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Is Your Home on a Collision Course with Change?
By Karen Butler & Allison Krajcik
A turning point in life is described as being in the middle of two places. Finding yourself in the middle of two places along the road of life like having a baby, creating a home office, selling your home, getting divorced or remarried, may require a little help. For organizing systems, choosing and using color or rearranging your furnishings, here is a road map to keep your household running smoothly…a kind of GPS for your home.
Road Work Ahead
Recognizing a turning point in your life is the first milestone in managing its effect on your home. When people reach this point and choose to reclaim their lives and space they often do not know where to begin. Identifying your needs will help you define the purpose for your space, the second milestone. Think about an area of your home you can imagine changing as we highlight some of the steps to redesign.
Begin by asking what activities are going to take place in the space and if it needs to serve a dual purpose such as TV viewing and enjoying hobbies? Do you want to share this space with family and friends? How do you want it to feel?
After defining the purpose for the space, sort like items into piles and refrain from making decisions about what should stay and what should go at this point. Sorting like items is an important step because you will identify duplicate purchases, shopping trends, and behaviors making it easier to eliminate items once you see similar items side-by-side. For example, once realizing she had five punch bowl sets, our client chose to keep the one her mother had given her and easily donated the others! This sorting process will clear the clutter so that you can move onto the first design consideration -- identifying a focal point.
Billboards
Just as a billboard gets our attention, a focal point is meant to focus our attention in one area of the room. You can begin to look for architectural features like fireplaces and large picture windows or place artwork, wall hangings, or grouped photographs in combination with moderate sized furniture pieces. The key to drawing our attention to the focal point is a matter of proportion. It should be large enough to be considered dominant but not overwhelm the space and all other furnishings in the room should not compete with it.
Caution - Men in Road
The large screen TV’s of today can serve as a focal point, however, one of the most common issues couples disagree about is the size and placement of the TV. TV viewing has taken place most often in the living area that also features the fireplace. In recent years TV’s have increased in size, ultimately competing with the fireplace for our attention and in many cases overwhelming the space. The general feeling is that most men enjoy large screen TV’s while more moderate sized models appeal to the decorating sensibilities of most women.
One solution is to mount the TV above the fireplace, effectively combining these elements but this will obviously only work if the TV is a flat screen. Enclosing the TV in a cabinet with doors can be a compromise as well as relocating it to another space designated for this purpose.
Red Light! Green Light!
Just as our traffic signs use color to send a clear message, you can use color to emphasize your focal point and draw the eye throughout the room! The focal point can inspire furniture placement, drapery and upholstery selections, and “the jewelry of the room” – accessories.
Color can be difficult for homeowners to use and many feel it’s an accident waiting to happen! Color is greatly affected by light so as the lighting changes in your home from natural to artificial or sunlight to shadow, the wall color changes with it.
Color is also changeable, like a chameleon. When two colors are compared they will show differences not similarities. Paint samples are automatically influenced by your existing wall color! Compare your color selection to areas of trim, cabinetry, furniture and flooring and keep it away from your existing wall color.
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