Diane Hill Interiors: Design Tips
Room Planning Tips:
- Use a square grid to lay out the dimensions of your room. Be sure to indicate doorways, windows, radiators, registers and fireplace.
- Draw straight lines on your plan to illustrate traffic patterns. These will be fairly straight lines from the room's entrance to any foor or seating area showing the room's natural traffic flow.
- Measure the width, depth and height of all your furniture. Check the furniture pieces, and draw them to the appropriate scale of your grid. You can even mark and cut outlines of your object and place them on the floor plan.
- Arrange largest items on your floor plan first. You will want to leave enough space for people to move and sit comfortably.
- Add more items as the space permits, but always err on the side of too little furnishing rather than too much, you can always add more afterwords if the space permits.
- To make a comfortable conversation area, sofas and chairs should face each other and have a table handy to place a lamp, book and your coffee cup.
- Coffee tables should be placed 14 to 18 inches from the sofa to allow for adequate legroom.
- End tables should be the approximate height of the arm of the furniture beside it so that lamp heights are correct and the arm does not block access to the table.
Design and Decorating Tips:
- Create instant drama in a small room with a single, large-scale print
- Add a pretty tassel to any drawer pull for interest
- Group all of your toss cushions at one end of a couch to make the sofa cozy and inviting
- A wicker ottoman can perform any duties: table, footrest, seat or storage.
- Keep it simple when displaying art in the dining room, the focus should be on the table and diners.
- New drawer pulls can update cabinets instantly.
- Patchwork quilts make great wall hangings or can add charm to a room when draped over a table.
- Choose a dining room rug large enough so that your chairs will still be on it when they are pushed back from the table. An extra 24-30" on every side will do the trick.
- If you are painting your trim white, spend some time chosing just the right white to enhance your wall colour.
- When you narrow down your paint selection, paint a large sample on a piece of bristol board so that you can really see the colour.
- If you mark the pictures you like, or particularly dislike, in decorating magazines you will start to see a trend.
- Visit as many model homes as you can to get some up-to-date decorating ideas.