Interior designers help pick out furnishings, art work, paint colours, window treatments and the layout of a room. They come at an added expense, but sometimes they also are able to get furniture at a discounted rate. Depending on what your budget is, an interior designer may pay for itself after some good deals on furniture. If you don't think your budget will stretch to cover an interior designer, keep reading!
Good design doesn't need to cost a fortune. In my opinion, people with the best taste and style often times don't have unlimited budget- they are creative and thrifty. When I'm designing a room, I start by thinking about places that have inspired me. You can reflect back on life experiences, vacations and childhood memories, or look online at sources like Pinterest and Instagram. Now I mention Instagram and Pinterest with a pinch of salt because it's easy to get caught up on popular trends (I'm referring to the dark blue or green living rooms with a velvet sofa and gold accents!). I'm not suggesting that following trends is bad, but I believe your home should be a reflection of your personal taste and style, so start by picking inspiration that is meaningful to you.
Here is a photo that I'm using as inspiration for my 1.5 year old daughter's bedroom. This is from the events space at Droog Design in Amsterdam. Gavin and I lived there for five years. I actually considered this venue for our wedding, but ended up choosing somewhere else. I love the bright space with the Le Jardin Majorelle coloured blue birds mounted on the ceiling. I actually went to the famous gardens (Le Jardin Majorelle) when I was on my bachelorette trip before my wedding in Morocco. My daughter is fascinated by birds so this design detail is not only inspired by my time in the Netherlands and my wedding, but also fond memories of my daughter as a toddler.
The other thing about the events space at Droog Design, is it is intended to make you feel like you are outside, but inside. The bright white space with the windows is very Amsterdam, but also reminds me of the original crittall style windows on the original cottage side of our house. Violet's room also has a very large window in it facing the garden. I thought we could frame some art work in the 'window's for added style.
Now that I have my inspiration, it's time to start thinking about a colour palette. Working from a palette is a great starting point because it helps give you guidance when shopping around for furnishings. With interior design, the possibilities are endless and this will help you stay focused. For Violet's room, I am going for a light, bright pinkish white with pops of colours, including that Jarden Majorelle blue. Since she's well into toddlerhood now, I don't want anything too baby-ish or too much like a nursery, I want it to be fun for her for the next few years. Pinterest is a great resource to use to help you come up with a colour palette.
It's time to start shopping around for everything you need to finish the room. I start by making a mood board with all the items I already have for the space, a photo of the space, and inspiration. From there you can collage in all of the other items you are shopping for to see if you are happy with the final outcome of the design. You can also use little pieces of paper to try and layout the furniture on a floor plan as well.
Now that you have your colour palette and existing pieces of furniture to incorporate in one place, you can start shopping around. Some of my favourite retailers for inexpensive and playful decor are H&M Home, Zara Home, and Habitat. I'm not sure where I can get the blue birds, but some options are getting ceramic birds from Etsy or AliExpress and painting them blue. Another idea I'm looking at is getting them laser cut out of wood and painting them blue which I think will be cheaper and more in line with the birds at Droog.
Violet's room is still very much in progress and the plasterers were in there today! The next steps will be to add the skirting board, fit the radiator and built in wardrobe, carpet and hang the door. We're still a bit away from buying all the furnishings so it is a good time to let these ideas simmer before we commit to them. Probably one of the most important things is to take your time with your project. Rushed decisions are rarely good ones. As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day.
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