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Article - How do you know a design will work?How do you know a design will work?
One of the main reasons people decide to use a professional designer
for their homes is that they don’t want to waste time and money
getting it wrong. Many are nervous about buying anything, let alone
putting a full scheme together. So how can you be sure of a great
design that will work for you and your lifestyle without
wasting your time and money in the process?
The first thing I suggest is something that anyone can do, whether
you are using the help of a professional or working by yourself.
It involves getting to know your style and tastes –
and really concentrating on what will work for you.
Professionals use mood boards as the starting point to a design scheme –
and these do exactly what they sound like – i.e. create the mood of the
scheme. This can be done on a large piece of card so that the client can
decide whether this is the feel that they want for the room, enabling both
the designer and the client to be happy that the
finished design will be the right style before any large expense has been paid.
Whether you are using a designer or not it will pay dividends
if you create your own mood boards for your home. You can do
this easily by collecting together any pictures, photographs
or items that you feel you like, or that depict what you want
your chosen room to look like. As you start to build this collection
you will usually start to see some clear “leads”. This could be a
colour, or a style - but it can be used as a starting point for your
room. For example, you may realise that beach scenes play a
large role in your collection, and as such the colour scheme you
go for could be soft blues, beiges and whites – giving the feel of the
beach without being too themed. You know that this colour scheme
will work, as your mood board has suggested that this is
something you feel drawn to, and therefore relaxed with.
If you are bringing in a designer it will help them to understand
what you really want from a room – after all, when you say to them
you want a “contemporary” room, this could have so many different
styles and meanings that you need to know you are on the same
wave length! Doing some of this work before you meet up with a
designer can also help to really show them
what you want, and save time and money for you.
Once you have got a good idea of what you want for your scheme
in terms of style and colours, the next step is to start looking at
each aspect of the room, including flooring, wall coverings, window
dressings, furniture, lighting and accessories. If you have a chosen
scheme then a lot of these items will be a natural choice (i.e. a
Scandinavian look will work well with white furniture, a more traditional
look will work with darker richer wood). Other schemes may not be so
straight forward, but when you have a clear idea of the colours and style
that you want, it is a lot easier to go round the shops or the
internet and find items that will go with the scheme.
I would always suggest taking your mood boards with you when shopping
for the room as they will help to steer you in the right direction,
and avoid making costly mistakes.
Creating another type of board at this stage would be highly beneficial
(even if it feels like you are spending lots of time doing this it will pay
in the end as you won’t be making errors in the long run). Designers call
these boards “Sample boards” and, as with mood boards that create
the mood of the room, a sample board collects samples of the actual items
you want to use. If you can get pictures or samples of each of these items
then you can place them on this piece of card. Once all the items can be
seen together you can really get a good idea of the look and feel of the
finished room – before you have bought anything. This stage is especially
useful as you can change your mind easily without having the hassle of
returning items – simply looking at the light fitting you have chosen, for
example, may make you realise that it would look out of place in the room
given the furniture you have chosen, and therefore you can look for something
more suitable. This is a good stage to ensure that items you have chosen
are the right size for the space you have as well, as this can make
or break a scheme as well.
Once you have your sample board in place and you are happy with the
scheme, then the fun can start! I would suggest prioritising the ordering
of large items so that you receive them when you are ready i.e. you don’t
have to store them away while any redecoration occurs. I advise purchasing
furniture and ordering any made to measure soft furnishings initially as these
usually have the longest leadtime, then getting the
trades in to decorate, sort electrics out etc… and then you can accessorise.
One word of caution here – at the stage where the decorating has
started many clients have second thoughts about the colour chosen
as it looks too light or too dark etc.. but always remember that on
your sample board the scheme worked well – and go with it. Once you have
added in all the furniture and accessories the colour schemes will be more
toned down anyway and will not give the same impact as you see
when it is initially done – trust your schemes and boards and you won’t go far wrong.
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