October 20, 2021
Tradition Meets Technology
The traditional way that Interior Designers typically service their clients generally starts with in-home consultation. This is followed by sourcing, presenting, and purchasing of furniture and accessories that the client approves. Once all furnishings have arrived, the designer then works his/her magic by pulling the space together to ultimately reveal to the client.
For this local client, I did what is known as E-Design. Just like with traditional Full Service Design, our E-Design service starts with an in-home consultation that can be done either virtually or in person if the client is local. The main difference between these two services is that, in the end, the E-Design client is able to control the rate at which the project is completed . E-Design clients are given a floor plan, a recommendation of furniture, accessories, and wall art options that they can use to design their room of choice on their own time. One of the aspects that E-Design clients appreciate the most is that they get to have a hands-on approach to creating their space rather than leaving everything up to the designer.
Getting Started
My client has been living in her home for about 3 years and wanted assistance with her living room. She likes to entertain family and friends, so I was tasked with trying to figure out a furniture layout that would be optimal for her to do this with ease.
The Problem:
- Living room size and flow: This area is long and narrow, making it difficult to configure and optimize the current furniture pieces and space that they are in.
- Incohesive and insufficient furniture pieces: The present sectional did not work in its original position and was limited to the number of people it could comfortably sit; the tv was also out of place and needed to be moved.
- Limited natural light: The heavy and dark colored drapes limited the amount of natural light that was able to flow through the space and made the space feel even smaller than it was.
The Solution:
- Living room optimization: Provide a better furniture and accessory layout that works with current sectional and suggested additional furniture pieces.
Furniture & decor: Incorporate current furniture pieces while adding a few new ones in; keep some sentimental treasures and find a way to purposefully display them; and incorporate plants into newly configured space
- Color scheme: Use colors that will make the space feel light and airy
The Process
The Living Room
The living room is broken up by a fireplace in the middle of the main wall and a door that leads to the backyard. I was tasked with trying to figure out the furniture layout that would be optimal since she likes to have family and friends over to entertain. She also wanted to have seating options readily available without having to bring chairs from the dining room to the already small living area.
The Sectional
Oftentimes clients will present pieces to me that they feel strongly about incorporating into their space. In this particular case, my client’s sectional was that piece. My client had recently purchased a sectional thinking it would work for the room, but realized she needed some assistance with making it functionally work in the space. Upon first glance, I initially thought that the sectional would not work with the given space of the room. However, I soon realized that the solution was a matter of mere angling. I decided to position the sectional at an angle and have it floating in the room to help center the space, provide extra room for guests to congregate and for other furniture to be added, and to create a flow from the entryway to the living room and from the living room to the dining room.
Before the sectional transition, it was originally shoved into a corner of the living room and the tv was awkwardly placed across from it. I made the recommendation to mount the tv above the fireplace instead so that no matter where people were sitting in the room, they’d have a good view.
Furniture & Decor
While I had solved the sectional dilemma, I still wanted to provide my client with an alternative option that she might like better with the proposed design plan. I suggested a brown leather sofa which would add a different texture to the space, but that was still within the color scheme she wanted. To address the need for additional seating, I suggested bringing in two swivel accent chairs. The accent chairs would not only add additional seating, but add to the flow of the space by providing options for movement for guests.
Though my client was open and understood the need for new, additional decorative pieces for the space, she also had some sentimental ones that she wanted to keep. We were able to incorporate some Asian inspired antique plant stands, an old wall clock, and create a gallery wall of friends and family members for the living room from the small picture frames that she had scattered around the house. Because family is so important, she was glad to still have a place for everyone to be displayed.
Since my client also has a nice collection of plants, I made sure to find a home for them where they could get the light that they needed to continue thriving. Changing the drapes to something lighter that allows light to flow through also helped with this. They now have a pretty, permanent place in the living room to grow and be seen.
Colors
My client wanted to keep the room light and airy but still wanted the presence of pops of color. She requested that I incorporate shades of gray, blue, and pink into the design of the room. To execute her request, I decided to layer in shades of pink and blue through accessories and artwork that would not overpower the space.
Outside of her color preferences and keeping the sectional, another requirement was to find furniture pieces that were neutral so that if she decided to take advantage of this crazy real estate market and sell her home, she could easily reuse her new pieces in her potentially new home. However, the use of neutrals for bigger pieces of furniture was also key in being able to bring in color elsewhere in the room.
One of the major factors that made the room feel small, narrow, and dark were the heavy, dark drapes. I changed them to a neutral linen and only added one panel per window as opposed to two to allow light to filter in. This also opened the room up to make it feel larger.
The Finished Product
One of the other great things about e-design is that clients are given a completed plan for what their space could look like with the right pieces without all of the tedious on-line searching and erroneous purchasing. As well, they also are able to purchase all of the suggested items for their newly created space at their own pace. With a click of a direct, provided link, clients are taken straight to the site to purchase the designated item. And voila, an expertly designed space with the client at the helm!