Archive for September, 2009

Use mirrors to make a space appear larger

How to Make a Small Room Seem Bigger

Sometimes a small room is just the right size.  A cozy den, for example, may be the perfect place to sit alone and read a book.  Making this space seem larger would ruin the intimate mood of the room.

Most small rooms, however, feel too small.  If you have a room that you would like to appear and feel more spacious, there are several design tricks you can employ.

Walls: Stay away from large, bold patterns.  Painting your walls a solid color will create a more spacious appearance.  A light shade will create the illusion of expanding space and make the room feel bigger.

While it’s often interesting to use contrasting colors or patterns on different walls, you don’t want to break up your small space into even smaller parts.  A sense of unity and cohesiveness is needed to create a roomier feeling.  Paint your doors, trim, and ceiling the same color as the walls to further unify the space.

The most effective way to expand the appearance of a room is to use mirrors.  Hanging a large, simply-framed mirror can work wonders in adding the feeling of space.  But if you mirror an entire wall, you will double the apparent size of the room.

Flooring: The color of your flooring doesn’t really affect the scale of your room.  But you definitely want to choose a simple, small pattern.  Wood and tile work great, but adding an area rug will break up the floor area; so if you want carpet, go with wall-to-wall.  When choosing carpeting, avoid colorful, ornamented designs, and stick with a solid color or small texture.

Windows: For privacy, consider small-scale blinds and shades.  Most window coverings have smaller-scale options: honeycombs are available in micro-pleats, wood and aluminum blinds come with thinner slats, and roman shades can be made with smaller hobbles.

For your fabric treatment, stay on the small side.  The scale of the window treatment must match the scale of the room.  This is not the place to install a fabulous, showy design.  Choose a treatment that will blend with the look of the room, rather than stand out.  Your fabric color should also match the color of the walls so it doesn’t break up the continuity.

Furniture: To make your room appear larger, select smaller furniture, and don’t completely fill the room.  Overcrowding will only emphasize the small space.

Darker-colored upholstery pieces are great because the contrast will make your light walls appear to expand even further.  Choose solid fabrics, subtle textures, or small patterns.

Accessories: When it comes to accessorizing a small room, less is more. Too many accessories in a small area can appear cluttered, and clutter makes a space seem smaller.  Choose only a few special pieces to display, but display them with pride!

Although you aren’t actually breaking down and moving walls, these tips will help you create the illusion of adding space to a cramped room.  Enjoy your new-found breathing space!

At the New York Gift Show this year we came across Paper Cloud

Paper Cloud is about making hand crafted products for you and your home.  They make each piece one at a time, making each item unique.

The fabric for their pillows is 100% linen. Spot treat or hand wash in warm water. Hang dry and iron when slightly damp with a hot iron and steam.

Their lighting designs are hand printed on 100% linen, then backed with lampshade paper.  All of their designs are available as a canopy fixture or swag connection. Canopy fixtures hard-wire into the ceiling and come with a black or white canopy, 6′ matching cord, and all necessary hardware and instructions for installation. The canopy is a decorative plate that covers up the junction box and all the connections in the ceiling. An electrician is not necessary, but is recommended. Swag connection comes with 15′ black or white cord with switch and plug at the end. Swag connections do not wire into the ceiling. You simply plug them into any standard wall outlet.

GET PAID WHILE DECLUTTERING! Most people have attics, basements, closets or storage units filled with objects that haven’t been used in years. Decluttering doesn’t just free up space in your home but it can line your pocket with cash as well. Look around your home where you may have stashed items you no longer use. Designate an area in your home where you can create a pile of “For Sale” items.

Be honest:
- Is that elliptical machine used for exercise or is it a clothes hanger? If your answer is clothes hanger, SELL IT!

- Is the special order ceiling fan you bought 2 years ago for $300 really circulating air better than an average fan? If your answer is no, SELL IT!

- Is there an oversized piece of furniture that you really wish you hadn’t bought but continue to keep in your home because you feel it’s your duty to lye in the bed you made of a bad purchase? If your answer is yes, SELL IT!
The point is, take inventory around your house and whatever you can part with, SELL IT! Currently, more people than ever are shopping eBay, Craig’s List, the Penny Saver, or local newspapers and magazines to find deals on house hold items. You know what they say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” You will create more space in your home while making money! With the cash you make from your unwanted items you can hire Design Scheme Interiors to assist you in reinventing your space or you can do it on your own! Either way, you win!

While you’re busy de-cluttering and making cash, take a minute to reconsider some of your retired décor.
Ask yourself,

Transforming and reusing items can be a rewarding experience. One current trend is the “Green Movement”, based on reuse and recycle. Get creative and relish in the idea of how hip you are by joining in on the green movement!

Which came first, the cape or the superhero? I guess it depends on which superhero we are talking about. Regardless of which came first, that single piece of cloth made all the difference in the world not just to the superhero but also to all the people that superhero saved. So when you’re out fighting crime and reupholstering your furniture, your family might mistake you for a superhero by all the money you saved with your simple piece of cloth!

Be a superhero and reupholster your current furniture for a completely new look at a fraction of the cost.

Do you crave new and original art for your home but you don’t want to spend the one of a kind art prices? Employ your friends and family to create the art you crave. We promise you will receive more enjoyment out of these art pieces than pieces collected from artists you don’t share a personal bond.
Throw an “Art Party” at home. Make it a potluck if you’re really looking to save some cash. Use old bed sheets placed outdoors as the canvas and have your friends and family come over to finger or even toe paint! Keep some old towels, soap and a watering hose nearby for clean up. Let dry and place the painted fabric in picture frames for the finishing touch. Hang all framed fabric in one room of the house. You can stager the frames or hang them a couple inches apart side-by-side. In the end, you have a completely original piece of art with wonderful memories attached that will bring you pleasure for years to come!

Have you ever considered how liberating it might be to live life as a chameleon? Changing your colors at whim to match your mood or surroundings. Well truthfully, we haven’t considered this either… but it sounds interesting! Last, but not at all least: PAINT. Do not underestimate the power of paint. Or should we say, COLOR! You can transform you’re mood by changing the colors of your surroundings and/or your surrounding objects. What was once old is now a new experience for your senses when an object changes color. As we suggested earlier, you can paint items sitting around your house or whole rooms for that matter. So break out the paintbrushes and change your mood you sassy chameleon!

Feng Shui design observes the link between people’s exterior and interior environments.  In fact, they are virtually the same.  If there is clutter in one, there is clutter in the other.

External clutter is the stuff we keep in our living and work spaces that we no longer need.  It gets in the way, makes cleaning and maintenance difficult, raises stress levels, and blocks the flow of positive energy.  We function better without it.

Internal clutter can be blocked arteries that eventually lead to heart attacks and strokes, tumors, constipation, poor communication between cells resulting in reduced body functions, and other health issue s.  We function better without these too.

That is why decluttering should be taken very seriously.  There is a difference in your life when you declutter your home.

Here are some simple steps you can try to declutter your home in 2009!

Step 1- Group  Like Things Together

When one category of things, such as shoes, books, business papers or canned goods is stored in more than one location, you are likely to have more than you think you have and it is difficult to locate a specific item.  So the first rule of organizing is to put like things together and plan to store them in one location.

Step 2- Decide What to Keep and What to Eliminate

Once you have everything together you can decide which things to keep.  Be practical.   Ask yourself these questions:  what do I really have room for?; what do I really use?; what do I love?

Really think about each item and the meaning it has for you.

Step 3- Put Things Away

Consider how important a category of things, shoes, books, business papers, or other things are in your life.  Then decide based on its importance, how much room to give it in your space.

Decide where objects are going to go based on how frequently they are used.  Put the most frequently used objects in the most accessible locations and place items that are stored for long periods of time in least accessible locations.

Step 4- Change Your Habits

This is the hardest part.  But if you don’t change some habits your space will end up cluttered again and all of your hard work will have gone to waste.  So think about what you have to do differently to keep things under control, and focus faithfully on those new habits for one to three months until they become second nature.

Give It A Try

You will probably not be able to complete all these steps at once, so the time that you have and you’ll find your space, and your life, consistently improving. 

At Design Scheme Interiors, LLC we get questions all the time about how to select an area rug for a specific space in the home.  We are sharing a few tips on how to best select an area rug that will meet the specific needs of your home.

Design:
An empty room may be designed around an area rug, or a rug may put the final touches on an existing room. When designing a room around an area rug, use the rug colors to decide upon furniture, paint or paper color. A well-chosen area rug can coordinate patterns, furniture, and wall prints to complete a room design.

Color:
Furniture may be selected around rug colors and design. Area rugs are an effective method to mix patterns that have the same color palette. Deep colored area rugs provide warmth and intimacy, while lights colored rugs can open a room and provide a more spacious feeling. When selecting an area rug around existing furniture, bring a swatch of the predominant pattern in the room.

Size:
Evaluate the size of the space and the area to cover. Larger area rugs provide comfort and benefit acoustics in a large space. Area rugs also enhance areas in bedrooms, kitchens and other smaller areas that may require a splash of color or warmth.

Material:
There are a variety of area rugs made from synthetic and natural yarns.

Construction:
Machine-made area rugs are less expensive, yet similar in appearance to handmade area rugs.

Shape:
Circular and other uniquely shaped rugs can present a design alternative to rectangular or square shapes.

The Space:
The type of light and amount of traffic in a room will affect choices of area rug material. Some man-made fibers resist fading better than natural fibers, so consider the amount of direct sunlight an area rug will receive.

Durability:
An area rug with the right combination of pile density (closer stitches or tufts) and fiber will resist wear.

Area rug pads will reduce wear on the area rug and provide additional noise absorption.

When considering a room-sized area rug for a hardwood or tile floor, allow at least eight inches of floor material to be exposed around the area rug perimeter. In dining rooms, measure the top of the table and add four feet to the width and length. Use this measurement to determine the size of the dining room area rug. The extra footage provides a comfortable area around the table for pulling out chairs.
• Do not extend area rugs into high traffic areas.

• Divide a large space into more intimate sitting areas by placing furniture around 4′X6′ or 6′X8′ area rugs.

• Floral patterns can accentuate and blend with more contemporary geometric designs if the color palettes are similar.

• Pair less complicated designs with more intricate patterns.

• Small a nd large patterns pair well

DSI is an exclusive dealer of several rug companies and offers a variety of styles, shapes and colors for your home.  We carry the following companies:

Transocean

The Rug Studio

Safavieh

Company C

Feizy Rugs

DSI CLIENT TELLS ABOUT HER DESIGN EXPERIENCE

It’s one thing to talk about designing on a budget but it’s another to actually see it in action. Tonia, a DSI client, contacted Design Scheme Interiors with one thing on her mind, ‘HELP!’ Her living room, powder rooms, master bedroom, guest room, rec room, and stairway needed a facelift on a budget and DSI was there to guide her. I interviewed her and here’s what she had to say about her design experience:

KOPASEK:  What prompted you to call Design Scheme Interiors?

TONIA: “I only had so much money to spend and I wanted to spend it on the right stuff. I’m not creative and I just wanted something cool. I told them I could not afford anything custom and they helped me make everything look custom with out spending that kind of money.”

KOPASEK:  What is your design style?

TONIA: “Modern/Traditional. They showed me how to mix styles and make it look good. They also showed me how to mix the old with the new. I had a lot of the furniture you see here; they helped pull it all together.”

KOPASEK:  Now that you see what they have done in your home, do you think it is a design you could have come up with on your own?

TONIA: “No way… I could not do this. Like I said I am not creative. But watching them work and the rules and guidelines they showed me while they were working has taught me a lot.”

KOPASEK:  How did you feel when participating in the design process?

TONIA: “It was a learning process for me. I watched them turn something from blah to fabulous. Mixing and matching things I would not have thought of… it has inspired me to take on other projects in the house.”

KOPASEK:   Is there a project you have in mind that you want to tackle next?

TONIA: “The kitchen, I want to do the kitchen next. With the decorating tools and rules they gave me I think I can begin the kitchen. If anything goes wrong they [Design Scheme Interiors] are just a phone call or e-mail away. They were really good about

e-mailing me and answering my questions.”

KOPASEK:  What did you find most interesting about the design process?

TONIA: “Watching them work together. Sherry and Susan work really well together. They were very creative. They knew my style and showed me options they thought I would like according to my style. They were very patient with me…. I was nervous about using color. The colors they picked look so good. It was a really good experience.”

KOPASEK:  What do you have to say to all those people out there that are afraid of change when it comes to design?

TONIA: “You can mix the old with the new. Don’t be afraid of change or color. Seek a professional decorator; [their] expertise helps your projects. Utilize them as a resource to really get what you want. They are there for help and guidance.”

After the interview, Tonia took me on a tour of her home showing me the DSI improvements. She was glowing; it was obvious how proud she felt about her home and the creative changes that were made. One particular project that stood out was the stairway wall. If you have high ceilings in your home then you understand how hard it is to decorate tall walls, especially on a budget. I have to say the solution DSI came up with not only looked amazing but it certainly did not look as though it was done on a budget. With a painted Tuscany burnt orange wall color as the backdrop, circular metal wall sculptures adorned the wall from floor to ceiling. It reminded me of a five star hotel I recently stayed in; how nice to come home to a five star resort every evening!

Tonia said many times that having guidance in the design process helped in the discovery of her own personal style. Sometimes we need professionals to come into our lives and help whether it be with our bills, taxes, landscaping or interior design. Hiring a professional who is knowledgeable can save you time and money. Tonia expressed that she saved money by working with Design Scheme Interiors because they helped her make the right changes to create a beautiful home. No other words could better describe Tonia’s experience than her own: “My home was taken from blah to fabulous!”

Tonia's redesigned living room with new accessories lighting, an area rug and new lamps!

Tonia's redesigned basement with new accessories and artwork.