Last Look, Know Your Adjectives
Taking the time to define the most critical goals you have for your interior spaces will help you avoid a wealth of design mistakes.
Beson chose Cambria Snowdon White™ countertops for his condo near Palm Beach
by Billy Beson as told to Reed Richardson
In all my years in the business, I’ve seen every design mistake. So, with new clients I tell them to sit down in their space with a glass of wine, a cocktail, or a cup of coffee and write down adjectives to describe the pace and feeling that they want to achieve in the room. Then they edit that list down to just five or six words, which become the criteria for making all design decisions. If the goal is a “practical, functional” dining room in a home with young children, for example, then glass-top tables and pure white carpeting would be poor design choices. A “cool, sleek, light, and open” kitchen, on the other hand, might call for more glass and stainless steel as well as neutral, light-colored countertops. This method helps me justify my style choices to my clients and for the do-it-yourself designer it helps keep them on track so that they don’t end up buying things on impulse that are out of scale or the wrong color for the space.
Billy Beson, A.S.I.D., is CEO of the Minneapolis-based interior design firm Beson Kading Interior Design Group.
