Wondering how to divvy up your total interior design budget?  What percentage to spend on furniture?  What % to pay on window treatments?  Here's a quick summary.

​Let's say you have $30,000 budgeted for your living room décor. 
Here's a wise way to break it down.

• 5% goes towards painting your room.
• 35% for furniture - I know, it seems low right?
• 10% on rugs
• 15% on accessories - they really do make a difference!
• 30% on window treatments.  Yikes!  Yes, it's really that high.  This includes any blinds, roman shades, horizontal blinds, shutters, drapery, drapery rods & installation.  Really though, it's imperative to having a gorgeous room.  Even cut back on the furniture if you have to!
• 5% on electrical & shipping.

I usually tell my clients to add an extra 10% contingency fund, just in case something comes up that we don't anticipate.
​Don't forget taxes & design fees are on top of this.
​Our fee for full service, virtual interior design is $875 per room.

Rendering by Vasyl Mihay 

I provide my clients with low, medium and high budget ranges, so they know in general what you need to budget for each room. Contact me if you'd like a copy of this!

I hope this gives you a little guidance to know where your money will go, on average, for a residential living room!  Contact me if you need help!

Are you wondering What is the difference between an Interior Designer & Decorator?

It can get complicated, but here's a brief summary...

Interior design is the art & science of understanding people's behavior to create functional spaces within a building. They are often used for renovating kitchens and bathrooms. They know code and take all the details into consideration. They do not create architectural drawings for permits (they can hire out for that), but they do draw floorplans and furniture plans for discussion purposes, which is very helpful for clients & contractors.

Interior decorating is the furnishing or adorning of a space with decorative elements to achieve a certain aesthetic.

​In short, interior designers may decorate, but decorators do not design.

We'd be happy to design or decorate your home!

Update:  For More information check out my video interview below from Oct, 2021.
​ I speak more about it around the 19 minute mark after discussing trends for 2022. 
​

​What does your dream home look like? Contemporary, Traditional, Craftsman, Mid Century Modern? Townhome,  House,  Apartment?

The style of your exterior architecture should influence your interior design. i.e. Victorian homes generally look best with traditional interiors; lodges look wonderful with structured, but casual furnishings.  Remember to bring that exterior feeling inside.  For example, exterior rock siding also works for the interior fireplace surround. ​

​3.  Function:

List the needs you have for your house. How do you really live? Be honest!
Do you need a: play room, large kitchen, four bedrooms, den, or a large family room?  Write a list of what you do each day - down to the nitty gritty- including things like how much laundry you do, which door you generally use to enter a home - garage, side or front door. 

Things like these really let you customize your home to your unique needs. For example; when I come home I rarely enter via the front door. I park in the garage and usually bring items from the car into the home. I immediately enter the laundry room, so, I need a place right near the door to set down my bags of groceries, design sample boards, etc. 

Would you like a few quick tips on how to calculate the correct size chandelier or pendant light for over your dining room table? 
​Here we go!

In general:
Add the width and length of your dining room ie. 10' + 14' = 24. 
We need a light approximately 24" wide!

Or here are a few general dining room table sizes, and the width of lights that would complement the table nicely.

Oval table 42" long - light should be 18-20" wide.
Oval table 48" long - light should be 24" wide.
​
Square tables? Just take the table size and subtract 12" off each side.
ie. 42" sq. table. -12" and -12" = 18" wide light.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Of course there are variables, but this will get you in the right ballpark!

This important rule says that most designs can be made more interesting by visually dividing a wall or a photo into thirds vertically and/or horizontally; and placing our most important elements within those thirds. 
​
If you have a fireplace on a 12' wide wall, and perhaps the fireplace is 4' wide, well, you'd place the fireplace in the centre, leaving a 4' patch of wall on each side.  Thereby dividing that wall in thirds.   

Another important design concept is Visual Center and Balance. Placing important elements or the focal point of the design within the visual center of a piece is another design trick. We all know the actual centre of a photo is right in the middle of the shot. But, did you know the visual center is slightly to the right of and above the actual center of the photo?  This is the area that our eyes are drawn to immediately.
​

This "rule" originally was developed by photographers to ensure every shot looks great.  Don't we as designers, or homeowners want that as well?  Basically when you are composing a photograph, or a wall, imagine two vertical lines and two horizontal lines dissecting your image into nine squares as shown below.
​

​Placing your most important elements at one or more of the four intersections of those lines, helps create interesting photos or design.

​Most balanced designs (and even unbalanced ones) rely on a grid. This invisible structure  helps ensure that all the elements are placed in the right location, thereby achieving balance as well as  helping with continuity and consistency of design. These are design principles that help the professional designer achieve visual balance. 
​If you'd like more info, please visit this great site at Photographytalk.com 


If you'd love to have a visually balanced room, one that is truly pleasing to the eye, please email me at info@jilsoniainteriors.com

Wondering how to calculate which size of fan you need for your bathroom?  For a bathroom with a tub or shower, here's the magic ratio!

Calculate the volume of your bathroom:
Height of the room x length of room x width of the room = total volume.
ie. 8' high x 10' long x 6' wide room =  480 cubic feet.

Now divide the cubic feet by 7.5

480 divided by 7.5 = 64 cfm fan size.  Or select the closest available fan size, when in between sizes, always select the higher CFM fan.  Meaning, if there is a 50 CFM fan and a 75 CFM fan, select the 75 CFM fan.

There you go!

​
Recessed can lighting design layout:​

Part A:  How many pot / recessed / can lights do I need?
​

• Step 1:  Measure the length x width of the room. Now you have the area or total square footage of your room. ie. 12' x 20' = 240' square feet.

• Step 2:  Multiply the area x 1.5 to get your total wattage needed. (Note in some areas where you need a lot of light, or have a very high ceiling multiply by 3). If the lights will be installed in a ceiling taller than 16-feet, you may also want to use PAR type light bulbs. They have a tighter beam control which will get more of the light down from the ceiling to the surface plane. ie. 240 s.f. x 1.5 = 360.
• Step 3:   Total wattage, divided by the bulb wattage you plan to use, ie. ( 40 watt, 60 watt, 75 watt, 100 watt etc.) = amount of total recessed lights you will need. ie. 360 divided by 60 = 6 

​
Formula:  total sq. footage x 1.5 = total wattage needed. Total wattage divided by 60 watts (or whichever wattage you select) = total amount of recessed can lights.
Example:  240 square foot room x 1.5 = 360 divided by 60 (the bulb wattage I'd like to use) = 6 recessed lights needed.

Part B:   Draw up a ceiling diagram (reflected ceiling plan) showing the amount of can  lights you need (Part A formula).  The cans / pots / recessed lights should be evenly distributed around the room, usually they are in rows with an equal number of cans in each row.  Here's a great example of a kitchen lighting layout, the yellow dots show the recessed lights, the red dots show the pendant lights:
​

​You also may enjoy this other article:
15 Steps to Build your Dream Home

​Happy Lighting!

Some interior designers use the terms proportion and scale synonymously. 
​
To be professional, we will need to make a fine distinction:
Proportion is the relationship of one part of an object, to its other parts.

 In other words, proportion is the relationship of one part of a single piece of furniture to other parts of the same piece of furniture. For example, the cocktail table top below, that is in proportion to its legs. 

Scale refers to the size of one piece of furniture in relation to the size of the other furniture in the room, or in relation to the size of the room itself.  For example, a giant lamp next to a chair, would be out of scale. An object is in scale when its size is harmonious with the size of the objects and space around it.  

OK, so now what? 
 Let’s assume that you found a sofa for a living room with suitable and pleasing proportions. Now you've got to visualise what will happen when you add different sized pieces to create a furniture grouping around this sofa.

Take the scale test. When you visualise end tables on either side of the sofa, you don't have to measure to see whether or not the scale works, you just feel instinctively that the scale is right. You will look at an object and instinctively measure it, not by its actual size, but by its visual weight. 

An object’s visual weight will be influenced by its shape, colour, and pattern, as follows:
The larger its shape, the heavier its visual weight. (OK that’s easy, what else?)
The more intense its colour, the heavier at its visual weight. 
The bolder the pattern, the heavier at its visual weight.
These things we intrinsically realize, but sometimes we need to stop, look at our rooms, and see if we have design balance.

When you select furniture, you want to consider only pieces that are suitable in scale with one another. This is just another aspect of achieving harmony. A room cannot be harmonious if one or more pieces of furniture are out of scale.

How do you go about selecting pieces that are in scale to one another? Always try to start with the most important piece of furniture first.  i.e. a large dining room needs a large dining room table.  This piece must be in scale to the size of the room. If it's not, forget it. The room arrangement just cannot work.  We need to select a different piece.

Scale in large rooms. Big rooms can handle big furniture. In fact big rooms require big furniture. In addition, a large room can handle furniture that features intense colour and bold patterns. What's more, a big room calls for large architectural features too. Such a room seems more in scale if it features big windows, big doors and a big fireplace. In other words, the architectural elements of the room should be in scale to the size of the room.

Small rooms:  Well this is where we break the rules. In the 'old days', we used small furniture in small rooms.  But not anymore.  We're finding that we can indeed use large furniture in small rooms - however the proportion of the furniture must be in proportion to the other furniture in the room.  No large sofas and tiny coffee tables here!

In reality, these are not a sequence of steps, but rather common sense using the rules of scale and proportion. 
Good luck and happy designing!
​Jil,  Jil Sonia Interiors