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How Do You Use Your Space?

Okay, so we've really kind of run the game it of styles right? We've really gotten pretty deep into what styles are what do they look like? What defines apart certain style what your style is but as we were just saying, none of that really matters if your space doesn't work for you when you were kind of several of you were kind of alluding to this maybe it's your space isn't very large or you have to have a certain kind of function and that that maybe doesn't fit with this style that you really really love so let's kind of think about this a little bit more than kind of let's start to really think about this and yes, I'm going to teach a whole course on function of your whole house but this is really kind of going to give us a lips at some different spaces and types of spaces that you might be doing specific functions in your home and see how that really works for you. So how do you use your space? Well, it doesn't really matter what your style is each design should support the specifi...

c purpose for a space ultimately right one of my main approaches two interior design really is function it's really important to me that a space and work for people free for the people that are living in the space and that I always say anybody can make a space beautiful maybe not anybody, but a lot of people can buy beautiful things, but there's also, that whole piece of does this function? I mean, how many? If you have somebody in your household that goes, is there a reason why we have eighty two pillows on the sofa or the bed? And we have to actually take them all off and put them on the floor so that we can sit on the sofa, you know, so that's just a key example of how a lot of times we get over excited about things being pretty are looking lush, you're looking great, glamorous or traditional are putting out something that's important to us, but doesn't work at all. Do we have all of our clothing in an antique chess? If the drawers don't even really open and so every morning you're fighting with the chest to try to get dressed, you know that doesn't really make any sense, so ultimately, the way your room in your space functions is really to me, first and foremost, even before the style, of course, we want it to fit our style, too, and it can do both. S o changing your design function though does not mean that you have to change your style so you can go either direction you can reverse engineer you can say I want this style and it needs to fit this function or you could say this is the function and I really wanted to get this style either way is fine because you don't have to abandon things you love to make a space work for you just I was using the example earlier of if you really like minimalism and a really really edited interior but maybe you have say a home office that has lots of equipment or you know like they were saying a lot of the viewers or photographers and maybe have all this equipment or you have a lot of paperwork or things that you need to store how do those two go hand in hand with theirs ways that you can make that happen so it's more about tailoring your space with the style in mind teo really equal a functional result for you so here is just kind of a little oh I call this like a litmus test that you can start thinking about and asking yourself about your space so one of the questions is what volume and this could mean a couple of things and we'll talk about that uh will or should the room tio typically be so what most of you think about when you think volume what does that mean to you guys of the pieces? So you're thinking like dimension, which is one of the spaces, so how much room area is in the space? And also what what's, another concept of volume, how many people occupy the room at the same time? So how many people are in there, which kind of to me, it leads to what comes to my mind, which is noise? So I think also about the and noise could also could be audible noise, like voices and people in the space, but it can also be visual noise that could be a bright color might have a lot of visual noise, were something wide or serene could have not much noise at all, or a busy pattern could have a lot of noise, so that encompasses a lot of things already, and you could start asking yourself all of those, how much room do I have? How much volume cannot fit that great big antique desk? That was my grandfather's in this space? Or are not we even be ableto walk around the room and and it function for our office? Or is it volume is faras noise, because I need to concentrate and be productive in this space and there's too much going on, whether it's, visually, or or the the noise from a standpoint of you know, children or other people in and out of the space so that that already covers a lot of different areas. What else might we think about how much traffic will flow through the space? This is going to help you get a taste of like I said, what we're going to do in march as far as um, space planning to because you might decide that one of the rooms you're using in your home is not perfect for the function you that you have in there right now and you may want to move some things around and this might affect style too, because if you're trying to make a big statement with style, think about which rooms people are in all the time in the traffic flow and you can speak to the the durability with kids and everything traffic flow is really, really important. So how will that work through your space? What is the ideal mood of the room? So what comes to mind when you think about the mood of the room color, yeah lighting, lighting, yes fresh, fresh so like an emotion or a feeling like you want something that feels fresh or, uh other moves serene or happy, energetic, joyful there's a whole lot of things you might want one space, a sleeping space to be quiet and calm our yoga space to be season like we talked about earlier you might want the breakfast room to be energetic and happy are the living room to be cozy so all of those things certainly play into the mood of the room and it could be accomplished through like you said, color lighting, aa lot of other things and that's where the style piece gets to come in because well style of the lighting so the function of the lighting is one thing and we could say you doesn't give enough light or do we let your light in? But then we get to make the decision of does the light fixture fit the style that we want and that's where we start blending these things together, which is fun and then at what pace will the residents be moving in this space? So, you know, that kind of goes with the mood a little bit, but not necessarily so is it a place where people are going to linger? We're going to be in there a lot is it slow moving? Is it fast moving eyes that the kitchen is busy where people are really moving fast to the space as opposed to maybe a study where you sit, um but it could be important to the function, so what is the pace of the space? And then what air the uses of the space so a lot of rooms have multiple multiple purposes, like you were saying this morning and that's, where we're going toe groups, we're going to have to have pieces of furniture that can be multipurpose pieces of furniture, but you can also accomplish a lot with style from that standpoint too. So and more and more, we're using spaces for a variety of things, right? I think that's really how design and living has evolved for many of us, that we do many different things in one room, in fact, a lot of us in the only living in a small percentage of our house, right? Don't we? I mean, I know out my favorite place because I travel so much when I'm home, I'm in my bedroom, I work in the bid, relax and watch tv in the bed and sleep in the bed not necessarily a good thing, but it has to accomplish a lot of different functions for me. So what does that mean about the space in the style of the room? So which one of the any of these resonate within any of these already start tio bring to mind some of the spaces in your house is that you're having trouble with yes, my house when you walk in the front door. The stairs are there, the living room is right there in the kitchen is too that's to your main traffic flow traffic ways right through the middle, and then you've got your living room sitting right there, so and the door opens into it and it works how I have it set up, but it is a complicated so you're you're having some issues with, like the pace and the volume and the noise and all of that, and you can't really accomplish maybe the mood you want because so much is going on in that space. Yes, I think color and lighting definitely help. And what about how might style affect that? Think about if something's already really busy and a whole lot of energy is happening there's a couple of ways you could think about that you could think maybe something that was to modern or with a lot of hard surfaces actually might be make it kind of more noisy or but in a sense, it could be the opposite. It depends on your personality for you. It might actually be the thing that calms it down because you don't have any visual clutter and things are so clean and leaks of style depending on your personality, can play a big role in how that space is successful for you or not. I know sometimes when I'm in a space and I like to not have much visual clutter, I like to have all the counter tops cleaned off and drives my family crazy. They don't understand why when I come home, I have to get everything in its place, but so I can relax, so that's a visual noise for me, and so a lot of style can affect this if I had a really traditional style with a whole lot of stuff, I think I would struggle a lot of times with that sort of me achieving the mood I needed to are relaxing in a space so interesting anybody else have a problematic space that comes to mind when they think of these mood or yes, my office, which is actually the guest bedroom so that trying to if it looks like a bedroom, it doesn't feel like an office, but if it looks like an office doesn't feel like a bedroom and trying to co share those spaces and that's, I can't get so have ballot, have you had any sixty like, have you tried anything that maybe it feels like it's on the right track? Do you think it's just really not working for, you know, that's interesting, so that'll be fun, this might parlay right entire homework that we're gonna have later today. Pinning some things that will get some answers for you some solutions for you anything else come to mind before we kind of move on toe tohave to solve some of these? Anybody else dealing with a dilemma or anybody on the web have a big dilemma with volume, mood, traffic flow or function as we start moving through these? Well, actually, bamboo is hearing devon and saying the house is the same I think a lot of people had I have that too we walk in the front door and bam is the living room and then there's things going off, which I think by the time you've tracked all those things, you end up with that little spice in the middle of doing right? Yes, we're all living in twenty five one of our home, our because on and I love that's one of my favorite things to do, and I think one of the things that I'm do really well is help people really use all of their space, so that's, we'll look at some of these right now, so ok, so let's let's think about how do you bring together what you love with how you live, right? So this is an important piece on we've we've had a lot of questions about some of these already today so we can start thinking about and there's several different categories s o one of the ones we were asked about already today is considerations for living with kids. Um, that's my daughter a few years ago, she's much more grown up that now, and that was her her play we're in, which really functioned for us as almost a second living room, and you can see that because, I mean, even though it looks childlike in the colors that air in there, it's got a lot of furniture, like a living space would be, so that allowed us to have an overflow space so that if the living room needed to function for my husband to watch television or do other things, then we had a secondary space, and that was one of our favorite things about this room also, the fabrics, even though they're quite traditional and the day miss get also hides a lot. Sissons, I'm sure there's a million crayon marks and other things on that sofa that you can't really see, so it functions for us really well. But what are some of the first things you need to think about what you certainly have to think about safety with kids on this is where maybe some people that were saying I would love to have glamour or some other style may be especially like the the urban style with really hard surfaces. And maybe that doesn't work for kids, particularly at least if you have toddlers or other things when you have all these hard surfaces and you really want some soft things, so we can't ignore safety, obviously with children, um, and then there's the whole idea of and ellison had no trouble being stimulated in this space with the bright pink happening, but, you know, you can't it's hard to maybe create the mood that we were talking about earlier of serenity and then have an energetic space if it's the place by so if you're trying to combine some of these things, how can you use your style to make this work for you? Because that's certainly a concern or a something to be mindful of? Definitely, I was just saying I really need organization and order, and one of the things I hear more than anything when it comes to children, spices when I'm teaching people about this or talking about children spaces on my blogged is that people have a really problem organizing their kids stuff, and a lot of people end up saying my living room is basically a player in like, every toy that we own is in the middle of the living room floor, and how do we make this work for us? So can styles certain styles accommodate this better than others? Probably so we'll talk about that um and then certainly as they move towards bedtime, if you're talking about children's bedrooms or other spaces that's a completely different function than energetic playtime, so sometimes these have to happen in the same space or in a couple of spaces that are nearby. And how do you use style to transition these things and also just getting accustomed to the mess? So that's going to be a part of life with kids at any age, right? And you have to think about if you already select if you're selecting a style that already has a lot of things happening, a lot of things going on, a lot of stuff, and then you bring in a lot of other things that belong to your children, how's that going to work for you? Does it work because you're already usedto having lots of things around you? Or does it just add too much of that volume and visual noise for you? Um certainly high traffic for the most part and so that's going to really come into play like a lot of people were saying on the web, when we think about durability of fabrics or other things, how do we accommodate high traffic areas and still be stylish on dh? Then do you let them bring in their own personal style? So we've touched on this a little bit already? How do we let kids teenagers my eight year old who wants to paint chevron on the wall do we say yes to that? How do we blame that with our style if it's not really cohesive with it and how do we really make all of these components fit into the space on and then work for us and what we wanted to really look like without just abandoning it, abandoning the whole idea of having a stylish space or a certain style like glamour s so it can be done so let's look at a few that I know if I don't think I can kind of have to use my mouth okay so let's look at a few um great kids spaces and seeing how you can bring style and function together we're going to get into several different kinds of rooms were certainly not just talking about kids. Okay? So let's look at living with children so I love this space right off the bat because it's very it's not child like it all really but it accommodates children and this is one of the things I was alluding to earlier I love but this has this leather bankhead so it's really durable it's really easy to clean most people enjoy booths and bank it's I used tons of them in my design it's almost become a signature of my style and it's great for kids and you conceit more people there so but this is a very traditional space in many ways on dh it certainly doesn't feel like a kid space it would accomplish a lot of things when it came to our first list that we were talking about witness faras mood our atmosphere because if someone's goal was to have things be clean or edited soft, serene, all of that is accomplished in this space with the color palette, isn't it what it would do? You all see about this space that's exciting from a standpoint of living with kids? Maybe that you think some people people miss about their own homes? I'm interested actually, I mean, you obviously feel comfort comfortable with leather or perhaps more vinyl in the children's area. I know my sister had leather furniture and it didn't survive the kids do you have to treat it before you know it depends on the weather and depends on the style, so first of all, if you're going for a traditional look, the great thing is a lot of times the older and more character the leather has the better right. So this is where the style piece comes in that's a great question or if it's something like a glamorous style in the use of white material a lot of times it's easy to clean because it you know you can use have used different kinds of detergents and cleaners because there's no color to take out so you can, you know, really mess it up so on and then something like a black leather of black vital if he wanted an urban look really hide a lot of sins too. So it's gonna really, this is a great opportunity to blend style with function by depending on the color that you select or the type of finish that you select something that, you know, maybe is a really glossy high gloss finish would be easier to wipe off and more durable, but at the same time, something that's really rugged, it doesn't really matter if it looks older. So what? What? I love anybody else have an observation about this space with regard to kids? Yes, a timeless look because it's not child like so it can stay, you know, that will look good and through their teen years or even happen. Exactly. And I love to do this when we get even into kids bedrooms, and we'll talk about this in a moment when we see some of them. I love to design spaces that aren't kids, furniture and that are really more grown up spaces, but they have things in them that appeal to children, whether it's, the wall color or a fabric or a pill of something that makes it same childlike but a lot of times a lot of the spaces that I designed for kids you could remove a few elements and it could be a lady study or some other kind of space, you know, a teen wearing even a just a living room because we select things that are full scale and that really have that timeless looks so that's exactly what I love about this as well I agree it's not so so this is a great example of you don't have to wait until you have so your kids are grown to start creating beautiful spaces you could just add in a few elements and durable finishes that allow them to work for kids right off you know, from the get go here's another kid space uh that's this is fun I don't know if it's a bedroom or it's really kind of like an office back there to that I love so fun a little bit more of a modern look I mean there's some traditional sensibilities to that I love this with the little four chairs so it's kind of work stations back there that are really fun, but I think this is a great example of how you could transition a classic traditional interior tilly kids space because the stripe on the day bed looks very much like a ticking stripe or something really traditional, but there's no lot of modern things happening, including the metal desk, lucite chairs and how clean the whole spaces so this it would be an easy way if you're struggling with how do I give my kids some of the things they want but really transition from the rest of my traditional house? I think this is a perfect example event and feel free to chime in if you'll have things to add or if you've had success in your own home another great space I love this big pine table that anything and everything that needs to happen in your house could happen right there on that table even on the floor it's probably marble it's a little hard to tell they make this kind of flooring even in laminates and other things but any of those were going to be pretty durable ous faras cleaning but I mean you could have dinner there you can have do homework there you can do your science project there but she could also have friends over for, you know, adult so friends over for dinner and again not feel at all like a bit of children space the table has some traditional sensibilities as do the floor but there's um there's kind of some industrial going on here too, right with the lighting fixtures and the windows the architectural looks pretty contemporary, so I think a beautiful example again of how to blend um, some of these things and the function of living with kids, we do have some thai beyond the chat room, a lot of agreement with that philosophy that you don't actually have. Tio kid it with your classic kid branding and kids saw his furniture and stuff, and I love pure design interiors, so, you might remember, was with hallway through the color. Three days, my five year old and I worked together to create a bedroom with accounting blue gray instead of blue walls. He wanted a shack theme, but I subtly incorporated hints of sharks. I've asked what hints of shacks up it's, my job as a designer to end it and creatively express the kid's interests. Oh, and hints of shocks meant a blue gray wool and a shark pillow and a poster. Well, that was interesting. I speak to my daughter. Of course, she is the child of a designer, so she grows up around this. Anyway, my way joke that my my house, I could bring something new into the house, and it takes six months for my husband and notice it and take about six minutes for her to walk in to go. I left the new lamps, mommy, when did we get those so she's really, hasn't I for for detail, but I also found that when I involve her in the process, even if I'm teaching her about something that's a little more grown up like the idea that something that's really popular and design right now is and but it's classic has been around forever is should green, which is either sting ray or shark skin so it's got it's a textured pattern I mean it's textured almost like a leather on dh so I mean, I guess technically it is sort of like a leather so it's a skin, but wouldn't it be kind of fun for a child who was really into shocks to educate them on the fact that this is actual shark skin on this box or this bedside table? See you could incorporate something really grown up that you could use for years and years and you could later use in your living room or anywhere else, but you've just brought them into the idea and educated them on what it is. So I think I've had a great success with bringing her into the whole idea of the materials I'm using the reason that we're using it that way and she really responds to it another right space of this one well, it does look a little more childlike in many ways, but think about this from a standpoint of and there's another great map that I'm sure people will love but think about this space and how it could grow with from from a young child, even to teenager or even to be like a study or an office for you later. So again, we're looking at spaces that have a tine of function look at all the storage, I think it's also a great idea to have a lot of hidden storage, because even though we may love books and bookcases, they could become a lot of that visual noise and volume and it's really nice toe have doors over things. So one of the great things about this room it's to keep it from being boring is that these two different colors on the doors many, many times I have done the center panel to be a child board paint that you could actually draw, but then later on, it might just look like a black and white or black and beige or whatever color cabinet he decided for it to be so lots of ways to make a space work for kids and be functional for you and then something even like this expense, which we've all seen, many of these have become very popular it's not child like it all says opposed to picking something that looks like a kid's chair, they pick something that could really work later. One of the things I often do to have a person who loves to move to new houses, I don't stay, I'm I'm not a forever house kind of girl cause it's sort of my job to move again and redesign, and so I try to buy pieces that I love the lines of them, and they may go in a completely different room, so the black and white damos sofa that was in my daughter's playroom is currently in my family room in the in the new house, and I'm gonna recover it when I get all of the room done, probably for a different look, but I wouldn't have tio it matches in black and white in that space so you can buy something that's, a real grown up size piece of furniture and use it in different ways for many years if you buy quality and I think that's an important thing, another totally different style. This certainly fits with the urban, um, style, so we have a mid century looking desk chair, lots of metal, very organized, but again, I don't think this space would have to be a kid space for long term to you, it could be any kind of oven office space I love how you have showed us, it seems like the kid's toys at, like decoration to the rooms, so so people embrace and so probably actually they're going through and finding the pieces that actually have the most impact, like the the globe or something that actually looks interesting and then those great cabinets that have doors on them, you can store all the things that don't look really like an accessory, and I think that's a great point I'm so seeing beyond, um, the face value of what you're dealing with it and looking at them sculpture early or as an accessory, I think that's a great point left that little space that the colors fund t okay, this is fun, this is a kid, really modern kitchen, but I love these barstools they're like little ladders that you could crawl into, and you might not actually want to mix them. I don't know if this is an advertise if this is a really kitchen or an advertisement for the stools, but I love the stools because they look just sculptural like modern pieces of furniture, but think about having a kid be able to climb a pole into those and sit on them at the kitchen table, so particularly like this one, which would fit really well into either the modern, our urban design style or even the artistic traveler has very much of the danish look to it though, with the wood, but something like this could be very cute in some of those kitchens that we thought looked like modern farm houses with the red chairs but there you know it's very functional for children so how do you see beyond something that's maybe not made just for kids needs it in a different way to function for you really heat space here j k does this make you feel like your home as love this space and this is another great example of taking things there's a lot of things in this room that are very childlike including the bedding but if you just change the betting this could easily just be a guest bedroom um it could you know later on a lot of the things in the space or very grown up these lamps or not childish it all love this space the chandelier very traditional so this would fall probably could be an artistic traveler I think it leans more towards a traditional style but I love that it's an antique chest so not being afraid as you were saying not worrying about the putting antiques in places making sure they don't think of them is too precious but that agent patino might just make them even more interesting so you can start embracing that is part of your story now there's other fun things you can do in actually building that your project so very traditional cabinet could have a pullout step at the bottom that works for kids to brush their teeth so those they're clever things, that's the kind of stuff we'll talk about in my course on form and function like, how do you make things really work free? S I love that here's the chalkboard wall idea paint idea love this too. So how fun for this to be a breakfast nook and there you have the mid century modern to look table I love how the artwork is layered onto the wall, which has a little bit of a traditional sensibility to it on and then this is exactly I had this chalk boards in my last time on the front of an armoire, but this is exactly how we used it, and we missed that so much we're waiting. We're trying to side which wall to paint with child board because half of my family communication played out on the child board, whether it was the I'm gone to so and so be back in a minute or you know what the grocery list was and it all lived there, so really, really functioned for us in a big way. And then, of course, ellison did have lots of fun drawing on it on a daily basis eso really, really functional and there's some really neat products in chalkboard paint, you content them any color, now they don't have to be black or or green, like they used to be in school. That could be anything from paying to purple to green's. Really any color and there's companies that do this so that's a fun option couple more things, these air a couple of fun nursery set even really very much children spaces, but there's a lot of things about this room that again aren't child like the drapery. Maybe has a little bit of a pom pom detail on it, but the hardware and other things look really grown at without the bed and without crib in there. This could easily have another function again. Love that probably chalkboard paint on the wall too. And I love the ceiling details. So we were talking about not forgetting the fifth wall so that's a place that style could play out for you. So even if you have to keep other things cleaner as to be functional free could bring a lot of pattern or other things onto the ceiling. Here's another example? S so this would fit in the glam nursery category or glam kid's room category. Ah, but I love the wallpaper. It could be easily a guest ring at a later time, so I think you're going to see here's another this one's fun, this fits that, um, modern, very much the urban idea and isn't that great has a giant teddy bear on the floor, but other than that, this is could be a chic hotel. It could be a european, you know, hotel, for sure, it could be something in new york city very, very urban, but really cool that it's for kids, so you don't have to neglect your style to make a space work free that's really about embracing it more than anything. I'm here's another great space without the without the monkey on the bid, we might we think this wasn't even a kid space, but at the same time, a lot of the things happening in the room would appeal to ah, young girl, or even possibly a teenage girl or preteen girl that's very much is this print fits? What the artistic traveler kind of idea that global feel? It is certainly also traditional. S o does this open any of your eyes to start? Do anybody been holding off on making kids spaces really work with their style, and now they feel like they have permission to make that happen. Some of you said you were had already accomplishing this, right? I'm doing two teenage boys rooms right now and it's challenging, so what? How is it consider you? Are you kind of abandoning your style ideas to move towards what they want or have you been blending them or has it been a fight to get what they want and what you want and what room has size constraints on the other room is very big um and he's going from a single bed he's very giant child to a really big king size bed and he wants to be really modern he wants low beds and smaller furniture and he's a very big person so it's very tall a song I'm just I'm stuck I have done anything, so but but someone so just because something's lower or horizontal doesn't necessarily mean that he couldn't accommodate so you could barely see modern yeah rooms that we were looking at earlier today and then the rest of your home you said it was pretty traditional in its architecture. So is your interior still pretty traditional is well um uh probably the bliss it's a blend because I do have all that other stuff that he wants red walls I mean he's just going so it might be fun even though you typically think ok mom's going to make the kids or you know the kids are going to have to live in the constraints of what mom wants stuff it in the house what if it would be kind of fun to take cues from what they wanted and bring them into the rest of your house. And maybe since he wants modern and you haven't really embraced in the modern things, even if you wanted to, maybe this is an excuse for you to start introducing some pieces that would transition to his space. That's kind of a fun one idea. I don't know. I was just gonna say that demand and being mentioning at lunchtime that the other thing that she has to contend with is a fish tank. And I think it's always difficult query when a child has fish tank yes, yes. And my child would have every animal known to man if we let her. But we just continually say no to the guinea pigs and the hamsters and the journals and all of those things. But we do have we do have two dogs, so but yeah, that is one of the challenges is that we deal with. So maybe we have shark theme thiss sake grown a version blended with modern you had a question, too. I had a fun journey with my daughter just recently. She's, fifteen and she initially did her room in a very modern style when she was ten or eleven. And I honestly don't think she's enjoyed it and as we've gone through this process and it was more of what I liked was huh definitely influencing her, so I just couldn't get what her style was it also I put together pinterest board for her and we went through it and it was interesting was like what you said earlier, there were some pictures that I had to say don't look at the bed linen just look at the wall or just look at the dresser because she couldn't quite get that, but once we got there, she went on her own and pulled a whole bunch more pictures that's you and now I get her style it's not like the rest of my house, and we've figured out a way to clean it up a little bit, and we're having a blast. So what? What do you think her style is she she wants something coastal and she definitely want shells, which is not me at all, and so we've looked at a lot of different shells and starfish, but she only wants little bits of it, and it's got to be aqua and there's a picture on your board? Actually, that was one that we pulled a little bit further down where there's a texture on the wall, the blue wall, that one that was on our board and so she was. She has hombre bed lynn, and that she picked down just what can we do, hombre on the wall. So now she's, now, she's kind of gone. I've unleashed her and she's coming up with all these other ideas, but it's really great ones to hombre dress her. Isn't that fun that see, this is the most one thing about finding your design style, because don't you feel much more satisfied as a mom, giving her space that reflects what she really loves, and particularly if you happen to like it, too, since the best of both worlds, and allowed you to know what her style is now, you know, as she grabs available, for sure, and she may drop the idea of shells at some point that may always love awkward or blue tones, you know, so that's going to be fun, a fun evolution for her.