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Show B9 The Emery County Review, Tuesday, June 8, 2008 DECOR SCORE Find Samples in Magazines to Assist Decorators Rose Bennett Gilbert Q : I have spent the past l4 years working to the top of the heap in my law firm and can now afford the house I want to come home to after one of my long, frenetic days in court. The interior designer I’m about to hire wants me to tell her what colors to use and furniture to buy. Isn’t that her job? All I know is that I want the house to be comfortable and relaxing for me. I don’t plan to entertain at home much, just be there to recharge. : Actually, you’ve already done what your designer is asking: You’ve figured out the kind of overall ambience you want. The designer’s job is to pick up on your input and pull the specific components together that will make your home your personal haven. “Interior design is not just the selection of furniture and color,” says Mary Douglas Drysdale of Washington, D.C., a top practitioner with Drysdale Design Associates. “It’s about listening to what a client wants, what makes him or her feel taken care of by their home.” Comfort is at the top of the most-wanted list these days, Drysdale says. But people define “comfort” differently, depending, for example, on their body size and type, and individual feelings for colors and light, the designer points out. She designed the room A we show here as a homeaway-from-home for a woman who spends four days in the Big City each week, managing her own high-pressure business. Quiet, calm and a feminine attitude were key requirements; Drysdale met them with light colors, soft forms and rounded shapes. “As soon as you walk through the door, you should feel a sense of quiet, of self, of being protected,” she says. How to convey all that to your own interior designer? Advises Drysdale, study decorating magazines, pull clippings, collect color samples - “Whatever you see that you like and makes you happy,” whether that’s a specific piece of furniture or just your emotional response to a photograph of someone else’s room. : We bought a fixer-up house, but the mortgage has gone up so much we don’t have the money to fix it up. The bath is awful. Any cheap ideas we could do ourselves to make it look better? We need a new vanity the most. : Bet you already have one - only you may be still thinking of it a dresser or table. Scope out your attic or a used furniture store. Many pieces of furniture originally meant to do something else are easy to turn into an attractive bathroom vanity. In fact, the once-radical idea of installing a lavatory and plumbing in a dresser or console table has gone Q A public, so to speak: A number of manufacturers were showing unorthodox bath vanities at the recent High Point Furniture Market. It doesn’t take much carpentry or plumbing skill to set in a sink and hook up the water. Just be sure to add a couple of coats of polyurethane for moistureresistance. One more tip: Click on www.minwax.com and ask for a copy of Wood Beautiful. It’s a free booklet with a number of such inexpensive makeover ideas, involving wood furniture, floors and more. Pictured here: Stressless decorating: calm colors and soft, rounded forms create an oasis of calm and quiet for a harried businesswoman. Photo courtesy of Mary Douglas Drysdale. Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of “Hampton Style” and associate edi- tor of Country Decorating Ideas. To find out more about Rose Bennett Gilbert and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. Copyright 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc. Tough Enough to Wear Pink? Are you tough enough to help? We are looking for volunteers to help at the Tough Enough to Wear Pink rodeo night on July 26. Help raise awareness about breast cancer and raise money for Emery county cancer patients. Call Diane Tadehara at 384-2111. |
