How To Create A Room

ONE so often hears the complaint, "I could not possibly set out alone to furnish a room! I don't know anything about periods. Why, a Louis XVI chair and an Empire chair are quite the same to me. Then the question of antiques and reproductions why any one could mislead me!"

If you have absolutely no interest in the arranging or rearranging of your rooms, house or houses, of course, leave it to a decorator and give your attention to whatever does interest you. On the other hand, as with bridge, if you really want to play the game, you can learn it. The first rule is to determine the actual use to which you intend putting the room. * Is it to be a bedroom merely, or a combination of bedroom and boudoir? Is it to be a formal reception-room, or a living room? Is it to be a family library, or a man's study? If it is a small flat, do you aim at absolute comfort, artistically achieved, or do you aim at formality at the expense of comfort?

If you lean toward both comfort and formality, and own a country house and a city abode, there will be no difficulty in solving the problem. Formality may be left to the town house or flat, while during weekends, holidays and summers you can revel in supreme comfort.

Every man or woman is capable of creating comfort. It is a question of those deep chairs with wide seats and backs, soft springs, thick, downy cushions, of tables and book-cases conveniently placed, lights where you want them, beds to the individual taste, double, single, or twins!

The getting together of a period room, one period or periods in combination, is difficult, especially if you are entirely ignorant of the subject. However, here is your cue. Let us suppose you need, or want, a desk, an antique desk. Go about from one dealer to the other until you find the very piece you have dreamed of; one that gives pleasure to you, as well as to the dealer. Then take an experienced friend to look at it. If you have every reason to suppose that the desk is genuine, buy it. Next, read up on the furniture of the particular period to which your desk belongs, in as serious a manner as you do when you buy a prize dog at the show.

Now you have made an intelligent beginning as a collector. Reading informs you, but you must buy old furniture to be educated on that subject. Be eternally on the lookout; the really good pieces, veritable antiques, are rare; most of them are in museums, in private collections or in the hands of the most expensive dealers. I refer to those unique pieces, many of them signed by the maker and in perfect condition because during all their existence they have been jealously preserved, often by the very family and in the very house for which they were made.

Our chances for picking up antiques are reduced to pieces which on account of reversed circumstances have been turned out of house and home, and, as with human wanderers, much jolting about has told upon them. Most of these are fortified in various directions, but they are treasures all the same, and have a beauty value in line color and workmanship and a wonderful fitness for the purposes for which they were intended. "Surely we are many men of many minds!"

What Do I Need To Be Interior Design?

The first thing that you are going to need if you want to be an interior designer is the passion for it. You must ask yourself is whether or not designing homes and/or properties is something that you could feel passionate about. To find out ask, yourself these questions.

· Do you constantly rearrange the furniture in your own home?

· Do you often have ideas about friends and families homes, and what would make them look better?

· Are you finding that people often ask your opinion about their own homes, and what you think may make it look better?

· Do you like planning the rearrangement of your home before you do it?

· When decorating your own home, do you find yourself wondering how best to incorporate colors into your space?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, than you already have the passion to become an interior designer. These questions merely touched on the very thing that drew you to this book in the first place. It just helped you realize that you were right in doing so.

The second thing that may need to become an interior designer is the interest. This basically explores whether or not your actual interest is genuine. Many people consider a great many careers before they develop a genuine interest in choosing one. We know that you have the passion, but does that passion mean that you have enough interest to follow through? I have some more questions for you to answer if you really want to know if the interest is really there for you.

· Do you feel the need to learn how best to coordinate the colors in your room before you seek to change them?

· Do you seek outside advice from professionals on how best to accent a particular object or color?

· Do you seek to know the history behind a particular style of décor when you notice one?

· Do you find yourself wondering what sort of planning went in to the creation of a glorious room you’ve been in?

· Would you prefer to read a design magazine above any other? (Modern Living, or Country Style Home)

· Do you think that Martha Stewart is nothing compared to you?

Again, a yes answer to any of these questions means a yes to your interest. But there is another aspect of interior design that must be covered. You may wish to be a certified interior designer. If that is the case, you will need to get a formal education in this field.

Education for Interior Design

Online Design Programs

Not everyone is comfortable with the idea of going to a school for Interior Design. Some may prefer to learn how to do it from the comfort of their own home. This method is not recommended if you are trying to become certified, but if you just want to get the basic knowledge that you are required to know, this method is fine.

There are literally thousands upon thousands of courses for interior design that are offered online. Finding one that has the right information you will want to learn will require some research on your part, but it’s not that difficult. Course prices for internet schools of design can start as low as $19.00 and go as high as $500.00.

Some online courses that are offered through legitimate Colleges and Universities are much cheaper than campus courses and offer the correct certification that you will need. Generally, these courses require that you take your exams on campus or in a monitored way of some sort. Again, research is needed to ensure that you are not being scammed.

There are some alternatives to taking any formal courses at all. This called “self teaching”. This is where you will study the necessary information that you will need to do Interior Design as a profession, but you will not be certified.

Self Teaching

Teaching yourself to learn any field takes a lot of discipline and a great deal of interest. You have to be a motivated person and have the ability to focus solely on your task, but it can be done. There are many Interior Designers that are working without any formal education. They are simply going on intuition and talent. It is rare to learn all of the things that you need to know by teaching yourself, but it a possibility. These are some of the things that you will need in order to teach yourself interior design.

· Learn the proper terms from various books on interior design.

· Observe the many techniques and trends from circulating magazines and catalogs.

· Teach yourself to calculate the amounts of paint and wallpaper need to per wall by talking to your local professionals.

· Get as much practice as you can in your own home or at others’

· Use your local library or bookstore to help you brush up on the proper ways of incorporating space and a balance of space.

Pros and Cons of Self Teaching

Pros	Cons
Learn at your own speed	You don’t get the benefit of a teacher’s guidance and help
You don’t get final exams	You don’t get certification
Cheaper than paying tuition costs	Tuition is expensive
Learn in the comfort of your own home	Must learn with others watching and judging you
Have online assistance when needed	Have to wait to use computers
Practice projects can be a lot less stressful	Still have to take drafting and other technical classes
Extra classes needed are often free at adult schools	You don’t get help finding client prospects
You can earn while you learn	You can earn while you learn (may be overworked)
You can take breaks whenever you want	You can take breaks whenever you want. (may lose incentive)

· Never underestimate the power of Fengshui. Purchase books on it if you can because it is a great resource for this type of work.

· Get a job at a department or furniture store so that you can get a feel for the job, and the newest and most interesting design techniques. This method lets you earn while you learn.

The best way to teach your self is to keep up on current trends through magazines and furniture catalogues. It may sound strange, but it is a good start. You will however have no choice but to take a drafting and blueprinting class. You cannot avoid this. Fortunately there are many adult classes available for free.

You will also need to create a portfolio. A portfolio is like a scrapbook that has all of the listings and photographs of your work to date. Do not worry if you do not have a portfolio right away because I will give you some tips on how to build a portfolio, with little or no professional expertise.

Your portfolio will help your future clients see what work you’ve done, which will give them an idea of what you are capable of doing for them. This is your best marketing tool, so make it look as professional as possible. You will also want to add letters of recommendation to your portfolio when possible, or you can request from clients that they allow you to list them in your portfolio as satisfied customers.

The Meaning in Design

Much like the history of art, the history of interior design has had numerous styles, movements and the political and social developments that have informed or challenged its evolution.

Encyclopedias define interior design as: planning and design of man-made spaces, a part of environmental designs and closely related to architecture. Although the desire to create a pleasant environment is as old as civilization itself the field of interior design is relatively new, this seems on target for most home designs.

Since at least the middle of the 20th century, the term interior decorator has been so loosely applied as to be nearly meaningless, …Meaningless? Maybe since the word eclectic has become a household word.

Interior designers use their education, creativeness, and experience to help plan the space and furnish the interiors of private homes, public buildings, and business or institutional facilities, such as offices, restaurants, retail establishments, hospitals, hotels, and theaters.

Professional designers can tell you if a chair is a Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Gothic, Moorish, Spanish, Anglo-Saxon or Charlemagne's Chair. Does the average person even know what the colonial period, the revival of Directoire and empire furniture, the Victorian period or the periods of the three Louis?

This may be why a lot of creative people shy away from decorating there own special spaces.

In this modern day and age people can now use their creativity to create beautiful living spaces without caring that they may break a cardinal rule of decorating. Home decorating, is a conscious effort to improve the appearance and functionality of one's living areas, in many homes and living spaces. This means that we can break out of the styles of the past and create our own areas of comfort and style. Really know what you want as a home, want it, and you can work out any scheme, provided you have intelligence, patience and perseverance.

What is eclectic? Eclectic is basically made up of or combining elements from a variety of sources, like mixing a Elizabethan chair next to a Queen Anne stool. As part of the ever-increasing quest for individual expression in decor the eclectic style has emerged as a favorite among homeowners that want to decorate the world around them.

This gives us all freedom to decorate to our own taste and comfort level!

Acknowledging all schemes of interior decoration and insisting that what makes any scheme good or bad, successful, or unsuccessful is the fact that it is planned in reference to the type of person who will live in it. If you are to be living in it then you can do anything you want.

In planning your house after arranging for proper wall space for your various articles of furniture, keep in mind always that balance will be needed and must be at the same time conveniently placed and distinctly decorative; convenient for the individual along with the family.

One is astonished to see how often the careless placing of one piece upsets the actual balance of a room. One chair in the flow of traffic or a tipsy lamp next to a door can really ruin a good-looking design. To help you make smart choices, look thru books on decorating that discuss traits, preferred room dimensions, available options for furniture matching, and other helpful decision-making information. Often ebooks and other online resource can point out good hints and tips to really get you started.

With this in mind and ideas fresh, I suggest lots of thought and some research before starting out on this great endeavor, but with a plan in hand roll up your sleeves and get going!