Breaking up with your furniture

I have a confession to make: I’ve had some unhealthy relationships in my time. In my zeal to make things work and despite my best efforts, I only managed to make things worse. You see, I was one of those women you always hear about – I was a furniture hoarder.

Of course, I’m not the only person whose afflicted with this problem. For most, it starts in college; poor students have to furnish their humble dwellings with hand-me-downs and cheap superstore offerings. Without serious decoration intervention, things can quickly get out of hand. Why? It’s hard to justify getting rid of functional furniture, and the result is a decor nightmare. Of course, it’s good to hang on to high-quality custom appointments and antiques. If you find your furniture collection disjointed, oversized, worn, and generally hard to design around, however, it may be time to dump some of your stuff.

Here are a few tips help you know when it’s time to say goodbye:

1. Unless you’re a carpenter, let the broken and worn things go. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to older pieces that need a little restoration and love. Send your grandma’s china cabinet off to a refinisher; go ahead and chunk the sagging Target futon.

2. Resist the urge to buy the same things over and over again. Avoid picking up strictly utilitarian furniture, and consider multi-function solutions. Don’t add another mismatched love-seat to your family room. Think about creative and modular seating solutions like padded ottomans. Practical architectural additions like built-in shelving will save you floor-space and money on bookshelves. These solutions are more attractive, cost-effective, and consolidate space.

3. Don’t buy furniture suites. These mass-produced matching sets are often poorly constructed, bad for design, and rarely save you money. Instead of picking a room out of a showroom, focus on finding unique pieces that really appeal to your taste. That way, you can continue to create new layouts by mixing and matching instead of being stuck with the same old look.

4. Look carefully at what you have and what you need. You may find you have a lot of pieces, but they aren’t making your life any easier. Start seeing these things as the space-wasting clutter they are.

5. Replace items one at a time. There’s no need to spend a fortune updating you furnishings all at once. Make a list of things you would like to update and swap them out once you find the funds and the perfect additions to your home. Building a beautiful home is a slow process. Don’t rush it, and don’t get into debt.

When you do decide to get rid of some of the furniture cluttering up your home, please don’t let it end up in a landfill. There are many charities that are ready and willing to pass on your well-loved possessions to the less fortunate. Some even have curb-side pickup services. Otherwise, send them off to be recycled.

Check out a few other opinions on redecorating your home:

• Newbie here. I just finished re-decorating my nyc apt. let me know …

- My theme is mixing european arts with asian high tech gadgets. living room with antique estonian painting, italian byzantine plaques and globe, sharp air purifier, samsung lcd, and denon speaker. remote art lights and chinese lucky …

• i can’t stop redecorating

- i have been on a huge redecorating/organizing kick lately. you’ve already read the blogs about the pantry, basement and dining room, but i have yet to tell you about our bedroom and living room. i have been wanting nightstands forever! …

Confessions of a Reformed Slob

There are a lot of people who don’t see the point of home design. I must say that there was a time in my life when I completely agreed with them. Picking out paint chips and sewing throw pillows seemed fussy and complicated. I wanted my life to be simple, so I rejected the idea of creating a plan for my home.

How wrong I was! Interior design isn’t about creating a place that’s impossible to live in. It’s just the opposite. Good design makes a how more comfortable and inspires a better life.

Home decor is about feeling at home.

To those of us who weren’t born with the desire to alphabetize our DVD collection, worrying about the placement of a couch may seem silly. I didn’t see the point of all of it either. Then, I tried it.

I started out simple. A few flourishes of color. I matched my curtains to my new duvet. This weird thing happened. When I went to my clean bedroom and shut the door, all the stresses of the day melted away. I was in a space that I liked. It was clean and put-together. My former self would have been bemoaning the extra few minutes it took to pick up my clothes, but the new me was happy to do it. Even today, when I need to recharge I just straighten up my room, lie on the bed, and look around. It’s my space, and it’s comfortable and beautiful.

Design is organization; organization is design.

Design is dependent on everything being in its place. This doesn’t mean there are hard and fast rules about decor. The best plans marry aesthetics with functionality.

Organization is not all about labels and filing systems. It is all about making things easy to find and use. Don’t be afraid of organizing your home. Once you start sorting, things will look better and task will become easier.

Start planning a room by laying out everything you need access to. Chances are, the simplest solutions are the best for your design. If you’ve ever put books into a bookcase, then congratulations! You’ve implemented a design by organizing.

Make it cohesive.

The most important thing to remember about design a room is that people should want to use it. You don’t achieve this by getting matchy-matchy with fabrics or overstimulating people. Most of the time making something come together is about making it comfortable for all aspects of daily living.

There is a great post about getting started with this over at The Inspired Room. Setting a plan and following through on making a room functional can make all the difference.

Try designing a room by cleaning up and rearranging. Soon, you’ll understand the freedom and fun of interior design.

Here are a few sites you can check out that talk about interior design:

• Haute couture apartments: apartments from ARMANI

- … which will with pleasure, embody all dreams in the refined interior. Absolutely soon true judges of design haute couture, and also admirers of philosophy of Fashionable Armani House can plunge into the refined comfort and [...]

• INTERIOR DESIGN 2008 REVIEW

- I checked out the Interior Design 2008 show yesterday and it didn’t disappoint. Seeing gaggles of Irish vendors and designers together in one place was a reassuring reminder that decent Irish design resources do exist! …