New Feature! Design Project Day: Temporary House

Today I am introducing a new feature called Design Project Day, where I will talk about a project that I am working on in the office at the moment. What i hope to do, is to provide some insight, into how to put a design together, and also share some insight as to what a designers process is like. Please, give me feed back, as to whether this is something you want to hear about or not.

At the moment I am working on a very interesting project that has it's own special quirks. It is for a couple with children, who plan to tear down their existing house and build a new one. So they need a temporary place to live in the meantime. They have found a place, and since construction may go on for well over a year, they have asked me to decorate in a way that they will be comfortable, but still not spend a ton of money on things that they may ultimately not need.


So how do you pull a house together on a shoestring, but make it look and feel like a million dollars? Here are some tips:

• Do not skimp on upholstery! The moment you sit down you can tell, by all means use a inexpensive fabric, but use a quality piece, cheap stuff is not that much cheaper that it justifies discomfort.



• Save money on tables and lamps, you can find great ones at some of the big retailers like Crate and Barrel or Ikea. Remember though, the less you spend, keep the design simple. There is no way to make a complex lamp cheaply, if you want to save money here, keep the shapes simple.



• Think outside the box. I am a big fan of old used furniture stores. The chairs above I got for a beach house, for nothing at a consignment store, then had them painted red, now they look great.



• Layering will give you a very rich, detailed feel. Don't forget, rugs and drapery, those touches will make the room warmer and feel more complete.



• Use a mixture of new and old things, you want to create an illusion that this is a collection that has grown over time, not just delivered by the UPS man.

I will let you know in the weeks ahead how it's turning out.