How to Make Your Own Motifs for Children Room
December 22, 2011
1. Animals are a good starting point for the nursery. Stencil them on the wall as a border, on the front of dresser drawers, on the panels of the closet door and on a toy box.
2. It’s easy to paint a simple border around the room. Measure down from the ceiling approximately 6 to 8 inches and run a strip of painter’s tape (unlike masking tape, it won’t pull the paint off the wall when you peel the tape away) along the wall as a guideline. Paint the border sky blue. Let it dry. Stencil yellow stars and moon shapes at random on top of the blue border. Use this color scheme for sheets, bumpers and a quilt on the crib, window treatment and floor covering. Paint the dresser with the same blue paint and add yellow stars and moons to the drawer fronts.
3. Use the simple stencil design of a car to create a border design around a toddler’s room. Position the border halfway up the wall. Use a strip of painter’s tape to delineate a line above which you’ll stencil the design. Use bright blue and red paint colors and alternate for each car.
4. Paint the bottom half of the walls with a soft pastel color. Then add a wallpaper border around the room as high as a chair rail. Apply a wallpaper with a soft overall pattern on the top half of the wall.
5. For a quick and easy design, paint the room a solid color, then apply a wallpaper border around the windows and doors.
6. For a coordinated look, use a matching crib bumper, sheets, crib skirt, quilt and curtains. Paint the walls and furniture one of the colors in the fabric.
7. If the rest of your home is decorated in a country style, carry the theme into the nursery. Use transparent deck stain, such as Thompson’s Water Seal stains, in one of over a hundred colors on unfinished furniture. Let dry and apply a coat of satin polyurethane to protect the finish. Or whitewash the furniture with a coat of white latex paint. Let dry for a few minutes, then wipe away the excess to allow the natural wood to show through. Let dry overnight and coat with polyurethane.
8. Revive old wicker furniture with a coat of spray paint. A wicker chair, a small night table and a dresser will combine to create a charming and romantic baby’s room. Add eyelet trim, ribbon or rickrack to the edge of cafe curtains and a valance.
9. It’s easy to create a room of cloudlike softness with sponge-painted walls in a pastel blue, pink or yellow. Begin by painting the walls with a light color latex paint. Then, using a natural sponge, dip it into white latex paint, remove the excess on newsprint and, working on one small area at a time, pounce the sponge over the dry painted wall. Continue to do this until you’ve achieved a subtle, textured effect. If there is too much contrast, just keep going over the area until it looks good to you. This technique is absolutely foolproof. Cover the entire wall with random sponging in this way. You can use this technique on furniture as well. The goal is for a blending of colors that are closely related in shading. It’s not advisable to use a light and dark color together as the results will be harsh.
10. If sponging walls isn’t your thing, but you like a faux finished effect, you can get any treatment you like in wallpaper. It is so real looking that no one will guess it’s not the real thing.
How to Determine the Actual Space of a Room
December 21, 2011
Don’t be locked into titles. A dining room doesn’t have to be used for dining if you need it more for something else. I interchange my dining and living rooms with the seasons.
A young family I know moved into their first home, which had two bedrooms upstairs and a master bedroom downstairs. The kitchen and living rooms were too small to accommodate a dining table large enough for two adults and two children. They desperately needed a place to eat and decided to take one of the upstairs bedrooms for themselves, bought bunk beds for their two daughters, and put the girls together in the second bedroom. They were then able to turn the downstairs bedroom into a dining room.
When we were building our house, the plans called for a cozy den. Our architect had spent many years designing wooden boats, and we wanted him to design a room that would feel like the space inside a boat. Since we live in a boating community, this seemed logical.
The room, only 9 feet square, has a corner fireplace and built-ins all around, and is just right for two. But before the room was built, we planned floor-to-ceiling bookcases for all the walls, not realizing how little space would be left for furniture. When we saw the space, we quickly changed our thinking. We now have narrow shelves that run around the room above head level, which is more in keeping with the scale of the space.
Don’t be put off if a room seems too small or overly spacious; you can always create a design to compensate for any problem. Before planning what furniture you’ll need for each room, write down the following questions and answer them as best you can. Try to think of your immediate needs and, if possible, anticipate what you might need in the future.
1. How will the room be used most of the time? For example, the kitchen may not be a high priority on your list because you work all week and put together simple meals. However, if you enjoy cooking on weekends, es-pecially if two of you cook together, the kitchen should be designed accordingly. Even if you only dream of one day spending more time cooking as a hobby, you’ll want to plan space to accommodate your collection of cookbooks and cooking untensils.
2. Will the room be used for other purposes from time to time? For example, an eating area for two may have to seat more family members during the holidays, or friends who occasionally drop by.
3. Who will use the room most of the time? If, for example, you’re creating a home office in an unused bedroom, this is essentially your room. Since you’ll need to put up the occasional guest, you might select some pieces of furniture that work for both purposes. However, don’t sacrifice the functional office aspect of this room for the one time a year when your mother comes to stay for a week.
4. How much seating space will you need when the room is used optimally? A living room, for example, should be as comfortable as you can make it for you and the people you live with. However, you don’t want to drag chairs in from the kitchen every time you have company. Small occasional chairs can be worked into the plan for this purpose.