Dear friends,

Any room in your home is primarily a space within walls, floor and a ceiling. When the structure or the apartment gets constructed, the architect and the structural contractor has taken all the care that it is stable and can withstand outside natural forces like, earthquakes, heavy winds, rainfalls, etc..

Amongst all other rooms the bedroom is a space where comfort levels have to be kept maximum. But the word comfort is a relative term. The meaning of comfort is not just a sleep of 8 hours. A good sleep inside a bedroom is a bare minimum expectation which can not be ignored.

But comfort varies from person to person. For someone it feels good by just sitting in a rocking chair, sipping a cup of coffee and enjoying good view around the house or for someone it could be listening to good music or watching night sky full of stars.

So when it comes to design any space many aspects come into consideration. Design is not just arrangement of furniture, choosing color schemes, deciding textures/finishes etc..It has to deal with "feeling good" about the space.

Of course all these factors when used in a unique way, can turn out to be a great design. The above mentioned "feel good" factor comes about by selecting a "theme" based design.

When we try to look towards the empty space through a theme, everything gets a definition and can be dealt upon easily.

Let's see an example.

If I decide to decorate a bedroom which is empty, first I will have to decide on a particular style to execute. If it's my own bedroom then I must know what kind of style best suits my personality. This choice of style will greatly influence, the kind of furniture, color scheme, finishes I use.

Here I can go for contemporary style/oriental style/country style. All these have a unique set of parameters right from the layout of furniture to what diameter should I use for the curtain rods.

A design deals with a big view starting from furniture layout and goes in-depth, deciding with each and every minute details of linen. All these affect the final expression, which is required for "feeling good". All these detailing will change the moment to shift from your theme/style.

That's why by fragmenting the entire design process into theme options can make the process easier and gives a direction to start the execution of any project.

If you are designing for someone else, it's a good idea to first know your client's likes and dislikes. I mean his personality, his hobbies, his job profile, etc... Remember that HE is going to use this room, it's his baby.

Of course once you start with a theme, it normally happens that you will get more richer and creative ideas during primary sketching process.

I hope this article was helpful.

Copyright 2005 Shrinivas Vaidya