DIY Network

Personal Touch: What Is a Good Design? From "Blueprint for Home Building" episode DBHB-211

In the second segment of "Personal Touch" host Jeff Wilson looks at bringing the outside in with traffic flow and lighting design options for your home's interior.

advertisement

	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

Now that you've learned what to consider when choosing an interior designer, it's time to look at a few design ideas for your new home.

Begin by considering your environment as a whole. The interior design begins with the integration of the outside location, no matter where your home may be. A house is always sitting on a piece of land, whether it's a single family house sitting on a 1/4 acre, five acres or it's a town home sharing walls -- there's always land involved in a residential situation.

The land is "not" separate; it's part of the house and should be used as part of the house (figure A). A house that is not connected to the outside is not taking advantage of so many different elements of life. From a design standpoint, doors and windows facilitate the transition between the outside and inside. Size, type and placement will determine to what degree you let the outside in -- or keep the outside out.

The addition of window treatments further determine the amount of natural light let into the room (figure B) and has an effect on the feel of the interior. Window treatments, in fact, provide several functions:

• Screen for light.

• Screen for noise.

• Insulation for energy efficiency.

• And they provide privacy.

Instead of curtains or blinds, you may decide to have no window treatments at all (figure C). You don't have to make every window treatment decision up front.

Traffic flow from room to room is vital in considering the design of your home, which is why the placement of your furniture is so important.

Traffic Flow in Your Home

It's vital to consider how your home's traffic flows not only from room to room but as well as from one end of a room to the other. Traffic flow is determined by the combination of the architecture and placement of furniture in each room. You want to have the bathrooms, kitchen and every room in the house blend together and have the same theme if possible.

Ask yourself the following question: When you come home at night, how do you go from one room to the other, and are they set up in a way that is convenient to do that?

In any room you need to feel centered and balanced -- where you sit, the placement of the door, the windows and the location of the other chairs. Consider that when people visit their proximity with the furniture need to relate so you can have a conversation.

Lighting Options

Another important element to consider with your interior design is the lighting options. You must have good lighting on your art (figure D), ambient lighting, mood lighting (figure E), task lighting and lighting for reading, watching television, etc.

Too often there are spaces in your home that aren't lit properly, so it's vital up front in the design process that you put enough fixtures in for your needs down the road. You can always put controls such as dimmers on the fixtures to change the lighting levels, but if you don't have enough fixtures in the space when you begin, you're never going to have enough light for the space.

Note: For accent task lighting an excellent source is low voltage. This allows you to direct the light into a particular space or area of your home.

Figure D

Figure E

For more information on Interior Design, click here for a few basic interior-design tips.

In the next segment Jeff takes an in-depth look into walk-in closets reach-in storage for your home office and garage space.

GUESTS :

Benjamin Clavan
Architect, AIA
E-mail: benjamic@earthink.net

Linda Brettler
Architect
Phone: 323-935-3999
E-mail: lindabrettler@sbcglobal.net

John Harmon
Licensed Contractor
Specialized Services
PO Box 1377
Sunset Beach, CA 90742-1377
Phone: 562-592-3831
E-mail: SpecEmail@aol.com

Pierre Abboud
Designer/Sales
We apologize no further information is available.

Skip Weahunt
Homeowner
E-mail: skip@ownerbuildercenter.com

Bob Miller
CMTS
E-mail: robertmillerpe@comcast.net

Jody Cukier Seigler
Interior Designer
951 North Bristol Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
Phone: 310-476-1286
E-mail: jodycs@yahoo.com

Igor Orlovsky
Contracting Consultant
E-mail: heyigor@sbcglobal.net

Pamela Volante
Interior Designer, Lighting Designer
Volante Planning and Design
269 S. Beverly Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Phone: 310-968-6505
E-mail: pamelavol@aol.com

Channing Swift
Contracting Superintendent
2047 Morley St.
Simi, CA 93065
Phone: 310-279-6865
E-mail: xrysto@adelphia.net

Glen Siegel
Director of Halo Marketing
Cooper Lighting
1174 Hwy 74 S.
Peachtree City, GA 30269
Phone: 770-486-5288
E-mail: gsiegel@cooperlighting.com

Dana Pucillo
Design Consultant
California Closets
1735 Stewart St., Suite A
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Phone: 310.566-3280
E-mail: dpucillo@calclosets.com
Website: www.calclosets.com

Douglas Kerr
Contractor
E-mail: dougkerr@pacbell.net