interior design

IN a New York home one room is devoted to a so-called panler fleuri collection which in this case means that each article shows the design of a basket holding flowers or fruit The collection is today so unique and therefore so valuable, that it has been willed to a museum, but its creation as a collection, was entirely a chance occurrence. The design of a basket trimmed with flowers happened to appeal to the owner, and if we are not mistaken, the now large collection had its beginning in the casual purchase of a little old pendant found in a forgotten corner of Europe.

The owner wore it, her friends saw it, and gradually associated the panler fleuri with her, which resulted in many beautiful specimens of this design being sought out for her by wanderers at home and abroad. Today this collection includes old silks, laces,
Jewellery, wax pictures, old prints, some pieces of antique furniture, snuffboxes and ornaments in glass, china, silver, etc.

Every museum is the result of fads in collecting, and when one considers this heading, which sounds so trifling and unimportant to the layman, means all that it will not seem strange that we strongly recommend it as a dissipation!

At first, quite naturally, the collector makes mistakes; but it is through his mistakes that he learns, and absolutely nothing gives such a zest to a stroll in the city, a tramp in the country, or an unexpected delay in an out-of-the-way town, as to have this collecting bee in your bonnet.

How often when traveling we have rejoiced when the loss of a train or a mistake in timetable, meant an unexpected opportunity to explore for junk in some old shop, or, perhaps, to bargain with a pretty peasant girl who hoarded a beloved heirloom, of entrancing interest to us (and worth a pile of money really), while she lived happily on cider and cheese!

It is doubtless the experience of every lover of the old and the curious, that one never regrets the expenses incurred in this quest of the antique, but one does eternally regret one's economies.

The writer suffers now, after years have elapsed, in some cases, at the memory of treasures resisted when chanced upon in Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia where not! Always one says, "Oh, well, I shall come back again!" But there are so many "pastures green," and it is often difficult to retrace one's steps.

Then, too, these fads open our eyes and ears, so that in passing along a street on foot, in a cab or on a bus, or in glancing through a book, or, perhaps, in an odd corner of an otherwise colorless town, where fate has taken us, we find "grist for our mill” just the right piece of furniture for the waiting place!

Know what you want, really want it, and you will find it some time, somewhere, somehow!

As a stimulus to beginners in collecting, as well as an illustration of that perseverance required of every keen collector, we cite the case of running down an Empire dressing table.

It was our desire to complete a small collection of Empire furniture for a suite of rooms, by adding to it as a supplement to the bureau, a certain type of Empire dressing table. It is no exaggeration to say that Paris was dragged for what we wanted the large well-known antique shops and the smaller ones of the Latin Quarter being both ransacked.

Time was flying, the date of our sailing was approaching, and as yet the coveted piece had not been found. Three days before we left, a fat, red-faced, jolly cabby, after making a vain tour of the junk shops in his quarter, demanded to know exactly what it was we sought. When told, he looked triumphant, bade us get into his cab, lashed his horse and after several rapidly made turns, dashed into an out-of-the-way street and drew up before a sort of junk store-house, full of rickety, dusty odds and ends of furniture, presided over by a stupid old woman who sat outside the door, knitting, wrapped head and all in a shawl.

We entered and, there, to our immense relief, stood the dressing table! It was grey with dust, the original Empire green silk, a rusty grey and hanging in shreds on the back of the original glass. There was a marble top set into the wood and grooved in a curious way. The whole was intact except for a loose back leg, which gave it a swaying, tottering appearance.

We passed it in silence being experienced traders! Then, after buying several little old picture frames, while Madame continued her knitting, we wandered close to the coveted table and asked what was wanted for that broken bit "of no use as it stands."
"Thirty francs" (six dollars) was the answer. Later a well-known New York dealer offered seventy-five dollars for the table in the condition in which we found it, and repaired as it is to-day it would easily bring a hundred and fifty, anywhere!

As it happened, the money we went out with had been spent on unexpected finds, and neither our good-natured cabby nor we were in possession of thirty francs! In fact, cabby was rather staggered to hear the price, having offered to advance what we needed. He suggested sending it home "collect" but Madame would not even consider such an idea.

However, at last our resourceful juju came to the rescue. If the ladies would seat themselves in the cab, he could place the table in front of them, with the cover of the cab raised, and Madame of the shop could lock her door and mounting the box by the side of our cocker, she might drive with us to our destination and collect the money herself! He promised to bring her home safely again!

As we had only the next day for boxing and shipping, there was no alternative. Before we had even taken in our grotesque appearance, the horse was galloping, as only a Paris cab horse can gallop, toward our abode in Avenue Henri Martin, past carriages and autos returning from the Bois, while inside the cab we sat, elated by our success and in that whirl of triumphant absorbing joy which only the real collector knows.

The young boy's room we show is equally suitable for some other members of the family. We have seen a boy immensely happy in it and likewise girls in their early teens. In one home it was used for a "paying-guest" and it looked very well indeed in a small suburban house where nothing was more elaborate.

It is in appearance "young" and has no special gender. This is why a boy likes it. Another point in its favor with the boy is that it is not "fussy." like, or in keeping with, the chief pieces of furniture. One small table will be for the telephone; another at the bedside; a third for his smokes, tobacco, cigars and pipes, matches and ashtray. If your man likes his tobacco "just so" get him a humidor. This will keep the tobacco moist.

As to styles of furniture most comfortable for men, we would advise one of those with straight lines and strongly built. It is an easy matter to choose furniture for a man's room if you will ask yourself the question "does this look like a man?"

As for color scheme it depends upon what each man likes. If he has no preferences yet seems to Totowa what he does not like, grasp at any clew he may drop when commenting on other homes. As a rule men like a simple room which not only has the comforts but looks comfortable. To the eye of the man not trained in the art of furnishing so as to get subtle beauty, you will find clear, rather strong colors are most satisfactory.

Try shades of red, attractive deep blues, browns and greens. Avoid what we call half-tones mauves, lavender, old rose, petunia, etc. There are men who like these shades, but we are talking about the average man.

Your figured materials for curtains and furniture coverings will depend, as to pattern and coloring, upon the style of the furniture; not absolutely, but there are distinctly suitable and un-suitable colors and designs when considered in relation to certain shapes. (See chapter on Periods in Color Schemes.)

Make the sash curtains of some thin white or cream washable material and arrange them on the rods so that if the man wants to push them back and let in all the light of heaven he can do so and not upset the housekeeper!

The floor covering should be one of the darkest tones of your color scheme; the curtains if of a figured material should be more serious in character than curtains you would choose for a woman's room. If you make sofa pillows let them be large and "masculine" looking, not of many colors and frilly. Follow the rules for making lampshades in the chapter devoted to that subject. They are to be attractive notes of color in your room to cheer it up as flowers can. But remember that the average man cares more for comfort and convenience than he does for effect, so give him these things in lamp shades as well as in bed and bureau.

SUMPTUOUS bathrooms are not modern inventions; on the contrary the bath was a religion with the ancient Greeks, and a luxury to the early Italians. What we have to say here is in regard to the bath as a necessity for all classes.

The treatment of bathrooms has become an interesting branch of interior decoration, whereas once it was left entirely to the architect and plumber.

First, one has to decide whether the bathroom is to be finished in conventional white enamel, which cannot be surpassed for dainty appearance and sanitary cleanliness. Equally dainty to look at and offering the same degree of sanitary cleanliness is a bathroom enameled in some delicate tone to accord a color with the bedroom with which it connects.

Some go so far as to make the bathroom the same color as the bedroom, even when this is dark. We have in mind a bath opening out of a man's bedroom. The bedroom is decorated in dull blues, taupe and mulberry.

The bathroom has the walls painted in broad stripes of dull blue and taupe, the stripes being quite six inches wide. The floor is tiled in large squares of the same blue and taupe; the tub and other furnishings are in dull blue enamel, and the wall-cabinets (one for shaving brushes, tooth brushes, etc., another for shaving cups, medicine glasses, drinking glasses, etc., and the third for medicines, soaps, etc.) are painted a dull mulberry.

Built into the front of each cabinet door is an old colored print covered with glass and framed with dull blue moulding and on the inside of each cabinet door is a mirror. One small closet in the bathroom is large enough to towels and holds a soiled clothesbasket. On the inside of both doors are full-length mirrors.

The criticism that mirrors in men's bathrooms are necessarily an effeminate touch, can be refuted by the statement that so sturdy a soldier as the Great Napoleon had his dressing room at Fontainebleau lined with them!

This fact reminds us that we have recently seen a most fascinating bathroom, planned for a woman, in which the walls and ceiling are of glass, cut in squares and fitted together in the old French way. Over the glass was a dull-gold trellis and twined in and out of this, ivy, absolutely natural in appearance, but made of painted tin.

The floor tiles, and fixtures were white enamel, and a soft moss-green velvet carpet was laid down when the bath was not used.

Bathroom fixtures are today so elaborate in number and quality, that the conveniences one gets are limited only by one's purse. The leading manufacturers have anticipated the dreams of the most luxurious.

Window-curtains for bathrooms should be made of some material, which will neither fade nor pull out of shape when washed. We would suggest scrim, Swiss, or China silk of a good quality.

When buying bath mats, bathrobes, bath-slippers, bath-towels, washcloths and hand-towels, it is easy to keep in mind the color scheme of your rooms, and by following it out, the general appearance of your suite is immensely improved.

For a woman's bathroom, Venetian glass bottles, covered jars and bowls of every size, come in opalescent pale greens and other delicate tints. See Plate XI. Then there are the white glass bottles, jars, bowls, and trays with bunches of dashing pink roses, to be obtained at any good department store.

Glass toilet articles come in considerable variety and at all prices, and to match any color scheme; so use them as notes of color on the glass shelves in your bathrooms. Here, too, is an opportunity to use your old Bristol or Bohemian glass, once regarded as inherited eyesores, but now unearthed, and which, when used to contribute to a color scheme, have a distinct value and real beauty.

Much like the history of art, the history of interior design has had numerous styles, movements and the political and social developments that have informed or challenged its evolution.

Encyclopedias define interior design as: planning and design of man-made spaces, a part of environmental designs and closely related to architecture. Although the desire to create a pleasant environment is as old as civilization itself the field of interior design is relatively new, this seems on target for most home designs.

Since at least the middle of the 20th century, the term interior decorator has been so loosely applied as to be nearly meaningless, …Meaningless? Maybe since the word eclectic has become a household word.

Interior designers use their education, creativeness, and experience to help plan the space and furnish the interiors of private homes, public buildings, and business or institutional facilities, such as offices, restaurants, retail establishments, hospitals, hotels, and theaters.

Professional designers can tell you if a chair is a Greece. Rome. Byzantium. Dark Ages. Middle Ages. Gothic. Moorish. Spanish. Anglo-Saxon or Charlemagne's Chair. Does the average person even know what the colonial period, the revival of Directoire and empire furniture, the Victorian period or the periods of the three Louis?

This may be why a lot of creative people shy away from decorating there own special spaces.

In this modern day and age people can now use their creativity to create beautiful living spaces without caring that they may break a cardinal rule of decorating. Home decorating, is a conscious effort to improve the appearance and functionality of one's living areas, in many homes and living spaces. This means that we can break out of the styles of the past and create our own areas of comfort and style. Really know what you want as a home, want it, and you can work out any scheme, provided you have intelligence, patience and perseverance.

What is eclectic? Eclectic is basically made up of or combining elements from a variety of sources, like mixing a Elizabethan chair next to a Queen Anne stool. As part of the ever-increasing quest for individual expression in decor the eclectic style has emerged as a favorite among homeowners that want to decorate the world around them.

This gives us all freedom to decorate to our own taste and comfort level!

Acknowledging all schemes of interior decoration and insisting that what makes any scheme good or bad, successful, or unsuccessful is the fact that it is planned in reference to the type of person who will live in it. If you are to be living in it then you can do anything you want.

In planning your house after arranging for proper wall space for your various articles of furniture, keep in mind always that balance will be needed and must be at the same time conveniently placed and distinctly decorative; convenient for the individual along with the family.

One is astonished to see how often the careless placing of one piece upsets the actual balance of a room. One chair in the flow of traffic or a tipsy lamp next to a door can really ruin a good-looking design. To help you make smart choices, look thru books on decorating that discuss traits, preferred room dimensions, available options for furniture matching, and other helpful decision-making information. Often ebooks and other online resource can point out good hints and tips to really get you started.

With this in mind and ideas fresh, I suggest lots of thought and some research before starting out on this great endeavor, but with a plan in hand roll up your sleeves and get going!

Interior design has often been the easiest form of self-expression. Somewhere in every person is an interior designer just waiting to jump out. This may seem unrealistic to some but most all forms of design are based in how we want our homes to feel. This brings along with it a picture of what our home is, what function it serves, and how we want to portray ourselves to others. The decorating process remains one of the great mysteries of the average person. How do we create the home we want to invite others into?

Many people have said that interior design is the process by which we connect with people, and connect with the world while staying safely within our own space. It is safe to say that through interior design, we connect with some energy, some force, and some thing that expresses who we are and how we want to live. And it is through this connecting process that we have the opportunity to use our homes to effect change in our lives.

If we choose, we can become more comfortable or more expressive. Through this process, we can show others how we like to live and invite them to share part of our lives. We can focus on comfort, style, and/or art, truthfully anything we want to express.

Here are the five steps to finding your style as well as some tips to implementing these styles.

Step 1: The decisions

Is your home are filled with trinkets, gadgets, and dust catchers? That you don’t need? Or are these things treasures possessions that you cannot part with for all the tea in china? These items (typically bought for time saving) end up costing us precious space in our homes. We can free up space otherwise saved for these items or display them as they are meant to show who and what you are to the world!

For example, imagine how much space is tied up in the books we bought but have never read? If you’re not going to read it, find another home for it. Donate to a library or give it to a friend that may find they will treasure it. A good rule of thumb is if you haven’t used something in a year, you don’t need it or want it. If the book is treasure for it’s beauty or worth then displaying it in a room would be much better then letting it collect dust in a box somewhere. We all need to make these decisions, love it or leave it!

Design tip #1: Most likely, it’s on your list of things to, go thru “things”, and has been there for months or even years. Sometimes we don’t know something unwanted because we have been putting up with it for so long and have gotten used to it. Like that pile of stuff in a basket by the sofa or a drawer in an old unused desk that you don’t really need anymore even when you have to walk around to get a wanted daily used items.

So make sure to take care of the things to do list! A good way to do this is to stand back and think about all the things you own and if you are unsure if you use an item. Place a dot sticker on it with the date. If you use that item within a year, remove the sticker. If you do not use the item within a year, find it a home somewhere that it will be used.

Step 2: Find your style

Create a clear idea of what it is you would like to portray of yourself. Perhaps you are a person into comfort and easy maintenance, or perhaps you are a creative individual who would like to use your home to highlight new projects, new relationships, or a new career. Whatever your personality, begin now by narrowing down the specific style you will be comfortable living with. Remember, being specific is the key here. Make a list of qualities, draw a picture, cut pictures out of magazines do whatever you can to get as specific a picture as you can. Find thing that inspire you.

Step 3: Assistance

The keyword here is ASK! Asking where someone got his or her ideas will not kill you! Look for ideas in the world around you. Sometimes we are afraid to ask where someone we admire shop for the beautiful things that fill their home, but if you admire someone’s interior then let them know it! Other kinds of collaboration can include asking for help to clean out your garage in order to build your new studio, asking friends to come over for a dinner party because you want to get a prospective on how your living space will be used and where people gather, or asking someone to look over your drawing and pictures, a new look into what you are trying to achieve can get some great ideas offered. You don’t have to do it alone!

Step 4: Confidence

The number one attitude you should have is confidence. This can be achieved by realizing that interior design is something you cannot fail at, become you are going to live in it! If you are comfortable, you can be confident and enjoy it. So take a look at the ideas you are coming up with and whether or not you are keeping them to use. Take a look at your ideas, pictures and drawings. They’re full of decisions you have made. Deciding what you really want gives a wonderful feeling. But don’t take my word for it try it out!

Interior decorating tip #2: Many stores have wallpaper books with great images to go with the wallpapers. And magazines have ideas, too

Step 5: Take the first step

Start arranging and stepping back to see what you have done! Buy something you love and put it in the place of honor and work from there. Once you have de-cluttered and arranged just go for it! Anyone can do interior decoration. If you want to go by a rule, look in books and follow the steps. Many good interior-decorating books will tell you the difference between art deco and Elizabethan and most have steps you can follow. So you have many options and can get your home to be comfortable for you. So jump in and let your personality shine!

These five steps are designed to help you be more open to your own style and the inspiration that the world holds for you. If you work with these steps, you will be able to find a balance of comfort and design while avoiding some of the stresses and find yourself in a real sense of home that you love. Good luck!

The first thing that you are going to need if you want to be an interior designer is the passion for it. You must ask yourself is whether or not designing homes and/or properties is something that you could feel passionate about. To find out ask, yourself these questions.

· Do you constantly rearrange the furniture in your own home?

· Do you often have ideas about friends and families homes, and what would make them look better?

· Are you finding that people often ask your opinion about their own homes, and what you think may make it look better?

· Do you like planning the rearrangement of your home before you do it?

· When decorating your own home, do you find yourself wondering how best to incorporate colors into your space?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, than you already have the passion to become an interior designer. These questions merely touched on the very thing that drew you to this book in the first place. It just helped you realize that you were right in doing so.

The second thing that may need to become an interior designer is the interest. This basically explores whether or not your actual interest is genuine. Many people consider a great many careers before they develop a genuine interest in choosing one. We know that you have the passion, but does that passion mean that you have enough interest to follow through? I have some more questions for you to answer if you really want to know if the interest is really there for you.

· Do you feel the need to learn how best to coordinate the colors in your room before you seek to change them?

· Do you seek outside advice from professionals on how best to accent a particular object or color?

· Do you seek to know the history behind a particular style of décor when you notice one?

· Do you find yourself wondering what sort of planning went in to the creation of a glorious room you’ve been in?

· Would you prefer to read a design magazine above any other? (Modern Living, or Country Style Home)

· Do you think that Martha Stewart is nothing compared to you?

Again, a yes answer to any of these questions means a yes to your interest. But there is another aspect of interior design that must be covered. You may wish to be a certified interior designer. If that is the case, you will need to get a formal education in this field.

ONE so often hears the complaint, "I could not possibly set out alone to furnish a room! I don't know anything about periods. Why, a Louis XVI chair and an Empire chair are quite the same to me. Then the question of antiques and reproductions why any one could mislead me!"

If you have absolutely no interest in the arranging or rearranging of your rooms, house or houses, of course, leave it to a decorator and give your attention to whatever does interest you. On the other hand, as with bridge, if you really want to play the game, you can learn it. The first rule is to determine the actual use to which you intend putting the room. * Is it to be a bedroom merely, or a combination of bedroom and boudoir? Is it to be a formal reception-room, or a living room? Is it to be a family library, or a man's study? If it is a small flat, do you aim at absolute comfort, artistically achieved, or do you aim at formality at the expense of comfort?

If you lean toward both comfort and formality, and own a country house and a city abode, there will be no difficulty in solving the problem. Formality may be left to the town house or flat, while during weekends, holidays and summers you can revel in supreme comfort.

Every man or woman is capable of creating comfort. It is a question of those deep chairs with wide seats and backs, soft springs, thick, downy cushions, of tables and book-cases conveniently placed, lights where you want them, beds to the individual taste, double, single, or twins!

The getting together of a period room, one period or periods in combination, is difficult, especially if you are entirely ignorant of the subject. However, here is your cue. Let us suppose you need, or want, a desk, an antique desk. Go about from one dealer to the other until you find the very piece you have dreamed of; one that gives pleasure to you, as well as to the dealer. Then take an experienced friend to look at it. If you have every reason to suppose that the desk is genuine, buy it. Next, read up on the furniture of the particular period to which your desk belongs, in as serious a manner as you do when you buy a prize dog at the show.

Now you have made an intelligent beginning as a collector. Reading informs you, but you must buy old furniture to be educated on that subject. Be eternally on the lookout; the really good pieces, veritable antiques, are rare; most of them are in museums, in private collections or in the hands of the most expensive dealers. I refer to those unique pieces, many of them signed by the maker and in perfect condition because during all their existence they have been jealously preserved, often by the very family and in the very house for which they were made.

Our chances for picking up antiques are reduced to pieces which on account of reversed circumstances have been turned out of house and home, and, as with human wanderers, much jolting about has told upon them. Most of these are fortified in various directions, but they are treasures all the same, and have a beauty value in line color and workmanship and a wonderful fitness for the purposes for which they were intended. "Surely we are many men of many minds!"