June 2, 2009
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June 2, 2009
Jan Springer, Director
Heritage School of Interior Design,
Beaverton, Oregon
Rarely are we called upon to create visual composition…which is exactly what we are doing when we furnish a home. Furnishing a home is the biggest visual project most of us will ever undertake. We end up living with the results for years. This is why thoughtful planning is the prerequisite to interior design. Expressing ourselves in our homes provides us a rare opportunity to discover our own taste, and to create something utterly personal and unique. We have to find a way to determine what it is we want and more importlantly how things will look before we start buying. The most costly home furnishings we will ever make… is a mistake.
We can spend hours poring over paint colors, fabrics, and furniture catalogs but it is equally important to consider how individual pieces will function in real rooms.
In design we say “Form follows function”. That is the most critical guideline in planning your spaces. In other words a room or space cannot take form until we know how the room or space needs to function.
This relates back to “Lifestyle”. Some living rooms are merely a pass through to get to another space. Some living rooms need to host parties, a bridge club gathering,
a business meeting or a relaxing “get-away” . Once you have determined the function the room or space must provide the furnishings and layout become crystal clear.
While I love to look at color and fabrics etc. That is not your first step toward planning. First step is being realistic about how the room or space needs to function for your lifestyle…it makes the next step so much easier.
Jan Springer, Director
Heritage School of Interior Design
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Just beginning to redo my (now college aged, and never home) boys room. Your article definitely gave me a new way to look at the dilemma I was having on color & fabric. Forget that, I just want it to “function” as a relaxing place to be when they get home.
Hi Alice,
How great that you have melded “your & his” taste together. That can be frustrating but it sounds like you figured it out. There is always a solution once you discuss your likes and dislikes.
Kay,
I’m glad the article gave you a better way to approach the design of your room. Too many times clients want a particular look in a room without thought to how the room will be used.
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If married, another factor to keep in mind when decorating is each other’s taste and try to blend them together so that both people are comfortable in the space. Took us years to figure that one out!! Now we both truly love and enjoy all our spaces/rooms in our house.