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Transform your well-loved
home with a fresh look!
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with a caring professional
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www.theconnectionsnj.com
Designing or redesigning your home
doesn’t have to be as if you’re a player in
a Woody Allen movie.
With a professional designer in your cor-
ner it will be less anxiety and more fun,
and with more than thirty years as a pro-
fessional, this is a little bit of what I’ve
learned.
1.
IF IT WAS THAT EASY EVERY-
BODY WOULD BE DOING IT!
Don’t be deceived by the TV shows that
make it look so easy. After the cameras
shut down, chances are that some of the
window treatments will fall down, the
walls will crack and the bills will include
labor costs, which of course, no one has
yet to mention.
It takes planning, care, time and quality
workmanship to make any project
last.The goal? To look as good years
ahead as good as it looks when you first
complete it.
2.
YOU CAN’T CARRY A COLOR
IN YOUR HEAD!
Even a professional can’t do that. More
than once I’ve been at your local paint
store, painstakingly mixing paint colors
to be perfect for my client and I’ve been
standing next to a homeowner buying
gallons of paint chosen directly from a
one inch by two inch sample. A disaster
clearly waiting to happen. Choosing col-
ors is one of the most time consuming
projects there is in design. Every color has
to work with every other one in a project
-
a total, unified look .
Sample, sample and sample again.
3.
YOU CAN’T CARRY A MEASURE-
MENT IN YOUR HEAD EITHER!
I was once assured by my client that her
apartment building in Manhattan had a
freight elevator. Of course, she said,
“
How else would anyone get furniture
up to the 16th floor?”
Well it didn’t! And the stairways were
too narrow to walk it up. There I was
with a white sofa and three deliverymen
waiting.
A sympathetic super hauled the sofa
(
covered of course) to the top of the ele-
vator and we rode it up to the 16th floor.
What did I learn? Assume nothing.
Measure everything - for floor plans, for
deliveries and beyond. The value of
working with a designer is to hopefully
prevent disasters and avoid costly mis-
takes.
5.
EVERYTHING HAS TO BALANCE
Judging spacial relationships is a gift.
Some of us just have it and we all know
people who just can’t project what
things will look like in advance. The tal-
ent of a fine designer is to do that for
you, to translate your own visions into
reality.
Then everything works together when all
is done, and makes both the client and
the designer smile and be proud.
6.
MOST IMPORTANT: LIKE AND
TRUST THE DESIGNER
Choose someone who has a track record,
good reputation, and a pleasing website
to start. You may not want to live in what
you see but you can appreciate the tal-
ent.
You will be spending a lot of time - plan-
ning, compromising, and spending
money together. Wait a minute, that's
like a marriage! Well, it is, in essence, the
same.
The end result - the process of doing
happy things together - and the comple-
tion of a beautiful space to live in. Then
how lucky and how fortunate we all are
-
doing things right.
HIGH ANXIETY
By: Gail Pearlman IIDA, Loft Interiors
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