Recently my husband and I built a new surgery center for his practice! Okay, I admit, I love projects, or at least the thought of projects! I love designing spaces and looks that I want to achieve! But, when my husband said you need to save money on the furnishings, well, that just took away my thunder!
Look through your assets.
We had an existing practice I helped design over a decade ago, and although it was a little dated, we did have some furniture that was well made. I decided to start comparing prices of new furniture, quality and design.
I wanted to create a style that pulled from some of the mid-century components that I loved, but had a more sophisticated or glamorous spin. My biggest question was could I convert existing furniture to create a look that I would be happy with, at a price that was worth doing? As I began to research office/medical grade furniture, I realized that the quality was not nearly what it used to be and it was ridiculously expensive. Repurposing the office chairs and loveseats saved several thousand dollars, and selecting fabrics that would add to the design element of the room helped achieve my goals for an updated reception area.
Save photos of items or styles you like.
When designing spaces I often ask my clients to go through their favorite magazines or websites and pull looks that they like or items that resonate with them. I love using these images to understand the feel of what we want to create. As we designed the new office, I definitely had some light fixtures that were a "have to have". A few special little details, make spaces unique to you and your design. So many of the images I pulled for the new office had elements of wood paneling and wooden beams. Converting wooden panels to vertical lines, felt more glamorous to me than the traditional horizontal lines of Mid Century styles.
Create color boards/design boards.
Have you ever redone a space and it just did not turn out how you had envisioned? A color board helps set the mood or feel of the space, creating a palette to work within which helps keep your project harmonious. It is easy to get distracted with new ideas and new colors as you begin to pull pieces together. I can walk through a store or design center and absolutely fall in love with something, but it may not go with everything else we are doing. Having that parameter to work within keeps the project on task and ensures that everything pulls together in the end.
Do you always need to start with a color? Sometimes it is not a color that speaks to you but a special furniture piece or rug. These pieces might act as anchors to the design and then you work to pull colors and cohesive pieces around it. Color palettes do not require any special software, they can be accomplished by getting samples of fabrics, tiles and paint. Often times the samples might need to be ordered in ahead of time and could incur a sample fee, but they usually reimburse those fees with the purchase or products, or return of the samples.
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