Emily Howard, Madison Record

Putting together a room is not as hard as you think, interior designer Michael White told 18 members of the Madison Women’s Club Feb. 15.

At their meeting, White, a designer at Ethan Allen in Huntsville, gave his insight on using space and texture to decorate a room.

Some of Michael’s pointers included:

- Putting together a room is the same as putting together an outfit-Where do you want the room to take you? Think about your favorite outfit, and decide what you’ll be comfortable with in a room.

- Make sure you know what you like, but more importantly, know what you don’t like and avoid it.

- Use a tight color palate (just black and white or blue and brown, for example) and use different shades of those colors in different patterns.

- Mixing woods (or silver and gold) is not taboo anymore. In fact, it helps relax a room.

- A rug or piece of fabric is a great place to start decorating a room. Pick one that you love and choose colors from it.

- Don’t be afraid to get rid of things. If you don’t find it useful or beautiful, edit it out.

- Avoid clutter. Choose big, important pieces and don’t follow fads.

- When working with colors, warm colors come toward you and cool colors recede. So, if you have a small room, painting the far wall of that room in a cool color can make the room seem bigger.

- In a formal room, everything is symmetrical. To loosen things up, use a different scale.

- Decorating is all about scale, texture and big pieces.

White was educated at the Sheffield School of Interior Design in Manhattan and describes interior design as his “dream job.”

When a purchase is made at Ethan Allen, the customer gets the services of a designer like Michael free of charge.

For more information or for free design advice, visit www.ethanallen.com and click on “design ideas.”

For information on Madison’s Women’s Club, call Dawn Johnson at 464-9452.

source : www.madisoncountyrecord.com