This is the Interior Design v Podcast with your host, Interior Design speaker and author, Stephen Seattle Go. I am a professional Interior Designer, plus the owner and founder of Spectrum Materials, established in 1982, based in Kalamazoo and Portage, Michigan. You'll always find can of commentary on various Interior Design subjects and topics, including the good, the bad, and the ugly, telling you like it really is giving you the whole truth and nothing but the truth so you don't have to feel up here, hope you're lucky in any type of Interior Design situation. Once again, my name is Steve Adamko and I'm giving you a healthy dose of Interior Design commentary, critique, interpretation, and analysis.
This is episode number three and we're going to be talking about getting your Interior Design and decorating started right. Oh, it's always good to do that. Alright folks, this is going to be wonderful. We're going to have an awesome time.
As always, we have a lot on tap and upcoming podcasts, so let's get started. Getting your Interior Design and decorating started right. That's the way you want to do it. I'm a big believer in the six P's.
They are prior, proper, preparation, prevents, poor performance. That works every time, all the time. Also, I'll give you two more P's. Principles are principles forever.
Interior Design and decorating is one of the oldest of all the arts. Properly understood, it can be very exciting and rewarding to engage in. All you have to do is apply the correct and appropriate principles, techniques, and formulas and then adapt them to your budget. Now, I'll be honest with you, in reality, it's a little more difficult than that.
People Great Interior Design involves a lot of details, as well as a lot of knowledge and talent. And real talent springs from knowledge, so it's not just the passion about it that makes it happen. Because passion without knowledge or wisdom about how to do things doesn't work very well. There's always more than meets the eye.
And good Interior Designers make it look easy. And to them, it is easy. Personally, I thank God I'm blessed to have the ability to see it done before it's done at any step of the design process. I actually see it in real virtual 3D reality.
It's like a job I did down in the Caribbean. I was living in Grand Rapids at the time. The client was in Kalamazoo. Their architect was in North Carolina.
And the job was in the Caribbean in St. Croix. Before I went down there to get the job completed and help with the finishing touches to it, I knew exactly what it was going to look like and feel like. If you don't have that talent and ability and gift, I wouldn't choose Interior Design as a career.
There's a lot of people out there that are, well, how do I say this? They know just enough to make themselves dangerous. So, we don't want to engage in that type of situation. This is all about getting your Interior Design and decorating started right on a solid foundation that we can build on in a positive way at every step of the design process.
You want to get it right the first time. Here I'm giving you some of the principles and ideologies that will help set you on a firm and solid foundation. It is very important and necessary to find out what you truly need and want. Then follow a few age-old foundational principles in order to acquire the success that you're striving for.
A few easily understood principles will enable you to work out combinations and arrangements that will be appropriate and therefore satisfying to you no matter what type of room you are planning. So, here's one of the key ways to make it easy on yourself. When designing or decorating a room or a whole house, you can help yourself a great deal if you make a careful analysis of yourself and your family before you begin. Take time to consider, reflect, and examine the specifics of what you like, what you want, what you don't like, what you do as far as activities, what you hope to do someday, and get all those things entered into a funnel, so to speak.
And you want to write everything down on paper. You want to be guided by this analysis in your choice of furniture arrangements, color schemes, and accessories. So basically, you're doing a little bit of due diligence beforehand, a little research, a little information gathering. You're delving a little deeper into your thinking, focusing on you and your situation, your environment, and things of that nature.
You want to describe in words not only what you want it to look like, but what you want it to feel like as well. For me personally and professionally, I want you to understand this. That a look without the appropriate feeling and ambiance is nothing. Let me explain it this way.
Suppose you are a fabulous cook, but as you are cooking a wonderful meal, you can't smell anything. There's no aroma in the air. In a sense, there's no ambiance about the kitchen. They wouldn't know if they couldn't smell it.
They wouldn't know if you're cooking up a terrible meal or a meal that would rival any chef in any five-star restaurant in the world. Here's another good analogy. Women, you can relate to this. I'm sure of it.
You're all dressed up to the nines going out to a special event. Let's just say you're going out with your husband and celebrating an anniversary. You're dressed up to the nines looking absolutely fabulous, or as Billy Crystal would say, you look marvelous. As you get to the restaurant and your husband opens the door, you say, oh no, Bill, I can't believe it.
I don't, I can't believe it. I did this. I forgot to put on my favorite perfume. Then he says, ah, it doesn't matter.
Don't worry about it. You look fabulous. You're gorgeous. You look phenomenal, but you know, you don't feel right about it.
You don't feel complete. You don't feel totally put together. And you probably feel maybe a little naked in a sense because you don't feel like you're 100% put together, which in a sense you aren't. But I bring up the perfume aspect because it's memorable.
There's something about the scent of perfume or the scent of a rose garden. It's just wow. It's just it's touching one of those senses that makes an indelible stamp in your emotions and in your memory. So it's very, very important.
The other thing regarding only having just a look is this. It's very shallow. It's kind of like a woman who looks fantastic and a guy who's handsome. So they have the look, okay, but they don't have the personality.
They don't have the depth. They don't have, well, something's obviously missing. I mean, they're fantastic looking, but that's about as far as it goes. So when it comes to interior design, it's all about this ambiance and the orchestration and the depth and the richness.
Not only of the colors and the patterns, but the materials and their textures because most people just don't know how to orchestrate an interior from a textural point of view to the point that the interior is engaging, that it's tactile, that it makes you want to touch and feel and get engaged with the room. It doesn't speak to you. It doesn't communicate to you. It's just kind of flat and superficial.
It's like no big deal. And you want to make the right decisions the first time when you're dealing with interior design, a lot of it happens to revolve around not just the selection of materials, fabrics, colors, and the things themselves. But where are they going to be placed within the room? Because all these aspects of color, form, shape, proportion, and texture have their own draw power, their own magnetism, their own ability to engage your attention.
So if a room is weighted too heavily on one side, then it's not going to be in balance. You've got to think about room balance as a teeter-totter in a way from one side of the room across the long axis and across the short axis. And then if you take a teeter-totter and kind of spin it around, you just want the whole thing to have a balanced feeling about it. The whole room should have a balanced feeling about it.
We don't want to think, well, this is the focal point and all the attention goes there. It's like if you do that, and there are some things that are focal points, indeed, but I prefer to call them focal views instead of focal points because you have a cone of vision. You don't see a point per se. You don't go to a restaurant and say, give me the best point in the restaurant.
Instead, you say, give me the best view in the restaurant. So when it comes to interior design, we're really talking about views and vistas, not points per se. Okay? This isn't a map quest where we have to go from point A to point B.
This is a journey. This is where you look out a window and see a beautiful view. This is where you come into the entry of a room and you see the room unfold. When you're dealing with interior design, you're dealing with a room, you're dealing with a floor plan, you're dealing with furniture placement, you're dealing with the placement of art, sculptures, rugs, and all kinds of other things.
We want to make the right decisions the first time. The best way to do it right once the first time is to have a plan. This means a floor plan. This will be a sketch or drawing that is drawn to scale.
It's critical that the floor plan, other room you plan to draw is drawn to scale. Usually, this means that one quarter inch will equal one foot. Or if you want it larger, you can draw it. So half an inch equals a foot.
This means that a quarter inch or a half an inch will represent an actual 12 inches or one foot of real space or dimension of whatever it is you're measuring. There's actual scale rulers that are made for this purpose. They're called an architect scale. You want to do the same thing with your furniture.
You want to measure it and you want to draw it to scale as well. Otherwise, you'll definitely have a wrong perception of reality. You must do everything to scale on paper. Why?
Because it allows you to have actually much more fun and freedom of expression as well as allowing solutions that can come to your mind that you would never have thought of otherwise, which may not even happen at all if you're doing cutouts of furniture and moving them around. It's okay to do the cutouts of your existing furniture. That way you know you can move them around and you're moving around existing pieces that you plan on keeping. But everything has to be drawn to scale.
The floor plan, the furniture cutouts, everything. If you're thinking of doing a design where you want to expand beyond your current furniture, then you want to have more leeway and that's with the sketching. You do this by putting tracing paper over top of your drawn to scale floor plans. So you can do different sketches just to free your mind up and come up with some other solutions.
You don't want to be too tight about this. With some programs and even CAD drawings, you can get too tight, too quick. You want to keep it loose, not so loose that it's out of reality, but it helps you get ideas down on paper. You can always firm up later in getting them dimensionally correct.
So doing the floor plans is the professional way to start. Amateur skip this. And even if they call themselves decorators or designers, this is one of the many fundamental reasons that they actually are amateurs because the floor plan is the main driver for everything. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail whether you know it or not.
If you aren't fortunate enough to have an existing plan already, you'll have to draw your own. This is roughly how you begin. This is general. I'm not going to get into a lot of specifics about this because it's going to be more than I can put in one podcast.
So you want to take a tape measure and starting at one corner of the room you want to measure along the wall until you run into something and then measure that. For example, if you come up to a fireplace, measure how far it projects into the room and how wide it is. The aim is to have a real true two dimensional picture of the walls as well as an accurate record of their links and of distances between windows with doorways and so on. You need to make a sketch of the room beforehand and then you start putting your dimensions on it.
If you come to either a window or a door surrounded by moldings, you want to measure either to the edge of the moldings or the opening itself. You want to be consistent with this and make a note of which one you've done. If very fine fits are contemplated, you want to take both measurements. So if they're openings, typically I'll measure the openings and then add a note that says the casings are say two and a half inches wide or whatever.
This way I always know what the free opening is and then I'll back off for the moldings. So if you need to fit furniture in a place going from the outside of the casing to the outside of the casing isn't going to help you. You want to go in between the jams or the actual opening itself, whatever your situation is because you want to be able to know what that free space or dimension is. Another good point is to always measure the adjacent spaces to the one you're working on.
You want to do that because sometimes you want to use it. You may want to open up a wall, build an addition or a closet or what have you. Now obviously you want to do this with advice from a professional. You don't want to start knocking out walls and then find out that you've got a structural problem on your hands.
Then as you're sketching things in, you can see how it relates to the adjacent space. The neat thing about drawing things on paper is that it doesn't cost anything to try out an idea. So let me emphasize this once more. It's important to do these overlays using tracing paper.
You have your ground which is your drawn to scale floor plan. Then you can put layers of tracing paper or sketching paper, sometimes it's called onion skin on top of the floor plan. In other words, something you can see through. Then you can sketch out an idea.
The neat thing about drawing things on paper is that it doesn't cost anything to try out an idea. So let me emphasize this once more. It's important to do these overlays using tracing paper. You have your ground which is your drawn to scale floor plan.
Then you can put layers of tracing paper or sketch paper, sometimes they call it onion skin on top of the floor plan, something you can see through. Then you can sketch out an idea. The nice thing about this is that when you want to do or try another idea, you can either start with a new piece of tracing paper to do another one or you can put one on top of the other. Then you can draw various renditions of a room.
So you have a multi-layered approach or multi-faceted approach. And then you might say, here's a great idea on sketch number one. I like how this part of the space really works well on sketch three. And here's an inventive idea on sketch four.
Then you can combine each of those together to make an interesting plan. When you make these overlays and start sketching these ideas, this is a very important point in the design process. Working with the floor plan is really the only way to create unusual, appealing and memorable spaces where what you're doing with the interior is relatable to the actual architecture as well. After using these techniques I've described, the things within your room have a better chance to emerge in such a way as to become more hand-formed, form-fitted or tailored.
You cannot get the same result by pushing around pieces of furniture or eyeballing a room. Don't do that. A lot of people do that. They eyeball the room.
I can see things visually very accurately and imagine things as three-dimensional, but I will not eyeball a room. That is an amateur's way to do things. Doing the drawings is the secret of this trade. The rest is frosting, in a sense.
Let me share an analogy with you to make this more relatable. To eyeball a room would be like having a person do some financial planning for you with the following circumstances. They say, well, I want to see where you are right now financially. And you say, well, I don't have anything right now.
Can you just give me a clue and some suggestions of what I should do financially? And they say, well, if I don't see where you are right now, how can I actually do that and be of assistance to you in the way a professional would? Here's another analogy. Let's say you're at a doctor's office.
They don't just eyeball things there. A nurse or a physician's assistant takes your blood pressure. They just won't put their hand on your arm and say, mmm, all right, I feel that you're okay. They put a measuring device around your arm to get an accurate specific reading.
Just as measuring blood pressure is important for an accurate diagnosis. This too is very important to do. The idea is to get it done right once the first time and then be done with it without worrying about it later or without realizing, oh, oh, I should have done this. It may be too late.
Let's go back to the six P's again. Prior, proper, preparation prevents poor performance. It's a safeguard so you don't make mistakes. I've had situations where somebody has used a decorator or a designer who wasn't all that good.
Initially the client thought they were great and then I come and ask, well, did they do a floor plan and then I'm told, no, they didn't do a floor plan. Next I asked, did they do a space plan? The client replies, no, I follow up and ask what did they do? Then I'm told, well, they kind of eyeballed it.
Come on, let's get real. That's for amateurs. That's for beginners. So let's move on to eliminating paralysis of analysis.
The preliminary analysis of your home, interior design and decorating problems or situations should include answers to several definite questions. So you want to think of this as the Sherlock Holmes phase. You want to ask yourself the right questions to get the right answers. That way you can get the right results.
Your answers to the right questions will have a deciding influence on the various phases of your plan. Thinking things through will save you time and money as well as preventing possible and probable disappointing results. So here are some words of caution. Do not decorate or design in haste and then later repent at leisure.
Even if you have the money to carry out your whole design and decorating program, don't be rushed into buying anything that will compromise the effect that you want. Don't be discouraged if you have to operate on a budget. Most everybody has a budget. Even people who are wealthy.
Understand what you can comfortably spend in the beginning and put most of it into basic pieces that will be a permanent investment in your satisfaction and comfort. Then spread the rest of it out over makeshift items. These are things that can make new for a time which will do until they are replaced by something better. These pieces will be temporary until you can afford something better.
Sometimes they turn out to be so charming and so useful that you won't want to give them up. Then you can allocate them to another area of your home or environment. As you work your plan, you may find that parts of it need altering as you go because you have found that they can be improved. However, make sure that the contemplated improvements fit into the original plan or concept.
That goes back to one of my earlier podcasts. Podcast number two where I talk about the concept is the key. Remember, it's not only about the look, it's the look and the feel or ambiance that we're after. Don't be tempted for the sake of a bargain or any other reason to spend time or money on a single piece or item which will not add to the effectiveness of your perceived or preconceived design or decorative scheme as you have outlined it from the beginning.
In other words, that's the writing you put down on paper, your thoughts, your ideas, and other things that help guide you. Make it true to your vision and remember the six P's prior proper planning prevents poor performance. It's vital for you to realize that you can spend a great deal of money or comparatively smaller realistic sum and get very pleasing results if you have a plan and knowledge. Here's an important closing comment.
Once you work out things on paper, be sure that you have included your floor plans and the written document of both the questions you asked of yourself and others and the answers to those questions. Don't just interview yourself. If you have other members in the family, ask them questions and get answers from them. Take them apart of the project and include their input in the project.
It'll be so much more interested in it. It's so vital to get compliance from everyone so that everyone can be in agreement because the environment affects them all. These particular steps of asking the right questions to get the right answers will help you translate that information into an actionable plan. You always want to look at colors and designs in the environment where they're going to be used and under the lighting conditions there, both natural and artificial.
Color is how you light it. Therefore, never guess how textures, colors, designs, or fabrics will go with each other outside the final environment they will be residing in. This means that if you're going to store to work out these colors and that lighting is not like your home, you cannot make your final decisions at the store. There are many different stores where materials are chosen and they have totally different lighting there from what you have at your home or even your office.
Remember, color is how you light it. In other words, color is not resident in any item. Color is in the light itself. So if you have an incandescent bulb, you know that gives a yellow cast.
If you have a fluorescent lamp, for example, it's called Cool White, it's going to give a greater boost to the blue color. So it's going to be a bluish cast. Every light bulb has a different set of characteristics which affect the color. Let me explain color even outside changes throughout the day from sunrise to midday to sunset.
The colors in nature are always changing and the light is the same, but it gets filtered through the atmosphere differently. Think about this, for example, picture a home that has a lot of trees around. When the sun comes through, it passes through the leaves and slightly tints the light with a greenish cast. That's why you've got to look at them in their environment during various lighting conditions throughout the morning, day and evening first and then make informed decisions based on your judgments and what you see and perceive in your own environment.
Remember each item that you choose needs to be assessed during this procedure while the item is in its final placement within the room. Do not risk making big decisions in an environment other than that in which each of your materials and items such as furniture, upholstery, drapery, wall carvings are going to reside. Okay, well, that wraps up this particular podcast of getting started right, which is so very critical to what you want to accomplish. Be cute at everyone who tuned into your Design Beat podcast.
It's the podcast that's the heartbeat of your Design Podcast. Oh yeah, when your design is done well, it will delight your eyes, satisfy your soul, and engage your intellect. Just remember, your environment's distinguished look and feel plus the magic of ambiance is what soon sets you and your home apart from any other space you've ever enjoyed. This is your host, Stephen C.
Oenko, and all of my designs are personally tailored to you. The end result is an orchestration of your desired ambiance that you'll see, feel, understand, and experience firsthand. I also work in a broad range and spectrum of residential and commercial interior design, as well as furniture and lighting design. My services also include seminars, webinars, tele-seminars, and workshops.
I know you want to get involved with these right away, so call me today. Toe free at 866-239-6520.