How to Choose a Wall Color

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I love color!  I really do.  It’s easy to get carried away with it, if not careful.  I enjoy vibrant hues but also muted earth tones. Every color has it’s place.  When it comes to choosing your color palette, the rug really should be your guide.  You don’t want everything in the space to be perfectly matched, but everything should work together to create a visually pleasing palette.  There are a few ways to accomplish this:

1.     Pull the wall color directly from your rug.  Choose a secondary or tertiary color from the rug to use as your wall color.  You can then pull other colors from the rug to use in your accents.

photo: PDR Interiors

If your rug has vibrant colors in it, choose a muted version of one of those color for the wall.  Strong colors can evoke strong emotions, and most of the time they create the opposite ambience of what you hoped.  A muted color means that it has a gray base to it which keep the colors soothing, neutral and versatile.  The bolder the shade, or more energetic the undertone, the more wired you and your guests will feel when in the space. Most people want a soothing, cozy environment in their home.  What vibe do you want to evoke?

2.     Choose a complimentary color to those in your rug.  If your rug incorporates a lot of yellow hues (warm by nature) cool down the tone of the room by choosing a shade of blue for your walls.  The same rule above applies here- keep the tone muted so as not to overwhelm the space with color. 

photo: PDR Interiors

The color wheel is going to be your best friend when it comes to creating a color palette that works.  I recommend purchasing a color wheel to keep on hand that shows you complimentary color schemes. 

I get asked about accent walls on a regular basis.  I am not a fan of accent walls.  To me, they represent someone being scared to use a color so they take the “safe” route and just put color on one wall in a room.  The other problem with accent walls is that they highlight only one wall creating tunnel vision in the room.  If you have 3 taupe walls and one deep red, your eye will continually be drawn to the deep red wall.  Most rooms don’t justify drawing attention to only one wall.  There are some instances where drawing attention to one wall makes sense, such as a two-story great rooms with a stacked stone fireplace.  You want everyone’s eye to go to that stacked stone, because the fireplace is the focal point of the room.

Speaking of fireplaces, built-ins are often used to flank a fireplace in a living or family room, and even when they aren’t sometimes they need a little something to enhance their appearance. The one caveat I have for accent walls is using an accent color or accent wallpaper on the back of built-in bookcases.  I love a painted white built-in bookcase, but some rooms call for a little more pizzazz in their shelving.  An accent color (dictated by the other colors in the room) or accent wallcovering (could be a texture or a geometric pattern) adds a punch of personality to your space. 

photo: PDR Interiors

Don’t fret if you have already chosen a wall color and are now creating a room around it.  This can work, too.  It may be a little more challenging, but it is possible.  You can work in reverse by either choosing a rug that has your wall color in it OR choosing a rug that is complimentary in color to your walls.

Stop by next Tuesday to get advice on choosing your paint sheen...

Area Rugs- the foundation of a room

There are a lot of foundational clothing items on the market these days- Spanx, seamless panties, and a zillion choices for bras.  The pieces you choose directly affect how the rest of your clothes will look on you.  You must choose wisely in order to look your best.  You can apply the same principle to area rug selection.  Choose wisely or risk ruining the whole vibe of your space.

Area rugs can be tricky.  People often make the mistake of purchasing rugs that are far too small for their space.  A couple of factors go into this mistake-

1. lack of understanding for a rug’s purpose

2. the cost of buying a rug. 

Let’s start with talking about an area rug’s purpose. A rug is the foundation of a room.  It’s the first thing you should select when creating a space. Why?, you ask. A rug’s pattern and color scheme is the basis for every other decision you make in a space. The colors in the rug are used as a basis for choosing color for your walls and fabrics, and your pattern will dictate the design style of the whole space.

A rug acts as an anchor for your seat grouping.  In large spaces, there are often multiple seat groupings.  Area rugs help define those seat groupings. 

 Remember earlier when I mentioned that people buy rugs that are too small?  This is where that becomes a problem.  If you are trying to tie together a conversation group of furniture that includes two sofas facing each other with a pair of chairs flanking one sofa, but your rug floats out in the middle under the coffee table, it is going to feel lost and will not be serving its purpose. 

Area rugs also serve as an element of warmth and provide sound absorption.  If you’ve ever walked around barefoot in a room with hardwood floors you know it can be chilly.  Rugs provide softness underfoot and feel warmer than the hard surface flooring.  You’ll notice a big difference in noise when a room with hard flooring has a rug in it.  Without a rug, every little noise carries and can create an echo.  Adding a rug allows the sound to be absorbed therefore making multiple conversations and activities tolerable within the same space.

Onto the second factor for making a rug misstep… price. Price of area rugs can be subjective.  I can’t tell you how much money you should spend on a rug, only you know where you are comfortable budget-wise.  Research the construction of the rug you are interested in buying.  That will tell you all you need to know about why it is priced the way it is.

The purpose and the size of the rug go hand in hand.  You know that a rug anchors a seat grouping and you now know that floating a rug in the center of your furniture is not the way to go.  So how should a rug interact with the furniture? In an ideal world, all four legs of your upholstered furniture pieces sit atop your area rug.  In instances that this is not possible- whether it be an oddly shaped room, budget constraints, etc- you can cheat by just having the front two feet on the area rug.

In dining rooms, you should allow 2 feet from the edge of the table to the edge of the area rug so the dining chair can be pulled out from the table without getting caught on the rug's edge. You don't want your guests to be fighting the rug while trying to enjoy a meal at your table!

What a difference this little change makes!  Take a look at the rugs in your space plan- how do they measure up?  Could you tweak the placement to create a more refined look?  Do they anchor your seat grouping and follow the rule of thumb for leg placement? If not, go back in and adjust.  That’s the beauty of decorating, it’s fluid.

How to Measure Your Space- Step 2

Post 2/2 in the series How to Measure Your Space

Step Two- Add furnishings

Now that your room is drawn, pull out your furniture templates.  If you are using software, you can draw these items or drag and drop their ready-made pieces into the drawing.  If you have neither templates nor a software program, you can draw the furniture pieces on the plan by hand.  Start placing the furniture pieces you need and play with the arrangement.  Measure any existing pieces that you will be using in the new space and incorporate them in your plan.  For any new pieces you will be buying, try incorporating different sized furniture items to see what size works best for your desired layout.  Lastly, go in and add your area rug based on the furniture you’ve put in the space (more on how to determine the size/placement coming up in a later post).

Take some time to space plan a couple of layout options for your room. Play around with furniture placement and get comfortable with creating varying arrangements. How does it feel? If you aren’t certain about what you’re doing, it's okay.   You can come back to the space plan and make changes as often as you like during the planning process.

In the end you should have a layout that resembles these examples:

Check back next week for tips on area rug placement. This is the #1 misstep we see people make in their spaces.  You won't want to miss this post!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEK!

I just wanted to take a moment and let you know how grateful we are for you.  We appreciate you reading our posts and contacting us with feedback.  It is such a pleasure to interact with you online and share our knowledge with each of you.  We hope you have a wonderful holiday!  We are spending the next few days with our families, but we'll be back next week with the conclusion of the "how to measure your space" series.

-Liz, and the team at PDR Interiors

How to Measure Your Space- Step 1

Post 1/2 in the series How to Measure Your Room

Items you’ll need:

-Tape measure

-1/4” Graph paper

-Pencil

-Camera (phone will work just fine)

-Scale/ruler

- Furniture templates (optional)

I don’t know about you, but I cannot purchase a clothing item without knowing my measurements.  If I blindly purchase a top without comparing my measurements to the retailers sizing chart, it is not likely the top will fit me.  If this happens often enough, I am disappointed and left feeling unmotivated to make any purchases that update my wardrobe.

In that same way, it is impossible to create a great space without first stopping to take measurements (otherwise known as a space plan). The purpose of a space plan is to show you what size items can fit in your space.  Having this guide helps you avoid purchasing pieces that are too large or too small.  A space plan also serves as your first look at a layout.  You can eyeball it on paper instead of moving furniture all around the room only to decide you don’t like how it looks.  On paper, you can create as many possible layouts as you like before deciding on the final placement of your furniture.

Step One- Measure the room.

Using your pencil, I recommend quickly sketching the room on your graph paper. Don’t worry if it is to scale. You can measure overall length and width, but you’ll have to get even more specific to note exact placement of windows and doors.  I tend to start in a corner of the room and work my way around by measuring each section.  Be sure to note which way a door opens (into the room versus out of the room), as this will make a difference on where items can be placed. Once your room is drawn out, you can go back and make note of where outlets and vents are located.  These notations will help you when it comes to placement later in the process.  Go ahead and measure the ceiling height.  You won’t need this immediately, but it’s good to note while doing all of your other measuring.

Your initial drawing will look like this, with each section of the room labeled with dimensions:

**DO NOT WORRY if yours is hand-drawn and a little messy at this point.  

You will have the opportunity to clean it up.

I recommend snapping photos of each wall in the space to reference throughout the rest of the space planning process.    Be sure to step back far enough that you can get the entire wall in your shot.  You can always go back and take close up detail shots of anything you feel is important. An added bonus in snapping pictures is that you will have “before” photos to show people once your project is complete.  Keep these in a place you can access remotely on your phone when out shopping- my personal favorite storage option is Dropbox. 

Now it is time to make the drawing to scale.  The reason behind drawing it a second time is to clean up any little errors made on the first drawing. I usually work in a ¼” scale which means ¼” on the paper = 1 ft in the room (and in the instance of ¼” graph paper- 1 square = 1 foot).   This is a popularly used scale so you should have no trouble finding graph paper or furniture templates to accommodate you.

There are many ways you can go about the drawing- You can redraw by hand on your graph paper using your scale or ruler, you can use space planning software.  This book comes with a ¼” graph printed on a dry erase material.  It allows for easy erasing when mistakes are made.  Using your tool of choice, draw out your room.  If you want to be very precise, you can show your walls as 4.5” thick and fill them in, but that is not required.

If any of your furnishings will be staying in the room, be sure to measure the length, width and height of those items.

Gathering the Facts for your Project- Patterns & Colors

Post 5/5 in the series Gathering the Facts for your Project

Well, we've come to the end of our line of questioning.  After you answer today's questions, you should have a clear picture of your project's parameters.

What patterns and colors appeal to you?  Which ones don’t?

Making a note of the colors and patterns you enjoy seeing within your space like will be helpful in keeping you focused while shopping.  The list of what you don’t like really is more important than what you do like.  This list of “don’ts” is the key to  how to avoid buying furnishings that just aren’t your style.

We’ve all done it- bought that CUTE top because the print looked so good on a friend.  But, ever since getting that shirt home and hanging it in the closet, it hasn’t seen the light of day.  The tags still hang from the sleeve, and likely always will.  Do you know why?  It’s because you bought a piece of clothing based on how it looked on someone else, not on you.    Do not make this kind of mistake when it comes to the pieces for your space.  Don’t get blinded by the way items look in a showroom.  Treat your color and pattern preference as guidelines, and you won’t make a purchasing mistake.

Remember, your home serves as the backdrop to your daily life.  It’s not the star of the show, don’t become a slave to it.  Make the pieces within your home work for you while making the space look good!

Having the answers to the questions we've discussed in the last month makes it easier to move forward with selecting the pieces for your project.  Every time you make a selection for the space, make sure it stacks up against your answers  before purchasing.  If it doesn’t, don’t force it, move on to find something else. You’ll be disappointed if you settle, so don’t!

I would love to hear from you on if these questions were helpful for you when planning your project.  Feel free to comment here OR email me liz@pdr-interiors.com.

-Liz