by Kathleen Hesketh
When faced with the empty space between four walls, it is difficult to know where to start an interior decorating project. An empty room is similar to a blank canvas, but like the painter who stares at the matte white surface, a designer needs to know what they want to create. It’s the same for any homeowner trying to start a room. Often people begin by choosing a piece of furniture they like, only to discover upon delivery that it is too
traditional, too contemporary, or not at all what they wanted for their interior decorating design. Without a clear idea of the type of room they want to develop, a homeowner ends up with a complicated mix of objects, lamenting the loss of the masterpiece they had hoped to create.
As any artist will tell you, creating a masterpiece takes time and some inspiration. Creating an interior requires the same. Art is a means to express a certain emotion. Rooms are decorated to inspire a certain feel. Isolating this is the first step in turning an empty room into a living work of art. The feel can be many things. People often want their main living spaces to feel warm and inviting or cool and sophisticated. The feel a room is intended to inspire determines what elements will go into it.
Isolating the feel is easier than it might sound. There are hundreds of books on the market with pictures of well designed interiors. Equally as accessible are the many home magazines available at supermarkets and bookstores. Further down on the list, but just as common, are home themed catalogues and websites. All of these are resources in determining the feel of a room. Start by looking through them. It should be immediately apparent if a room is appealing or not. If so, set it aside. After several have been collected, go back through them paying careful attention to the feel the rooms in the photographs inspire. Do they bring memories of the beach? Are they formal and elegant, or do they remind you of a sleek and powerful office in a New York City high rise? Finding this feel is the start to creating a masterpiece out of the blank canvas of your room.
Deciding on the feel you want to inspire may seem easy compared to choosing what goes into an interior decorating project. Again, the pictures can help. Look at the ones that most closely exhibit the feel. Start with colors. Colors come with a powerful psychology and can do much to inspire emotion. Blues and some greens are cool colors, excellent for rooms that receive sunshine or for giving a room a refreshing breathy feel. Conversely, reds and golds are warm colors and bring a cozy or elegant feel to the room. Furniture style also plays a part in determining the feel of a room. A dominance of straight lines and minimal upholstery loft brings about a different feel than furniture that incorporates rounded edges, springy cushions or a high level of detail. Lastly, by paying attention to the types of window treatments in use, and any accent pieces, a design can be polished off to inspire the perfect feel.
The idea of creating from a blank canvas is always a refreshing one, but is often not practical. Most rooms have a few elements that can’t be hauled away or gotten rid of. Often, flooring materials are too costly to change, and built-in units have to be worked around. Sometimes, certain pieces of furniture must remain. When embarking on a creation already in progress, make a list of what has to stay. Knowing this makes it possible to see what feel a room is already inspiring. Once this is determined, the idea is much the same. Find the feel you hope to achieve and use the appropriate styles and colors to help bring your room closer to your idea of a masterpiece. Bringing about a change in feel can be done in simple ways. Floors can be covered with a large rug, colors can be changed and even built-ins can be coaxed into exhibiting a different feel by the objects placed around them. It may not be possible to change an Old English Traditional interior to a sleek and minimalist room, but it is possible to come closer to this feel by carefully blending what is there with new objects closer to the ideal design.
Largely, art and interior decorating are about inspiring or expressing a feeling. Both work with the principals and elements of design to create a pleasing effect, but knowing in advance what that will be is the first step to creating any work of art. By knowing how to break down what you see, it is possible to turn any room into a work of art.
Learn more about this author, Kathleen Hesketh.