With new eyes, a
condo owner learns that all of the pieces were there for
an attractive space but needed rearranging.
After a few months of living in
his new condo in Charlotte's trendy South End, Shaun
Rangel began to reconsider the cold white walls.
They seemed wrong for a small
place within the friendly atmosphere of a building
filled with other young professionals. Wrong, too, for a
person who wanted to encourage visits from friends and
family. Painting the walls would be the first step in
putting out the welcome mat.
A friend suggested he consider
light brown or chocolate, not colors that would have
leaped into his mind. But paging through magazines, this
37-year-old bachelor found the colors appealing. He
summoned painters, but kept thinking about the placement
of his furniture.
Painting turned the walls of his
living room from cold milk to warm cocoa and the
adjacent kitchen to a lively chocolate bar brown. Rangel
thought the walls looked great, especially with the
light streaming through large windows. His array of wood
furniture, the gleaming light wood floors, the few green
plants all looked livelier.
Then he did nothing until he
hired Ann Hodges of Charlotte about six months later to
make sense of his 819 square feet of space in the Park
Avenue Condominiums. Hodges, a specialist in rearranging
living space, found a bachelor's collection of furniture
-- hand-offs from the family, bargain buys, flea market
finds and new things.
Rangel, manager of financial
analysis for CSX World Terminals in Charlotte, is
admittedly a numbers man, not someone wise in the way of
interior design. "But I knew I needed the placement of
things switched around," he recalls.
His pictures remained unhung
because he didn't want to bang nails into the freshly
painted walls until he was sure about what he was doing.
"I tried to place things the
best way I thought, but I didn't really have a plan,
like a lot of people. You just go on what looks OK for
the time," he recalls. "I had gotten to the point that I
didn't want to buy anything else until I had some kind
of game plan."
A new table intended for dining
was set off in the corner. Instead of a place for
entertaining, it held an array of family photographs,
books and magazines. A similar collection covered the
coffee table so thoroughly there wasn't space for a
glass or mug. Most of the time, he ate on a tray, while
sitting on the sofa. When people visited, the rooms
seemed crowded.
Hodges' business is called
Sensible Space. Her work as a visual coordinator is the
art of aligning furniture based on the architectural
features and shapes of a room. The goal is to create
order and connection.
Would a gentle makeover -- the
repositioning of furniture and rugs and the
rearrangement of Rangel's pictures, photographs, Duke
memorabilia and mementos of his travels -- make this
space work?
Hodges encouraged him to look at
magazines and show her rooms that appealed to him. She
also looked at and measured the expensive table he was
considering. But she knew he didn't really need it to
create a dining area.
To her eye, the dining area was
already there and waiting. Except for dining room
chairs, he had all the furniture needed.
Plus, she says, his selections
of wood furniture, mostly in medium-toned cherry
finishes that go together well, shows, "He has good
taste. And I think the scale is right. I like his choice
of woods because ... they blend very well.
"All it needed was rearranging."
One day in February, Rangel went
to work and left Hodges and her assistant with a free
hand to rearrange the living-dining area.
"The way we work is to first empty a room," says
Hodges, who became certified in visual coordination
after studying at a school in Florida. She works with
clients on such projects as preparing for the sale of
their home or downsizing to smaller places.
In Rangel's condo, they moved
the furniture aside, then went to work.
"Shaun had told me about the
table he was thinking of buying, but I got to thinking
about that and said, `Why spend that money if you've
already got this wonderful table?' "
Instead, she encouraged him to
buy four cherry chairs that went with the round table
she was about to move out of the corner and into a new
role as a real dining table.
Rangel had found a nice bookcase
of dark wood for $850 at the Metrolina Expo, an antiques
and flea market in Charlotte. Unfortunately, the
bookcase was missing one of its four casters, so it
leaned, rather askew, against one wall. Hodges
immediately turned it flat onto the floor with towels
and padding protecting the floors from scratches.
With screwdriver and hammer, she
pulled off the three remaining casters, then put
protective felt across the bottom of the bookcase to
save the floor when it's moved. Then, it got a better
spot against a wall of the emerging dining area.
Rangel had a sofa and loveseat
forming an L-shape, but it was placed in a way that cut
the room almost in half. That was a major reason the
room seemed crowded when Rangel had visitors. Opening it
up became a major goal.
Simply moving the loveseat to
the opposite side, in front of the windows, retained the
sitting area's L-shape, but made the room seem bigger.
Hodges moved other pieces from other rooms, such as
swapping a small table from the bedroom for a small
chest to the living room.
A good, soft-red Turkish rug was
more or less in hiding. She moved it into a prominent
role under the coffee table.
Another, heavier rug proved just
right to define the new dining area and is sturdy enough
to prevent marks on the floor when chairs move.
Hodges hung pictures,
repositioned the plants and placed accessories, keeping
in mind her client's interests and close family ties.
The wooden bookcase proved ideal for arranging these
things. Suddenly, the coffee table had room for a cup of
coffee.
The condo also contains a
bedroom and study, which Hodges will work on in coming
weeks.
Late in the afternoon, Rangel
put his key in the front door and prepared for a
surprise. "I knew it was going to look different."
The result met his goal of a
functional and welcoming space.
"It's very logical," he says.
"Fantastic, really. But I would never have been able to
visualize it and do it on my own."
Rearranging Rooms
ANN HODGES' ADVICE
• Determine
the architectural focus of the room. It might be a
fireplace, bank of bookcases or even windows with a fine
view.
• Look
elsewhere. Are there accessories, art and furnishings in
other rooms that would look fresher and better if moved
to the room being rearranged?
• Study
the colors, scale and purpose of your furnishings. Are
they right? What needs changing?
• Clear
the room to create a clean palette. Move things back in
slowly, judging how the room takes shape as you go.
THE CHALLENGES
• Shaun
Rangel wanted to make the most of his 819-square-foot
condo.• He wanted to
organize his pictures and memorabilia.
• He
wanted more open space for entertaining.
• He
wanted a dining area instead of eating from a tray on
the sofa.
• He
wanted to store books and magazines neatly.
FINISHING TOUCHES
• A
small table from the bedroom was switched for a small
chest in the living room.
• The
loveseat was moved in front of the windows, retaining
the sitting area's L-shape and opening up the room for
entertaining.
• Most
of the books and magazines were moved to the bookcase,
freeing up the coffee table.
• A
soft-red Turkish rug was moved into a prominent role
under the coffee table. The heavier rug that formerly
sat under the coffee table now defines the new dining
area.
