Roll like da designers do

room design board

My sister her husband are geniuses. Although maybe only part genius since it took them many years to come up with this solution. Nope. Full genius. The idea is that good, regardless of the time it took to evolve.

ANYWAY. So my sis and brother-in-law have great taste. This is not reflected in some of their interiors. Why? Because my brother-in-law cannot make up his everlovin’ mind about buying furnishings without centuries spent mulling it over. Or he finds a design flaw he simply cannot look past. (Note: We LOVE BIL, which is why we mock.  Mocking equals love.)

Here’s how that has played out: Sis would ask BIL if he liked one of three things. He would have to think about it for a lonnnnnnng time. Then he would decide he liked nothing, NOTHING. If he did immediately like something, Sis would grab it up as fast as possible and bring it home — whew! This M.O. has resulted in a completely empty dining room and a family room with oh, 11 different chairs. Sis and BIL like all the chairs. But still. Room full of chairs.

So it occurred to Sis and BIL while watching Design Star that if Sis were to put together a room board (she’s incredibly artistic and would find this fun, not a chore), BIL could visualize a whole concept and not get hung up and reject a piece of furniture for using a hinge whose color he didn’t like. He could engage in the whole concept instead of one disconnected piece of it. Challenge extended.

So Sis built the board and — this part was very smart — did not use placeholder images to represent a type or style of an item. She used swatches of the precise colors and fabrics she wanted. She used photos of exactly the pieces of furniture she thought would work best. And she sketched multiple elevations to give the fullest possible idea of how the room would look.

It worked! The board let them really visualize all the possible trouble-spots as well as gauge what new pieces were needed and what problems they would solve. It was so successful, in fact, they went out that weekend and bought ALL the furniture on the board in one trip. (Second note: They are not millionaires, but have saved up money from all the furniture they haven’t been buying in their ten years together.) Before this, buying one piece of furniture on the same day they found it was unheard of for them.

All this is a very long anecdotal way to suggest that if you and whomever you share space with can’t seem to land on a style or room plan, maybe give the room board a shot. You could be throwing cinder block shelves and milk crate tables away tonight!