Basics of Decorating

This "Basics of Decorating" article is a primer... a jumping off point for those who aren't quite sure where to start. Use this as something to refer to when you start with a blank slate, and go back to it when you get stuck!

First of all, if you are starting with building a home, you have the best of all worlds. You get to truly make your house your Home! We'll start with this blank slate concept and address an existing home later on.

Essential to the whole process is choosing your theme, style, or scheme. Whichever you choose to call it, this step determines all that follows. Are you a colonial type, a contempory type, tudor, cottage, country, or some other type? Maybe your neighborhood dictates a certain guideline to follow. Write down all your options and go out and get all the magazines that pertain to your choice. The price is very small when you consider this is the biggest purchase you will most likely ever make! Now work with your builder and build your dream home!

Now on to the next major step, your colors! You can use your favorite color and its go-togethers, or pick colors from a favorite piece of art, fabric, or a treasured rug. Use this piece as a start on your color palette.

Look at all the beautiful colors in the rugs and art above. It is easy to pick out your favorites and make them the base colors for your decor. As to whether they go together, just see how well the colors compliment each other in the pieces shown!

Floors are next... Wood, tile, stone, wood substitutes, carpet, slate, the selections are endless. Use and preferences rule here. You might not want carpet in a kitchen, for instance! Carpeted bedrooms are nice though. The method of heating your home comes into play, too. Floor heating allows for slate, brick, stone, etc., where you would not want it normally. If heated, any material will work. The choice is yours! I personally love marble. But it is not the best choice for a family with small children or the elderly. Slips are likely to happen.

Next up are the walls. Colors, that is. Options here include faux, wallpaper, paint, cloth, leather, bamboo, yes, bamboo! And other creative things that one can put on walls. For the majority of you, paint or wallpaper will do the trick.

Be sure to work within your color palette and choose patterns that will work with your flooring, and furniture to come. If your wonderful color palette comes from an inherited or treasured oriental rug, you may have to think twice about that large floral wallpaper that caught your eye. Use it in another room! Or it may well work!

Large florals work with stripes and small checks. Small florals work with stripes and checks of a larger size. Let your gut level instincts guide you here.

Don't forget the ceiling! Ceilings are a blank slate for creative ideas. Painted, muraled, textured, skylighted (with paint!), get creative!

Cast away fear of color and making mistakes by "trying out" wallpaper. Buy a roll and and tack it lightly to a wall in the room you are working with. A few days or a week and you will know if it works. If it does not work but you still love it, use it in another room!

I will say this a lot because so many times some fabric or paper catches your eye and it just "does" something for you. But won't work well with what you are doing in a room. Somewhere in the house is a spot where it will go, a place where you can enjoy it.

I once used a paper that a client could not bear to part with, in a closet. She enjoyed it there and it did not clash with her other choices for her rooms. Personally, I fell in love with a gift wrap paper that did not go with ANYTHING in my entire home. My solution was to decoupage it onto a cabinet in the back of the master bedroom closet where it bothered no one, but where I got to see it! Sounds silly but it pleased me as it did my client with the wallpaper in her closet.