Well-Coordinated Spaces

By Susan Marocco of Susan Marocco Interiors (Bedford)

Looking at an empty room with bare white walls or a space equipped with furniture, but lacking that pulled-together look? Wondering what colors and fabrics to go for? Where to place the furniture and what size pieces to purchase?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the thought of starting a design project, you’re not alone. But sometimes, taking the first step can go a long way toward creating a room with real style. Here are some ideas to help you get started:

1. Determine your “look.” Sometimes clients have a difficult time conveying their design preferences (we designers are often the recipient of the honest-but-frustrating, “I’ll know it when I see it.”). Whether you’re beginning your own project or collaborating with an interior designer, start by tearing out pictures of what you like and dislike. Include whole rooms as well as furniture items, accessories, and colors. Do you see a shade that keeps catching your eye or textile/wallcovering patterns that seem attractive to you? Bright and bold or soft and muted? Contemporary, traditional, or an electric mix of styles? You’ll eventually narrow down your taste, which makes it easier to find pieces and accessories, such as wallpaper, fabrics, and rugs that will have long-term appeal. Don’t forget to identify what you don’t like, as well, which can go a long way toward honing your style.

2. Determine who is going to use the space—and how they’re going to use it. Should the room be child-friendly, casual and comfortable, or an adult-only refuge? How will it be used? Ask yourself lifestyle questions: do you like to entertain, do you have hobbies or collections that are important to display, do you need storage for books, children’s toys, and personal interest? Do you have artwork to showcase? Can you really live with a white rug? In order to explore your envision for the space, it’s critical to sort out the most important questions, including how you live, what’s important to you, and your budget.

3. Tackle one room at a time. From my experience, this is a tried-and-true stress reducer. But this doesn’t mean that once you’ve completed a room’s décor, you forget it and move on. Quite the opposite: you take stock of your other rooms and build on it. The secret is to create an overall blue print, what I call the “master plan.” This ensures that your home doesn’t look like a mish-mosh of several mini projects with no cohesive elements to pull it them together. You don’t want to wonder as you wander from room to room if you’re in the same house; you want your design to flow from one room to the next. This can be done by tying together rooms by color, texture, and style.

How? Below is an example of two adjacent rooms in a Wilton, Connecticut, home. We started with an empty space, ultimately designing both rooms to coordinate.

LIVING ROOM BEFORE:

The beautiful living room had great potential but needed a direction and a cohesive design plan. Our objective for the space, designed for a couple with three young children, was to integrate the rug and key furniture pieces to create a child-friendly environment that also could serve as a “grown-up” entertaining area.

DURING:

For many rooms, a rug that sets the tone and feeling of the room can be a wonderful jumping-off point. After narrowing down style and pattern likes and dislikes, color preferences, furniture style, and who and how the room is going to be used, we chose a striking Oriental rug with a large pattern in reds, greens, and golds. While it’s traditional in feeling, the rug didn’t seem “stuffy” or old.

We then chose fabrics that worked with it. Since the rug had a large pattern, we chose a solid fabric for the sofas and smaller patterns for the chairs. Pillows covered in fabrics from Lee Jofa and Scalamandre, antique brass candlesticks discovered at Briggs House Antiques in Mamaroneck, artwork, books, and other accessories provided visual interest and finishing touches.

LIVING ROOM AFTER:

Accommodating the taste of the homeowners, we opted for traditional furniture, including a burl wood coffee table and durable cotton fabric on the sofas (which, for additional precaution, was sprayed with protected Scotchgard). This created a comfortable seating are for the family to sit and enjoy the fire or, if entertaining, for the adults to enjoy cocktails. Family photos and bookcases flanking the fireplace add to the warmth of the room.

ADJACENT FAMILY ROOM BEFORE:

The adjacent family room, a more casual area for TV viewing and playing, needed to both stand on its own in terms of design and appeal, but continue the aesthetic from the living room.

FAMILY ROOM AFTER:

The color scheme of reds, greens, and golds provide continuity from the living room. But while the color scheme is the same, the emphasis is on different shades (note that golds dominate the rug) and fabric textures give each room its own unique character.

Children’s toys are hidden in a large multi-purpose ottoman that stands in front of the fireplace. During the day, the kids’ playthings come out as they enjoy the space. For casual entertaining, the ottoman serves as additional seating.

Susan Marocco is president of Susan Marocco Interiors, Inc. in Bedford, a full-service interior design firm specializing in residential and commercial renovations and furnishings projects.