Creating the Design Plan

So now we get to the fun stuff!  As we started thinking about the plan for our latest project, I tried capturing some words and images that help set the 'mood' we want to create for the whole house.  Here's what it looks like:

The house will have Colonial styling and we really want to play up an old world feel to the home.  So we'll be adding some hand hewn beams to the ceiling and will use oriental rugs and antiques throughout.  And because I seem to spend a lot of time drooling over Pottery Barn catalogs, that got thrown in there too!

From this list, I started working through design thoughts and applied my usual approach for starting a new design plan.

These oriental rugs will be perfect for our new project!

1) Inspiration:  Pick your 'inspiration' to set the color scheme.  This can be a piece of artwork, a favorite pillow, or anything that has a color palette that excites you.  For this project, I want to utilize some oriental rugs that we've had for years and that I dearly love.  They help define the palette for the entire first floor (with our open floor plan, it's important to have consistency throughout).  These rugs have rich reds, warm beiges, blues and sage green.  And there are a couple of punches of a golden orange that could create an exciting accent.

P Kauffman Fabric 

2)  Fabric:  Find a fabric that builds on your color scheme.  I went to lots of fabric stores and saw lots of great prints.  But I kept coming back to this P. Kauffman print.  It has a coarse texture, almost like burlap.  I loved the rich print and the broad color palette and it echoes the mood that's been established for the house.  Best of all, with the open floor plan,  we can play on the broad color scheme in different areas of the house.

3)  Paint Color:  Now you can start to think about paint colors.  Decide how to use your colors in different rooms.  This is the time to pull out your paint fan decks (a very worthwhile investment from your local paint store) and started choosing colors.
In our case, the creams, khakis and greens look great.  If I was going to live there, I'd probably go with green, but since we need a neutral palette for a potential buyer, I'll probably go with a pale khaki on the walls.  What do you think?  Does that make sense?

For more suggestions on choosing paint color, check out our blog post from our first project.


What's next?  Well,  now I can take this foundation and start on the kitchen design.  It's time to get the cabinets ordered, so we'll be ready for install.  Stay tuned for the kitchen plan!

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