With fall in the air, thoughts predictably turn toward home updates. Perhaps it’s the call of the holidays or the thought of more time indoors. No pumpkins or warm throws on this topic table; that article's been written and previously read.
Instead, what follows is judicious and high-impact design thinking, no matter the season.
Two High-Impact Starting Points
Whether designing a room from scratch, or doing a refresh only, results can be sped along by embracing either bottom-up thinking, or top-down thinking.
Bottom-up is literal: start with the floor. It’s the floor covering or area rug, more than any other single element, that drives the most immediate and significant impact.
This large gesture surface is the fifth wall. Wise designers make it count. Whether large scale pattern, bold color, or a calming sleek textural story, rugs speak. Consider and control their message, early.
The other route is top-down thinking. Here, a specific and well-calculated smaller item can meaningfully drive velocity: the artwork.
Artwork can spill into a space quietly like a back-up singer, or it can burst onto the scene as the main act.
A room’s color palette, or accent colors only, can seamlessly tumble out of artwork. Shape can do the same, as illustrated in this vibrant Audrey Pop Art painting – her polka dots spill forward onto the console below by way of ball sculptures, and yet again in the round poofs nearby.
The surest way to invigorate any room is to embrace bottom-up or top-down thinking.
Lighting Is Like Taking Candy from A Baby
Clients are surprised after investing heavily in kitchen cabinetry that it’s often the light fixtures that get the first compliment. Lighting is eye candy; both punctuation mark and mood-maker.
So significant is decorative lighting’s impact on any space that making a “wow moment show" of it is almost as easy as “taking candy from a baby."
Take the candy. Refresh lighting in dated interiors; consider lighting early in new ones.
Go Unpredictably Green – In Any Season
Greenery provides an instant lift to every space. Every time.
Reams have been written about woman-and-man’s connection to nature, plus its effect on the human brain and soul.
As designer lovers, ours is not to question why, but to do, IF adding quick, savvy style to a home is on the brain-and-soul.
It need not be seasonal, it need not be potted, though it can be either.
It can be a live stem or branch cutting in a water-filled container, thanks to a free trip to the backyard with clippers.
It can be a sculptural non-seasonal look, such as a monstera leaf perched in a vase. Monsteras come in a variety of shapes and sizes, can last weeks to months in water, and are supplied easily by a florist.
For faux lovers, pay the price for higher quality and reap the rewards. In the end, it’s the calculated design move that always yields greatest results, for fall and for always.
As a multi-award-winning interior designer and Bucks County-based designer, Donna's company, Impeccably Designed Homes by Donna Hoffman, specializes in high-end, luxury interior design, from single room design to whole homes of 20,000 square feet and more; from decorative design to full-scale renovation; and new construction.
Impeccably Designed Homes
Donna Hoffman is deemed a design thought leader in Forbes, Real Simple, TV and radio. She's also called the "nation’s No. 1 design coach," after founding TheInteriorDesignAdvocate.com online courses that empower DIYers and design professionals internationally.
Ideas From Donna About How To Freshened Home Design For Fall
- Rugs drive mood.
- Neutral colors have longest staying power.
- Choose 'Star of the Room.'
- Think artwork for impact.
- Light fixtures are eye candy.
- Greenery always elevates.
- Reframe art or relocate it for fresh punch.
- Layer at least five textures for captivating spaces.