Ann Moore Spencer

Are you just plain fed-up with a tired, old space in your room but feel you have too much in­vest­ed to make a change? Why tor­ture your­self? Some of your 'can't part with' pieces can find new life in dif­fer­ent spaces.Lib­er­ate your­self and your space. I am giv­ing you the li­cence to fall in love again.

Have a plan.

Be guid­ed by what you do not like about the space now. How do you want the space to work, look and feel? Write it down and do not lose fo­cus. This will be easy to do when you are faced with the de­ci­sions about what to re­turn to the space. Your de­sign de­ci­sions should, how­ev­er, re­flect your ac­tu­al lifestyle not the style you wish you were liv­ing. If you have small chil­dren, two dogs, two cats and a para­keet, fac­tor that in. It is bet­ter to face re­al­i­ty now than re­gret at the end.

Wipe the slate clean.

Re­move every­thing from the room. Con­sid­er the pieces that are es­sen­tial to the func­tion of the room. A bed­room must have a bed and a liv­ing room must have seat­ing, for in­stance. These are nor­mal­ly the larg­er and of­ten more cost­ly pieces in the space. If you have too many so­fas and chairs, for ex­am­ple, ed­it your se­lec­tion. On­ly re­turn just enough to al­low the room to func­tion. Yes, when you have par­ties you may need ex­tra seat­ing. But must you have the ex­tra seat­ing in the room all the time?

Con­sid­er the big items that are stay­ing and de­ter­mine a colour scheme.

Dis­re­gard any­thing that would not work with your cho­sen scheme. If you love it, de­sign a scheme that will al­low you to in­cor­po­rate it. But, pick a colour scheme and stick to it. Com­bi­na­tions in odd num­bers such as three or five colours are most pleas­ing. Choose a neu­tral or a dom­i­nant base colour, a high­light or con­trast­ing colour and an an­chor or deep hued colour. To cre­ate con­ti­nu­ity in your de­sign, be sure one or more of your cho­sen colours flow through the oth­er rooms close to your space.If you hate it, toss it or give it to your sis­ter, cousin, the la­dy down the road... Do not put it back in the room. Yes, I know. It be­longed to your great grand­moth­er on your moth­er's side and you have had it for over 15 years. ..But you hate it! If it is not right for you or your new space put it in an­oth­er room or pass it on to an­oth­er fam­i­ly mem­ber. An item should on­ly be a can­di­date for rein­tro­duc­tion if you love it.

Ed­it your col­lec­tions.

You do not need all ten ce­ram­ic fig­urines. If you have many sim­i­lar items, be­gin by choos­ing one or three for re-in­tro­duc­tion. Group in­di­vid­ual dec­o­ra­tive ob­jects in odd num­ber com­bi­na­tions such as one, threes or fives. This com­bi­na­tion is more pleas­ing to the eye and cre­ates a feel­ing of move­ment with­in the room.Ob­jects in group­ings should be of vary­ing heights and sizes to cre­ate rhythm and bal­ance in the group­ing. En­sure they fit your colour scheme and try to pre­fer few­er, but larg­er pieces. For­get all the small, cute glazed 'chi­na' pieces.When ar­rang­ing fur­ni­ture, avoid putting every­thing against the wall. Okay, I hear you, your space is small. Some things may have to be against the wall, but not all. Bring­ing pieces to­ward the cen­tre of the room con­quers pre­dictabil­i­ty. I re­mem­ber the first de­sign course I did. We were told that it was a mor­tal sin to place fur­ni­ture at an an­gle. I do not know if you were told the same. But I have since recog­nised that this is one way of di­rect­ing the eye where to fo­cus and to break up the mo­not­o­ny of the space. Plac­ing fur­ni­ture at an an­gle may al­so be the an­swer for poor traf­fic flow. So move the so­fa from against the wall. An­chor it by plac­ing a con­sole ta­ble be­hind it.Use small pieces of fur­ni­ture such as bed­side ta­bles, ot­tomans, cof­fee ta­bles, side ta­bles to bal­ance out your fur­ni­ture group­ing. Try not to use match­ing cof­fee and end ta­bles. Too pre­dictable. D&ea­cute;cor must have in­ter­est and ex­cite­ment. Match­ing every­thing is bor­ing. If you have match­ing sets, use in­di­vid­ual pieces in sep­a­rate rooms. Mix up your fur­nish­ings and fin­ish­es for a more vi­su­al­ly in­ter­est­ing and cus­tom in­te­ri­or.Hope I have giv­en you the for­mu­la to spice up that old re­la­tion­ship with that tired room so you can love your space again.

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Ann Moore-Spencer

Be­yond Drap­ery Lim­it­ed

Phone: 868-678-3414

Email: be­yond­drap­ery@tstt.net.tt

Web site: www.be­yond­drap­ery.com

Blog: www.be­yond­drap­ery.com/blog/