Monday 24 June 2013

BTS : HOW DO YOU KNOW?

It is all systems go at JDZ HQ today despite the miserable weather. A full two walls of tiles has gone up in our latest bathroom project and here are some more behind the scenes shots from the site this morning.







I am so happy with the way it is turning out and it is beyond rewarding seeing something you have specified happen before your eyes. For most people picking tiles, grout colours, finishes and fixing is a nightmare, they don't know were to start or what goes with what and even when you make your choices, you are only picking a single tile for a huge wall... so how do you know it is all going to turn out?! In my personal opinion, apart from having a good eye for detail and being able to visally imagine the end result, it is all about intuition and confidence in your choices. And trust me when you are on site and surrounded by a hundred other people who have their own opinion, it is very difficult not to doubt.

Here are my five easy tips on how to give yourself the confidence you are making the right decision.

1. BASE OR FEATURE : Pick either a base colour to work from, I.e: a neutral tone that you can easily mix other textures and colours with Ie: fittings etc OR have a feature element ( or colour ) that is a feature which you draw inspiration for the rest of the room from.

2. DEVELOP A VISION : Try and have a particular style in mind, research that style, gather only 5 images of that style for a particular room and ask yourself what you love and what works in these images. These act like a guide to give you ideas and confidence to see how it will look when it is done.

3.  SET LIMITS: If you start looking at over 100 different images or the same thing and 100 different images of different products you will only confuse yourself and the look. When looking for lights, tiles, colours, have the intension from the vision so you dont spend hours going over and over the same thing. If you look at one light and love it, think, does it work with the space? Yes! Then presto that is the light. Do NOT go searching for a "better" option.

4. LISTS: Write yourself a list of everything the space needs, find images and or get samples of a all the bits and pieces and stick it to a wall ( even if they are just printed images.) By seeing it visually in front of you it gives you some understanding of how all the elements compliment each other. You can then generally see what isnt working and what is. For example, you want a grey feature wall, but the colour grey you have chosen looks brown in tone rather than a cool blueish tone and you have picked to have a huge black feature mirror hanging on this wall. Straight away you can see that black and brown tones generally don't compliment each other. So you know you have chosen the wrong colour or wrong mirror. Decide which element is more important and then use that element to help make the decision. If having the mirror is what you want then easily change to a cooler grey tone and presto problem solved.
That is why I really recommend looking over all your choices through images, paint chips etc to make sure it all goes together. Any element that doesnt will yell out to you.

5. TRUST: Once you make those decisions they are it. Do not doubt yourself, as I find the first instinct and choice is about 95% always the decision you end up going with. I trust my instinct so much and it never lies to me. Someone always has a different opinion but if you LOVE it and feel good about the decision, go with it. I specified a dark grout colour for these tiles in the image above so that they will pop when you walk in the room.  Today because dark grout is not always seen and it is being "risky," my choice was questioned. I had about a 5 minute window where I thought... "Oh no, maybe they are right." Then I took a step back looked at the result and trusted my decision. 

I bet anything once it is done, everyone will be speechless. 


Stay warm and trust your inner design instinct. 

JDZ x 









No comments:

Post a Comment

 
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...