Ok, I’m assuming you’ve got your _________ in hand, and are ready to design a room around it. Sooooooo… now what?
The first step is to figure out what room your _________ is going in. What room are we designing here? Sometimes this is obvious. Eg: My inspiration piece is a bedding ensemble. I’m reasonably certain we’re doing a bedroom. If your _________ could go just about anywhere, then decide to put it in whatever room you were doing next. POOF! Starting point!
The next room on my to-do list was a young girl’s room. I wanted to target the little misses who are definitely still children – out of their baby years, but not yet hardened “tweens…” :P Think 6-8ish. This can be a tough age for parents to figure out what to do with their daughter’s space. They know they need something that will keep her satisfied for quite some time (college is still a loooooooong ways off), but that’s not too grown up (for heaven’s sake, she’s only six!).
This was the __________ that lit up MY life:
Behold: My "Whatsit"
I fell in love with this ensemble for a several reasons:
- First, the color palette. Lime and aqua are nearly omni-present right now, and frankly, when you’re a designer, on-going trends can get a little tiresome. But this feels different… fresh, and snappy… which I attribute to the addition of the vibrant blue.
- Second, the butterflies. Butterflies are a common theme for girl’s rooms, but these are neither too sophisticated, nor too babyish. Instead, they’re graphically rendered, and combined with rather retro-feeling flowers. With a little tweaking down the road, this could keep even our worldly tween happy!
- Third, they didn’t feel the need to hit you over the head with too much repetition in the ensemble. As much as I love the economics of the bed-in-a-bag, one of my beefs is that they tend to use waaaaaaay too much of one or two patterns. Does it have to look like a bed-in-a-bag? With this ensemble, the sheet and pillowcases have been scaled down to a floral miniprint, which is great, because I’m pretty sure that a duvet full of giant butterflies is plenty.
- Fourth, machine washable. ‘Nuff said, right parents? Right.
The next step is to determine what you want to accomplish with your inspiration piece. What look will you be going for? How do you want it to feel when you’re done?
Since the pattern on the duvet makes me want to put on a frilly dress and pour everyone lemonade, I decided to create a playful garden feel – the ideal place for our petite princess to hostess a perfect tea party, or to dream her way to fairy-land. By the way, this is a perfectly valid way to decide what to do with a room. If you were your new __________, what kind of room would you belong in? What does it make you feel like doing?
The answers to those questions will define all of your selections from this point, making your life much, MUCH easier, by means of eliminating the riff-raff. For example, if the piece I am considering is not…
- whimsical / playful
- fresh
- garden-feeling
- relaxed / vintage
- youthful but not childish
… Then it’s not going in my room.
Now that we’ve established where we’re headed, and what the criteria are for those who wish to join us, we’re ready to start decorating!
Until next time,
P.S. If you pay close attention going forward, you’ll see I’m pretty much giving away a free room design. ;-) Shhhh.
Tags: Girl's Bedroom, Kids' Room, Online Home Decorating, Online Interior Design, Room Decorator Online