Creating a New Room

Before to decorate a room we must consider two external aspects: the orientation and the views offered they have a fundamental influence on the room and its decoration.

If a room has great views, the windows will be the most important feature. The orientation—whether the light enters from east or west. In the morning or In the afternoon determine the light fails on the objects and spaces, and the mood it creates. We must look at how the colors and materials respond. Whether we are decorating an old room or a whole new house, we are creating a new space, and therefore we must take into account certain factors and always work (which here means designing) according to a plan to scale that envisages the furniture to be placed and how it relates to the other furnishings. Large samples of the materials and colors to be used must be tried out because it is important to get a good idea of how things look in both daylight and artificial light.

When testing how the colors and materials respond to we must check the material for the flooring horizontally and the wall coverings vertically. Never forget that although plans are two-dimensional, the reality is three-dimensional, so use a perspective drawing with the right colors and materials. This will give us a good simulation of the final result.

When we have to distribute or create a new space we may need an expert to advise us about the possibilities the building's architecture offers. Often the potential of a room greatly increased by amplifying it or reducing according to our needs, and a professional is an ideal person to tell us which walls or partitions can be modified and how much it will cost. If we are decorating a whole house we must take on the room at a time.

Sometimes we will be confronted by tricky rooms, because they are either too maze-like, too big, or just have some strange features. It will help us to make a Iist of the pros and cons. and what we stand to lose or gain by making the changes. Weigh the decisions before you start to knock down walls or build new ones.

The best solutions for rooms on the small side is to keep the furniture and decoration to a minimum only what is necessary, Draw up a list of what the space needs and the people who are going to be using it. Homogeneous elements also help to make a modest room appear somewhat bigger.

However, it is not only small rooms that can set you thinking: large rooms, too, can be problematic. Although we can use colors and wallpaper to give the sensation that the space fuller, we should avoid the temptation to accumulate objects. One possibility is to create two ambiances in the same room. For example, in living and dining room we can set aside a space for reading or for studying. or a second living zone, totally differentiated by its style, maybe cozier.

When a room has an irregular shape. with odd corners and angles, the first job is to unify the space. Odd corners can often mean wasted space because nothing fits into them Made-to-measure furniture gets around this problem and also tides up the view. Strategically placed curtains can hide an off-centered window.

If there are elements that cannot be done away with, or hidden, like a column, we must analyze the situation and decide If we want to make them presence low key—perhaps painting it the same color as the walls—or making it stand out and converting it into a feature that grabs our attention.

To get a clearer concept of how a room gong to work we can classify the elements according to whether they are contents, furniture, and furnishings, or the elements that mark the limits of the room: walls, flooring, and ceiling. The coherence and equilibrium of the space we create depends on a connection between these ingredients.

Although the floor normally has the same surface area as the ceiling, It has a greater visual impact and therefore requires more attention. In old buddings, the ceiling may seem unnaturally high, an effect that can be neutralized by giving it a finish similar to that of the walls and floor. Dark colors tend to lower ceilings, while light colors, or those clearly differentiated from the walls, make the ceiling seem higher