I like to encourage my clients to collect images they like from Instagram, Pinterest, magazines, and design books. A collection of images is the best way to communicate your likes and dislikes.

Preparing a floorplan helps map how you move through rooms and where furniture can be placed. You will then be ready to think about any additional furnishings you may need and consider where and how to place family pieces you may have inherited.

Large inherited furniture items can pose a dilemma if very different to other pieces. Use your imagination: wooden chairs and tables can be sanded and painted; sofas and armchairs can be reupholstered or refreshed with new cushions. A large modern artwork can look fantastic above a period sofa, providing a new perspective.

Furniture should have some similarity or connectivity, so that there is a degree of continuity as you move through your home. Items of similar sizes, colours, textures, shapes, periods, or styles will provide cohesion. Take care though, as too much careful matching can look contrived and bland. Unexpected combinations of fabrics and textures achieve an enhanced result.

Bear in mind the likely changes to the use of a room over time. A bedroom for a baby has different requirements to that for a young child; that baby may be a young child by the time a bedroom renovation is completed.

A separate dining room is often a space that is rarely used in day-to-day life. Consider expanding the dining table to provide a work surface for your home office. All you need is an angled desk light, and some storage to hide away the printer, computer and other office needs when not in use.

Instead of a coordinated dining suite of table, carvers and chairs, another option is a collection of assorted chairs painted and upholstered in a complementary and cohesive manner. Spare dining chairs can be useful scattered throughout the house in different rooms and can be quickly gathered together at the dining table when needed. Nanna’s dining furniture reimagined!

It’s understandable when moving home to want to replace older furniture, but there is no need to replace everything. A client moved into a recently built townhouse: the ground floor is a generous open plan communal space with large wooden window frames painted black, polished parquetry flooring, and expansive white walls. After deciding how to lay out the room, we looked at what pieces of existing furniture could be used.

As the room had a very neutral colour palette with plenty of natural light, we agreed more colour and substance were needed. A large red and blue oriental rug inherited from her mother had always looked out of place in the client’s former home. In the new house, we rolled this rug out on the floor and used it as inspiration to select and place furniture. We took the rug’s rich red and navy tones as our starting colour palette.

We ordered a pair of large brick-red textured deep sofas to sit opposite each other and a pair of dark blue leather swivel chairs. An existing square coffee table and sofa table completed the main furnishings of the room. A warm mix of old and new items from different styles created a complete and comfortable space.

Next month I will be writing about key styling tips in the lead up to conducting design masterclasses later this year.

Published in the September 2022 Issue of The Trentham Trumpet
>> Part 3