Diagnosis: Stop, Look, Listen To Your Room…Hear What It's Saying.
Lesson 2 from: Refind: The 1 Day Home Interior Design Makeover CourseJonathan Rosen
Diagnosis: Stop, Look, Listen To Your Room…Hear What It's Saying.
Lesson 2 from: Refind: The 1 Day Home Interior Design Makeover CourseJonathan Rosen
Lesson Info
2. Diagnosis: Stop, Look, Listen To Your Room…Hear What It's Saying.
Lessons
Authors Notes
07:56 2Diagnosis: Stop, Look, Listen To Your Room…Hear What It's Saying.
10:27 3Discovery: Whaddya Got?
08:13 4Dismantle: Clear The Decks!
04:44 5Deploy: You Better Work!
20:11 6Review: Take A Pause For The Cause!
06:01 7Recess: You Deserve A Break Today!
13:50 8Re-entry: Only Once Chance To Make A First Impression
07:12Lesson Info
Diagnosis: Stop, Look, Listen To Your Room…Hear What It's Saying.
Have you ever looked at one of your rooms in your house and thought, what is wrong with this room? Why can't I figure out how to fix this? These are the questions that this course is designed to address and to answer in order to get started, stand at the threshold of whichever room you've decided to tackle. I want you to take an inventory of all the pros and cons of the space. Pretend you're a doctor examining a patient and with a completely clinical and non judgmental eye, simply assess the physical state of your room with pen or cell phone in hand. Ask yourself what are its best features? What are its flaws on the pro side? Does your room have high ceilings? Does it have great light? A working fireplace? Beautiful floors on the con side is a lacking of view. Does it always feel dark? Is it oddly proportioned? Does it feel small and cramped? Don't forget at this point, we're merely taking stock. We're creating this list to become more aware of what your assets and your deficits are. S...
o that going forward, you'll be able to make choices that accentuate the positive and if not completely eliminate the negative, at least downplay it. Good decorating is very often a game of smoke and mirrors downplaying the unattractive by bringing more focus to the best your room has to offer. To that end. Here's a breakdown of the biggest services in your rooms and how to use them to your best advantage. By the way, negative is a subjective term based on your own perception. For example, you may consider your low ceiling and negative whereas someone else may find it cozy, thereby assigning a positive value to it. Let's start by examining the bones of the room. Ie the largest planes. Do you like your floors? If they would, are they in good shape or have they seen better days if their tile, are they very light or white or do they have a strong color? Like a terra cotta tile? A floor color can drive a scheme. So the condition and tone of the floor are very important considerations. If your floor is not to your liking and the time and expense it would take to change, it are too great. Then buying a very large area rug will be the most effective and cost conscious way to solve that problem. Measure the room and deduct anywhere from 1.5 to 2 ft from all sides. For example, if your room is 12 by 18 ft by subtracting a foot and a half from all sides, you'll have a 9 ft by 15 ft rug. If you're ordering rugs online or buying off the rack at retail, the standard larger sizes in the US are eight by 10, 9 by 12 and 10 by 14 always scale up when buying a rug. In other words, buy the biggest rug, the room can accommodate. In this example, I would recommend a 10 by 14 over a nine by 12. If the room can handle it, The reason for going big with the rug is manifold, you can cover much more floor space and potentially hide more sins. More rug gives you more flexibility for furniture placement. And most importantly, a big rug gives the illusion of a bigger room. The eye travels to the outer edges of the rug making the room appear larger than if you were to use a smaller version of the same rug. Of course, there's an endless variety of rugs to choose from everything from fresh off the loom, modern rugs to very fine traditional antique rugs and just about everything in between. There are Moroccan Tibetan, Persian Chinese art deco vintage Kim do tribal over dyed indoor outdoor and so many more indoor outdoor rugs have come a very long way and look feel and design. They're also extremely practical options for homes with kids and or pets. For this application. I recommend going with a natural fiber, flat weave like a seal sea grass or jute rug or an indoor outdoor rug. You can always layer it with a smaller rug to add some color and pattern later on. You may find that you already have a smaller rug somewhere in your home that might be suitable for this very purpose. We'll go shopping for that. When we get to chapter four, let's get started. The four walls of any space are its largest real estate and greatest untapped canvas. They're the backdrop for your design. Therefore, it is essential that the condition of the walls look their very best. Otherwise, you may be distracted by their flaws and imperfections. Consider the condition of your walls. A paint job is generally recommended every three years, but that's not a hard and fast rule. Ask yourself, when was the last time you painted? Is it time? Have your walls been painted over a few? Too many times if you have moldings? What kind of shape are they in? Do they show cracks or are they caked over with paint? Have they been gouged or otherwise damaged? Wall to wall carpet or a very large area rug can conceal a multitude of sins on a floor. But bad walls in bad shape are much harder to disguise. If your walls are in good shape and you like the color, then you're already ready to move on. However, if your walls need some attention, it is well worth your time and money to do so before anything else, if you are inclined to paint, you can never go wrong with a white wall. There's an endless selection of whites on the market. And in order to pick one look at your fabrics, if they're mostly cool colors, a clean white like Benjamin Moore's super white will work beautifully if your colors are warmer, a soft white like Benjamin Moore, simply white, which has a subtle ivory undertone works very well. If you want to venture into the wide world of color, the best way to do so is to buy small sample pots of your favorite colors and do large brush outs. For example, three by 3 ft samples, many companies now offer large paper samples, some of which are available as peel and stick, put them up on the wall and look at them in different locations at different times of the day and night to see exactly how the light and the absence of it affects them. When it comes to paint finishes. A flat wall finish is probably your best friend. As the name suggests, it has no reflective qualities. A finish with any degree of sheen will call attention to any perfection. Whereas a flat finish will help to disguise them. Flat is also much easier to touch up with because it blends right into the wall, unlike an eggshell finish or anything else with sheen, where you'll notice where you touched up for baseboards, crown moldings doors and any other woodwork I like to use a satin finish because a it looks great on wood surfaces and b it gives you an added layer of protection for cleanliness. Now it's time to look up at the fifth wall A K A the ceiling. What does your ceiling look like? Is it high or low? Is there texture like orange peel or popcorn ceilings or are they perfectly smooth? Are there beams if so are they structural or decorative? Most importantly? What kind of condition are they in? If you're painting, having an even and clean ceiling is a game changer, it can be a subliminally distracting element. So by taking the time to fix, correct or adjust whatever issues you may have will greatly improve the overall appearance of the space. The ceiling is one of the most underrated surfaces in the house and there are so many ways to exploit this area to your benefit. For example, if you're using a neutral color on walls, adding a very small amount of that wall color to a pure white paint will soften and marry unify the two spaces. If you have a low ceiling, using a tint of blue or pink, a very very soft pastel shade will help to brighten and psychologically raise the height of the room. If you have an extremely high ceiling painting it a dark color will bring it down to a more human scale. I love putting wallpaper on the ceiling to achieve different effects in a child's room. Something playful like a map stars a multicolored design or even a splatter pattern will really help to give the room a boost and, and give your child something fun to look at from bed in a foyer, a powder room, you have license to go a little crazy and be a bit more dramatic because you're literally just passing through these spaces, go for it. These are fun options to exercise if you feel so inclined. However, this is not at all necessary for doing a makeover. Windows are a very often overlooked commodity. Take a good look at your windows. What did they have to offer? What direction are they facing? Do you get northern or southern light, sunrises or sunsets? Do you have a great view or do you have no view at all? Do you get a lot of light or do you get too much light? Do you get no light at all? If you're in a big city, are you facing a brick wall? Are you looking into a courtyard or an air shaft? Do the buildings in front of you block out the light and view? Do you feel the need for privacy from apartments or homes that look into yours? These are just some of the many questions you'll wanna ask yourself in order to assess what the solution should be for the sake of our one day makeover. You may not want to go to the trouble and or expense of buying drapery, drapery, hardware shears, shades or blinds. However, if you want to make an investment in the totality of the finished product, there are many competitively priced online retail resources from which to purchase off the rack window treatments. Many of these services will come to your home and take measurements and then return to install. Of course, you can always seek out the help of a reliable local tradesperson in your own community.
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Ratings and Reviews
Isabel Wilson
Love this course! Jonathan makes it sound simple, which makes me want to get going with a living room makeover! Thank you!
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