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In a perfect world, we all would be lucky to count an interior designer among our close friends. Come time for relocation or a dramatic bout of redecorating, he or she could make sense of the ins, outs, and subtleties of design that might escape the average person. But because DIY is the way of the future, the Internet is chock-full of helpful information for the aspiring home decorator-charmingly rendered in easy-to-understand illustrations and infographics-on topics ranging from how to select the correct rug sizes to gallery wall arrangement inspiration. Scroll for 11 Pinterest pins that will make your next home project a success.

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11 Must-Pin Infographics for a Beautiful Home

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In a perfect world, we all would be lucky to count an interior designer among our close friends. Come time for relocation or a dramatic bout of redecorating, he or she could make sense of the ins, outs, and subtleties of design that might escape the average person.

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If you're new to interior design and decor it's common to feel overwhelmed, unsure and confused - especially when it comes to making the right decisions for your rooms.

There are so many choices today in styles, colors and materials... and it can be just plain hard to know what will work and won't work in your space!

I recently was asked by Cottage and Bungalow for my 'do's and don'ts' advice to help beginner interior decorators and designers .....and guess what? A design infographic was made with my tips and name in it! How funl is that?

This is a first for me - and I'm extremely excited and honored to say the least!

Take a look! There are tons of tips and ideas I think you'll love reading about here:

source

This infographic includes the fundamentals of home design and decorating, decorating styles and some helpful decorating 'rules'.

Here's one of my Interior Design Do's and Don'ts Every Beginner Should Know:

Do: Decide what functions and feeling you want your room to have before you start decorating the space. If you want the space to function as a home office you may need to find room for a bookcase and obtain more storage for office supplies. Want your room to feel cozy? Add lots of comfortable textiles to the room! See my 7 tips to decorate a living room from start to finish and see step by step how to get the designer look!

Don't: Don't select wall paint colors at the paint store! The color on a small paint chip will look entirely different in your home compared to how it looks in the paint store. Buy a small test sample and test it in your room before painting all the walls. See my 60-30-10 color rule design tip to choose the right colors that balance and flow.
Did you find this design and decor information helpful?
What do you struggle with when it comes to decorating? Paint colors? Styles?

Please share - I'd love to hear it!

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Interior Design Advice: Do's and Don'ts Every Beginner Should Know - Setting for Four

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If you're new to interior design and decor it's common to feel overwhelmed, unsure and confused - especially when it comes to making the right decisions for your rooms. There are so many choices today in styles, colors and materials... and it can be just plain hard to know what will work and won't work in your space!

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The law of tort is defined as a body of rights, obligations and remedies that is applied by courts in civil proceedings to provide relief for individuals or victims (claimant or plaintiff) who have suffered harm from the wrongful acts of others (defendant).

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The following list of questions and subjects helps a designer to orient herself to the problem of ethics in design. The list is by no means exhaustive, but illustrates what kinds of problems may be embedded in design process and propositions from a point of view of ethics. If a designer wants to act in an ethically responsible manner, it is imperative to put forth personal effort in understanding ethical conflicts rather than trying to follow any predefined safe rules. Ethics is a process of learning - not a process of obedience.

What are ethics?

Ethics is a (rational) study of moral dilemmas in (human) action. Morals are shortly defined as codes or guides of conduct (implicit or explicit) that are based on personal long-lasting beliefs and values or those of surrounding society. A personal act can be considered moral, immoral or amoral from the point of view of ethical studies:

Moral - an act or though that is in line with personal and societal moral codes

Immoral - an act or thougth that is against personal or societal moral codes

Amoral - an act or thought that does not reflect choice based on moral codes

It is very easy to understand that almost any act or thought can be considered both moral and immoral at the same time, if one considers proper points of view. However, this does not make the study of ethics (i.e. The study of moral dilemmas) any less significant: just like in design there are no single right solutions - only choices that have pros and cons attached to them.

To prepare yourself for the multitude of ethical considerations you can start by examining your own stance as a designer, your own values, who you are designing for and what kind of values are you trying to embed in your design solutions and why?

Ethics in goals

Do you think it creates a better world?

To who?

How?

Why?

Is someone's good someone else's bad?

Designers as shapers of users

There is no such thing as a user, except in your mind

Humans use things, but that does not make them users (i.e. they are much more complex in scope than the idea of "user" conveys)

Beware of the user image that you conjure up in your mind - it is a limited image of a human being

What we shape, shape us afterwards. You can't design into a vacuum

Build a kind of user that you think would be ethical from your point of view

Be ready to reflect upon your user and compare your own ethics towards those of others

Needs and wants

Serve needs not only wants

Learn to identify what people really need instead of what they want, because of external influences

Do not get slave to needs, appreciate wants as well

Practise the balance between the two

Ecology and environment

What is ethical in terms of ecology?

Are you solving the problem or merely contributing less to it?

Are you promoting ecological preservation or just paying lip service to it?

Beware of 'greenwashing' (appearing to be ecological just for the added marketability)

Multiculturality

Are your goals bound by cultural imperatives?

Which and why?

Should you change them?

Should you make your design solution local (works for specific cultures) or global (works in as many cultures as possible)?

Ethics in practise

Would you like the design be done to yourself?

Means and ends

Ends may not justify the means (nor vice versa)

Practise is part of what makes the solution

Designing ethically is not just about making solutions that are ethically sound, but exposing the practise to ethical scrutiny as well

Methods and tools

Adopt methods and tools to local, national and other cultures

Do not obey methods mechanistically if it ethically unsound

People and group-based methods involving conversation offer a better hope of achieving results with ethical considerations in mind

Ethics in design propositions

Would you use it yourself?

Would you like everyone to have one?

What would that mean in practise?

Can your design be easily misused?

Can and should you even try to prevent that misuse?

Design for all

Can you avoid the common pitfall of "designing for a 25-year old university educated healthy caucasian single male with a tendency towards new and technical"

Who is "all"?

Individual and collective

Design solutions are not used in a vacuum - they have influences beyond the scope of a single user (or a group of users)

Does the need of the many outweight the need of a one (or vice versa)?

Form and function

Both need to co-exist - if one dominates at the expense of the other, problems may arise.

Innovation and tradition

If you innovate you force people to change traditional ways

Imposing change vs. introducing alternative ways of using

Should you bow to tradition just because it is?

Links
Ethics of aesthetics and design in housing
http://www.goshen.edu/art/design/ethics.html

Victor Papanek: The Green Imperative, Ecology and Ethics in Design and Architecture

Gorman, M. E. (1998). Transforming nature: Ethics, invention and design.

Putting Environmental Ethics at the Center of Design
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/~meg3c/id/id_asee/id_aseepres.html#page_5

Teaching Ethics to Scientists and Engineers: Moral Agents and Moral Problems
http://onlineethics.org/essays/education/teaching.html

Online Ethics Search
http://onlineethics.org/search.html

Design Ecology Ethics and The Making of Things
http://www.onlineethics.org/contest/virginia/cases/dtex/dtex_exhibit3.html

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The following list of questions and subjects helps a designer to orient herself to the problem of ethics in design. The list is by no means exhaustive, but illustrates what kinds of problems may be embedded in design process and propositions from a point of view of ethics.