Dear friends, we as humans are a composite of mind, body and spirit. All these three in proper coordination, create the world around us. The things, which we want in life, are first created in our mind, then our mind sends signals to our brain and the brain sends signals to various parts of our body to take action and thus “reality” gets created.

This means that whatever we imagine in our minds gets converted in reality. The program of our mind decides what we imagine. I mean if I want to decorate my bedroom, everything from the type of furniture I choose to the budget decision will depend upon my “broader attitude” towards life.

If I am a “budget conscious” person, then this will affect right from the initial stages of the design. I will look at the design from a conservative point of view. Thus everything, which gets created in reality will have an influence of my personality.

Here I am not trying to say that only high budget designs are good. I have seen works of many interior designers, who have spent their entire lives on studying low cost design projects and also have won awards for their magnificent work.

That’s why any interior design project can not be fulfilled without active participation of the client or the user. Creativity doesn’t have any boundaries of budget. Any piece of art which fulfils the functional need and also the aesthetical need can be easily accepted as an architectural element. Budget is not a constraint at all. On the other hand the budget constraint sometimes is useful to generate some good ideas for a particular problem.

An interior designer is not an artist, because an artist basically performs his acts to satisfy his own desire. This could be any performing art or other forms of arts. His piece of work
may not have any functional use from user’s point of view.

An interior designer is not even a technician or engineer. Because when an engineer builds a design he need not worry of making it “beautiful”. His primary aim is to make it functional. He puts his entire energy in making the design functional.

That’s why an interior designer is one who satisfies both the functional as well as aesthetical part of the design. Sometimes it is easy to accomplish the functional part of an interior design, but since the definition of beauty is different for everyone, it is extremely difficult to satisfy each and every user’s aesthetic hunger.

This is particularly true about interiors in public spaces. For example a bank building has a definite use and function for all the users. We can safely create a list of functions a person
would perform when he visits a bank. But this does not mean the bank reflects his personality, like the first paragraph of this article mentions.

That’s why interiors in public spaces always are designed by taking into consideration something called as “mass personality”. This is a general attitude of the kind of mindset everyone would have or is likely to have when he/she visits that space. If  you visit large corporate software office premise, you will see this picture.

Office interiors always have a certain kind of order in them. The use of colors, design styles have a kind of commitment in them, which is expected from you when you work there.

On the other hand a bar or a restaurant has some sort of mood generating atmosphere, which sets you loose. Because this is what is expected in a public space like a restaurant.

Thus any interior space is always associated with people. A space which serves its functions best and makes the users comfortable is bound to succeed as a favorite place.

I hope this article was informative to everyone.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of Bedroom-Design-And-Decorating-Ideas.com .Here you will find some great concept level design tips for bedooms, teen bedrooms and guest bedrooms

Here are great recommendations on choosing the right color schemes for home interiors.

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The Color Scheme Bible: Inspirational Palettes for Designing Home Interiors
Amazon Price: $19.77


Customer Review: This book has a lot of ideas and inspiration about colours. Some schemes are daring, but all of them seems an professional work!

The Beader’s Color Mixing Directory: 200 Failsafe Color Schemes for Beautiful…
Amazon Price: $17.93


Customer Review: I have been looking for something which would help me in designing with beads, and now I have it. It was the easiest book I have found to have the use of colors, to be pleasing to the eye. When I get into theory, I don’t under stand it, or at least …

Color Schemes Made Easy (Better Homes & Gardens)
Amazon Price: $13.57


Customer Review: Learning from experience takes too long. It is better to read this book so that designing with the right combination of colours is more cost effective and less hassle.

Color in Interior Design
Amazon Price: $40.92


Customer Review: it’s a really helpful book for designers.you can find whatever you need about colors…

Authentic Color Schemes for Victorian Houses: Comstock’s Modern House Paintin…
Amazon Price: $12.21


Customer Review: To quote the book, “Those of our readers who expect to find lists comprising all the various scales of color, giving definite information as to what particular color should be used to harmonize with this or that shade, and telling just what combinati…

Any interior space is primarily composed of walls, floor and ceiling. These elements give a habitable character to the interior space.

Apart from providing protection from natural elements such as rain, snow, wind and other natural calamities, an interior space is also responsible for creating moods, depending upon the theme of the decoration.

Depending upon the functional purpose of the interior space, the quality and quantity of the furniture and other elements may change. For example a “meditation center” might not require any furniture at all, but a gymnasium on the other hand requires specially designed equipment.

For the sake of this article we are only going to concentrate on bedrooms. A bedroom is a space, which is close to our heart. This is the space where we take rest and regain the vital energy force for the next day’s work. A typical bedroom consists of a double/single bed depending upon the size and occupancy of the room, wardrobe, study table, chairs for informal gathering, dressing table, side tables adjacent to the bed for keeping items such as telephone, watch, etc..

Since a bulk of volume gets occupied with the furniture pieces, the beauty of a bedroom greatly depends upon the quality of the furniture. But that’s not all. Any interior space can be greatly enhanced using “accessories” and some great amount of detailing can be added to an existing bedroom with furniture.

1)Use of decorative curtains.

These are called as valances and are a very good means to decorate the windows and other openings. These decorative curtains have 2 purposes. a) They define a window opening b) They diffuse the incoming sunlight and help the dispersion of light evenly. valances can be easily be prepared at home with some basic knowledge of stitching.

2)Wall Hangings
 
wall hangings are used as an alternative for wall paintings. These have a great advantage that they can be prepared from almost any material. Some possible options for material use could be matt finished paper, handmade paper, silk cloth, bamboo sticks, jeans cloth!, wool, plastic sheets, crape papers, etc…Small square pieces of these materials along with bits of mirrors pieces can be creatively used to prepare a wall hanging.

3)Wall Paintings.

The choice of the wall paintings in this case highly depends upon the likes/dislikes of the user. Also the nature of the surface on which the painting is going to be, is also important.

4)Photographs

Most people like to use framed photographs of the family members, ancestors, or some live stills from outside world. This method has got a great advantage. The user has got perfect control over which kind of photos to choose. Photographs of real people can greatly add a human touch to an interior space.

5)Statues

These greatly add to the quality of the space. In case of bedrooms the statues which can add some interest to the overall theme can be used. Some gift articles come in the form of statues or a watch embedded in it can serve two purposes at a time. They add some grace to the design and at the same time, become a useful functional piece.

6)Shade Loving Plants.

Depending upon the size of the bedroom, lots of varieties of shade loving plants are available today. If the plant is a flowering one, then this can be very creatively used. A flowering plant can greatly add to the mood of an space because of its changing nature of foliage and color.

7)Decorative Lamp Shades.

Decorative lamp shades have a very unique quality attached to them. Because they are functional mostly at night times, the shape of the lampshade itself can be chosen in such a way, that will add some interest in the bedroom. During its functional times a lampshade which is made of semitransparent cloth covers can add some wonderful ambience in the interior space.

8)Free standing wooden partitions.

These are used in large bedroom to define certain areas of the same space into different parts. for example a wooden partition can be used to segregate a study space inside a bedroom or a decorative wooden partitions can be used to hide the direct entry to the toilet, by creating a private area.

These are some of the ideas I have come up with randomly. These can be a good starting point. You can always come up with more good and creative ideas of your own. A very creative use of these accessories can definitely sheer up an interior space.

I hope this article was informative to everyone.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of
Bedroom-Design-And-Decorating-Ideas.com .Here you will find some great concept level design tips for all types of bedrooms

Whenever I think of any design, be it interior design or product design, a few things very naturally come up in my mind. These are in the form of questions.

The best part is, answers to these questions can give rise to
a very successful design in itself. Let’s see how.

If I am planning to design a piece of furniture, let’s say a double bed, immediate I start relating to what I already know about double beds, some picture/image I have already seen, something I have seen in some furniture shop, etc… Then I start thinking about what material I should think about, the budget, dimensions, age group of people who are going to use it, etc… If you answer these questions one by one on a paper, you will get a blueprint of the design process, so that you can convert in into technical drawings, with all the joinery details and finally the product.

Amongst above mentioned questions some are directly related to function of the double bed as a piece of furniture.

What does this mean?

When I ask myself, what should be the dimensions of a double bed? I have very little freedom to decide the dimensions of the bed, because there are certain norms to be followed in order to serve it’s basic function and that’s comfort.

But what if I say that I will keep the overall surface area of the bed same , but make it round in plan. Will it be ok..

Now here I am trying to achieve both function and aesthetics,
without sacrificing the comfort of the person who will use it. So during any design process there will be times when the designer need to take some decisions where he has to keep
aside his wildest ideas and pay attention to function first.

That’s why the true success of an interior design project is a good balance between function and aesthetics.

Expressing this kind of balance through design is not an easy
task, because function is universally accepted, but aesthetics, not always.

What does this mean?

Beauty is always relative. A washbasin has a common universal function of an appliance to be used for washing hands, but it’s beauty is relative. What is beautiful for me, might not hold true for you.

So a design expression can have a unique style of the designer himself. It is possible that the designer is more comfortable with certain kinds of materials/finishes/color schemes, etc.. which can reflect in his designs.

In spite of these personal touches a good designs always
caters the needs of the user first. A good designer has a certain kind of convincing power in his/her style which he uses to expresses in the design without sacrificing the likes/dislikes of the user.

There are designers who are more comfortable in designing only a certain kind space such as bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, public spaces such as restaurants, clubs, gymnasiums.

Of course this is entirely of a personal choice, but there is this same message in their designs, shell out your ego and design for the best parameters with worst possibilities taken into considerations. This is what gives birth to a great design.

I hope this article was helpful.

Copyright 2005 Shrinivas Vaidya

For more powerful and in-depth concept level knowledge of bedroom design visit Bedroom-Design-And-decorating-Ideas.com. You will find some good tips on designing various kinds of bedrooms.