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CHOOSING HOME FURNISHINGS
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Purchasing of the various interior furnishings is costly. Having worked in various areas of interior design and furnishings, understanding the spatial dynamics between objects, people, their seating and home spaces, very clearly, preparing well for the task of choosing and arranging furniture will save - money and headache, as well as promoting well designed functional arrangements. Space planning, fabric selection & ergonomic understanding will help your furniture selection process. Save yourself & the store people time and unnecessary problems. Comfortable & stylish, your Living Spaces are where you'll most love to be. Prepare
If you don’t have a floor plan, measure & draw one up. Take the plan shopping with you. Take a tape measure. If the store doesn’t have measurement specifications, you can measure yourself. Have at least some idea of space required in a room for the pieces & to move around. Main traffic ways need 3 feet of clearance. Minor traffic areas need 2 feet clearance.
Along with your floor plan, pack into a folder for fabric selection and choosing color; paint chips of your wall color, swatches of carpet, drapery & fabric samples. A sofa arm protector or cushion will work.
If you will be changing the room, and want to keep the furniture consider this before you start. If you like to change frequently, buying a style that is easily adaptable is key. Consider the uses – will you want to lie down in the sofa? Is a chair used for reading lounging? Or both? Is the lamp table high enough? – It should not be much lower than the chair or sofa arm adjacent to it. Remember that tape measure? Space planning will help you accurately fit your space - before you buy and start arranging furniture. Draw it to scale on your floor plan.
Relate how all the pieces will fit together. A huge sofa will dwarf skinny little tables. Pay attention to the height of the seats of various chairs & the sofa. They should be fairly close in height. It is odd to have a very low-slung sofa with high-seated chairs around it. Pay attention to how you sit in each piece. Imagine people sitting in them. Better yet have people sit in them. Are the ones on the sofa very low while the others in the chairs very high? Scale in interior design space planning should bring harmony of line & form. Color & Textures
Everything looks different under various kinds of light. Take home a fabric swatch from the store before choosing color and fabric selection. Pay attention to how it looks with everything in the room at different times of the day in the different lighting; daytime, afternoon and night.
Try out the Furniture
Always sit on sofas & chairs you are considering. Sit. Lie down. Spend time on it. If you share your Living Spaces with others they should try it also, especially if their height is quite different than yours. Leg length is an important factor. Don’t buy a sofa when you know you’ll need to put a pillow behind you to be comfortable. However if you are very short there may be no other alternative.
Beware of Impulse Buying
A great deal can be very exciting, almost mind-altering! But think carefully. It may be cheap but maybe not a deal. If the scale is wrong, or the style too difficult to work with, or colors are off, guess what? The cheap price is very quickly very expensive! Avoid buying under the pressure of a ‘special’ occasion or the sales person or time limitations. If you know you have an occasion coming up, shop well in advance & make the decision based on being sure of the right piece. Take the time to get a good grasp if what is available. Base your decision on comfort, style, & cost. Some stores will allow you to try a piece at home if you are willing to cover the return delivery if it doesn’t work out. You should be 99% sure before you do this however. It's only fair - stores, especially independents, have to consider the cost of wear and tear. Decide for Yourself & With Those You Live The more opinions you seek, the harder it is to choose.. Don’t take a squadron of friends and relatives with you when you shop; limit the input to your significant other or one friend with exquisite taste.
Sales personnel for the most part are well informed & willing to help you. Unless you’ve studied interior design or apprenticed with an upholsterer, it’s a safe bet the salesperson will know more about their merchandise than you. Take advantage of that. Most sales personnel desperately want to be helpful; and frequently are trained designers. Shopping on the Weekend If you’re going to need a lot of help and want the salesperson to give you his or her undivided attention, don’t go shopping on the weekend. That’s when furniture stores are busiest and the staff is most distracted. Pick a weekday and you might be able to monopolize the salesperson’s time for hours. Forgetting to Measure Doors & Elevators Everyone who sells furniture has heard stories about people who bought a sofa and then couldn’t get it through the front door, up the stairs or into the elevator. Don’t become another statistic! Measure the size of every opening leading up to the room where the piece will sit. (Don’t overlook windows as an alternate entry point.) If you live in an apartment or condo, measure the elevator door and compartment, or the service elevator, if there is one.
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