Interior Design – Learning the Basics of Good Furniture Arrangement
Interior design is an art of putting pieces together to manipulate the architectural integrity of the interior spaces. It is concerned with anything and everything that is found inside a space and that includes the doors, walls, textures, windows, finishes, furnishings, light, and furniture. Most of these elements, if not all, are used by interior designers in creating a safe, functional, and aesthetically pleasing space.
The interior design of a house gives it either a warm and inviting setting or a cold and distant ambiance. While there are many factors which contribute to a room’s atmosphere, the way the furniture is arranged or where the furniture is placed is also a great factor to influence the mood of the room.
Squeezing in all the furniture into your rooms is a lot more challenging than buying them. Sometimes furniture cannot be placed in a certain spot due to a door that swings the wrong way, a window that is too low, and many other factors, which will challenge your furniture-arranging skills.
A Short Guide on How to Arrange Furniture
It must be remembered there are no hard and fast rules in interior decoration, much more on furniture arrangement. But there are some things that may help one in arranging the furniture to give the room some enjoyable spaces where the whole family or guests will feel relaxed.
1. Good furniture arrangement starts with evaluating the area of the room or house as well as the furniture inside the room. Consider the size of the room first before buying or putting in the furniture. Measure the room or get the dimension of the room. This will give you an idea of the size of the furniture that you will put. By using one’s common sense, the furniture must fit into the available space.
2. When you plan to arrange a room or decorate a room, always take into consideration the person or persons who will use the room, the number of people who use the room, and how often these people enter or stay inside the room.
3. Determine which particular area of the room catches your immediate attention. This area will be the focal point of your room. Discover some dramatic elements in it. Let us say, the focal point of your bedroom is your large window which gives you a beautiful view of the beach, then you must put your primary piece – in this case, your bed – to that side or if not, put your bed to the other side and let it face the window in such a way that you get to have a good view of the beach outside.
4. Consider the color of your room when choosing the furniture. When the color of your paint is dark, get light-colored furniture to make the room look brighter.
5. Create a visual motion and excitement. Add furniture and furnishings that comes in two to have a symmetrical balance or asymmetry. Asymmetry refers to an imbalance such as two candles of somewhat different sizes next to each other. Symmetry is very restful while asymmetry is used to add visual motion and excitement.
If you wish to make your house or room more relaxing and beautiful, the guide above may just be all the help you needed.
Home Design – What’s Hot For 2011
Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe that a year ago I wrote an article “What’s Hot And What’s Not For 2010″. I had such a huge response to this piece that I thought it was only fitting to share a similar version of the home building, renovation and design trends that are topping the charts for this year.
Whether you’re customizing a recently purchased home, making the changes needed to update your existing space or are simply interested in increasing the overall value of your home, keep these ideas in mind when tackling your 2011 home improvement projects.
WHAT’S HOT:
Smaller Homes
For those families purchasing new homes, many are looking for more modestly sized properties than the McMansions of the past. Being more attracted to the space they need rather than the space their ego wants – is on today’s agenda. It’s all about being more value conscious and living authentically. Although some newly built homes may be shrinking in size – by only about 10-15% (reducing overall room sizes), the high-end materials and finishes are in no way compromised.
Rooms are becoming more multi-functional than in years past and therefore it’s more important than ever to maximize every inch of space – within the existing footprint – and provide creative and integrated storage throughout your entire home. Less clutter and greater organization will contain your “stuff” and still allow your home to feel more spacious and uncluttered.
There is a return to a more simple, warm, natural and clean-lined design reminiscent of mid-century modern architecture. A blending contemporary and traditional styles – resulting in a chic transitional design style.
Greener, Healthier and Smarter Homes
The current scene is definitely green. Energy efficiency is fast becoming the hottest and most desirable trend or “shift” in the home design and building industry.
You can go all the way and completely reduce your carbon footprint or simply begin by introducing energy-efficient windows, lighting, appliances, tank-less water heaters, low-VOC paints, stains and sealants into your next home renovation or building projects.
With a one-year extension of energy efficiency tax credits, it only makes sense to take advantage of this offer and incorporate these products along with more durable and sustainable materials when you’re updating your home.
Easy maintenance, high quality materials and integral smart systems make for an easy transition for the changing family. Integrating state of the art or “Smart” technology into our homes is a very hot trend that continues to blaze. It’s about making our lives easier. Controlling kitchen appliances, lighting and your entertainment systems from a centralized panel will soon be foreshadowed by the apps from our smart phones where we’ll be able turn on our lights, have our fireplace crackling and our dinner cooked to perfection the moment we walk through the door. Sign me up!
Universal Design
Renovating your existing home and removing interior walls creates an open, spacious and more flexible floor plan. This immediately improves the layout and flow of the home and makes it more comfortable and versatile for families who love to entertain – particularly when today’s kitchens serve as multi-functional spaces incorporating cooking, dining, gathering and entertaining just to name a few.
Re-designing your home’s overall layout and introducing some Universal Design principles into your renovation could include wider doorways, main floor master suites, and user-friendly kitchens and baths. These subtle tweaks make even the smallest homes feel more spacious and appeals to an enormous segment of the population -Baby Boomers and Gen Xers alike.
Work Spaces
The homeprenuer trend is not just growing – it’s intensifying. With an unstable economy comes the opportunity for more people to work from home either part time or launch home-based businesses. Today’s technology makes it easy to be as productive at home as in an office-based location.
Since most home-based businesses must co-exist with the family, separating your living and working environments can be a challenge. If you’re lucky enough to have a separate guesthouse, a detached carriage house, or space above your garage then designate that space for your home office Otherwise, like the vast majority of home-based businesses you’ll need to allocate an area within the home itself – either an unused bedroom, space beneath the stairs, or a corner of the kitchen or family room. Either way – find a spot where noise and traffic are at a minimum and privacy is optimum!
Porches and Decks
With the trend of downsizing our homes comes the idea of expanding our interior living spaces to the outdoors. Homes with charming porches and decks naturally transition the interior to the exterior instantly expanding your living space. It extends the summer season almost forcing us to live outdoors before the really cold weather sets in. Porches can define a neighborhood, and recapture a sense of community
Decks can be as simple or elaborate as the home they’re attached to. Multi-leveled or single, built in seating or casual seating areas, hot tubs, outdoor kitchens, and fire pits – all of which create added living space and provide a vacation-like atmosphere.
Design your porch or deck to compliment the character of your home’s exterior architecture. Give it some thought in planning. It should be proportionate to the size of your home and property and make sure to include energy efficient solar or LED lighting.
Keeping abreast of these home design trends will help guide you when it comes time for you complete your “to do” list. Families grow, people mature and our needs change. It’s all about re-inventing your home making it feel as though it was built just for you.
What is the Difference Between Web Design and Graphic Design?
Although web design and graphic design both use images, text, and typeface to create a desired method of communicating ideas, designing for web and print are two different practices. Graphic designers have been around since print media was created, while web design came into being when the Internet was developed. Before choosing a print designer or web designer, it is important to understand the differences between web design and graphic design.
Graphic Design
Graphic Design includes any type of design that has been created and printed. Graphic design uses the blending of technology and art to communicate messages and ideas. The graphic designer utilizes a number of communication tools to deliver a message from a client/company to a specific audience. Graphic design illustrations can be found in magazines, newspaper arrangements, newspaper ads, billboards, logos, brochures, books, labels on a variety of product packages, and much more. Graphic designers create the layout design for a variety of types of print advertisements. The print design is normally 2-dimensional. Each design component is created for a fixed size display. The main tools used are image and typography. Images are used to communicate a mood or emotion.
The audience reacts to the images and the advertising messages that they receive. Typography is a type-based design where words are used to convey a message. The designer will focus on the appearance of the words such as lettering size, location, shape, and color. They are designed to catch the attention of the consumer, enhance the ad display, identify the product, and help convey the advertiser’s message to the targeted audience. Graphic designers work with market analysts, illustrators, and photographers as well as with typesetters and printers and other production experts to in order complete the entire ad design project.
Web Design
Web Design is task of creating a web page on the internet. Web designers work for businesses creating and implementing their websites. They work exclusively on web sites. A Web designer designs a graphical display of content and images that is displayed on the Internet in the form of a web page. They employ a number of web applications such as HTML, CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, PHP, Photoshop, and images such as JPG. The function of Web designer includes all of the technical aspects of creating a website, such as the coding and writing of web pages.
Both graphic designers and professional web designers are specialized to use such applications as color to create a mood or set a tone. They know how to communicate ideas and messages through such technical expressions as using the meaning of symbols to convey an idea. As well, they know how to use shapes, objects, and colors to provide balance and equilibrium to communicate to a targeted demographic and inform and encourage them to take a certain action such as buying a product.
Both web design and graphic design play an important role in the advertising, promotion, and sales of products and services. Choosing a professional web designer or graphic designer will depend on one’s particular area of business.