Texas weather may change faster, but it’s no less predictable than the hearts of interior design trendsetters. So changed are the slick pages of Architectural Digest and newspaper home furnishings sections from spring to fall that to look at them is to tremble with shame: Your patio is long passe. Your bathroom reeks of Seventies chic.
One month the look is ruffles, lace and pastels. Down with the miniblinds; up with the French lace café curtains. And just as we’re leaving to buy a dozen white eyelet pillows, another magazine arrives. Subtle gray surrounded by sleek contemporary furnishings on low-pile commercial carpet graces its cover. So much for eyelet. We yearn for blatant sophistication and glamour. We’re off to find a black lacquer end table.
This see-it, like-it, buy-it syndrome is a bit more manageable in the garment industry, where impulsive purchases can be closeted out of sight. But the adventure of cashmere is no match for the thrill of shutting inside your car trunk an old walnut icebox you bought at a garage sale for $25. In the tradition of Scarlett O’Hara, we’ll worry tomorrow where to put it and if it will work with everything (or anything) else in the house.
Today’s economy puts a hit of a damper on our shopping hinges and makes it hard to justify tangents or whim buying. Uncontrolled decorating sprees are the demise of many a savings and checking account, and we must concern ourselves with making every dollar stretch as far as possible.
We stay hungrily on the lookout for a good buy. A bargain. A $200 sofa with two matching vinyl ottomans may be a good buy because it’s inexpensive and meets a buyer’s immediate needs. But a $2,000 armoire may also be a good buy because of its versatility, longevity and resale value.
Many people use their money more effectively by postponing purchases until they can buy high-quality pieces; they’d rather do without than invest $200 in a piece that will look and feel worn in two years. And the pros tell us their clients are more interested in quality now than ever before. “People are doing a better job of shopping so they won’t have to do it as often,” says local designer Beverly Beaver.
Classic, well-built furniture is timeless, but if keeping abreast of the most-current look is important to you and your decorator, the rule of the season is simple: Avoid trendiness as you would Black Death. High fashion today is certain boondoggle next week. Ms. Beaver suggests the biggest trend today is toward appearing less trendy. (So perhaps the trend to avoid the trend should likewise be avoided? We won’t go that far.)
Everything from country and folk art to contemporary and high tech to romantic lace and sensuous pastels is sufferable this year. Sherry Hayslip of Hayslip/Hayslip Living Environments says most of her clients look for a contemporary look mixed with a fine antique or two.
Call it a trend, but mixing is one of the season’s most popular looks. Gone are the days of the matching bed frame, dresser and night stand. Gone is the look (even the term) dining room “suite.” Who says the table must be the same style as the chairs as the china cabinet as the buffet? Mixing styles, periods or even woods adds interest to a room and allows you to use Grandmother’s Queen Anne chairs alongside the Parsons table you just purchased.
Colors, however, continue their seasonal parade in groupings handed down by the home furnishings powers that be. When you find yourself infatuated with the pinks and mint greens of today, stop to remember the years you made fun of those colors. Be sure you really like them before investing in strawberry and lime sherbet carpet and sofa fabric. If you have any doubts, use the colors in ways that will be easy to change. Throw pillows, flower arrangements and paint here and there give relatively inexpensive splashes of the new color you want and provide you with an easy out when you’re ready for a change.
The eclectic mix-and-match look will no doubt be replaced; eventually we will dust off our three-piece matching suites of furniture. After all, 10 years ago, who would have dreamed avocado, harvest gold and lime green might be more than faddish colors-that they might not be albatrosses to work with?
Decorating means different things to different households. If you’re building a new house, it means starting from the ground up: new floor and window treatments, new paint colors, hardware, wood finishes and doorknobs. But much of today’s decorating is actually redecorating, either a major overhaul or merely a freshening-up, a cosmetic job.
If you’re building a new house, there are very few givens. You don’t have to work around choices made by previous owners. The job is easier in one respect and mind-boggling in another. Decisions must be made about stoppers and hinges you hardly noticed before.
If you’re investing in a spec house, Ben Sanford, a staff designer with House & Table, suggests buying about two months before completion so that you can select carpet and wallpapers. “Homebuilders like to put so much in the number and vividness of the materials they use that it definitely makes it very difficult [for designers] to do a reasonably nice design job. They just don’t install calm, soft backgrounds that we can work with,” he says.
Urban remodeling pioneers are often ambiguously blessed with the smart looks of the Twenties, Thirties or (even worse) the Fifties or Sixties. Homes they buy to revive often glow with glittered Formica kitchen countertops and “pank” (not subdued enough to be called “pink”) bathroom tile. The paint and wallpaper are relatively inexpensive and easy to replace. But bathroom tile and 3,000 square feet of 4-inch-pile chocolate-brown shag carpet are not so easily or economically replaced.
These situations are great frontiers for creative expression, though your sense of adventure might dim a little each morning as you’re blinded by the glow of the tile. Try adding dramatic cobalt blue, lots of white and some wicker accessories to lime green. The key is to minimize the offensive color without ignoring it – that only makes it look worse.
One bathroom that Ms. Hayslip was left to tame contained a great expanse of Fifties-pink tile. Bold burgundy and subtle gray in the carpet, wallpaper, towels, shower curtain – even the soap – provided a palatable solution.
With the dissolution of stringent decorating dogma, the only limits left are your own choices. You may adore Grandmother’s living room furniture -scratches and all -and you can combine her pieces with a collection you’ve accumulated for years. A given may be a piece of art or a colorful Oriental rug. Pieces that represent family ties, memories of trips or milestones in life can and should be incorporated into your home to reflect your personality.
Of course, some things can go – and the quicker, the better, in many cases. The lamp and end table you bought for $5 for your first apartment and the cinder-block-and-wood stereo shelves left over from college might well be retired. Or perhaps a good piece of furniture that has served its purpose is ready to move on -to another room, to the next garage sale or aboard the Goodwill Industries truck.
Certain starter pieces can last for decades, though not necessarily in the room in which they first starred. Director’s chairs (always a good buy) may have begun as dining or living room chairs, but will look just as good in later life in the den, on the patio or in a child’s room. They are so easy to re-cover that just a few yards of fabric and a few hours at the sewing machine gives them a brand-new look.
A mild-mannered sofa bed with a good mattress might have been your first bedroom furniture. See that it migrates to a den or study to become a couch by day and a bed by night for house guests or slumber parties.
Armoires, which can be considerably more expensive than these other pieces, are useful in almost any room of the house. In the bedroom, they hold clothes or linens. In the den, they become television or stereo cabinets. In the entertainment area, they provide beautiful bar cabinets. And whatever is inside, their exteriors are beautiful accent pieces.
If you’re in the market for some new or additional furniture, your needs will be determined to a great extent by where you live and how often you move. Certainly you’ll need far less furniture -and smaller pieces -in an apartment or condominium than in a 3,000-square-foot house.
And as frequently as Dallasites move, furniture and decorative items must be mobile, too. Oversized furniture of any kind is a mistake unless you can take it apart, Ms. Beaver says. Ever tried moving a triple dresser down a hall, around a corner and into a bedroom? As large as armoires and many antiques are, they usually can be taken apart and moved in several smaller pieces.
Before buying anything, be sure you know what you like, why you like it and what you want. It sounds almost too simple to mention, but furniture store owners and designers are frequently amazed by the number of people who really don’t know what they like.
An easy way to define your tastes is to look at pictures in magazines and room settings in stores. Analyze what you like and don’t like about each one. This will give you an excellent overall look at what is new and will help you determine exactly what you want.
Another silly-sounding but useful thing to do is to gather a “Dream House” file. Clip pictures of colors, furniture, storage ideas, window treatments and other details you like. When you’re ready to begin shopping, you’ve got a head start. If you decide to work with a designer, architect or contractor, you can expect fewer communication breakdowns. You can show them what you want instead of trying to verbalize a look.
Once you’ve determined your decorating goals, decide how to accomplish them. Are you a do-it-yourselfer or do you want someone to take you by the hand and help you with all of the decisions? Many people are a little of both: They need and want some help, but like the satisfaction of saying, “I did it myself.”
If you’re a confirmed do-it-yourselfer, you probably know your tastes fairly well. A wealth of information is available to help you do just about everything from making throw pillows and shower curtains to refinishing hardwood floors.
No doubt you’ve been inspired by your neighbor’s proud tales of cash salvation found through laying the parquet floor in the entry himself. Or you’ve envied the money your cousin saved by hanging all of the wallpaper himself. But did he tell you the one about the Sheetrock he had to replace because of the small fire he started while doing some electrical repairs? Or about having to carpet the bedroom because he gouged a hole in the hardwood floor while trying to refinish it himself? These are the stories that do-it-yourselfers would rather forget.
So a word of caution: Unless you’re very skilled and experienced and have all the necessary tools, don’t be afraid to call a pro for certain jobs. Your time is valuable and might be better used on something other than struggling with yards of drapery fabric on your portable sewing machine. It’s worth the money to give the job to someone equipped to handle it. The same rule applies with the hardwood floors. It can be done, but it’s risky business-one wrong move can make for an expensive lesson.
Should you want the help of a pro, you’re in luck. Three-and-a-half pages in the Yellow Pages are devoted to designers and decorators. Quantity in this case may be either a blessing or a curse. How do you narrow the field to find that one designer whose work you will like, whose advice you will trust, whom you will work well with and whose fees fit your wallet?
Before you go out into the wilds, realize that there exist both trained designers (who have been to school for the necessary background, have years of experience and usually have passed a stringent exam to earn membership in a design association) and decorators (who have a creative knack, an eye for color and, in most cases, some experience, but usually lack the formal training and professional affiliations). In many neighborhoods, people serve as design consultants to their friends and neighbors as an avocation. But if you decide to work with a friend, remember that just because someone has coordinated colors somewhat successfully in his own home, he will not necessarily be able to work with other tastes and colors. And working with someone other than a neighbor may go a long way in preserving a friendship.
Each of the above groups has its merits, depending on your expectations and desires. Look around before making the final decision. As in any profession, some designers and decorators are more talented, more reliable and more your style than others.
Talk to friends who have employed designers. Find out who they worked with and their impressions. If it was a good experience, they will be more than glad to sing their designer’s praises. And if they had a run-in or feel as if they were taken advantage of, you can be doubly sure they’ll tell you. Word-of-mouth is probably any designer’s best advertising.
But if you’re the first on your block to be in the market for a designer, a good place to start your search is with the American Society of Interior Designers’ referral service. By calling the group (748-1541), you will receive three of its members’ names. If you’re not pleased with any of them, you may call back and get three more names.
Many furniture, department and accessory stores have designers on staff. If you like the look of the store and its room settings, you already know what their design staff can do and will most likely be pleased with one of their designers. In larger stores, you may be assigned to a designer unless you request a particular person, but most are willing to make a change to find the person most compatible with you.
Seeing examples of a designer’s work is obviously the best clue as to whether your tastes will mesh. Don’t pass up a chance to see any one of the designer showhouses that may be toured from time to time. Not only can you see an individual’s work, the designer may be present. Most designers will also have a portfolio of their work; be sure to ask to see it, too.
And don’t forget those publications that specialize in interiors. They usually list the designer’s name in the article or under a picture of his work.
One University Park woman thought she had done her research before she selected a designer. The man came highly recommended by a friend. But when he came to her house to see what he would be working with, she found that he didn’t view her grandparents’ furniture with the same love she and her husband did.
“We didn’t want it refinished because many of the scratches and marks had been caused by someone or some event we could remember. He just laughed when he saw our bedroom. He was very cold, and I got the feeling he wanted me to move it all out and start over,” she said. “It wasn’t the money; I just wanted to work with what I had because it was sentimental.”
She dismissed him and hired a second designer, this time a woman. “I liked [the second designer], but we didn’t work well together,” she says. “She liked the cluttered look and I didn’t. She definitely had to be in charge, and I needed to be in charge. Much of what she suggested my children couldn’t have even touched.”
Her solution was to let the second designer go, too, and work with a friend whose home she admired. She isn’t bitter, but she says she has been very happy working with her friend, whom she pays by the hour. Both like to sew and have worked together to make many of the accessories for her house.
She speculates as to what went wrong. “Maybe I was too thrifty, but I never thought that was the problem. We never even got that far. I mainly think it all depends on why you’re doing it. I’m not one to do things just because you’re supposed to do it.”
Stories such as that disturb designers as much as they do those of us who are potential clients. After all, it’s natural to generalize and think the same must be true of all designers. But with good designers, the opposite is true.
“My first question with a new client is ’What do we have to work with?’ ” Ms. Hayslip says.
“I’m afraid that many people don’t realize that designers work within the parameters that [the client] sets,” says. “All I can do is guide them through the woods. I won’t dictate.”
If you do decide to work with a designer, call him while you’re still in the early planning stages. A designer’s nightmare is a person who has painted the entire interior of his house, then calls the designer to select wallpaper and fabric. Not that it can’t be done, but oftentimes success comes only after a great expenditure of time and designer’s fees. Select the paint color, if you want, but call the designer before you paint. The perfect fabric and wallpaper might require going only two shades lighter than your original choice – a minor problem if you’re working with a paint chip, but a major one if you’re working with six rooms of pansy yellow.
Designers should be in on the building or remodeling from the beginning, too. Architects and contractors may be adept at structural designs, but they aren’t usually attuned to interior details.
One North Dallas couple specified to their architect that they wanted a dining room where they could seat 12 people comfortably for dinner. A week after the foundation was poured, the couple called in a designer – who discovered the dining room was 2 feet shorter than necessary for their furniture and 12 people. What could they do at that point? Virtually nothing. Their dream house will always have a dining room that they won’t be able to enjoy as much as they had hoped.
A designer can also help estimate total building and remodeling costs by helping select all finishes, floors, tile, hardware and such before construction begins. Builders will give you an estimate, but without your specific choices to base their costs on, they tend to work from stock items, thus often underestimating.
If you’re working with a budget, tell the designer about it from the first. Most are glad to work within your guidelines; in fact, most say that a budget helps them as much as it does you. Whatever you do, don’t give the designer a free hand with the plans and then spring the budget on him. It’s unfair to both of you and only results in wasted time, frustration and often a complete fiasco.
One of the biggest pluses in using a designer is being able to take advantage of experience and contacts. Dallas has the fortune of an overwhelming number of sources for fabric, furniture, hardware, flooring, window treatments, etc. Even if you limited yourself to what’s available at retail costs, you could spend days just looking for the right wallpaper for one room. By working with a designer, you not only increase your choices by having access to the huge market center complex, but at the same time, you’ve acquired a professional guide. It’s a designer’s business to know what is available and to steer you to things quickly.
Designers are also good sources for experienced and reliable workmen: painters, contractors, electricians, seamstresses, upholsterers. Even though you aren’t obligated to use their suggestions, it is good to have a referral to start with.
Many people fear a designer’s charge. An aura surrounds the design profession, giving many people the impression that only the wealthy can afford this sort of professional advice. But one of the methods designers use to set their fees will probably fit into your budget. One of the most common – and the most fair to both client and designer -is an hourly fee. This may range from $30 to $80 an hour, depending on the designer’s experience.
Using the obvious rationale that a less expensive fee per hour will result in a lower total bill may not be sound. A more experienced designer may charge twice as much as a less experienced one, but he may work twice as fast.
Your own speed in decision-making will be a factor in the total cost, too. If you don’t waste a lot of time changing your mind, the work can be done more quickly. A person who changes his mind half-a-dozen times before choosing wallpaper will be the one to pay for the designer’s time.
An hourly rate also allows some flexibility in how much you want to use the designer. One Lake Highlands couple hired a designer for just one hour to use as a sounding board for their kitchen remodeling ideas. They met the designer at the door with a written list of questions, and made the most of their time. The designer was able to warn them of some potentially bad choices, recommend workmen and make suggestions for paint colors and wallpapers. That small $50 investment saved the couple disappointment with the job and gave them a well-coordinated kitchen with some designer touches they might not have otherwise considered.
Another method of charging is a flat fee based on the estimated time involved in a project (usually a big one). Since this is difficult for even the most experienced person to estimate, it sometimes results in the client overpaying or the designer being underpaid.
Designers at retail stores usually don’t charge for their services as long as purchases are made from the store during the project. If no purchases are made or if additional help arranging furniture or hanging pictures is needed, an hourly fee may be charged.
Once you have your tastes and needs defined, it is very important to make sure that each purchase is exactly what you want.
Certain pieces of furniture are once-in-a-lifetime purchases and their purchase must be especially carefully considered. According to Sanford, most people buy only one set of dining room furniture in their lifetime. “My recommendation would be to forego until you can do it the way you want,” he says. “I like this trend of not buying matched sets. Buy a temporary table and get good chairs. Then buy a table later and a buffet even later.”
A good sofa with simple lines should see you through many years. If it is of moderate size and is simple, it can be reup-holstered to update it from time to time and will remain a good piece of furniture.
Impulses and emotions can be given a looser rein when selecting accessories. Mementos from trips, a brass box celebrating a graduation – these are the things that make your decor personal and interesting.
Ms. Hayslip says she thinks many people are afraid to buy accessories for fear of being “wrong.”
“If you like it, it appeals to you and is affordable, buy it,” she says. “It can’t be too bad a mistake. It may not always be the focal point, but it represents a time in your life-a trip or something. If you don’t [buy accessories along the way], you’ll have nothing to start with when you decide to decorate. I’d rather have something not quite right that means something than a lot of accessories a person bought in one day that mean nothing.”
Of course, one of the best ways of getting the most for your decorating dollar is to take advantage of sales. If you’re in a position to decorate gradually, you can buy something new nearly every month of the year, and with a little planning, buy it all on sale.
Each month, certain decorating items traditionally go on sale. When you know what goes on sale when, it’s worth it to hold off until sale time to make a purchase, especially a major one. No doubt, we all have experienced the frustration of making a purchase only to see it advertised at half-price two weeks later.
January white sales are standard and are a terrific time to buy sheets, towels and such. But it’s also a good month to find furniture, rugs and carpet and dishes on sale. Some of January’s sales extend into February and are joined by curtains and lamps.
Spring months are leanest for sales, but there are some. Washers and dryers are on sale in March; ranges, in April. If you missed out on the blanket and linen sales during the winter, they’ll be back in May.
Summer months offer more sales, especially Fourth of July price slashes. Fabrics and refrigerators are both good buys in July. August is the month for draperies, curtains, lamps and towels. Housewares, china, lamps and paint go on sale in September. October and November are slow sale months; china, silverware, glasses, blankets and quilts are the main sale items. The latter two items are usually on sale in December, too.
It is hard to miss out on some sales. Furniture, for example, goes on sale in five different months: January, February, June, August and September. If you watch for ads, you can take advantage of rug and carpet sales in January, February, May, July, August and September.
Many stores are willing to tell you when certain sales will begin (paint stores are especially good about this), so be sure to ask before you buy.
One smart shopper found the fabric she wanted to use on a wingback chair on sale, but, at the time, couldn’t afford to buy a chair and have it upholstered. She took advantage of the sale anyway and bought the fabric. Now, when her budget allows a new chair, she can order it and put the fabric to use.
Some otherwise smart shoppers become notorious whim buyers at the first sale sign. But nothing is a good buy unless it fits into your overall plan. Before you buy anything, make sure you have a specific place and use for it in mind.
If you’re working with a designer, get his approval before buying something major (especially if it’s on sale, when returns are difficult).
“It’s a common mistake to just get in the mood to buy and do it without thinking of the overall plan,” Ms. Hayslip says. But the money is spent and you or the designer will have to work with it. If it doesn’t fit a place or a need, the whole room may never come together just right.
But even in a room that “works” there is always room for change. A new piece ofartwork, a purchase from a vacation, newfabric on a chair or a new arrangement forthe furniture. A well-done interior is neverfinished, and never so set that somethingnew can’t be added or an older piecereplaced.
