Imagine the possibilities …
That’s what interior designer, design coach and mentor, and author Darcy Kempton encourages her readers to do in her easy-to-follow book, Instant Dream Home — A Paint-by-Numbers Interior Design Guide. But painting by numbers doesn’t necessarily mean staying within the lines when designing your dream home.
“If you can dream it, then it’s possible,” writes Darcy, who admits to making just about every decorating mistake in the book. That’s why her guide is so great; she’s made the mistakes and missteps, so you don’t have to. In this hands-on, interactive workbook, she steers you along the same roadmap she uses for every project she undertakes in her own highly successful interior design business to help you avoid the detours and often costly consequences of a design disaster.
In her own engaging, conversational style, Darcy emboldens readers with encouragement to create a home you, your family and guests will love. Packed with inspirational before and afters, name- (and jaw) dropping client case studies, expert tips on where to splurge and how to save, and other pro “secrets,” she walks you through a simple, three-step process to interior decorating success, giving you all the tools you need along the way to implement the design of your dreams, whatever your budget.
Darcy’s in the houzz
Step 1: Define your style. Darcy gets you started with a 10-question evaluation form, priming the process with questions like, how would you describe your home as it is today? What drives you crazy about your house now? How long do you plan to be in your home? Then it’s on to the fun part — finding inspiration to develop your style. As she does with clients, Darcy starts by referring readers to peruse houzz.com, with questions and photographs to guide them through the site and help them zero in on what they like. Ground zero for any design, she says, is finding that “Almighty Inspiration Piece” (she even leaves a space on the page where you can paste a picture of it).
Step 2: Translating your inspiration into a well-defined design plan. Here Darcy breaks down the seemingly daunting design planning process into a few key elements: a sensible floorplan, a cohesive design scheme and a smart budget. She gives easy to read expert guidance on deciding what to keep, scaling design elements to fit and focusing on a focal point, as well as her Top 10 “Must Haves” to help you build a room design from the ground up. This chapter also includes hands-on tools like an inventory list and grids for sketching out furniture placement, places to paste your color palette, and a sample budget work sheet.
Step 3: Take action! In this chapter, Darcy helps you take your plans on paper to reality by learning to embrace your strengths and hire your weaknesses. (Great advice!) She includes a simple DIY assessment survey to decide what you can tackle on your own and where you might want to hire a pro.
Inspired to create a simply stunning space of your own? Get your copy of Instant Dream Home here, or get to know Darcy better at www.simplystunningspaces.com.
