AbbeyK — On Interior Design

What Size Sofa to Buy

A lot of my customers tell me that they go to a retail store and the setup of the furniture looks beautiful in the space and then when they get it home, it looks terrible. It’s too big. One of the problems that I end up fixing for a lot of people is replacing over-scaled furniture. As homes have gotten larger, and manufacturers have countered by making bigger furniture. Furniture that’s not just big, it's super-sized.

A lot of the housing stock, certainly within Rte 128 in the Boston area, was built before 1920 or 1930, when houses were typically smaller. Even grand Victorian homes, like we did for This Old House, Newton, do not call for large furnishings.

Large-scale furniture, just doesn’t fit in the vast majority of houses. It is made to sell. But it doest work in real homes . People can’t really put their words on why their space doesn’t feel comfortable. They just know it's not right. But I know immediately, and it's usually a numbers game with sizes of furniture. They bought chairs with very high backs in their dining room. Maybe they are 42" high which is way too tall given standard 8' ceilings. This combination makes the space feel cramped.

Or they bought a sofa with a really big rolled arm and a lot overstuffed cushions and pillows and they have a regular-sized living room and it just doesn’t feel right. The scale of the furniture is too big and there's no air to walk around the room. So you don't feel like you want to stay in the space.

I don’t make mistakes of scale and proportion in furniture size. That’s where my training comes in and my expertise comes in. So clients can know that if I’m buying furniture for them I’m not going to let them buy something that will be too big for their space. My clients will tell you I am a stickler for scale and proportion. Taste is personal though.

Accessorize with Family Photos

What a better way to fill up empty wall space and personalize your home than with family photos. Printing pictures has never been easier thanks to digital photography. Frames can be found at discout stores such as Target and Home Goods.

My advice? Look to the same tones -- all gold tones, all silver tones, all wood tones or all black. Buy a variety of frames in different styles and sizes to make a display, or find matching frames like we did in some of these images.

Or you can ignore that advice and mix it up and put a jumble of frames on a table.

Really you cannot go wrong, and you don't have to spend too much either.
An affordable designer tip! Now that's a good tip.

Photos with a water theme brighten up this blue bathroom.



















Little bit of wall space? Try little bitty frames.

Design Mistakes

Architectural Digest asked some of the most influential designers and architects a series of questions in the January '08 issue. I thought I'd answer the same questions for my readers. Each question is its own entry and will appear Mondays through May.

My biggest design mistake was...
I learn from each job. Like most designers, I once ordered an item that did not fit in a client's home. Now I am obsessed about measuring and checking all dimensions before ordering. This is especially the case for items going in basements, up stairs and in elevators.

This Old House Newton, After Photos

This Old House has posted the Newton After photos.

Soon I'll be posting the photos we had taken on my web site, which is about to go through a major overhaul so stay tuned. In the mean time, check out the photos on TOH's web site. They have the before pictures there too. Some change, huh?

Creating a Color Palette for each Customer

One thing that I say to my customers is that I recreate where I live. In fact, whenever I’ve showed people fabrics or styles that are similar to items I have at home, they’re not interested.

I also don't do the same look over and over. That's boring for me. Last year, in terms of color palettes, I worked with shades of plum and purple and pale aquas for one client; another home had golds and reds and greens, kind of a traditional color palette; another home highlighted teal and tan; while another client chose happy colors: coral, light green, and light blue.

It’s much more interesting to figure out what my clients like and make it be beautiful. I have to stretch myself with each client to try to figure out to I pull together what they like in a way that will be beautiful for them.

Bathroom -- This Old House Newton

Here's a few shots of the 3rd floor bathroom from This Old House Newton.
Good bye Noah, hello classic!

We kept the tub and had it refinished adding some classic solid brass hardware. This type of aparatus is expensive, but uniike other products it won't ever rust.

Other highlights, we put wood on the foor. We had considered ceramic, but the floor was terribly bowed in the center of the room and Tommy Silva thought we'd have problems with install or possible cracking over time. We liked the idea of wood.

For wainscotting, we picked a classic paint color which looks crisp agaist white.

I had problems with the flash... this shot shows the colors best.

What It Takes to Succeed as an Interior Designer

I love designing, I love color, I love fabric and pattern and texture. I love making people's homes beautiful. And I love working with clients. I get a lot of emails from young people asking about what it takes to be a designer. How much of it is design and what other skills are necessary.

Impeccable taste, and excellent design sense is just the beginning. You need people skills, too. After all you work with a wide range of people from contractors to fine crafts people to delivery people, to drapery workrooms, to clients, to architects. You need project management and problem-solving skills. A head for business and creating systems to handle all the details of ordering custom items helps. You have to know how to specify custom a huge variety of products from window treatments to custom upholstery to wall-to-wall carpet.

And one of the most important skills you need is you have to be able to fix problems. You have to be set up for taking care of your clients. You have to know how to go about doing that, and every situation presents itself differently in terms of what has to be fixed. That’s a skill you can’t really teach. You just have to figure it out.

Last year, a set of chairs were sent to Michigan instead of Massachusetts because a worker at the factory placed the chairs on the wrong truck. That was a first for me, but we eventually figured it out and were able to rectify it. Of course the client had to wait about a week for the truck to arrive for pick up in Michigan and about a week for the chairs to arrive here, but we got them to her, eventually.

Projecting the Future of Interior Design.

Architectural Digest asked some of the most influential designers and architects a series of questions in the January '08 issue. I thought I'd answer the same questions for my readers. Each question is its own entry and will appear Mondays through May.

In the next ten years, the most important thing in design or architecture will be...
Green design with sustainable materials. Look for more products and new technologies. It will be an exciting time.

Tile close ups, This Old House, Newton

Have received a few emails requesting some close ups of the master bath from This Old House, Newton... so here they are.

The after shot is included too, for reference.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's a happy valentines from me to you.
Those of you who are my clients know I love birds.
These wonderfully playful compositions are by one of my clients, and now friend, Amy Ross. She's a blogger as well so be sure to check out her blog Nature Morph.

I love these pieces.

May your year be filled with love and the happy sounds of birds.