Good Ideas

Window Treatments – Protect Your Art & Furniture From a Sunburn

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Surfaces

Blinds, shades, and draperies, collectively known as “window treatments” are a great addition to any home. They’re not only functional, they add style and personality.

Window treatments run the spectrum from clean and simple to elegant and complex.

One of the main benefits of all window treatments is that they allow you to control light, including providing UV protection.

As happy as we are to see the sun in spring and summer, it has a dark side. We all love to get our Vitamin D, but we still wear sunscreen. Your art and furniture can get a sunburn too. Your home needs the same protection from the sun’s rays that your skin does. Not only does your family benefit from the protection that window coverings provide, your furnishings, draperies, accessories, and floor coverings do too.

Unprotected, the sun burns out the colours, fades and disintegrates the fibres of your fabrics and rugs, ruins your art and changes the colours of your wood floors

Another great thing about window treatments is that you can manage privacy. Dance naked for your neighbours, or not, this becomes entirely up to you.

In addition to privacy and light control, window treatments also conserve energy, helping keep rooms seasonably warm or cool making them a great solution to drafty windows. Window treatments, especially drapes, (which we love!) can also be a real benefit to room acoustics.

Here are our three favorite window treatments:

Roller Shades

Most simple, and becoming the most common in our projects, are roller shades. Roller Shades are the new “mini blinds” only they make you swear less when you use them. Roller shades come in color options with designs that make it easy to convert any space.

Options

Opacity: from see through to blackout and everything in between

Automation: solar, hardwired or battery – Yes solar!!

UV rated: this is an option in some brands

Valances: there are choices

Benefits

Control: temperature and light including computer glare

View: when they are closed they disappear

Safe: no cords with automation

Convenient: they can usually fit into existing condo valances (where the mini blinds are now).

Compatible: work with other window treatments like drapes or outside mounted roman shades

Strata Rules: easy to meet guidelines

Affordable: compared to most other window treatments

Drapes

These are our favourite and probably the most beneficial of all window treatments. They insulate your windows keeping your room cool or warm as needed. For darkening rooms, especially bedrooms, they can be lined with a blackout lining. The least considered benefit is acoustics, drapes help soften sound in a room. As a design element they work in any style of space.

Options

Opacity: from shear to blackout and everything in between

Automation: hardwired

Mounting: ceiling or wall mounted

Hardware: lots of rods and tracks – some rods can be curved to go around corners

Benefits

Control: temperature and light and acoustics

View: can clear the window depending on installation

Safe: no cords

Convenient: they can fit into existing condo valances

Compatible: work with inside mount roller shades

Strata Rules: easy to meet guidelines

Affordable:  if you buy from IKEA. We always suggest custom, which are pricey, but worth it!!

Roman Shades   

Share the same attributes of drapes – only they are shorter. Ideal when you have a baseboard heater or furniture piece below a window. They are a great companion to drapes and can be the same or complimentary fabrics. Roman shades are an embellishment opportunity waiting to happen.

Options

Opacity: from shear to blackout and everything in between

Automation: hardwired

Valances: optional

Mounting: inside mount or outside mount

Benefits

Control: temperature and light

View: will always block part of the window when open

Safe: will have a cord/chain but doesn’t have to be long and can be locked

Compatible: work with other window treatments like inside mount roller shades

Strata Rules: easy to meet guidelines

Affordable: only if you buy from Home Depot. We always suggest custom, which are pricey but worth it!!

Styling a Room – What Does That Mean?

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Goods
You

Styling a room versus filling it with crap… there is a book for that.

During my most recent  book shop crawl I found this gem of a book called Styled: Secrets for Arranging Rooms, from Tabletops to Bookshelves by Emily Henderson. If you have art and travel treasures and things you love and find beautiful and meaningful and want to display them in a way that honours them and inspires you then this book is for you!

Define Styling…

Interior design is a mix of technical work and artistry. I define “styling” for our clients as placing and arranging all their art, collections, books and “treasures”. Styling with art and objects that have beauty and meaning. This is the perfect way to finish a technically well planned space. Styling a room is like the jewellery on an outfit. It finishes it and adds soul to the space. It reflects the most important thing about your space which is you.

What I believe:

I believe the things you have in the room should have meaning and value to you.  In that they make you happy or remind you of people or experiences that feed your soul. Things that inspire you with their beauty or function. The bags of knick knacks from home decor shops dragged into your home in the hope of injecting this feeling is futile. I strongly discourage it! Personally I am not a fan of over doing “stuff” in a room. Stuff for stuff sake or “shelf shit” as my friend calls it detracts rather than enriches a space. An empty shelf or table top is better than one that is filled with things that mean nothing to you.

How Good Space Plans Online deal with Styling:

We have worked out a way to help our Good Space Plans Online clients with styling. Good Space can do that when we are not in the same city  let alone the same room!  There is a great styling section in the Good Space online plans that we create for our clients.  I know this is really helpful for hanging art and placing treasures

Happy Styling!

 

How to improve your home for free!

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You

What if there was something totally free that you could do to feel good in your home even if your home isn’t perfect or close to how you want it to look yet?

Good-Space-Design-Group-Blog-feel-better-for-free-in-your-home

What are you focusing on?

It​ ​is​ ​becoming​ ​a​ ​well​ ​documented​ ​scientific​ ​fact​ ​that​ ​our​ ​brains​ ​search​ ​out​ ​and​ ​hang​ ​on​ ​to​ ​the negative.​ ​I​ ​invite​ ​you​ ​to​ ​start​ ​to​ ​notice​ ​when​ ​you​ ​do​ ​this​ ​about​ ​your​ ​home.  Raise​ ​your​ ​hand​ ​if​ ​you​ ​have​ ​ever​ ​welcomed​ ​guests​ ​at​ ​the​ ​door​ ​and​ ​immediately​ ​apologized for or pointed​ ​out a​ ​mess​ ​or​ ​a​ ​flaw​ ​in​ ​your​ ​wall​ ​or​ ​furniture?​ ​My​ ​hand​ ​just​ ​went​ ​up​ ​for​ ​sure!  

We​ ​unconsciously​ ​and​ ​sometimes​ ​consciously​ ​find​ ​the​ ​flaws​ ​or​ ​failings​ ​of​ ​our​ ​homes, furniture​ ​and​ ​fittings​. This causes us to ​spend​ ​precious​ ​energy​ ​focusing​ ​on​ ​it​ ​without​ ​any​ ​intent​ ​or willingness​ ​to​ ​take​ ​action​ ​to​ ​change​ ​it.​ It becomes a habit and unknowingly starts to change the relationship we have with our homes. ​I​ ​don’t​ ​believe​ ​this​ ​serves​ ​us​ ​or​ ​gives​ ​our​ ​homes​ ​the love​ ​they​ ​require​ ​to​ ​support​ ​us​ ​as​ ​we​ ​live​ ​our​ ​busy​ ​modern​ ​lives.

What we focus on expands.

There is a fun game that my grandson and I play it can be played inside or outside. We say,  find all the blue or red or yellow and it is amazing what we see. Suddenly so many objects with that colour appear and we didn’t notice them before. All that changed was that we focused and looked for it! I think this is true about our homes too. If we focus on the flaws then they too seem to expand and become all we see.

Change the focus.

It seems reasonable to conclude that  if it works one way then it can work the other way too. By focusing on what we love or what makes us feel good in our homes we expand and notice these things instead. This seems like a healthier more productive practice. To be grateful for those things that sustain and enrich us and to openly express what we are grateful for and love about our homes feels so much better. This becomes the path to making good choices and planning for changes to our homes.

Let’s find the good and build on that.

Through our work as interior designers we have the privilege of helping people find the good in their homes as we work together to create beautiful and sustaining spaces. Whether it is online or in person we believe this is the foundation of our work. Find the good and what our clients feel they really need and want in their homes and build on that!

Interior Design for Small Spaces – A Good Space Plans Online Four Part Series – Part 4

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Function
Light
You

Lighting Design for Your Small Space

The final of a four part Good Space Plan Online series.

Lighting, we can’t say enough about it!

Good Space Design Group - Marinaside Crescent Project

We believe well considered lighting is essential for your comfort. This is particularly important in small spaces where one room has an influence on the next. The reason being they share the lighting.  Firstly, we put dimmers on all the switched fixtures and then we drill down on the details.

If there is a dining area fixture…

Good Space Project - Osler Street

We like to play with scale and select a maximum sized dining fixture that is fabulous to look at and delightful to experience.  A big “ta-da” with lots of light and interest. It is the star of the show. Once this is in place all the other lights can quietly do their job. These fixtures work by supporting the space, providing general lighting and task lighting as required.

The supporting cast of light fixtures…

Good Space Design Group - Gray Avenue Project

Good Space’s most favourite kind of small space lamp, wall mounted lamps!

 

Because we have minimised table tops in living areas and the bedroom, table lamps are often not possible. At Good Space we use floor lamps and our most favourite kind of small space lamp, wall mounted lamps! These are fantastic and offer super functional light without taking up precious table top or floor space. Some of these fixtures have two lamps in one – which are great as bedside lights. We search out fixtures that are dimmable.  

The price of real estate aside….

Living in smaller spaces puts us in closer proximity to our work places, our activities and interests. Small spaces  can simplify our lives and minimize the stress and expense of maintenance. A well designed space of any size supports you by freeing up precious time and resources to enjoy your life.

At Good Space Plans Online we work with you through a highly engaging online interior design experience that gives you peace of mind, certainty and an achievable design plan for your home.

Interior Design for Small Spaces – A Good Space Plans Online Four Part Series – Part 3

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Function
Goods
You

The Design of Your Bedroom in a Small Space.

Good Space Plan's Online

When is bed more than a bed?

Good Space Design Group - 160th Project

When it has integrated storage! How much stuff is under your bed? True confessions are that mine doesn’t have an inch of space left under there! That is why we love a lift storage bed – these add an amazing amount of storage and function. The reason a lift storage bed is usually the best option for small spaces is that it goes up and not out like drawers. Storage beds with drawers when opened require space around the bed, often in small spaces this isn’t possible. Well designed lift storage beds allow some toe space under them. If you have ever smashed your toes on the bed you will know what we mean.  There are wood and upholstered options so lots of creative possibilities.

Tip: A lighter weight mattress is best for a storage bed – especially a king!

Where does my coffee go?

Anmore Project - Good Space Design Group

Bedside tables also have potential for storage. The key is get the height right – you don’t want to reach up from your mattress to your bedside table top. These can be freestanding or wall mounted – we think the surfaces should be durable or at least have a tray for protecting the top from a hot coffee mug – because a cozy coffee or tea in bed is the best!  

Bedside lighting is for next week…
Your bedroom or your sleeping space is sacred space and worth taking the time to select the best things for you and your bedroom experiences.

Next week: let’s talk about Lighting…