I can’t believe we are more than halfway through the One Room Challenge. Its flying by! The feeling is similar to when you plan and anticipate a vacation for what feels like forever, then it seems to happen in the blink of an eye. I’m in the process of painting our primary bedroom, see below. So, while I don’t have many progress photos to show you this week, I wanted to share some of my design decision tips.
There are many rules-of-thumb when designing spaces, like how big your coffee table should be in relation to your couch (the length should be 2/3 the length of your sofa if you’re wondering) and these are easy to find online. What I am going to share with you today goes beyond choosing the right size for a piece and focuses on how I get a cohesive look that fits my style.
We are visual beings. So, many of my tips focus on ways to visualize a design decision in order to “try it on” before committing to it. Seeing an example of an idea (or color) you want to try before finalizing design plans can foster confidence and reduce any second guessing. Here’s what I recommend during the design process:
Find Inspiration
This is usually the first step many people take. Inspiration is often the catalyst for my designs, and that is no different for this One Room Challenge. I actually was a little stumped when thinking about upgrading our primary bedroom until I found this inspiration photo:
I like to be constantly looking for inspiration, saving and pinning images I come across on Pinterest and Instagram. On Pinterest, I have specific boards for each room of my house for pinning images. On instagram, I have labeled folders to save photos so I can easily pull them up when I need them.
Once you have some ideas of things you like all in one place, you can narrow things down.
Find Examples of Similar Scale
Once I have inspiration photos of rooms that speak to me, and elements of a room I want to try, I look for examples of those specific design elements, with a similar scale to my room. For my inspiration photo above, this was one and the same. It just so happened that my inspiration photo was a room of similar size, similar ceiling height to mine, and what looks like a queen size bed (maybe a full?).
How do I know this room is similar in scale to mine? I use the furniture as a reference. The bed takes up the same amount of space in relation to other items in the photo as mine does. This is not an exact science, but you don’t want to fall in love with a wall treatment only to find out it looks silly in your house with 8ft ceilings (when your inspiration photo had 20 ft ceilings).
Pinterest is a great resource to search specific elements (i.e. board and batten walls, wallpapered ceilings, wall mounted sinks, etc) and see them in many different applications. My inspiration photo has a shelf above the bed, so I searched around for other instances with a shelf above the bed. I found this:
It appears this room has slightly higher ceilings than mine but I have a similar amount of room on either side of my bed. And this room has vertical paneling with a shelf. The shelf here is lower than my other inspiration photo. I have a headboard that is about 50 inches tall and I know I would like to add wall sconces on either side of my bed. After considering those design elements, a lower shelf like shown above would not be feasible. So although I love the look of the room above, it has shown me that my shelf will need to be higher (about 2/3 up the wall) like my first inspiration photo.
Once you have gathered inspiration photos, its time to view the item in your room altogether.
Make a Mood Board
One of my favorite things to do for myself and friends is to make a mood board to see how everything will look together. Use real items you have, and ones you plan to purchase, for the best outcome.
To accomplish this, I use the free version of Canva. I also love this website for removing backgrounds from photos. If this seems too complicated, a fresh Pinterest board with your items can work well too – just keep it to the actual items you have or are planning to use. And don’t forget to add items like paint colors and flooring. By placing all of your design decisions on one document, you can quickly spot if something doesn’t feel right.
Which brings me to my next tip.
Rule of 3 When Mixing Finishes
Mixing metals, wood tones, etc. is a sure way to elevate your design and add interest to a room, but it must be intentional. One brass fixture in a room filled with brushed nickel accents will look off every time. The key – when mixing finishes is to use each element 3 times (or more). So, to mix black metal accents with gold metal accents, they each need to repeat at least 3 times. In my room, I plan to have a black metal headboard, a black curtain rod and black shelf brackets. I also have gold pulls on my dresser, gold legs on the dresser, and plan to have gold wall sconces. When the metals repeat throughout the room, they become cohesive.
This also applies to wood tones. We have dark wood floors in our house. If I added one element in the room that was a light wood tone, it might seem out of place. So, I plan to add two nightstands in a lighter wood tone and also use a lighter wood tone on the shelf above my bed.
With any of these examples, the finishes don’t have to match exactly, but need to be in the same family. Although some brass and gold fixtures can be similar, some can be very different in hue, so keep that in mind.
Sketch Ideas
Sometimes, you can’t quite find what you are looking for and need/want to DIY something. For this One Room Challenge, we are building new nightstand bases. My inspiration photo is a chest of drawers that is larger than my piece of furniture will be.
When I couldn’t decided if I wanted to make my nightstands with 2 drawers or 3 drawers, I made a sketch.
I used AutoCAD for these sketches, but there are many resources available online, like sketchup. After determining the size of the drawers for the 3-drawer option, I realized they would be too shallow for what I wanted to store in them. So, I made another sketch:
Proportionally, I prefer the look of the 2-drawer nightstand and I think it will function better for our needs. But the simple act of making a sketch made me way more confident in my decision.
In addition to sketching ideas, you can use search engines like Pinterest and Google to narrow down design ideas.
Search For Examples of Specific Design Elements
Earlier this week, I was trying to decide if I should paint the trim in my bedroom the same color as my wall paneling, or leave it white. A lot of my inspiration photos use the same trim and paneling color like this:
I don’t doubt that I would love this look. But logistically, it would be much harder for me to accomplish this in my room. So, before committing to it, I tried to find examples of rooms with white trim. Because I was having trouble visualizing it, this exercise was very helpful.
All of the examples above have white trim (doorways, crown moulding, baseboards) that is not the same color as the wall paneling. It was definitely harder to find examples of this than of trim and wall paneling that were the same color, but now I know the white trim can also look great. Again, this gives me confidence in my design decision. And if I don’t like my decision after painting the walls? I can always go back and paint the trim to match 🙂
And what about when other things don’t quite work out how you planned?
Buy, Try, Return, Repeat
One thing I try to stress to anyone I help is that you don’t get it right on the first try. Those beautiful rooms on Pinterest did not come together in an afternoon. Or from one trip to the Target home section.
Things take time. And sometimes, you think something is going to work perfectly in your space. Then you bring it home only to find its too big, or too small, or just doesn’t look right. I ordered these wall sconces for my bedroom and was really happy with the gold color of the lamp shades.
The gold finish was very similar to the gold accents on my dresser so I though this purchase was a home run. Then I held one up on the wall where I would be installing it. It stuck out past the front of my nightstand by several inches! There was no question about it, they stuck out from the wall waayyyyyyy too far. So I returned them. And its back to the drawing board. This is NORMAL!
And please don’t try to make something work that you just don’t love. Buy, Try, Return, Repeat.
Curious about my One Room Challenge? Here’s what I’ve been working on:
- Primary Bedroom Design – Week 1
- Design Ideas – Week 2
- Dresser Makeover – Week 3
- Vertical Paneling – Week 4
These are the rules that help me to make design decisions and avoid decision fatigue. I’m curious if you have any to add to the list? Comment below or connect with me on Instagram @elleandjaydesign. And you can find me here on Pinterest!
Looks great!!