Sunday, January 31, 2010

Best design tip...

I learned this trick from watching various deisgners on HGTV and specifically Karen McAloon's show. So if you are trying to decorate any room, use these tips.

  1. Pick a main color. This color will be your primary color and usually is your wall color since that is the largest space it will cover. This should be a color you love, not something you think you will love.
  2. Pick an accent color or two. This color will compliment your main color. The best accent colors are those that are either on opposite sides of the color wheel or adjacent to your main color on the color wheel. You may opt for just one accent color or you may opt for two (or three if you absolutely can't narrow it down...but any more and it can look too busy or disjointed)
  3. Pick a metal finish. This metal finish can be brushed nickel, bronze, wrought iron, silver or gold. This will be the finish of any metals you pick for the room.
  4. Pick a wood grain/tone. This will be the shade of all your wood tones for the room. The easiest way to pick this if you don't have samples is to go to your local hardware or home improvement store and look at the stain samples.

Viola! You have everything you need to go shopping and decorate your room! When you are shopping for furniture, accents, rugs, fabrics, pillows, lamps and other items, make sure that they fit in the parameters you have selected. It's helpful if you take samples with you shopping. For example, my living room choices are: pumpkin orange or brick red (similar in shade often times), sage green, dark wood, bronze metal finish and light khaki. My bedroom is blue, green, black/wrought iron and white.

Never buy anything you don't LOVE. If you like it and buy it because it "matches" then you won't love it later and will likely get rid of it if you change your room. I have a variety of fun prints in dark wood stained frames. The dark wood frames match the wood grain I have in the room. All the prints are my tastes and I love them but they still go with the room since I kept the frames similar in shade.

Happy decorating! As always, you know where to find me if you need specific advice.

~AWS

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