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Furniture arrangements, sewing techniques ahead on show

Information on furniture arrangement and sewing techniques for making a perfect bag will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and noon Thursday (all times Mountain).

Interior designer Lee Brown questions why people worry about where to put furniture since we all use our rooms in a different way. She’s going to talk about seasonal furnishings, the need for more light as we get older, as well as the need for less storage as children get older. She says that function is the most important thing in remodeling or redecorating. She’s from Christ Church, New Zealand.

Pam Damour is owner of The Decorating Diva, and she’s going to share some tips on making a perfect bag, including techniques for straps, bag bottoms and pockets. Damour lives in Champlain, New York.

Information on using Tulip fashion paints and dyes, making custom photo jewelry and making a window valance will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” noon Tuesday and 2 p.m. Saturday.

Designer Laura Bray is going to show how to create your own fabric designs using an assort-ment of Tulip fashion paints and dyes. She says this will elevate your craft and sewing projects to new levels. She represents ilovetocreate.com and lives in Aliso Viejo, California.

Rebecca Peck represents Amate Studios, and she’s going to show some different styles of jewelry blanks and how to make custom photo jewelry with UV resins, which imitate the look of more expensive jewelry. Peck is from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

Terrell Sundermann is going to demonstrate making a window valance for either an inside mount or an outside mount. Her business is Terrell Designs and she lives in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Furniture placement

This is one of the hardest topics to explain as there are so many variables that come into play. It's a struggle for people to imagine changing their furniture in a room, and it is hard work re-arranging the furniture in multiple positions to get it right. Having spatial awareness comes with practice, but if you only do it once a year, it's not a skill that you will practice and retain. The one key thing to remember is there is no wrong or right way. There are guidelines, but like anything creative it’s working with lots of factors to pull it all together. We all want our own unique space and we all live differently. This changes over time as our families grow and use the spaces in different ways. Design is a good excuse to rearrange the furniture, change things around and keep spaces fresh. When it comes to arranging furniture, there are a few basic things to remember:

1. What are you going to use the space for (i.e. its function.)

2. Who is going to be using the space?

3. How is the traffic flow?

4. Consider balance and harmony.

5. Think about planes, height and creating spaces within the room.

6. What will be the focal point?

7. Think outside the square.

8. It's your space - embrace it and own it

Having a good understanding of how you use a space means that you can have just the right amount of furniture. Teenagers like to lie all over the floor and watch TV - they don't need chairs - just some floor cushions, bean bags and a rug for example. Young children like to spread their toys all over the floor, so allow them to have a toy box or basket so you or they can quickly scoop them all up at the end of playtime. If the room has to be shared with a computer, then create a quiet space away from traffic flow and distractions of the TV or the view. We need to consider movement or how traffic flows in the space. Look at the door and window placement. Make sure you allow enough room to comfortably pass furniture without having to dance around it. Make sure you don't place a walking space in front of the TV. Think about entrance and exit points, frequency of traffic. The shape of the room will always dictate where you place the furniture. Just don't do the number one mistake I see and that is placing all your furniture around the walls and having a big open space in the middle. This is not a space you want to live in.

“Creative Living” is produced and hosted by Sheryl Borden. The show is carried by more than 118 PBS stations. Contact her at:

[email protected]

 
 
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