Modern Furniture

Get to know the building thoroughly before you moke any major design decisions. Ask yourself these questions:

• which direction does it face?
• which rooms (ace the road/overlook the garden/have other views?
• which rooms get most light at which times of day?
• Which rooms are the quietest?
• Which rooms have the most wall and floor space?
• Which rooms have the highest ceilings?
• Do any rooms lead into one another?
• Are there any wasted comers or unusable spaces?
• Are there any doors that open awkwardly?
• Are there any narrow corridors causing obstructions?
• Are there any doorways or corners that make furniture access unnecessarily difficult?
• Which walls are structurally supporting and which are partitions?

How clearly you can see the outline of your space depends partly on whether the house is new to you or all too familiar. Have you just moved in, full of plans, knowing the space is limited but inspired by good intentions to make the most of it? If so, then you are seeing It with fresh eyes and clear sight, unjaded by experience. However, you do not know it well enough to envisage how you will live in it, how the space works, where the light falls, how that awkward door opens the wrong way and blocks the corridor… Give yourself time to get used to your new home, to get a feel for how you will live In it. Do not rush straight In with your most ambitious and imaginative plans.

Or is it somewhere you have lived for some time and grown too big for? Has it filled up until you cannot see the edges and have no space to turn round? If so, you will know all the problems and be aware of which rooms are most comfortable at which time of day. But you are probably bogged down with clutter and frustration, and are unable to see it in a new light. Take a step back and envisage it without its over-abundant contents.

The convention of living downstairs and sleeping above no longer makes sense when you consider that It is the upper rooms that tend to get the most daylight and that these are wasted by being used solely at night. Take a look at many new house designs and you will find that they are turning this style of living upside down, with bedrooms downstairs and living space on the upper floors to take full advantage of the light, it could be worth rethinking your layout to turn the bedrooms into daytime living space.

The important thing at this stage is to establish exactly what room you have got to play with so that you can make the most of its potential. Do not be disheartened by an apparent lack of space: knowing your boundaries is the first step towards being able to work constructively within them, with a house or apartment, you need to be able to imagine the outline clearly before you can work out exactly how to use the space within it and start building up your own picture of colours and furnishings.

It is also important to bear in mind that having too much space can be as problematic as having too little. Deciding how to furnish a cavernous warehouse is daunting because you do not know where to start. Having a clearly defined space from the outset will help you make initial design decisions by reducing the options so that you have fewer choices to make.

Every building is different. Its shape, size, age and architecture give it a distinctive character that needs to be taken into account when you are planning how to use it.

Give yourself time to get to know your home before you start imposing your design plans on it. This usually means waiting for a few weeks after you move in (or preferably a couple of months) while you feel your way around.

Establish which rooms feel most comfortable at different times of day - which are the lightest, which are quietest, which have the best views and which are overlooked? Trust your instincts and take note of which spaces you tend to avoid and which you gravitate towards Consider how you can make the most of your preferred areas, and think about the other parts that need to be rearranged in order to create more usable space, perhaps by moving doorways or knocking rooms through into one another.

Try to forget the existing furnishings and instead look for the potential of the space. Do not be put off by unsympathetic wall colours and shabby carpets, and learn to distinguish between permanent fixtures and things that can be changed. Built-in storage is useful, but can be removed if it is not needed, and it may be much more effective somewhere else instead.

Sheer drapery can be downright ravishing when treated like a bridal veil. For maximum effect contrast sheer organza with a stark, architectural rod, as follows:

Run a white-painted wood dowel across the entire window wall, mounting the dowel directly to the ceiling so it looks more like an urban-loft pipe fitting than a curtain rod. (A good window-treatment or decorating store can supply the ceiling-mount hardware.) Now, buy a length of white organza that is twice the height of the wall plus 18 extra inches, and slightly wider than the window. (Sheer fabrics run wide, to spare you from visible seams.)

Here’s the bridal-veil part: Dress up the organza by having it piped on all four edges with white silk cord. Now toss it over the rod like a giant scarf, so the back just kisses the floor and the front puddles. Tie the front of the curtain in a big, loose knot slightly below eye level. The result is ravishing.