfect lines down the lambrequin and across the roman blind.
Next steps
If you still feel totally at a loss when it comes to colour, then a trip to KA International might help, or alternatively, purchase their catalogue if you are unable to visit one of their stores. They have very wisely broken their range of fabrics, furnishings, trimmings and accessories into five definite colourways, blue, red, neutral, green and yellow, with a separate selection of fabrics for children. Study their ranges of fabrics paying particular attention to how they have co-ordinated their colours within each particular colour block. Using this as a basis, you will have a fair idea of which colours appeal to you most!
Showing posts with label design interior. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design interior. Show all posts
2008-06-20
design interior - Design Tips
design interior - Design Tips
Here are a few simple design ideas that you may find useful. If you scan through a number of home interest magazines you will find these ideas used over and over again.
FlowersRather than mixing flowers in a vase, keep to one variety – a bunch of cream roses, a vase of yellow tulips. You will get more of a sense of structure.
TIP: Try to use an interesting container. It may be something that is not intended as a vase but is equally, if not more, effective.
If you are aiming for a minimalist look, then go for a single flower, real, dried or artificial, placed in a slim vase. The larger the flower and vase, the greater the visual impact. A large seedpod grouped with a few grasses or bamboo sticks will look stunning. If funds permit, try 3 of the same arrangement in a line on an occasional table or fireplace.
FruitA simple and most effective design trick is to put the same variety of fruit together, a glass dish of oranges, a plate of apricots, or a bowl of pears. It is often much more effective than mixing them all together.
MirrorsAdd an element of surprise and a touch of glamour. They can create an illusion of space in even the smallest of rooms.
TopiaryTopiary need not be confined to the garden. Just as topiary can add structure in a landscape, so it can in the home. An inexpensive way to achieve the same effect is to use ivy trained on specially made frames. The advantage with ivy is that it is very fast growing and will tolerate the warmer temperatures found within the home.
TIP: There are also many pieces of topiary available using artificial materials - a welcome change from the usual dried flower arrangement
Here are a few simple design ideas that you may find useful. If you scan through a number of home interest magazines you will find these ideas used over and over again.
FlowersRather than mixing flowers in a vase, keep to one variety – a bunch of cream roses, a vase of yellow tulips. You will get more of a sense of structure.
TIP: Try to use an interesting container. It may be something that is not intended as a vase but is equally, if not more, effective.
If you are aiming for a minimalist look, then go for a single flower, real, dried or artificial, placed in a slim vase. The larger the flower and vase, the greater the visual impact. A large seedpod grouped with a few grasses or bamboo sticks will look stunning. If funds permit, try 3 of the same arrangement in a line on an occasional table or fireplace.
FruitA simple and most effective design trick is to put the same variety of fruit together, a glass dish of oranges, a plate of apricots, or a bowl of pears. It is often much more effective than mixing them all together.
MirrorsAdd an element of surprise and a touch of glamour. They can create an illusion of space in even the smallest of rooms.
TopiaryTopiary need not be confined to the garden. Just as topiary can add structure in a landscape, so it can in the home. An inexpensive way to achieve the same effect is to use ivy trained on specially made frames. The advantage with ivy is that it is very fast growing and will tolerate the warmer temperatures found within the home.
TIP: There are also many pieces of topiary available using artificial materials - a welcome change from the usual dried flower arrangement
2008-06-17
design interior - Bedroom Design
design interior - Bedroom Design
For something such as a bedroom design you'll want to think long and hard about exactly what it is that you're going to do. Sure you know that you want to redecorate your bedroom but before you do anything too drastic you should decide what type of redesigning you want to do. Remember that it doesn't need to be anything spectacular or unusual because in the end you will have live with it, and unless you're willing to redo your new bedroom design and change it altogether.
In which case you can play around and find out exactly what you like at your leisure and not worry about whether the furnishings you bought would suit. But a lot of people won't be able to do that and they will need to resort to doing it the old fashioned way, or of course you have another option, and that's to resort to the use of home decorating software.
If you don't want to go that route either you always have the option of doing it the old fashioned way. With this method you might not get as much visualization as with the others but you can still achieve great results. The problem here is that sometimes it's very difficult to see what the end result of your bedroom design will be like.
The best way to start is to get a pencil and a piece of paper and to mark out very roughly what your room shape is. If you have trouble visualizing it then move into the bedroom and see what results you get. Next you should mark out the most obvious aspects of the existing bedroom design which will be unchangeable, like doors and windows.
After that it's a hop, skip and a jump to go on to the next step which is to play around on paper where you would like the heavier furnishings to go. And if you want to keep them where they are that's also fine because your bedroom design should be one that you're going to be happy with.
Then ideally you should settle on a color scheme. It doesn't need to be the same as the one in your existing bedroom design, it might be nice if you can change the whole thing around and turn the whole room on its head. After you settle on a color scheme there is only way to go and that is forward.
Start buying the new furnishings and fittings you'll need to fit in with your new bedroom design and just put it into place. And since you have everything you need to change around in your old bedroom design, you can take your time and rearrange everything at your leisure. See what fits best where and whether you need to add a little something extra. Now, it's just a matter of settling in and taking a good look at the bedroom design that you did, and enjoying the new furnishings and new fittings.
For something such as a bedroom design you'll want to think long and hard about exactly what it is that you're going to do. Sure you know that you want to redecorate your bedroom but before you do anything too drastic you should decide what type of redesigning you want to do. Remember that it doesn't need to be anything spectacular or unusual because in the end you will have live with it, and unless you're willing to redo your new bedroom design and change it altogether.
In which case you can play around and find out exactly what you like at your leisure and not worry about whether the furnishings you bought would suit. But a lot of people won't be able to do that and they will need to resort to doing it the old fashioned way, or of course you have another option, and that's to resort to the use of home decorating software.
If you don't want to go that route either you always have the option of doing it the old fashioned way. With this method you might not get as much visualization as with the others but you can still achieve great results. The problem here is that sometimes it's very difficult to see what the end result of your bedroom design will be like.
The best way to start is to get a pencil and a piece of paper and to mark out very roughly what your room shape is. If you have trouble visualizing it then move into the bedroom and see what results you get. Next you should mark out the most obvious aspects of the existing bedroom design which will be unchangeable, like doors and windows.
After that it's a hop, skip and a jump to go on to the next step which is to play around on paper where you would like the heavier furnishings to go. And if you want to keep them where they are that's also fine because your bedroom design should be one that you're going to be happy with.
Then ideally you should settle on a color scheme. It doesn't need to be the same as the one in your existing bedroom design, it might be nice if you can change the whole thing around and turn the whole room on its head. After you settle on a color scheme there is only way to go and that is forward.
Start buying the new furnishings and fittings you'll need to fit in with your new bedroom design and just put it into place. And since you have everything you need to change around in your old bedroom design, you can take your time and rearrange everything at your leisure. See what fits best where and whether you need to add a little something extra. Now, it's just a matter of settling in and taking a good look at the bedroom design that you did, and enjoying the new furnishings and new fittings.
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