Your Decorating Hotline

Deciding that a room or the whole house is in need of a makeover or update is only the first of many decisions to be made. And maybe the easiest. A reader asked for some help using a bold green in her powder bath makeover. You can see my suggestions in the post Bold Color in a Small Bathroom. Her follow up question is one I’m sure many of you struggle with so I thought I’d address it here as well.

Kathy writes, “Do you have an idea of where to start on my bathroom? I don’t like to shop so I don’t get excited about running around looking for an inspiration piece. I usually start with something I stumble across which means it can take years for the right inspiration to show up….. It sounds like for my bathroom I’d be better off starting with an item that has the green and blue since the paint will be the easiest to find while the towels/shower curtain etc. will be more challenging. Would it be easiest to start at the fabric store looking for the trim/stripe fabric to go with the shower curtain?”

MAKEOVER INSPIRATION CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE

Ethnic lady figurine

Whether your room inspiration starts from a treasured family heirloom, a platter, a piece of art, a piece of jewelry or a paint color, it’s the first building block in your new room. The important thing to remember (and to help keep you sane) is that a room or a home doesn’t have to be totally completed in one day or one weekend like they show on TV. The best rooms evolve over time.

Kathy, since you already have the paint and have settled on a paint technique (the circles design- that’s your “inspiration piece”), I’d suggest you begin there. That paint technique is going to have the biggest impact on the room and once that’s in place your feelings about other elements may change. The next largest element in the bathroom is the shower curtain – if you go with a solid white that you’re going to embellish, go ahead and hang the white while you’re searching for the right trim or fabric.

TIP: When you’re working with a multi color inspiration item (like this tropical vase) or a bold color like acid green, don’t feel like all the colors in your room have to match perfectly. Tasteful blending is the goal. It can be quite difficult, time consuming and frustrating to shop all over town trying to exactly match a specific color. The eye can make amazing adjustments – as long as the items aren’t stacked on top of each other, your eye will see the similarities in color and “make” them match. It’s more interesting (and much easier) to find colors in the same shade (acid green) but different tones (lighter, darker).

MAKEOVER STEPS

Settle on one inspiration piece – whether art, a rug, a pillow, a vase, a bedspread or favorite piece of jewelry. What is it that you like about the item – the colors, the texture, the feeling or mood?
Spend some time thinking about how that look or feeling can be translated into furnishing your room.
Select one patterned item to base the rest of your design around – you can certainly add more patterns – and I encourage you to do so, but picking that first one will give you a strong starting point.

Modern model home bedroom

The patterned piece can be a wall treatment, a bedspread or whatever, but it will determine the direction for the room. It’s easier if that patterned piece is one of the main impact areas of the room (wall, sofa, wall of draperies, etc) rather than a small accessory item because once you change one of the “big” items, the room will start to show the changes quickly.
After a couple of impact pieces are done, you can narrow the focus to smaller accent pieces to round out the look and you’ll find that will go much more smoothly once the structure for the room is in place.
I created the model home pictured here starting with a piece of modern art. I found a couple of coordinating art pieces and pulled the soft gray wall color from the art – but not matching it perfectly. The custom bedding plays on the the graphic elements of the art and the pillows add texture (red fuzzy) and reinforce the primary colors. You’ll notice that there is no green in the art and yet the pillows blend in with the room very well.
If you don’t want to shop and hunt all over town for an inspiration piece, don’t. Use what you already own – in a new way. Pull something that’s always been in the living room into the bedroom and remake the bedroom around that piece. Or browse online magazines or design sites for rooms or colors that inspire.
Watch TV ads, magazine ads, newspaper ads, catalogs that come to the house. Tons of research goes into choosing those color schemes to make them appealing. Use that research to your advantage.
Then, if you still need help about what color goes where or what to do after the “big” things are done ….. well, that’s why I’m here. Ask me.