Information to help you with the decorating process

How to Decorate

This article includes information to help you with the decorating process. It explains what you need to know and gives step-by-step instructions on how to decorate.

Essential Decorating Tools

Following is a list of some of the supplies and/or tools you will need:

Paint chip fan deck (a master paint sampler with hundreds of shades)
Color wheel
Manufacturers catalogs
Paper (including both plain white paper and graph paper)
Notepad
Pencils (with erasers)
Pens
Measuring tapes - both a good firm metal one (at least 25′ long) with a lock on it and a soft flexible cloth one
Rulers (including a scale ruler and a straight edge)
Calculator
Furniture templates
Fabric swatches
Sample floor coverings

Ideally, you should keep these "decorating tools" in a briefcase (your "decorating kit") that you take with you each time you are working – whether you are going to a furniture store, a client's home or a showroom. You will borrow fabric swatches and floor coverings samples from wholesalers on an as-needed basis to show clients for consultations or once you've been hired, so these items will change from client to client. You may be amazed at how many times you end up pulling out your measuring tape, notepad and pen in various settings to measure and record the dimensions of either a wall or window or a piece of furniture or even an accessory. The cloth measuring tape is great for measuring soft items such as cushions. The graph paper (and white paper), ruler, pencil, calculator and furniture template are great for drawing out decorating floor plans.

You can pick up a furniture template and a scale ruler at a home improvement store such as The Home Depot, Lowe's, Rona (in Canada) or Homebase or B&Q (in England). The scale ruler is extremely helpful when you are drawing odd sized furnishings to scale such as occasional tables and chairs, etc. You should be able to pick up the sampler paint chips from a large paint store. Let them know you are in the interior decorating business and this may help with you obtaining a full paint sampler. One company that supplies paint samplers to tradesworkers is Pittsburgh Paints. Pittsburgh Paints has 1,800 color samples in their "The Voice of Color Design Collection". There are seven different complimenting colors on each 9″ x 2″ sampler and each sampler is hole punched and placed together on a large ring for a total of 1,800 color paint samples to choose from.

Optional Decorating Tools

You may also want to include some or all of the following items in your "decorating kit":

Felt furniture protectors (these stick on to the bottom of chair legs and table legs and protect the floor from scratches)
Clear flat stick-on plastic protectors (these protect furniture and walls from scratches and raise and level items such as glass table tops to prevent slippage)
Picture hanging kit, including a hammer, variety of nails and hooks, wire, etc.
Small sewing kit with scissors, thread, needles, straight pins and safety pins (for quick repairs or to pin fabrics to get an idea of a particular look)
Level (for hanging pictures)

In addition to the above, some decorators also find it useful to have a drawing table (a table that you can put on an angle for easier drawing) together with a good desk lamp that will illuminate the area where you are drawing your plans. This would be kept at your office (or home if you work from home). You can purchase a drawing table at an art supply store. Otherwise, a nice size desk or kitchen table will work just fine for drawing plans.

Design Elements

To be a successful decorator, there are a number of design elements you need to know about. When decorating a room, there are important design elements that must be taken into consideration. Design elements affect the entire room and include:

space
balance
color
texture
pattern
scale
line
form

In this article, you saw these basic principles of design. You will find out how to apply them to an actual decorating project.

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