Designing Your First Home

 This Bog entry is a modified version of my article for Good House Keeping Magazine Philippines

Your First Home: Design 101

In between planning your wedding and starting your fairytale life comes designing your first home.  Every newlywed will benefit from having their own space.  Be it a modest flat or your dream house with a pool and garden, planning it together has been proven to be fulfilling and fun.  Most people don’t know where to begin, and may actually put this off until after the wedding, however coming home to your own private space will be worth every effort.  With these simple steps you can design and arrange your own home while planning your wedding.

Something old can be your own treasure

You may have furniture from your old home that you can take with you, or your family may have items to pass on.  Keep in mind that pieces can always be re painted, and altered to fit your new area. A sofa can look new by changing its upholstery to a plain textured modern fabric.  Knowing what pieces you already have will help you plan and save on what you don’t really need to buy.  Whatever furniture you decide to keep must of course match new items you will purchase. 

Meublair furniture

Start with the biggest pieces of your home

The easiest way to get the design process going is by acquiring the large pieces first.  These are most of the time the most needed in a home.  Buy a sofa, dining set, and bed.  Smaller furniture like side tables, consoles, and shelves should come after, so that you know what spaces to fill.  A great way to ease you into space planning is to get overall dimensions of each furniture piece. Mark them onto your actual floor with tape or chalk so you can visualize and see if it fits.  Location and angles can then be repositioned depending on how much space is required. 

Storage, something every home cannot live without

Although everyone must learn the art of tasteful restraint when accumulating items, storage will always be a necessity.  Be aware of dead space, nooks, and corners that you can turn into a closet, or chest.  All you will need is wood and a few hinges to build closet doors and conceal it.  You can be creative by making it look like a part of your wall, or highlight it with contrasting materials to build a focal point.  Buy furniture with drawers, or shelves, and invest in space saving fixtures like corner carousel shelves for hard to reach areas. 

Herman Miller Meridian Filing

Spruce up your home with color

There can be many ways of adding color to a home. Artwork, linen, as well as accessories all give a punch of color but nothing spices up a room like wall paint.  Though neutral colors work best, you can experiment by adding accent walls or focal points.  Re enforce that color by adding accessories like jars and throw pillows with the same shade or tone in them.  Computerized paint mixing stations found in home depots and mall hard ware stores make it easier to select colors and even paint your own walls.  

the bella life

Toby Fairley

Sentimental Art Work and Photographs Make the Home

A great and inexpensive way to decorate your home is to use your own family portraits and artwork.  Having them printed and framed in black and white is a great way to re live those memories.  Be it a grouping of pictures, or a collage of items from your wedding day, creativity will certainly bring satisfaction as long as your artwork is according to proper proportion and location. 

Travis Isaac's photostream

Painting a Bedroom Wall

There are so many useful do- it yourself tools in the market these days, changing your kids bedroom paint can be addicting.  Here are a few rooms to inspire you...

All photos from HGTV.com

Here are a few steps to changing the wall paint of your rooms:

1. Plan and decide on color schemes.  Know what walls you'll want to put each color on.

Color charts can be useful. 

PHOTO FROM ehow.com

2. Sand existing walls to remove any rough and uneven parts.  Your goal would be to make sure your wall is as even as possible. Imagine pointing a flashlight on your wall and looking at it from the side. Are there any shadows and waves?  Try to even these out.

PHOTO FROM corbisimages.com

3. Apply putty on surfaces that remain uneven or recessed to even it out more.  Tape all edges and joints so you don't get them on other areas like floors and cornices.  

The white stuff you see is actually putty. PHOTO FROM inmagine.com

PHOTO FROM dumies.com

4. Mix the base color of paint you want, and apply this evenly with a roller brush following one direction.  Let paint dry lightly between layers.  2-3 layers or coats is all you need.  Paint color will lighten when dry.  

carefully paint edges with a flat brush  PHOTO FROM precisionpaintingplus.net

PHOTO FROM escapeestatehomebuilders.com

5. With a light pencil draw any image or stencil in any design you want.  practice on a sheet of paper so you get scale and proportion right. Imagine the paper is your wall.

You can search the web for design ideas.  Here are some links to planets and the solar system

http://www.muralsbymorgan.com/murals/kids-murals/outer-space-astronaut-mural

6. Paint your sketches to life with different colors and brush sizes to give it depth.  Here is a link to a do it your self mural site

http://www.murals-for-kids-rooms.com/Level%202/DIY/DIY%20services.htm

Have fun, dare to be creative.  Water-based paint is best for cement walls, while oil or enamel will have to be the first coating for wood based walls.  Ask your local home depot, they'll know what to recommend.  Odorless paint is now available in the market.  Leaving a bowl of charcoal or vinegar out will absorb any smell of paint after you are done.  Of course, open your windows and air the room out. 

Wall stickers works just as well if you don't want to have to paint the detailed murals yourself.  More of that in my next blog.

Designing Kids Rooms

Decorating Your Kid’s Room

Creating your child’s bedroom can be something fun for you and your kids.  In reality, there are no rules when it comes to decorating for them.  You can have fun and let your imagination run wild, while still incorporating function and taste.  I’ve compiled some important guidelines for those of you that love to decorate but don’t know where to start.

1.Consider your child’s age and interest

There are many options you can use for decorating like wallpaper, stickers, murals, stencils and artwork but the key is in knowing what you want your theme to be.  Picking a focal wall as a main spot for your design often helps.  I usually like to use the headboard wall.  You can then repeat portions of this design in various areas of your room like cabinets and shelves.

You don’t always have to go for a theme.  Try playing with color, and experimenting with texture to splash on various areas of the room. 

  Pieces of cutout paper was used to make a wallpaper collage. PHOTO BY: Artlovejoy

2. Go easy on the furniture

The beauty of designing kid’s rooms is that there are no rules when it comes to furniture.  You will save a ton on cash if you learn to re use and revamp your old vintage pieces.  You can always paint them in interesting colors, and even cut off parts that you don’t like.

 The bedroom above has a very non traditional take on a bed.  Photo By: Colorhome

3.  Consider child’s safety and needs

Planning a kid’s room can be fun but carefully select materials for younger ones.  It is best to use wood flooring or laminated wood which is a cheaper alternative.  It is synthetic, and very easy to clean.  Hard flooring like tiles can be dangerous for young kids who like to run around.  Carpet may be soft but gathers dust and mites which may trigger allergies.  If your child has asthma, it will be a good idea to use vinyl roll up blinds or wooden shades as an alternative to fabric curtains.

 Young kids often need a lamp or night light that they can leave on.  You can be creative by cutting out patterns and shapes and attaching them to the shade so that the light goes through it. 

Reinforcing good study habits can also be done by providing a functional study desk in the room and keeping television sets in other areas. 

There are no rules with regards to color, as long as it is something your child will love.  Odorless paint is now available in most home depots making the painting process quicker.  Careful planning of materials to be used, along with an endless dose of imagination is all you need to design your kid’s bedroom.