Next steps
This is part two of three for chapter one of the Domino book of decorating. This will cover steps four through six.
Assess your stuff
The book suggests photographing everything, sorting those pictures, and measuring the items you plan on keeping. The photographs are to help you filter your items to see if they serve the purpose of a room and your design style. If not, it’s an item you can sell or give. Domino suggests sorting your pictures into keep, change, give, and sell to help with the process. I like the idea of pictures of everything because it can also help you see everything you’re going to keep and put different items together to accomplish your goal for a room. It’s an easy way to bring that lamp from the bedroom into the office for a great, new look. The final step to measure is really a no brainer. Don’t forget to measure your art and pictures frames to make sure they’ll fit in your wall space.
I have not actually done this step so I’m not sure how well these tool tips will help but for keeping pictures online, I use Flickr. I have a pro account which allows unlimited organization (sets/collections) and uploads. The free account allows you to show 200 photos and upload 100MB of photos per calendar month (which means it resets at Midnight Pacific on the first of each month). Because of these limits, I’m not sure how long it would take or how difficult it would be to get all of your pictures online. I do like what Flickr offers in terms of organization. I highly suggest the use of tags to keep items organized. You can tag items with one of the four* sorting options above as well as categorizing them into furniture, art, color, size, etc. I suggest refraining from using room tags (living room, bedroom, office) until you are actively working on that room and know that piece of furniture or art is going into that room. You can add descriptions to your photos as well. This is where you should add your measurements of items. If you want to get really spiffy or maybe the item is an odd shape, you can add a note to the photo. Here’s my example.
There are many other online photo storage options so feel free to browse around and try things out for yourself. These are just my tips for storing and organizing online.
*Uploading the give/sell items might seem silly but Flickr gives you a permanent link for those pictures which would make listing easier.
Draw a floor plan
A free personal account at floor planner lets you have one plan to lay out your home, apartment, or condo. It even allows you to view in 3D. They offer other products and a demo, but I need to measure my space before I can really use this. There’s more to just the floor plan, however. The layout of the items in the room is just as important as any features (fireplace, picture window, etc.) you may want to highlight. The book suggests you map layout options to help you figure out what’s important and visually pleasing.
Set a budget
This step is going to be very difficult for me because I really don’t have any money to spend. I hope by the time I reach this step in a room, I’ll know what I want and can then make a list and price it out. This will allow me to prioritize, save, and look for sales or thrift items. While I am working on researching, I’ll make sure to keep a list of prices and where to buy so that a budget is kept in mind.