Professional Interior Design advice & stories

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Do you have an interior design or decor question that you don't want to pay a fortune to have answered? You are in luck! Ask away!

Posted by Michele Marecki at 8:27 AM

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About Me

Michele Marecki: I am a licensed and experienced Interior Designer offering full scope design services including CAD. Project locations include Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Georgia & Florida. My 10 year+ experience includes new construction residential, remodeling residential & commercial spaces, multi-family housing and clubhouses, hospitality, golf clubs, corporate, and medical. Collaborations with architects, builders and designers and of course individual clients are welcome. Initial consultations are no charge. Contact MMM Interiors, Inc. at 561.613.2952 for more information.

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Design Elements and Principles

Do you wonder how an interior designer creates a beautiful space? Well, I will reveal some basic key elements & principles that contribute to this and are referred to during the process of an interior design project.

Design Elements: Space, Light, Scale, Lines, Form, Color, Value, Texture, Pattern

Design Principles: Balance, Rhythm, Focus, Proportion, Harmony, Variety

Now that you know these terms, lets discuss exactly why they are so important. Design is derived on how it will affect an individual or group in many ways including psychology, safety and function. Designers are ultimately trying to please the senses and force people to react in positive ways within a space. I will give you an example in which I will use a nursing home as the client. This is a great example because of the extreme conditions regarding the elderly. There is a limited color palette to choose from due to the psychological effects of color. Also lighting, textures, patterns and proportion need to be carefully analyzed. Imagine an elderly person in a home with some vision impairment and dementia. Colors such as red, yellow or black should be avoided. Highly polished floors should be avoided. Why? Red would evoke increase in blood pressure, aggression and danger to name a few. While black evokes mourning, uncertainty and fatigue. A polished floor can cause spatial and depth confusion due to the reflections. A beautiful and functional floor with a matte appearance would be a good choice. What colors would I recommend and why? For many spaces of a nursing home-use tones of green, blue yellow, orange and violet. Blue can encourage logic, lower blood pressure, peace and serenity. Not to mention that blue is the most like color of 35% of world inhabitants. Green can offer refreshment, balance, and is a neutralizing color. Green also absorbs the afterimage to the eye, which is why it is most seen in hospitals, especially surgical rooms where red is seen so often. Yellow has a psychological tendency to allow the brain to retain and recall as far as memory is concerned. It also can increase appetite and aids digestion.

So this is an easy to understand example of color's influence to the brain and in turn a key element of interior design.

Published projects I collaborated on

http://www.walkerdigital.com/video/
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

Architects

http://markfinlay.com

Furnishings with flair, function & quality

http://www.knoll.com/products/productline_23.jsp

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My top resources

http://www.robertallendesign.com/fabrics/index.aspx
http://kravet.com/
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/index.jsp

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