Welcome to week 4 of how you can save money by hiring an interior designer.

This next point is on the topic of furniture pairing and involves everything from couches and chairs to tables, shelves and consoles.  There are many things to consider with furniture – color, style and texture to name a few.  Keep in mind that the 60/30/10 rule will apply to furniture pairing as well.  There is going to be a dominant (60%) color theme, texture theme and style theme; a middle of the line (30%) color, texture and style theme; and then hints of an accent (10%) color, texture and style theme also.

How is this all done?  Lots of trial and error…. practice, practice, practice.  You may have the knack…you may not!  I feel that it is important to stick to a similar time period of furniture overall (i.e.  mid-century modern, French country, Baroque, Queen Anne, traditional, mission, craftsman, Bauhaus…..) and the list goes on.  This is something that a designer has been trained in and is well aware of the options available.  In future blogs I will be going over these time periods in detail, but for now, unless you are a very eccentric person and don’t mind a hodge podge of styles together, your room will have a more balanced impression to it if you stick with one or two styles at the most.

The same goes for texture and color in furniture.  This will include your woods, metals, different fabrics and leathers.  There definitely needs to be a variety of all these for the room to be cohesive.

Enjoy giving it a shot if you feel confident — otherwise, remember — you could save a lot of time and money by hiring an interior designer!