It Bears Repeating...Again

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This week I am up in Maine working on my client's historic cottage...and loving every minute of it!

I thought it would be fun share this article I wrote two years ago while I was up here. Hope you enjoy!

Deciding to redo a room can be a time of overwhelm.

Where to start? What to put into the space? What color should it be? 

We often feel we have to totally reinvent the wheel and come up with completely new ideas, getting rid of everything in the space & throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  

But the thing is, you don't. 

If you carefully look at the room you are trying to redesign, it will kindly give you clues on how to bring the space together more beautifully and purposefully, but you just have to know where to look. 

One of the most stunning elements of the cottage I am currently working on up in Maine is its glorious Gothic windows. 

So lovely. 

They are in an alcove on one end of a very large open space that includes the sitting room, dining room, and music room. 

The shape of these windows is an element that I love. So, how can I bring more of that into play?

Last week while I was there working, I was so excited to find salvaged Gothic windows at an architectural antiques dealer in a nearby town. We brought them home, and set them in place to see how they would look...

I literally jumped up and down clapping when I saw them in place.  

No kidding--I'm that weird. 

We placed them at the opposite end of the large space on an interior wall. The two ends of the house suddenly started "talking" to one another--they were in relationship, and all the rooms in between now seemed to get along better, too. 

Repeating elements within a space creates a way for a room or house overall to relate to itself. Seeing a theme or certain design element in more than one place in a room can create a sense of balance, peace, consistency, and symmetry.  It provides for a bigger impact than if that lovely thing was used only once all by itself. 

You may not have unique historic windows in your home, but you can add impact, too, by being consistent with other elements in your home, such as: 

  • color
  • texture
  • shape
  • subject matter in your artwork

What elements in your space do you already love? How can you bring more of that thing into the room(s)? We often think of repetition as boring, but it really is something we look for, and find comforting & beautiful if done in the right way. 

So, please go ahead and repeat yourself!