Designing or redesigning a space can be an overwhelming project. Where do you start? If you are taking on such a project, start with the basics. Determining what matters is the first step.
What matters most when you are designing a room? Is it the color or the shape of the room? Both of these things are important, sure, but they are not at the beginning of the design process. Let’s take a look at what you want to accomplish with the space you first.
Function
What is the purpose of the space? Knowing what will occur in the room is essential to designing it in the proper way. For instance, a kitchen is for cooking but it is also for eating and socializing. A lot of activity goes on in this part of the house so the dynamics of the room have to meet that need.
What about the bedroom? It is a place to sleep but also to relax. For couples, it is a sanctuary and a sensual playground. Using loud bright colors doesn’t exactly portray R&R now does it?
Before changing one iota in any room, you must first determine the overall function of the room.
Mood and Feeling
A home is a house with feelings attached. Knowing how each room of the house makes you feel is essential to knowing what types of design styles will work best in the space. Let’s take the living room for instance. Overall, it is a happy room that makes the entire family comfortable and gives a sense of fun and safety.
Have you ever walked into someone’s living room and immediately felt like the dirtiest thing in it? That’s because the furniture, color and accents all say “Hands off!” it is not an inviting room for conversation and laughter but a sterile environment to be viewed under glass.
A warm and inviting living room has a different design. Warm colors, the position of the furniture and the type of furnishings all play a vital role in keeping the room comfortable and down to earth. It’s inviting and makes people want to be there!
Harmony
Harmony is achieved when all rooms are integrated. The bathroom is still the bathroom, but there is an underlying continuity to the patterns and design in your home. The bathroom is not an island that sticks out in the rest of the house.
Here is an example. Your home style is country living. Everything has a simple elegance from the gently distressed farmhouse table in the breakfast nook to the wagon wheel on the porch to the wooden sleigh bed in your room. Now, you walk in the bathroom and it has white walls, a modern square sink and a glass shower. See what I mean? The continuity is broken.
A true designer (be it you or a professional) makes certain he or she is designing the ENTIRE home. They may start one room at a time, but there is a common theme to every space that works together to make the house a home.