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Friday, April 8th, 2016
Move a large piece of furniture against the wall only if the room does not have a huge floor space. Featured furniture is from FFDM’s Vintage Classics.
An empty room is pretty much like a blank canvas or a fresh sheet of paper. This can either serve as a challenge or an opportunity. There are just so many ways to fill the rooms of a house but where can one start? There are basic rules in furniture arrangement that you need to learn. If you observe each, you will be guaranteed of a lovely looking home as every tip will help you to prioritize correctly and to figure out where to put which.
The guidelines might not turn you into a professional interior designer but they will surely put you to the right path. You can also pull off professional-looking results in the least amount of stress.
Consider the Room’s Function
When you set out to arrange furniture in a certain room, consider what the room’s use will be. The rest of the furnishings should go around the answer to this simple question. The seating requirements for the living room are, of course, different from those in the bedroom.
Create an Effective Focal Point
Hooker Furniture Dining Room Willow Bend Bench seen here with the rest of the dining set and china cabinets. Take note of the symmetry that was established in this room.
You also have to find the room’s natural focal point. There are homes built with architectural parts which can be considered as natural focal points. The fireplace is a surefire central piece as is an archway.
The focal point could also be an appliance or a significant piece of furniture. This can be the TV inside the living room or the four poster bed inside the master bedroom.
Hooker Furniture Dining Room Willow Bend Bench seen here with the rest of the dining set and china cabinets. Take note of the symmetry that was established in this room.
Establish Symmetry
There has to be a symmetrical arrangement in every room. Symmetry connotes formality while asymmetrical arrangements can make any room feel more casual.
Remember to place the biggest furniture pieces first like the sofa inside the living room or the bed in your bedroom. This significant piece of furniture should face the focal point in a room.
The chairs should not be more than eight feet apart. This is so conversations can still be held. Never push the furniture against the walls unless the room is particularly small.
Another part of symmetry is having ample furniture and accessory variety. Balancing small and large items is important so that the eyes can rest easy. This means you should not place two large pieces of furniture right next to one another.
Contrast should also be established. Curved and straight lines can be effectively thrown together if you want to have contrast. Modern and linear furniture should have a round table just to have contrast. Curvy furniture pieces can be mixed with angular pieces. Block colors and prints can also mix just as long as you know how to balance each aspect.
Think of the Foot Traffic
Always consider the flow of traffic in the room. This is often the part between doorways. Never block such paths with any big piece of furniture. Put 30-48 inch width for the high traffic areas and no less than 24” of width for the areas with minor traffic.
Try to direct traffic around seating units and never through their midst. Traffic that cuts through a room needs to have two, smaller seating areas instead of one large seating spot.
Now, Begin Planning
Before you invest in any piece of furniture or a whole set at that, be sure to take the time to plan. This is also true when you need to move a particularly large piece of furniture. Note the location of doors, windows, electrical outlets and heat registers. Once you establish the position of each you will be better able to draw a floor plan. So take out the tape measure and begin measuring.
Mix and match, consider scaling to achieve balance, and utilize the features of each furniture to your home’s advantage. At the end of the day, furniture arrangement is all about your preference and perspective so take a step forward and do it now.
Tags: arranging furniture, furniture arrangement, furniture layout, furniture placement, how to arrange furniture, McCreerys, McCreerys Home Furnishings
Posted in Furniture, Interior Design 101 | No Comments »
Monday, March 28th, 2016
FFDM’s Camden Grove Collection depicts here the perfect harmony of textures, patterns, and colors.
If you’re thinking that interior designers follow a set of rules or that they own a secret book, then you’re in tough luck. There is no one rule that governs all that they do, after all, they are the creative people so they use their imagination, follow their intuition and they even go as far as dreaming and exploring. One could say, perhaps, that they have some rough principles that direct them to the right result. Here are some of the top interior design tips that you can work on –
Pick the Right Paint Color
Some designers say that it is ideal to pick the color of paint last. You may find the logic in this, you may not. What matters at the end of the day is that you pick the right kind of color for your chosen theme, one that is in rhythm with the architectural beauty of your home, and one that functions the way you perceived it to.
Let’s accept this – there are literally thousands of paint colors in different shades, tones and tints. Every single one can look different from one home to the next because there are factors to consider such as the lighting, the overall theme, even the size of the home.
You would want a paint color that complements the artwork, upholstery, lighting fixtures, carpeting, and the furniture sets.
Home Office Uttermost Annileise Bookshelf 24326 is a unique and tasteful way of displaying your books and other collections.
Overcrowd Not
While you may have ample budget to buy every piece of furniture that you want, resist the urge to overcrowd all of your chosen pieces inside one room. Gracious living is tantamount to having enough
You must also know how to arrange furniture on a rug. Here are two techniques –breathing space. Focus on the quality and not the quantity of the furniture. Find the ones that will stand out without being stuffy.
You must also resist the urge to display all of your collectibles. If you really love each piece from your travels, then assign a season for each batch.
Hang Artwork Correctly
You can learn a lot from the museums and galleries that professionally hang artwork. The midline or center of the artwork should be 57” to 60” from the floor. The logic behind this is that the human eye level is often at 57 inches.
In a room where the ceilings are as high as the sky (of course this is an exaggeration), you must hang the artworks at a greater height. Though this is the case, you still need to remind yourself about human scale and not the structural scale.
If you are uncertain about where to hang artworks, then it is best to take a picture first. The photo should be able to reveal what level you can hang the artwork. Photographs often will give you an idea whether it is better to use a smaller or bigger piece of art; or if the spot is just right for a potted tall plant.
Always Have a Focal Point
Just as musicales or any stage production, there are protagonists and antagonists. This concept is also true when it comes to interior design. Choose the best pieces that you would want to highlight or make the star of the show then the rest of the items would just play a secondary role.
In the kitchen, the focal point can be that grand oven you just bought, in the living room it could be an art piece, and in the bedroom it can be the fireplace.
The focal point can also be a single wall. This is also called a statement wall.
Tags: arranging furniture, artwork, artwork on walls, choosing paint, creating a focal point, determining the focal point, displaying artwork, finding the focal point, focal point, furniture arrangement, furniture placement, home paint, home painting, interior design tips, McCreerys, McCreerys Home Furnishings, recognizing a focal point
Posted in Interior Design 101, Interior Design Elements | No Comments »
Thursday, March 24th, 2016
The RayLen Vineyards Collection offers this dining set that will look great in a roofed backyard space.
Living in the city can be fun but if there’s one thing that you don’t get to enjoy there, it’s the spacious backyards. Compact homes offer awkward or narrow spaces as extensions of a home. If you have such an outdoor space, what would you do? Would it mean confining yourself to limited space all of the time? Or would you like to learn how to maximize your backyard?
Break It Into Zones
You can begin by creating various functions. Arrange furniture pieces strategically to visually create different rooms such as cooking, dining, lounging, and entertainment areas. All four zones can be placed inside one small home.
Light Up to Break Up
It’s time to implement a lighting design that can function in many ways. A multi-faceted lighting scheme will do you lots of good. The living room can have brighter lights while the bedroom can have the subdued types of lighting. Arm pendants or chandeliers hang best inside dining rooms. Know how to create lighting that will break up one whole space into various sections.
The Indoor Space Extension
Find the indoor space which you think is the smallest then have that extended to your available space in your backyard. If the kitchen is too small, for instance, then you can have a portion of the backyard installed with kitchen equipment and furniture. Outdoor technology should be able to help you with whatever you want to do outside.
You can also complement the interiors by using the same colors that you used there to a room that was set up in your backyard. You can stylize by picking textures and colors that harmonize. Do more than buy a couple of chairs and that cute dining table. Lounge seats and other accessories should make the room more exciting and seemingly more spacious.
Learn to Manipulate
If the problem in your home is square footage, then learn to utilize scale, angles, and surface materials. You wouldn’t want to force a 12-seater dining table into a particularly small backyard dining space. Consider, instead, extendable tables or a storage unit with lots of drawers of shelves.
If you have many functional areas, then learn to use a single material that will unify them. Small spaces need to be cohesive, for instance, the parents’ entertainment area could have the same carpet color as the kids’ play zone.
FFDM’s Summer Home Collection has this lovely pair to make your reading corner much more exciting.
Get Rid of Clutter
The more elements that you put into your backyard space, the tighter it would eventually feel. Instead, incorporate non-curvy lines, clean seating, and a limited number of potted plants or bushes. Say no to bulky furniture since the small space will surely be overwhelmed by them.
The cleaner look works better in a backyard that you want to maximize. Instead of using 15 pots as decor, just use five then have them strategically placed throughout the limited space. Pick about two or three planters, 2-3 colors, and just about anything that would complement each other so that the space won’t look overwhelming or chaotic.
Have the Space Enclosed
This might seem ineffective for someone whose aim is to make a small space appear larger. Enclosing a small space, though, you make it more intimate and cozy, aspects that are hard to achieve when you have a large space to work with. An enclosure will also make you feel that you have an outdoor room rather than just a place to store clutter.
Having plants can help you create an intimate yet seemingly roomy space. Redbud trees and trumpet vines usually work if you want to maximize your backyard. So go ahead and use greeneries to your advantage.
Tags: arranging furniture, backyard design, backyard style, decorating with houseplants, decorating with plants, designing the backyard, furniture arrangement, furniture placement, indoor-outdoor furniture, maximizing the backyard, McCreerys, McCreerys Home Furnishings, outdoor dining, outdoor dining area, outdoor furniture, plant decor
Posted in Outdoors Style, Special Rooms In Your Home | No Comments »
Monday, March 14th, 2016
Accessories Uttermost Waters Edge Hand Painted Art 34290: Water will always be an important element in Feng Shui. This painting depicts the beauty and calmness of this element.
Furniture placement and feng shui are closely linked as the former is a key element in the positive or negative flow of chi. It is crucial that furniture placement would not interfere, block, force, or even distort the positive flow of energy. Since this is so, you wouldn’t want to cram furniture pieces and accessories in a very tight place. If you need breathing space, so do does every room in your home.
Simple Feng Shui Rules
Now let’s get down to business. The first rule that you’ll have to remember is to raise the chairs, beds, and couches off the floor – but just a few inches, of course. This will allow the chi to flow freely throughout the room.
The best design approach is minimalism. Position every piece of furniture so that they face the entryway. Keep in mind that the entryway controls the chi as it flows into the room. This is true for desks, couches, stove, sink, beds and chairs. If this is a tad more difficult to achieve, then at least there should be no less than three feet of space between furniture pieces. This is also true with the night stand next to your bed and that couch paired to the coffee table.
Accessorizing can add your personal touch in any room. Place stuff that you usually use at eye level. This isn’t just great for chi, it is also functionally awesome since you can reach for them whenever you need ‘em.
Place your framed pictures at a level when they are not too high above eye level when you are seated. Hang huge pictures over an equally large furniture.
Furniture arrangement can bring about good fortune into different aspects of your life.
Here are some areas believed to be affected by feng shui –
Family
This is the area where you want to be the luckiest. In essence, this is the west. The colors that you are supposed to use here are dark blue, white, or yellow. Fill your home with family photos, toys, framed awards and certificates, stones, crystals and any round-shaped accessories.
FFDM’s Boulevard Collection features these lovely wooden ensemble. Mirrors and wooden furniture are must-haves for all feng shui enthusiasts.
Fame
Treat this is the southern part of your home. This is that area that gets the most amount of sunlight. If letting in the sun is not possible, then make sure that you install ample lighting and heating fixtures.
Colors that are best used here are red and yellow. This is a great place to put all the objects that embody you. Here, you should place trophies, awards and every awesome photo of yourself. Wooden objects and electrical appliances should be placed here.
Business
This should be the northern part of your home, a place that is situated near the main entrance. Colors that make the chi flow are black, dark blue, white and gray hues. Place irregular-shaped accessories in copper, bronze or gold color. Of course, place your best desk, phones and computer here.
Health
The colors black, green and red work well in this eastern part of your home.
Put images of fish ponds, trees and streams; add some organic accessories such as potted plants to complete the look in this area.
Add some bright lights to optimize the positivity.
Money
This is the southeast part of any home. Use red, black, or green here. Round leaf potted plants are wonderful accessories. Tie a red ribbon around the pot then place coins right under the plant. Don’t put electrical appliances, pointy plants and coffee pots here.
Love
Now this last area should interest a lot of people the most. This should be the southwest part of your home. Use furniture or accessories that are yellow or brown. Fire colors like pink and red work great here, too. Put metals, stones, crystals, photos and romantic objects in this room.
Water is a wonderful element to use in this area.
Tags: arranging furniture, furniture, furniture arrangement, furniture placement, McCreerys, McCreerys Home Furnishings
Posted in Feng Shui, Furniture, Interior Design 101, Interior Design Elements | No Comments »
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