Home decorating help..

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay, I need help here. I really have no clue of how to make normal, attractive rooms. If left to my own devices, my house ends up looking like a military barracks. Spartin, bland, no adornments, all furntitue shoved against the wall, off white paint. Bleh.

This doesn’t seem to sit well with my girlfriends. Like normal people, they would like to live in a house that looks ‘nice’. They want it ‘nice’, but they don’t seem to know how to make it ‘nice’. One of them has an odd idea of what to decorate with (think Elvis on velvet), the other mainly wants to paint the house scary colors (damn art majors).
We need guidance. What I’d like are a few books to read, and some websites to surf. I need something that explains barebone basics. Really, really basic design principles. I don’t want a house that looks like Martha Stewart exploded in it. I just want one that doesn’t look like a military compound.
Cruising around on Amazon turned up these two books.

Use What You Have Decorating (by Lauri Ward)
New Decorating Book (by Better Homes and Gardens)
Anyone ever read these? Are there other books out there I should consider? Any websites that would be useful for the totally clueless?

2

Something I’ve done before that’s cheap and easy is to paint a room with three white walls and the ceiling and the fourth wall another color (I’ve used brown once and blue once). It provides something a little bit different while still getting the “open space” effect of the white.

3

The Pottery Barn catalogues are great (not that my house looks like that, I wish!) I would suggest the local Home Depo, and stick with neutral colors. Ringo, that’s a cool suggestion!

4

any house/apartment shoudl really be an expression of you. what do you like, what do you enjoy? FRAMED posters, nick nacks, ect. show your style and that is what your place should be. if it is a common area of a house that is shared, then everyone should find a common ground to start from. once you find these starting points, go from there. I would suggest muted colors to begin with. if you are not used to color, like Ringo said, doign a single wall will help make an interesting statement, with out overwhelming.

a couple of good resources to look at are the TLC/discovery website for trading spaces. they give hints and tips on there. also, thoguht I think he is a bit over the top, christopher Lowell’s book is ok. personally, I think it is best to go to either the library or a large bookstore and jsut browse the home how-to section. look through many books, and see what ideas you like and work for you. I am a big fan of trading spaces, and have seen rooms on there that I have liked, but would not have thoguht of myself. and they do it on a thight budget, so it is nice. course, also helps if you got a handy carpenter friend aroudn who will do projects for you for free :slight_smile:

5

The “handy carpenter friend” would be me. I’m very handly around the house when something needs to be fixed or built. So that base has been covered.
I’ve tried watching TLC every now and then when they have the decorating programs on. I usually end up either ranting and raving about the people on TV and their enept attempts at using tools, or foaming at the mouth when the stupid commercials come on. I’ll give the websites a shot.

(btw, we really don’t want the house to be an ‘expression of me’. the girls don’t want the house to be decorated in 80’s Teenage Boy)

6

Online, there’s the msn decorating site, plus Better Homes and Garden – plus, I’m sure, dozens of others. These are both pretty mainstream and helpful in terms of how-to.

One suggestion – try pulling the furniture away from the walls a little bit – arrange the sofa and chairs in a way that makes it comfortable to talk. Rearranging furniture is FUN! I’m stuck with a living room layout (stairs, huge doorway, teeny foyer with wall, fireplace) that means I really can’t, and it sucks.

7

phooey. I usually remember to preview when I do a link – let me try that again. (ya know, it didn’t occur to me to look for a semi-colon-j in the address…)

Double phooey. It’s not working. Go to BHG.com – you know what to do.

8

Are there maybe any freeware programs that would let you imput the dimensions of your room, furniture etc and then move it around and decorate etc onscreen?

9

Theios , many people have similar problems with decorating. Looking at a blank space and trying to do something with it is very abstract. In one of my assignments, I had my high school students design a room and it was very difficult for many of them.

I bought this series of books, 101 rooms of all different kinds. The styles of the rooms range from country to contemporary and you will see some ideas you like. These cleared up the problem of just looking at a blank space.

10

You’re in West By-God. A rifle, a jug with “XXX” stenciled on it, and a coupla squirrel pelts oughta do it. :wink:

Seriously, I have no idea where to point you. I just do, and it somehow turns out.

11

Ah, the PoMo faux trailer look! I hear that’s the next new thing.

12

First off, think about how you want a particular room to feel when you sit down in it. Do you want it to be bright and energetic, fun and playful, kind of serious, quiet and soothing, or what? The feel you’re shooting for will affect everything you pick out from colors to furniture to wall hangings and other decorations.

Look at books and magazines for rooms that you like and could see yourself living in. When you visit other people, pay attention to which rooms you enjoy spending time in and try to think objectively about what, exactly, it is you like about those rooms. Those may be things you want to work into one of your rooms.

Once you know what effect you’re shooting for, look at the pieces you already have on hand and how you can work them into that effect. You may not be able to use everything, or you may have nothing but furniture to use and need to get some stuff. That’s all right, so don’t freak out.

Remember, color is your friend, but it’s often best to ease into it. Don’t go from stark white to deep purple all at once; it’s just too big a leap of faith. Start with fairly muted neutrals, then work your way up to more intense colors as you feel comfortable.

Have at least a rough plan before you start slapping paint on the walls and shoving furniture around. I like to use graph paper and make a floor plan to scale with the room. I mark out where, exactly the windows are, the outlets, and doors are. (It seems like I always forget about the damn a/c vents, though.) Then I measure the furniture and cut pieces to scale for them. This gives a chance to see what will block a door or window or vent, visualize traffic patterns in the room, etc. without having to keep shoving the furniture around.

Similarly, take your pictures or shelves or whatever and lay them out in different arrangements in the floor before you start driving nails to hang anything. You don’t want to keep rearranging stuff and putting more holes in the wall.

If you have digital camera, feel free to e-mail me pictures of what you’ve got. I’m always more than happy to give decorating advice, and I’m never offended if someone doesn’t like my suggestions.

13

there is “decorating for dummies…”

most of it is just looking in catalogs, magazines, books, and on tv. as well as “trading spaces,” there is “surprize by design,” discovery; “while you were out,” tlc; “monster house,” discovery; “changing rooms,” bbc america; “queer eye for the straight guy,” bravo; “house beautiful,” a&e.

some catalogs are: west elm, pottery barn, lands’ end home, ll bean home, design at discount, levenger, crate and barrel, etc

there are huge home sections of magazines from: house beautiful to this old house.

use colours that you like to see. i’m a blue, green, grey, black, fan; i’m not going to look at yellows and oranges, although i saw a red entry way i really liked; but how often do you look at your entry way? i could live with it being red.

14

Bah - books are dumb. :smiley:

What I suggest is to head out to art markets, gallaries, shows, etc, etc. Save up some $$ and find a piece of art you love. A big one. (like 3’ x 5’) This piece should jump out and slap you in the face and say YEOWZA!.

Buy it.

Hang it on the main wall of your living room - hang it so it’s at eye level - this is lower than a lot of people think - if you’re 6’ tall, the upper middle of the painting should be hung at about 5’5" off the ground - lower if you’re shorter. That’s your starting point - decorate from there - choose your colors based on the piece, as well as complementary items such as lamps, an easy chair, etc, etc.

As far as I’m concerned this is the easiest way to decorate. You know you love the piece - everything in the room will complement it and the ladies will think yer an art-stud.

Oh - and buy yourself a plant for the love of Pete - an easy one like a spider plant or butterfly plant (ask someone if you don’t know what these are) and slap it somewhere. It will soften the hard edges - just don’t kill it and leave it’s corpse in the pot for a year - that really doesn’t do anything to enhance decore.

EZ.

15

You’re an artist, aren’t you. Next you will be telling me that I must make my rooms flow and to use more texture. When my girlfriend starts talking along these lines, my eyes glaze over. I truely do not have feel for this stuff.

This sounds like you actually approve of painting a room serveral time a year. That’s just crazy talk, I tell you. Plure crazy talk. I am now convinced that you are an art major. My gf has the same affliction.

Yeah! Something I understand. Geeks love graph paper. I already have my entire house down on graph paper with little furniture cutouts. But I did this becuase I’m an anal retentive geek.

I know that you are really into this stuff, and that you tried to be helpful. Thank you for trying to explain this stuff to me, even though you turned my brain to mush.

I may have to take you up on the offer of checking out some pics of the house. Right now, a picture of my entertainment center would reveal the fact that I decorated it with Legos and horror movie action figures. I’m not making this up. I really need help.

16

Thanks for the website suggestions. I’ll check them out tonight.

These books look like they would be great to look at with the girlfriends. Maybe get a feel for what they want, and give them some focus. I’ll see if I can check them out at the library.
alice_in_wonderland

I do actually own a plant. I think it’s called a Mother-in-Law tongue or something. I’ve seen fake plants that were harder to take care of than this, it’s unkillable.

As for art… I like my art small and subdued. Something large like that would drive me nuts, unless it was a neutral colored wall hanging like a rug or quilt. Besides, I’m sure the gf will supply any art she thinks we need. (truth is, if I saved up some $$$, I’m sure my idea of YEOWZA! art would involve a 3gig chip, oddles of memory and the latest video card)

I think one of my problems is that I don’t use rooms for what they were intended. My master bedroom is used as a den. That’s where the TV is right now. I don’t normally use that room since I don’t watch TV. My living room has been wired off and is now a cat room. The cats developed a pissing habit, so I had to isolate them from the rest of our living areas. Our eat in kitchen actually has a table in it. But it’s a catch all area, and is never eaten in. On the rare occasions that we sit and eat a meal together, it’s in the den. I spend all my time in our computer room, or in my garage with my tools.
I think that this is a crazy use of space, and we need to reassign what room is for what use. (okay, the real reason is that I need more room for my computers) What I’d like, is to use the livingroom and the adjoining dining area as the main living area. The TV and all computers (mine and gf’s) would go in this area. This way, the two computer geeks and the TV person could at least be in the same room together and be more social. (okay, the real reason is to solve the heat issue in our tiny computer room)

When I do this grand room shuffling project, I’d like to set things up nice, so it doesn’t look like bears live there. I think I’ll start with some books since I understand concepts better from reading. After I get a clue, I’ll be back to ask more specific questions. Any other book/website ideas would be helpful.

17

Oh, honey, you don’t hang out in the animal threads, do you? I’m a vet tech, not an artist. I was a biology major, thank you very much. I like to piddle around with craft type stuff, and I like to flatter myself that I have a good sense of color, but I’m certainly no artist.

And I certainly don’t encourage painting a room more than once every couple of years. Go for it if that’s what floats your boat, but please don’t ask me to help. Not even if you buy the pizza and beer. The fact remains, however, that you’ll have other rooms to do after this one and that the current room will eventually need repainting.

I strongly suggest decorating one room at a time, even if you’re moving furniture in all the rooms. That way you don’t have the whole house torn all to hell at one time. (It’s chaotic, stressful, and tiring to not have at least one room where you can escape all the mess. And the crapper doesn’t count.)

Since your girlfriends live there too, all three of you need to sit down and make a list of what you hope to accomplish in each room. What will it be used for? What furniture will you need at a bare minimum? What other stuff would you like to work in if possible? Is this a serious, focus-on-the-project-at-hand room, or a room to piddle around in? Is this someone’s own personal you-people-are-driving-me-crazy room, or is it shared space? You can make those decisions, right? Congrats, you just decided how you want the room to be and feel when you’re done with it. (See, it’s not so artsy-fartsy at all, is it?)

I also stronly encourage having personal space set aside for each of you. Yes, you need time and space to be together, but you also need time and space to get the hell away from each other. The very best thing I’ve ever done for our marriage was to get my and the critters’ room set up. (Where else would I put the unicorn lamp my mother got me last year? Although he’s too polite to say so, DrJ sure as hell didn’t want to look at it. Same for my stuffed animal collection.)

The action figures could go in your area, or maybe you could build some nice display shelving for them and some other knickknacks. You know, sort of a shadow-box type thing.

18

I am in agreement with you that everyone needs to have their own space. Each of us has a aprt of the basement that we make our own. Mine is the garage, gf #1 is the sculpting studio I set up for her, and gf #2 has the weight room area where she chills out. Got those bases covered.

Yes, I was thinking I should really build a shadow box to display my little toys and treasures. Maybe only some of them and then rotate the collection every now and then.

As for the painting and you being an art major, I hope you understand that I’m being a goof. Don’t take it to heart, I just have to be silly some times. Especially if I don’t know what I’m doing and I feel the need to make fun of myself. :wink:

19

I do need to get this straight before I give any decorating advice…

You have two girlfriends? And you are living with both of them?!?!

20

Yes. I am a lesbian with two girlfriends and I live with both of them. I know many folks on the Dope know I’m poly, I guess I just need to post more for that to stick in people’s minds. Didn’t mean to confuse you.
(now, don’t ask me how you can have a household of three women, and none of them able to decorate for crap)