In need of some tips on how to rejuvenate your apartment? Then its time to spruce up your place with some help from the experts at Pottery Barn.
Ever walk into someone’s house and be blown away by what you’ve seen? The colours, the ornaments, the layout, it’s all somehow manages to complete a room.
TOAD met with Arnold Alzaga, Pottery Barn’s head interior designer at Dalma Mall to get some tips and tricks for making your home shine. He has consulted and designed homes ranging from apartments, to villas, and even to palaces.
As Arnold explains, you must start with the basics, and at Pottery Barn you can start from scratch. ‘Often people come in to see me and they don’t know where to begin, what to start with. Our first step is always visiting the space and evaluating existing pieces.
‘It’s about the space you have to work with, and often our clients have furniture that is not suited. If you have a huge villa, larger and oversized pieces of furniture will work better than smaller pieces, and obviously visa versa for a smaller apartment.’
Then you have to get to grips with your personality and taste. ‘We love working with existing pieces, it gives us some insight into the client’s tastes’, says Arnold. ‘We do work with some people from scratch too. You should always have a piece of inspiration in mind that you want to build on.’
Arnold recommends sticking with neutral base pieces and using accessories to make the statement. ‘You should choose a neutral dominant colour and then layer it 60, 30, 10 – that’s 60 percent the dominant neutral colour, followed by a statement colour that takes up 30 percent of design and a secondary statement that accounts for ten percent of the colour. This will give the room a feeling of depth and cohesion,’ he explains. ‘Also, generally we choose the dominant colour to match the walls. You do want to tie the room together.’
Keeping the house in the architectural rules of three is recommended. Arnold explains, ‘When you are accessorising, stick with three cushions for example, in cascading sizes. Have your biggest at the back, preferably a pattern or print, then a plain medium and a deco-small sized one, in similar colours – use the patterned large cushion as your colour base to work off and stick with three colours,’ he tells us as he artfully and expertly positions there applicable cushions on the sofa.
We move into the dining room, where Arnold tells us to, ‘Get your inspiration from one product you like. It can be a placemat, setting, napkins or anything really and then follow the rest of the setting with a similar scheme, still in our rule of three. It’s the little things, tying the curtains in with the scheme, and accessories that really complete the room.’
Arnold also tells us a common misconception about curtains. ‘Generally, we recommend mounting curtains 10cm above the window, which is a common interior designing rule, but we don’t always subscribe to this. If clients have a low ceiling, mounting the curtains higher will give the room a perception of height. Don’t be afraid to test or bend the “rules” sometimes it will be beneficial’.
Open daily 10am-10pm, Pottery Barn offers complementary consultations with their interior designers, Dalma Mall, www.potterybarn.me, (02 612 0658).
Quick tips from Arnold
• Cushions should be in odd numbers
• Start with something you like as inspiration
• Tie each room together so the home is cohesive
• Start with neutral pieces and spice it up with coloured accessories
• Don’t be afraid to think outside the box – mix eclectically with modern, contemporary and classic pieces
• Stick with the rule of three where possible
• Don’t be afraid to mix and match cushions
• Chandeliers or light fixtures suspended over tables should be 140cm above the dining table
Interior designers to try
The One
The eclectic and ethical products at The One are premium and unique, great for something a little bit out there. They have in-house stylists to make your life easier.
Next to the BMW Showroom, Al Khalidiyah (02 681 6506)
Marina
For a journey of into the cool and calming schemes of Marina, the interior designers can revamp your home.
From Dhs3,000 Abu Dhabi Mall (02 645 5488).
