It is not always an
asset to have a large house to live life peacefully
and serenely. In fact, a home larger than you actually
need becomes a burden and needs much more maintenance,
cleaning, dusting, mopping, washing, ironing and
polishing. We have some good advice that deals with
space issues and how to handle rooms with different
shapes and areas while decorating. It gives you and
idea on how to rearrange your room to make better use
of space and shape of the room:
Evaluate the shape of your room as square,
rectangular or L-shape; your personality traits as Victorian,
French, rustic, modernistic, high-tech, Oriental or Zen-like;
room problems in terms of being narrow, having low ceiling,
architecturally sterile or too long and room assets as having
a focal point in terms of mirror or a fireplace, a window with
beautiful views or delicate moldings before you start
decorating it.
Make a room plan beforehand including doors,
windows and things attached permanently to the wall. You can
use a scale of ¼" to 1'.
Make cutouts of the furniture you want to put
in the room using the same scale as of the room floor plan and
try to visualize the room by placing them in the plan. 3-D
virtual plans on computer can give you better idea about the
personality and look of the room.
Keep the pathways to move between the
furniture pieces free.
Match the type of furniture to the
architectural elements of the room keeping in mind the focal
point of the room.
A bland room can be funked up with paneling,
stenciling, using chair rails, shoji screens or even French
doors.
A room with low ceiling needs low furniture
lines, tall dressers or armoires that go all the way to the
ceiling and vertical stripes on wallpaper. You may also create
the illusion of taller room by painting same shade of light
and cool color on walls and ceiling delineation.
For very narrow and long rooms, use warm dark
and matte colors on shorter walls and light and cool colors on
longer walls.
Use versatile furniture with hidden storage
space.
Rooms with odd shapes and off-center focal
point can be divided into smaller areas that can be managed
better and allot a focal point for each. Area rugs, screens
and dividers, subtle hints such as change in scale of patterns
on wallpaper or slight difference in color of walls can be
used to give more definition to these separate areas.
