How To Build A Room

So, I've been watching some television shows...okay, just one in particular. Candice Olsen's Divine Design. It's a kooky kind of show featuring this really tall thin blond named Candice. She's Canadian and really goofy. But, since I've been watching the show, I figured out how she builds a room.

Here's the steps.

1. Figure out the layout of the room. Where does the furniture go and what purpose does each area provide? What is the focal point of the room?

I noticed that each room typically has about three distinct areas. In bedrooms, one area is for the bed and sleeping, one area is for lounging and media/reading, and the final area is for some big piece of furniture like a dresser or armoire.

2. Pick out the biggest pieces of furniture and build up the area with smaller pieces such as a chair or chaise. Decide if you are going to install custom cabinetry to the space and where it will go.

Always, always, always accompany the big piece with another functional piece such as a small side table, ottoman to rest something upon, or a bench or stools to place at the end of a bed or to take up room under a window. I also noticed that she really likes to make a moment of the area right around a window. If the bed has to go by the only window in the room, she swathes the whole thing in tons of fabric to highlight the area.

She NEVER picks out puny furniture even if the room is small, just less of them.

3. Start to introduce color.

She begins by picking out fabrics. Usually, it's the drapery or bedding fabric that begins the process and the style of the room dictates the color. If the room is meant for "peaceful tranquil retreat" the colors are usually watery blues and faded beige's. If the room is meant to masculine exotic, the colors are deeper browns and beige's with hits of red and black in the accessories. She picks the fabrics and colors on all the furniture including the headboard. That's not something I would really know to do. I also noticed that the wall color is not the starting point of deciding the color of the room. Rather, it's simply the echo of the other colors she's chosen. That is a relief to me because I think I put much to much emphasis on the wall color.

4. Decide where you want the sparkle to go.

She usually puts some kind of sparkle into a room even if it's rustic in style. For example, even in a rustic room, maybe the heavy wood furniture doesn't have any glitter on it, but the hardwood floors have a semi sheen and the wallpaper would have some sort of iridescence in it. If the bedding doesn't give off any shine, then the accent pillows and drapery sheers would.

5. Lighting

She is the queen of pot lights, track lighting, and sconces. And, boy, does it work. Instead of having one overhead light, she usually brings down that light to a chandelier or diffuses it in a drum fixture and then highlights the rest of the room with little dots of light in the way of pot lights and sconces. Doing this creates different levels of lighting and then the whole room becomes illuminated and no corner left dark and dingy. The light doesn't get unifocal and one noted. Rather, it is multidimensional and then the colors get a chance to pop by being highlighted in different levels.

She should win an award just for her lighting skills.

6. Contrast the flooring.

She usually picks a darker wood floor and a neutral rug that ALWAYS has some sort of pattern in it. If she opts for basic carpeting, there is always something going on in the carper like a design of some sort.

7. Add some heat.

She always adds a fireplace. This, I'm not sure about because who can afford to do such a thing in every room? I think that she does for people who can afford to do so to by making a moment out of the area. I think I'd opt to just arrange an area like there was a fireplace and then just omit the fireplace.

















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