Continuing on with Priority! Questions To Ask Before You Begin Redesign . One of the first questions to ask youself before redesign is have you decided what you would like the room used for? Is this a small space to entertain as well as to watch TV and movies? Or is a quiet spot for you to read with a cup of coffee your idea of a perfect room? 

 Faye Cone

You decide you would like your new space to include a comfortable seating area to watch tv and movies.  You also would love a place to relax with a cup of coffee (or wine) and read or just sit and relax. Now before you run out and buy anything new, or choose wall colors, you need to ask yourself a few more important questions.  The first most important item you need to ask yourself is:  Am I keeping my furnishings?  What do I want to do with my existing sofa, chairs, rugs, window treatments and tables?  How old is my furniture?  Do I have money in my budget to buy new or would slipcovers be a better solution right now?

 uglyhousephotos.com

The sofa is usually the largest and most expensive piece in the room, so that is why I suggest asking this question to yourself first.  Most chairs can be transformed at a reasonable cost, or brought from another room where they are not really being used, which makes a chair decision easier to make.

What about your window treatments?  Are they more that 12 years old?  Are they outdated or you are just tired of them? Do you even have any?

Photo File

These are some of the first questions I ask clients to see what we are keeping and what pieces are going out.  If everything is going- you get to start from scratch- lucky you!  But most of us first try reusing what we have and make it work.  If you are keeping your sofa, that is where we will start the redesign process. If it is still in good shape and you do not want to buy new, let’s work with it.

Now you can begin to look for paint colors.  It makes it much easier to match up a color with the fabric than painting the walls and hoping the sofa will coordinate. Doesn’t that make sense?

House Beautiful

When using a sofa fabric for inspiration, I tend to pull colors for the walls from the pattern in the fabric.  As shown above, the designer choose the wall color the same as the fabric’s background color- the blue.  It does seem to work here, but I think the most coordinated look for a room is when the wall is painted another color that does not include the exact same color as the sofa  fabric background.  Just as if you have a sofa in a solid color, you would not put the exact same color on the walls, right?  How lost and boring that would be, right? 

Give yourself a few days to work on this next step of your redesign.  Look at each existing piece carefully.  Is it worn out?  Outdated?  Have sentimental value?  Decide what furnishings you need to let go and which pieces you are going to keep and use in your new space.  Give yourself some time, it is more diffficult and time comsuming  than it sounds.    Any comments?

If you need help with your redesign or help choosing the perfect color, contact me today!