EYE ON DESIGN
By Patricia Dane Rogers
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 27, 2000; Page H05
The call for decorating help came from a couple in Silver Spring whose living room had all the charm of a doctor's waiting room.
The furniture was lined up around the edge of the room. The sofa beneath the picture window was awkwardly long and low. The television set could not be watched comfortably from any seat in the house. And, as in many homes after 40 years, there was simply too much stuff.
There were also plenty of pluses, including a handsome Chinese area rug.
A couple of hours with Gaithersburg designer Betsy Pence, of Betsy Pence Interiors, produced enough suggestions for a pulled-together, fresher look.
The consultation was part of a program sponsored by the Washington Metropolitan Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), called Summer Spruce Up, which offers up to two hours of design consultation time in your home for $75 an hour. If you want additional time and floor plans, says chapter administrator Leslie Ehrmann, it's up to you and the designer to make formal arrangements, which could include a higher rate.
"The program is a great way for members of the public to get top-notch advice with no strings attached," Ehrmann says. For information on the program, which runs through June 30, call 202-488-4100.
This is the third year the group has offered the Spruce Up promotion. Ehrmann says experience has shown that most callers want help in one of two areas: color and furniture arrangement.
Pence's visit to Silver Spring proved the point. "My clients wanted to know how to make the narrow room more gracious," says Pence. "They wanted to know what to put where, what should go and what should stay" and how it could all work together.
She started by suggesting that a desk be moved to another room, freeing up space for other pieces. A pair of club chairs was pulled toward the center of the room to create a comfortable conversation grouping with the sofa. The sofa stayed put facing the fireplace--the room's focal point. But Pence suggested that a shorter model would bring the club chairs into an even more inviting arrangement. The TV set moved to a corner, a better vantage point for viewing. In the crowded adjacent dining room, a serving table was subtracted to free up the furniture gridlock.
The designer also suggested bolder colors, drawing on the cobalt blues, rose tones and grassy greens of the area rug for new slipcovers and upholstery. A striped fabric in these colors, she said, would unite two club chairs in unmatched fabrics. A floral print for new curtains would echo the pattern of the rug, and longer panels would make the room look less squat. The walls had just been painted an antique white, but should her clients change their mind, Pence left them color chips to inspire other possibilities like blue and green. "You don't need more than a few hours to see what to do," she says. "My clients have beautiful things. Sometimes, even rearranging a few pieces of furniture can make all the difference in the world."
Have a decorating or design problem or solution? Share it with us. Write to Eye on Design, Home Section, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071; or e-mail Patricia Dane Rogers at rogersp@washpost.com. We regret that we cannot answer each message because of the volume of responses.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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