Decorating & Renovating
eveningbreeze
member
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Help With Decorating Class
| Hi all, I'm new here. :-) I need advice and ideas for a home decorating class I was asked to give in March. Things to know to help pinpoint your answers: 1) I'm not an interior designer - just a homemaker with a flair for decorating 2) The class is for Mother and Daughters (ages 12-18yo) homeschool group 3) Class will last 60-90 minute class/presentation 4) It will be informal and free 5) I'd like to incorporate some sort of interactive activity. 6) It will likely be in my home. Does anyone have any ideas for what to teach on in that short of time? I'm especially concerned about the activity portion because I don't want to just give a speech and go home, you know? Some topics I think they might appreciate are decorating on a budget and defining your decorating style but that's all I can think of. I'm starting to wonder why I accepted such a challenge. They are all friends of mine so there's not a lot of pressure. But I would like to make it worth their while! I would LOVE to hear any good ideas! Also, does anyone know where I can get free fabric swatches and paint chips? |
Re: Help With Decorating Class
First, I measure all of my furniture, and the room, and make to-scale cutouts of everything (labeled, too). I play around with the room layout until I'm sure everything will fit, with comfortable walking spaces and good conversation flow, or a good functional layout (depending on the room). That's my favorite part....it's like playing with paper dolls! Plus, you can incorporate a math lesson when measuring and scaling everything down.
Then, I make "wall views" of each wall - I draw (roughly to scale) what each wall will look like with the furniture against it or near it. Doing this helps me make sure everything is balanced, and gives me a chance to plan wall art placement. It is best to make sure a wall isn't over-cluttered, or too sparse before you add a bunch of nail holes.
Last, I pick my color pallet. I color match the items that I currently have, and find coordinating/complimenting/contrasting colors that I want to use in the same room. I can go to my room layout and wall views to color in my current or future (to-be-purchased) furniture, to make sure that the colors are balanced throughout the room, and work well together.
I'm in the middle of this last process currently....and yes, I realize there are probably easier ways to plan a room, but 1-it's fun for me, 2-I honestly have a lot of difficulty picturing how things will look, and I'm not interested in rearranging the room 6 different times, and 3-I still need to buy a lot of the things that I'm planning on decorating with....I would much rather know exactly what color and size I need before I spend the money!
So, for your class, you could either have them do this to your home (measure your furniture, etc.), or you could have photos of a wide variety of furniture (along with their imaginary or real measurements) already, and they can decorate their "dream room." This would of course, be done after you explain floor plans, balance, color coordination, etc.
Something easier would be to create inspiration boards - have a ton of photos (cut from magazines, or printed) of furniture/accessories/fabrics/color swatches, etc., and have them find things that work well together.
Paint swatches are free from anywhere you can get paint. Try a furniture store or somewhere like that with fabric swatches, when fabrics are discontinued many places keep them around for someone who may want them.