June 2020
Simple Steps To Redesigning Your Home
The idea of overhauling the design of your home completely is one that horrifies some homeowners; the potentially huge costs, the amount of work involved and the state of the home whilst work is ongoing are just three of the potential stumbling blocks. Another, perhaps more overlooked factor, is people’s fear of interior design.
Interior design is often seen as a bit of a closed shop, what with various designers being paid millions for their work. This is somewhat of an assumption however; with a bit of basic knowledge, some help from a specialist and interior design software, planning your ideal bedroom, bathroom or kitchen is simple and more importantly, fun.
The first step to good interior design is having a decent idea of what you have to work with, and what you will be using it for. Be realistic about the amount of space you have and use it creatively; as much as you may love a particular set of units, if they’re going to overwhelm the room then there is no point in having them.
Consider what you’re going to be using your rooms for – the bedroom, for example, will require a bed, storage space for clothing and other items and whatever else you may have (televisions, weights, etc). Kitchens will usually have a cooker, a microwave and a sink as well as other appliances so think about what you’re going to need before you go ahead and plan your rooms.
The fun part of interior design is choosing a decorative theme for your home. Bedrooms are particularly great to plan, with potential influences ranging from Edwardian classic style to space-age futuristic designs! Kitchens and bathroom design tends to be more conservative but still, be expressive – you want your home to reflect the personality of the people living in it.
Come up with a few rough ideas and designs for your home – these won’t be of a professional standard but at this point it doesn’t matter. Measure out your home and draw up some rough floor plans. From there, you can go as wild as you like! Experiment with placement of items, taking measurements into account, until you have a layout you like.
Another good idea is to draw some pictures visualising the design as you see it in your head. Whilst this may sound like a futile task if you aren’t particularly artistic, working from a visualisation is far easier than trying to describe a visual task in words.
The final step is to go along to a specialist store or call a designer to work out your design using home design software. This may seem like a bit of a step backwards considering you’ve done a lot yourself but the benefits of home design software are massive and should help flag up any design issues. Generally this software is expensive and requires training, so working with a specialist is recommended.
Interior design software allows you to create 3D visualisations of your dream designs …
2011 Home Design Color Trends
As a Designer it’s so important to be well versed on all upcoming home design and renovation trends – from building trends to paint colors and everything in between. Benjamin Moore’s 2011 Color Forecast was released to Architects and Designers last month – and I wanted to share their findings with you.
Each year the color expert team at Benjamin Moore declares their predictions for the upcoming year by tracking the more recent social, cultural and political conditions and how they directly impact fashion and design trends. What they discovered was an overwhelming desire for a sense of balance coupled with four underlying themes: The Farm, Order, Escape and Tribe.
1. The Farm
There is a major focus on hearth and home for obvious reasons and most are anchoring themselves within a new reality. Earthy colors straight from the farm will be dominating interiors this year. Just take a look at your local Farmers Market for inspiration. From earthy browns, buttery yellows and milky whites – to tomatoes, pumpkins and greens.
Also look for handcrafted fabrics, burlaps, tea-stained materials, and all types of petrified, bleached and natural woods – which suggests a return to life’s simpler things.
2. Order
We are craving a sense of balance and order from the chaos of the past couple of years. This is interpreted by infusing red, blues, yellows and greens to juxtapose with more monochromatic variations of black, white and gray. Geometric patterns with crisp stripes, dots and spirals uplift our spirit and improve our mood. These days it’s all about making ourselves feel happy.
3. Escape
The world has been a little harsh lately so escaping into a dream world full of hope and optimism for the future- is extremely appealing at the moment. The dreamy glamour of sheer draped fabrics, metallic finishes and softened textures coupled with a more pale, frosted and opalescent color palette can be just the remedy for overcoming adversity.
4. Tribe
A focus back to our ethnic communities and much like the farm, we are aching to return to the simpler things in life yet in a more soulful way. The spicy color palette of the land such as rich berry, cinnamon, saffron and fire orange are anchored with bronzes and charcoals. There is a huge focus on patterns, stencils, hand embroidery and beading,
So how will you seek that order and balance in your life? Will you be returning to the hearth, escaping into your dreams or focusing on your community when gathering your home design inspiration for this year?…
Design Your Dream House With a Purpose
There are well over a million new housing “starts” in the United States each year, but only a small fraction of those houses are custom designed. It’s a sad thing. Your house is the largest single investment most people make in their lifetime. Your house has a major impact on you and your family. It’s not just an object, it’s your home. It’s the environment you occupy and interact with during a larger portion of your life than anywhere else. And we are all shaped and influenced by our environment.
“But I can’t afford a custom house design,” you say. Well that may be so, but even if you are selecting from standard plans or picking out a plan from a book of house designs, you can make better choices and understand what your perfect house can be by learning a little about what constitutes good design. You need to raise your level of awareness.
As an architect I am often asked, what is the most important consideration when you design a house? In my opinion, the single most important quality is that there needs to be purposefulness to the plan. In order to achieve this, your home plan should have a main theme or concept as the core of the design plan. This should lend organization, as well as flow, to your house plan.
The most direct and simple methods of organizing a plan is often the best. One that I have used as a basis of many plans is the classic “four square plan.” The main shape of the house is a square, with an axis that acts as a connector. This is the idea used in the classic “Georgian Style” house. The main rooms of the home are in each of the corner squares, with a hallway and stairwell as the center acting as a connection between rooms on the same floor. The upper floor would also have a similar pattern with bedrooms in the corners, bathroom at the end of the hall. As you walk through a home like this, the spaces feel right since they are organized in a way that makes sense.
Take a look at a typical house plan. It will probably have some of this purposeful organization as the underlying concept. Perhaps the center hall is wider in one area, such as in the foyer. The stairwell may curve, or go off to the side of the center axis. You may find larger room in the rear that still fits in with the organized plan. Try to think about how you want your rooms to fit together and make the spaces flow in an orderly way.
Other organizing concepts are more complex, and may be the right one for you. Thoughtful planning will help you arrive at a meaningful, and purposeful floor plan. No matter what, your house design requires a plan that fulfills your needs. A house may be elaborate and expensive, but without a plan with integrity and unity, it …