25 Jan Design Resolutions 2015

   As we start a new year, we all make resolutions. Resolutions to lose weight, to exercise more, to give up smoking, and quit procrastinating. Things to make our life better. Well this year, I would like to propose you make a list of New Year design resolutions. Things to make your home look and function better. There are so many I could suggest, but here are the top — design mistakes that I often see:

1. Fake greenery – We’ve all seen it: the kitchen with a jungle of ivy across the top of the wall cabinets. The powder room vanity with a potted artificial daisy on the counter top in the middle of winter. The palm tree on the ledge 16 feet up above the front door. Are these plants and flowers really fooling anyone? We all know plant don’t and can’t grow there. Today , there are many low maintenance and even low light plants that are so much better. My motto: if a real plant couldn’t survive there, don’t put a fake one there.

2. Hanging art too high – Many times I walk into rooms and assume that a family of giants must be living there. I see art hung so high that I have to crane my neck to see it. I often see paintings hung 2-3 feet above the back of the sofa. Great art is meant to be enjoyed when entering the room and walking around. In most cases it is best to place are at I level. For most people this means hanging your art where the center of the painting is 63 to 65 inches off the floor.

3. Karate Chopped Pillows – I’m not sure who started the trend of giving soft beautiful pillows a swift chop to the neck. Perhaps a designer with anger issues. But you don’t want to do that. Beautiful pillows should look plump and fluffed. No pillow would naturally ever have a chop in it. So please: quit doing it… Now!

4. Chairs with no table – Chairs go with tables like peanut butter goes with jelly. They make a great combination. I see too many times rooms where their chairs with no table to set a drink on or a book. Your room should be comfortable and well functioning. Tables next to chairs just makes sent. Who wants to sit in a chair where they have to sit their cup of coffee on the floor?

Always arrange your furniture where every seat in the room has a place to set a drink, or set a book, or more importantly set a lamp. It’s the comfortable and gracious thing to do.

5. Rugs that are too small  – I see many rooms where the rug is a small scrap of wool floating in the middle of the room. It looks sad and lost, with all that furniture way out there in the distance. And what about the dining room? I see dining tables and chairs that are perched on the edge of a small scatter size rug.
Please be generous with your rug sizes. In family room and living room, every piece of furniture should touch the rug. When correctly done , a nice large rug can bring together pieces of furniture placed around the room. A rule of thumb: a properly sized room rug should be 1 to 2 feet away from the walls. And in a dining room, if you get up from the table and your back chair legs fall off the rug, your rug is too small.

If you adhere to these design resolutions for 2015, I promise you your house not only will look better but you will enjoy your home so much more.