Home Design Tips
Interior Designer Molly Gerkin Johnston, a Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative member, provides some practical design tips to help you create a unique and beautiful home that tells your story well. For more tips, contact Johnston at
gerkindesigner@sbcglobal.net or 918-299-9100.
Before making changes to your home, consider how long you plan to live there. Are you making changes in order to sell it soon, will
you live there for 5 to 10 years, or indefi nitely? Think about this as you plan, and balance your current enjoyment with your future goals. Consider the needs you will have as you grow older. As people age, they need more lighting. A single-story home with level fl ooring
throughout is easiest to navigate and maintain. She also recommends having less decorative items to care for and dust. Make a budget. Johnston says some people never get started because they don’t know where to begin and how much a project will
cost. If you can’t afford the whole project, she recommends making a plan and spreading it out over a few years. If you don’t know your style, a designer is helpful. At an average of $80-$100/hour, design help might not be cheap, but if the designer
can keep you from making expensive mistakes, it’s worth it. Even one or two hours of design assistance can pay off. If you decide to hire a designer, make the most of your time by preparing beforehand. Clip pictures of things you like from magazines.
Once the designer understands what you like, they can help you with a plan. Not every designer is extravagant. Good designers will work with the pieces clients have already, and build from there.
Find the starting point of your room—whether it’s the wall color or a piece of furniture. Begin with that and make decisions based on the mood you are trying to achieve.
When it comes to decorating, there are options available in all price ranges. Johnston says it is very possible to decorate without spending a fortune, because there’s no need to buy the most expensive items. She even advises her young clients not to purchase in- vestment furniture since their tastes and trends will change over time.
Make use of free resources, such as the design services offered by furniture, decorating and hardware stores. Online resources like
Houzz and HGTV also provide guidance to the DIYer. Using one type of fl ooring throughout a living space will help the home appear bigger. When it comes to paint colors, work within color families, utilizing different shades of the same color. Johnston says a new coat of
paint can transform a room. Test your paint color before painting an entire room. An easy way to do this is to purchase a $5 paint pot and paint a piece of poster
board. Move the poster board around the room to see how it looks in different lights at different times of the day. An easy way to visualize the furniture layout in a room is to draw the footprint on newspaper and move the pieces around the room.
JUNE 2017 19
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