Undergoing a complete room re-design can be a daunting task. The statements I hear are, “I don’t even know where to start,” or “I don’t know what colors to use,” and even “I’m at a wall and don’t know what else to do but I don’t like it the way it is.”
This post will touch on my top three tips for how to organize your thoughts and plans for a new room re-design. And, it just so happens that I’m in the process of re-designing a brand new bedroom for an adorable eight year old named Mila.
Re-Design Tip #1
Make a list of everything that your space needs to accomplish.
Once you know what you want to do in your space, you can start planning and integrating different furniture, storage, lighting or other elements and determine a realistic budget.
When I met with Mila and her mom, I asked the very simple question, “what do you need in the room that it is currently lacking?”
Clearly, she needs a bed and dresser. She also has a small armoire that needed to be incorporated. But, what is lacking is a small work station for Mila to do her homework and functional storage for books, stuffed animals and other toys.
Re-Design Tip #2
Find your decorating inspiration.
So often, I am working with customers in the shop who are hemming and hawing over this color and that color and can’t make a firm decision. Which leads me to ask the question, “where are you pulling your color inspiration from?” That’s about when I get blank stares and I make the suggestion that before they pick their paint colors (be it for furniture or walls), they find their inspiration piece and draw from that. It can be a painting, throw pillow, curtain, rug, existing furniture, bedding…you get the idea?
It is MUCH EASIER to pull color selections for wall paint and furniture paint when you are inspired by a particular design, pattern or picture.
Mila found her inspiration. She wants cherry blossoms. The vision for her entire decorating scheme is springing off of the cherry blossom designs, colors and patterns.
Re-Design Tip #3
Re-arrange furniture placement and do your spacial planning before your decorating.
Take everything off the walls so all that is left in your room are the staple pieces of furniture. Determine what and where the focal point is going to be and start with that. Then, re-arrange your other pieces until you find a configuration that is both functional but also pleasing to your eyes. The arrangement should be balanced and furniture should float. Meaning, don’t have everything set against the walls around the perimeter of the room. Once your existing pieces are positioned, you can determine the appropriate sizes of what you will need to acquire as well as a balanced and symmetrical color palette.
If you are integrating multiple colors among your furniture and textiles, be sure that they are spread out throughout the space and aren’t too heavy on one side of the room.
In Mila’s room, we completely reconfigured the placement of her bed and two dressers. The new design layout allowed for selecting the right balance of color for her furniture pieces as well as the size requirements for her new desk, chair and storage solutions.
Now that you’ve seen my top three tips, this is how I’ve put together a plan and a task list for Mila’s room using my re-design strategies.
Things we already have to work with:
Bed
Armoire
Dresser
Desk
Pale Creamy Walls
Things we need to obtain:
Shelving solutions
Easy and accessible storage
Desk Chair
Lamp
Art/Picture Frames
Bedding
Design Concepts:
Cherry Blossom Inspiration
Color combination of Pure White, Antoinette, Scandinavian Pink, Louis Blue, Duck Egg Blue
Gold accents
Rustic wood element to add warmth to the space
And, did I mention we need to do this on a budget of $625!
So, there you have it. That’s the plan as it stands. We are currently in-process on this project. I am hoping to be done by the end of the month. But, as I told Mila and her mom (who is one of my friends), you get my services free of charge but there isn’t anything fast about it!
I’ll share more pictures when we finish!
Tell me…how do you plan for your big redecorating and room design projects?
