Avoid Costly Design Mistakes With A D-I-Y Consultation

YUCK! SAVE MY UGLY ROOM!

In this time of economic uncertainty homeowners have become "crafty" in attempting to handle their own home remodels. They're hitting the big box stores in record numbers to bombard the paint department with their stabs in the dark at the right color for their walls, trolling discount furniture stores for the "perfect" pieces to create their dream room and stalking every liquidation center gathering decor to complete their look. Then they bring it all home, paint the walls, stuff all of their furnishings in there and top off their room with their carefully scouted finds, only to live with it for a week and find out it all doesn't quite work together. That shade of tan looks peach, the sofa is far too large for the walls they sit against and you have to walk around half of the room to get to the next. Something seems to be missing and you don't know what. But you've now spent so much money that you don't want to admit to yourself or anyone else that you probably shouldn't have done this on your own. Your husband tells you he loves it even though he finds the sofas uncomfortable and the kids are already ruining the finish on the coffee table and your household cleaners have made it worse. 

This economy has brought out the worst in those who have vowed to help you. HGTV and DIY have told you that you can save thousands by taking on your own remodel. You can re-purpose finds at tag sales with scrap fabric and for a few hundred bucks you can get mosaic tile that you can just slap on top of your 4" granite backsplash and it's an instant makeover! Then discount furniture stores like Ashleys and Razmataz  tell you that you can get that "Old World" look with overstuffed furnishings in rich looking fabrics that will make your room look like you spent a million bucks,but you really have no idea of the fabric codes and what they mean, the wear of them, the build of that sofa- is it sinuous costruction? 8- way hand tied? Is it corner blocked or screwed and glued? Is it pet friendly? Does it fade when steam cleaned? Does it even fit where you are putting it? Just because the wall is 8' wide and the sofa is 6' DOES NOT mean perfect fit. How deep is it? What style is it? How do you eclectically marry your style and your husbands? Do you see where this is all going?

You might have good taste but it takes far more to put together a fully functional, livable space. Interior design is not decoration, it's a skill fused with artistic interpretation of the innermost desires of a homeowner brought out through a designer's creativity. It is VERY easy to misinterpret the undertone of a paint color, to misread the scale of that sofa you love in the store. Then you have these "designers" in the stores who work on commission, have never seen your room and more than likely are not designers at all- trying to make the most off of your sale and recommending pieces for your home that they will never have to live with because it's your space. HOMEOWNERS- There's a reason that we designers exist! But I can also appreciate that not everyone can afford what we do. I don't believe that you should simply have to go it alone. All homeowners deserve to live in a beautiful, well functioning space! Therefore, I have created a solution to your problem...

Call Fashion House Interior Design Co, LLC for a D-I-Y Consultation. How does it work?

1. Prepare- Gather your thoughts, color ideas, pictures, magazine clippings and any notes on what you 

    might want in your room.

2. Schedule Your Consultation- We will meet for up to two hours, review your ideas and pics, get to 

    know you, your family and how you live within your space. We will then discuss colors, styles, 

    furniture ideas, flooring, walls, windows, lights and everything in between to create the perfect  

    space.  You can take as many notes and professional expertise from me as you can use to plan the 

    best space. These tools will help you make the right decisions when shopping on your own and 

    prevent costly mistakes.

3. Do It Yourself- Go out and shop for the items to create that dream room on your own with the 

   confidence necessary and the basic knowledge you need to accomplish your goals. 

The cost of this process is $300.00. The value is worth thousands!

A D-I-Y Consultation is assistance that you need to master the basics of design, but it is not meant to replace the expertise and extreme creativity that comes when hiring an interior designer to do your job from start to finish. It is meant to be a starting point for those who insist on going it alone. For more thorough assistance, drawings, layouts, project managing of sub-contractors, skilled labor and the many professional facets involved with creating your dream space you will need to hire a designer. 

How To Use Blue In A Space- A Tale Of Two Blues

Having lived in Arizona for seven years, I have come to learn that blue is not a well used color for interiors here. I always find it funny that most residents of AZ relocated here from another state, many from the East and Mid- West, where blue is a normal, sometimes even dominating color in the world of design. Yet, we move here and become accustomed to tans and rusts of the Sedona skyline and quickly toss away the colors schemes of our past. But what about those of you who just truly love blue? Why can't you use it within your space? Well, you can! Let me show you two ways to create a luxurious interior using the color blue- (and NO, I don't mean the pale blue and brown we used a few years ago when everything could work with brown.)

With gray continuing to be the neutral of choice in room design, we're seeing a serious increase of blue making it's way into the color palettes of new glass tile, carpets, and accessories everywhere. It can be as tranquil as a baby blue or as regal and elegant as a cobalt or royal blue. Blue can also easily transform into a masculine or feminine neutral space- appealing to a couple looking for a design compromise. Take a look at the mood board above. On the left notice that we've gone more towards using blue in a neutral setting. When combined with paler shades of gray as a base, you can use a deep blue sofa as your crowning  piece in a room and then use a combination of gray, frosty white and even light blue as accent layers. In this application, let that blue sofa stand alone  (as the only blue furniture) and use chromes, nickels, mirrored pieces and lesser blue accents, like perhaps this ceramic stool, to tie the look together.


The right hand side uses blue entirely as an accent to punch up the room. By starting with a pale gray sofa and then adding the deep, exciting blue accents, we've now given this decor electricity. This look makes a blue accent chair a must have! Accent chairs are like a great pair of red shoes with a black dress. They are your unexpected delight to complete your look! Years down the road, when opting to change your look, a good quality sofa in this neutral color can remain and you simply re-upholster or replace your accent chair to achieve your next trend. Use wooden tables and quirky bold accessories like a blue budha head (one of my faves) or these fun foo dogs to complete the look.


You simply don't have to be scared of blue in your home. Even in the smallest doses, it can bring a little life into an otherwise standard space.

What Comes First: The Furniture or The Paint?

It's the age old question that homeowners have most difficulty with- what comes first, furniture or paint? And you'll find many different thoughts behind your logic- like, if I am just doing a tan on the walls I can do that first because then anything I pick for furnishings will match because it's a neutral...WRONG! I realize that seems logical in theory, but if you understand base colors, you'll realize that all colors have tints, tones or shades in thousands of levels that alter the "true" color, resulting in some sort of undertone. Let me explain...

Not so long ago I had a repeat client ask me to assist them with designing their new home. I had selected every wall color in their previous 5,300 square foot home to perfection and their happiness. When it was time to sell, the house sold swiftly with people fighting over the home because of the paint colors throughout. Even without the furniture, which they took with them, the house spoke to potential buyers. I was proud of that, and having done such a fine job, you would think they had total faith in my color consultations. 

This time they wanted to get away from the neutrals and go into "a color" as the husband put it--- grays. (lol, another neutral) They were excited and we went in search of the perfect sofa. With fan deck in had, at the store I selected coordinating shades of gray for the walls and, as the living room leads openly to the kitchen and then hall, chose similar grays in tints of that same color. (A tint is achieved by adding white to a color). In the store, not only did they love the sofa- which was a charcoal gray with a bluish undertone, but they understood and loved the wall colors as well.

Then came the problem- the painter painted the walls and for six weeks, while they awaited the sofas' arrival, they agonized over the blue in the wall color and how much they hate blue! BUT THEY LOVED IT ALL TOGETHER AS A WHOLE and when the wall color and the upholstery is together they do not look so blue. It just so happened that standing alone they were able to see the undertone. I begged for their patience because I knew they would love the end result but it's hard to get over a preconceived notion that you dislike something, especially a color. (I'll tell you the end result of this story in part 2).

Tan can have any variety of undertones. A shade of tan ( adding black to a color) can have a yellow undertone, while some tones of tan (adding gray to a color) might have an orange undertone. Sometimes a tan can have a pink or peach undertone, while other times it can appear to be a khaki (with a green undertone). A tan is never really just a light brown. This is where the strong eye of an interior designer comes into play. I can't tell you how many times a potential client spent hundreds, if not thousands on having their home painted and the colors simply did not match their furnishings because they painted first and bought later.

It is always easiest to select your paint colors based on your furnishings and then coordinate your window treatments, artwork and accessories with the combination of what you have selected. Paints can be altered in shade, tint or tone to achieve a match to a fabric, but despite the hundreds of upholstery choices you have for a "custom" sofa, you can't simply create a fabric to match the exact undertones of a wall color. Not only that, but purchasing your furniture first might open you up to accent and wall colors that you might not have ever considered. It's amazing what colors you can pull out of a good print and throw on your walls to produce stunning results and a great big AHHH when your friends come through the door!