The well designed home is a thing of beauty, in which many luxurious hours are spent relaxing surrounded by the perfect objects of chairs, tables, lamps and sofas. We’ve all got the built in urge to create a beautiful nest, to provide somewhere for ourselves and for our loved ones that is truly inspiring to be in. Designing a room and designing a home can be a daunting task. A little information, a little guidance, can go a long way towards keeping you on the straight and narrow path.
In some ways it is surprising to find that really good design has an almost always conservative element. But when you think about it it makes sense. Because even where the thrust of a design is to make a place cosily chaotic, you still have to abide by some hard and fast rules to make sure you don’t go too far.
What we’re really talking about here is coherence. Design is only at its best when everything in the room hangs together – there has to be cohesion throughout otherwise the sense of place is lost. This is true even in dens or studies, where the apparently random bringing together of elements such as globes, desks and knick knacks should be done with a calculated effect in mind. If, for example, you buy into the current craze for Victorian style rooms filled with curios, you still have to apply a selective filter to the curios you choose to use and the kinds of furniture you permit to surround them.
Designer sofas, for instance, have to fit with the general theme or feeling of a room. So you can’t have a big 90s or Noughties style sofa in a room full of Victorian looking lamps and tables. Instead, you need to take you cue from a more era-appropriate set of lines, fabrics and colours. Exposed, slim wooden legs and striped upholstery; curving backs and delicately bellying arms.
Current design trends fall into a couple of obvious categories – shabby chic, which may also be described as colonial (normally in America, shabby chic furniture is referred to as colonial furniture); retro Victorian, Edwardian or Georgian; and 50s, 60s and 70s retro. In each case there are signifiers that hep with designing a room from disparate pieces – elements of shape or material that are common to most furniture pieces within the style. So colonial furniture, or shabby chic if you prefer, is normally pale and features wood and light cotton very heavily. Blue and off white are the major colours here, with purposefully distressed surfaces and apparently half-finished paint jobs – all lending an air of furniture that has been scoured by the winds and sands of time.
Edwardian, Georgia and Victorian retro furniture is full of patterned fabrics and polished dark wood – mahogany, chestnut, and cherry. While 50s, 60s and 70s retro is all about bright colours, simple geometric designs and lashings and lashings of lipstick-bright enamel finishes. The theme you choose reflects your personality – and the furnishings within it should all match. Pamela Johnson and her husband Patrick Johnson have been making Designer Sofas in France for around ten years.
In some ways it is surprising to find that really good design has an almost always conservative element. But when you think about it it makes sense. Because even where the thrust of a design is to make a place cosily chaotic, you still have to abide by some hard and fast rules to make sure you don’t go too far.
What we’re really talking about here is coherence. Design is only at its best when everything in the room hangs together – there has to be cohesion throughout otherwise the sense of place is lost. This is true even in dens or studies, where the apparently random bringing together of elements such as globes, desks and knick knacks should be done with a calculated effect in mind. If, for example, you buy into the current craze for Victorian style rooms filled with curios, you still have to apply a selective filter to the curios you choose to use and the kinds of furniture you permit to surround them.
Designer sofas, for instance, have to fit with the general theme or feeling of a room. So you can’t have a big 90s or Noughties style sofa in a room full of Victorian looking lamps and tables. Instead, you need to take you cue from a more era-appropriate set of lines, fabrics and colours. Exposed, slim wooden legs and striped upholstery; curving backs and delicately bellying arms.
Current design trends fall into a couple of obvious categories – shabby chic, which may also be described as colonial (normally in America, shabby chic furniture is referred to as colonial furniture); retro Victorian, Edwardian or Georgian; and 50s, 60s and 70s retro. In each case there are signifiers that hep with designing a room from disparate pieces – elements of shape or material that are common to most furniture pieces within the style. So colonial furniture, or shabby chic if you prefer, is normally pale and features wood and light cotton very heavily. Blue and off white are the major colours here, with purposefully distressed surfaces and apparently half-finished paint jobs – all lending an air of furniture that has been scoured by the winds and sands of time.
Edwardian, Georgia and Victorian retro furniture is full of patterned fabrics and polished dark wood – mahogany, chestnut, and cherry. While 50s, 60s and 70s retro is all about bright colours, simple geometric designs and lashings and lashings of lipstick-bright enamel finishes. The theme you choose reflects your personality – and the furnishings within it should all match. Pamela Johnson and her husband Patrick Johnson have been making Designer Sofas in France for around ten years.
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