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FOCAL POINTS – HOW TO IDENTIFY THEM IN YOUR HOME

Updating or moving into a new home can be very overwhelming and oftentimes terrifying when it comes to interior decorating or renovations. You quickly start asking yourself “what if I spend all this money and hate what I have selected?” “What if I choose the wrong paint color?” First rule of thumb I try to encourage all of my clients to utilize is Pinterest. Pinterest allows you to search hundreds of thousands of pictures that give you ideas and direction, but it also allows your likes and dislikes to be quickly narrowed down and ultimately aid in selecting “YOUR” style. I want to emphasize “YOUR” because it’s really easy to turn to your family, friends, or heck even people like us to “create or design your space…” And while I don’t want to take away from my own business opportunities, I want to overemphasize that you can pay a designer A LOT of money to come in and “design or decorate” your home, but if you don’t have an idea of what look or style you want in your home, more often than not you will NOT like what we come up with. 

Homeowners need to be bought into the project! My most enjoyable clients are the ones who call and text with pictures and endless ideas. What I love most about this type of engaging client is that it allows me to help guide them into the overall design and outcome they are wanting. Many of my clients want to mix multiple styles and in some cases that is perfectly OKAY! My job is not to tell a client they are wrong. Listen, I do not have any formal training in interior design or decorating, but I have an eye for walking into a space and envisioning a finished product. I have been told over the years that most people struggle with this, so after many years of hemming and hawing (and my Fiancé strongly encouraging me) to open my own design company and do something that I am extremely passionate about, I finally did it! So, here we are, writing my first blog and taking a complete leap of faith into the interior design industry. 

I am often asked “how do you select or know when you see a focal point in a room?” I generally will look at the bones of a home as well as the elements in each room. For example, in the 2 pictures shown above, I utilized the islands and lighting fixtures as the main focal points. However, if you look at the before (pictured below) you will notice that the original focal point in the kitchen was the oversized hood. I recently posted the before photos from this project and one of my Instagram followers commented that the “oversized” hood looked like an upright piano over the stove. I quickly shuffled through my pictures and laughed as I had never thought about it like that! Nonetheless, we knew it needed to go! 

When you start moving into other rooms throughout a home, selecting focal points can become a little more challenging. More often than not, the homes that I design or decorate are “lived in” which means I have to envision focal points. In a master bedroom, I will look at the windows and lighting (I’m a sucker for natural lighting) to create an open airy feel. From there, we can decide what the best focal point(s) of the room would be. Maybe it’s a piece of artwork, a window with a stunning view, a fireplace, or a cozy nook or workspace. If the room doesn’t have any distinguishing architectural features, furniture can also be used as a focal point. A question that typically follows is “what if i want more than one focal point?” YES! Again there are no right or wrongs when done in moderation and we then can identify a primary and secondary focal point. “Will it look too busy?” It can, and our job is to help you design and select pieces that won’t overpower one focal point from another in the same space. We hope this information was informative and helps make home remodels and interior decorating less intimidating!  

NN Designs has just launched our online shop and we are so excited to share our hand selected home decor products. We have decorated homes (mine included) with every product we sell. Our goal is to deliver high quality products that you will love! Reach out to us with questions!