We've almost finished downstairs,apart from some painting by me,and are planning upstairs starting with the bathroom. As I started working on the concept board for this room I realised that although I had talked about concept boards before I hadn't shown you the process so I thought this would be the ideal opportunity.
So what is a concept,or mood,board? It's a series of images that sums up the feel that you want to create in a room. For the kitchen we had "Sweden meets Tuscany" (I knew what I meant!)
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| Kitchen concept board |
And now the kitchen.
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Kitchen
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So you can see how the colours,textures and feel of the room carry through.
Using a concept board really helps you focus on what you want and keeps you on track when you're shopping for furnishings. How many times have you gone out for say,a yellow shirt, and fallen in love with a purple flowery one. You can't resist the colour and pattern. You just have to have it! But you never wear it because it goes with nothing and it's not really you. It's easy to hide the shirt in the back of the wardrobe but more difficult with a pair of curtains.
But the best thing about designing a concept board is that your room will be individual to you and really reflect your personality. It's easy with so many gorgeous magazines and internet images to fall in love with a room style, go out and buy the whole lot. After all if everything has been selected by a designer it must be good? Well yes but is it really you? Does it showcase your individuality? Probably not. This spring everyone I met seemed to be decorating. I was a little perplexed by the amount of people who had chosen stone coloured paint with a feature wall in mulberry. Then I saw the Dulux catalogue which featured a room set with this combination,it's very nice,but not unique to you.
So back to our bathroom. My initial thoughts were for a calm(again!) tranquil, spa like zone. But then Andrew pointed out it was a family bathroom and that harassed mothers will probably not want teenagers loitering there in the morning. The first starting point is to think of some words that really sum up how you want the room to feel.
They can be something emotional 'cosy, snug,welcoming' or you may have a theme in mind 'New England boardwalk','French chateau' or 'English rose garden'. It's entirely your call.
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| Initial thoughts |
I came up with
Refresh
Indulge
Invigorate
Cleanse
Wake up!
Spritzy
Zesty
It's best to have a maximum of three or it can get confusing. From my list I whittled down to 'Wake up! Zesty & Indulge' which then got stuck in front of me to keep me focused while I sorted through images. During this process 'indulge' became 'fresh'.
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| Aide memoire |
Because I make up quite a few concept boards I have a very fat file of photographs. They have been cut out of magazines over the years (travel,food and fashion ones are particularly good) and I have them categorised just to make it a bit quicker for me. These include urban,calm,cool,rich and one for each season.
So I took a few relevant sections out (this time I had cool, spring, and vibrant) and then just start looking to see what appealed to me. It's easier if they're not in magazines or you can get distracted by reading! You could also use photographs that you've taken. The only rule is that there are no pictures of furniture,fabrics or accessories,you're looking for inspirational images.
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| My big fat file |
My initial images numbered 21.
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| First haul |
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| Can you see Wake up! Zesty & Fresh? |
I prefer to only have three or four images on the final board, any more and it either becomes confusing or you're repeating images. Sometimes you find the one perfect shot that sums up everything you imagine living in that room will be.
Twenty one went to eight that went to four.
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| Getting there |
Concept boards are not necessarily a quick process,up to the last shot I'd taken three hours but it is the backbone of your design. I wasn't entirely happy with the last four. They hit the brief but it was all a bit green. This wouldn't normally be a problem but we already have two rooms in shades of green and I wanted to break from this. But sometimes that's how houses,or you,are. I'm fond of blue but in our last house it just wasn't happening.
At this point I left the images on my desk overnight to see what I felt about them in the morning.
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| New day |
So the morning brought the above selection, which then became this.
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| So close |
And I finally whittled it down to four.
The next stage is cutting and mounting. Don't feel you have to have whole images,you can slice and dice as you wish. How you mount is an important part of the board. If you were doing a board for a child's room you might want it to feel lively and slightly chaotic so your images could be different sizes and placed in a more random way.
Try and avoid cutting with scissors as you rarely get a crisp line. A sharp blade, metal ruler and cutting board are best.
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| Tools of the trade |
The colour of the board is important as well. I had run out of white mountboard and as it was my personal project I knew I could get away with it. White was important though as this is the colour of the bathroom suite and so will have a large presence in the room. So I cut white paper to mount my images on first. The easiest way of fixing the images is to use photographic spraymount as you do have a short window to reposition. Finally write your key words on,as a reminder.
So finally, after a couple of days I was happy with the results.
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| Final board |
And the observant out there will notice that the lemon tart didn't make it to the finals!
Now I'll research tiles,paints,flooring and window treatment until I'm happy that the balance is right. Once I've got samples I'll make up a board as the final check and show you the results.
If anyone wants help with doing their own board, or would like me to design one for them then drop me a line
here. Or if you have a question you can always post a comment.
Until next time
Sharon
