Arrrr…. Its just like writers block!

Interior design that is. Fact is that if you have a project to get completed and particularly in a short time period, its easy to get the Interior Design equivalent of writers block – where do you start, what colours do I specify?

Well, dare I say that I’ve been there and it’s difficult, but allow me to put down a couple of ideas that have helped me move forward in the past and I guess you could say its not unlike that overused (in my opinion) term, brain storming.

So my first idea is to take a colour – which colour! I hear you exclaim, but the answer to that is ANY colour, just get something down. What colour does your Client like? What colour do you think might look good in the room? But importantly, don’t sit there and ponder the question, don’t double guess yourself, just jot down whatever comes to mind. The aim of this is just to get going.

So you have a colour? True if you think about it, it may be the worst of options, but you’re moving forward! Now, what would contrast with it? If the room is sunny and you’ve gone for yellow or cream, the contrast is going to be violet of course and that might scream out at you as garish, but just a tiny amount, a few accented points might just… Well, you can see where I’m going with this. Or say you went for cream for the walls? What about a tiny accent of Cyan?

Ok, so you’re screaming at me that the whole concept is ridiculous and you might be right, but your thinking and moving forward and that’s the whole point of these brief musings, to break the log jam – so where next?

If you simply hate the yellow violet thing, then take that distaste and move forward from it. Importantly use it (your distaste that is) as a catalyst to drive forward. So take a colour that you think would be fantastic as a contrast. Try taking a particular piece your client likes, such as a vase, a piece of crockery. I once had a picture frame that was a beautiful burgundy (well I thought it was beautiful) , a rich and warm colour which worked well as an accent for an old Victorian house.

Having said that, as I type, my Beaux’s dark blue acoustic guitar is sitting in its floor stand in front of me (sometimes his practicing drives me mad although that’s another story!) and that would form a fantastic accent colour for this room of ours. A kind of study come music room and in truth I hadn’t thought of using the colour of it before, but i’ll use it as  starting point.

So in summary, just get something down, start putting swatches down on the board and move on from it – designers block done with, you’re on the way.

avatar Name: Alexandra Eager
About: Formerly Finance and Operations Director of anmarketing agency. Now luckily semi-retired. Amateur interior design buff, constantly experimenting on my own home (much to the chargrins of hubby) and passionate about anything to do with home interiors and improvements. Wish my house was bigger!

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Posts by Alexandra Eager (49)