Interior Design Services     Watson & Co offers residential design services based on the classics whether it be contemporary, modern or traditional.  We believe in the design priciples of color, scale, rhythm, line, mass and historical appropriateness to execute a seemingly effortless and comfortable space.  In this regard, we are Old School.  New Rules present new challenges.  Which rule can you break and why?  How much contrast is enough? How can a lucite cocktail table enhance an otherwise traditional room?  These careful considerations ultimately make your home unique.  Watson & Co can help you acheive your goal. Old School. New Rules. We can assist with a single room consultation or decorate your entire home.  Working with your existing pieces and preferences are key to the entire process.  There is an advantage to decorating a room in a logical order.  Rug or flooring selection first determines colors, textures, patterns and the style of the interior. This avoids costly mistakes and is more efficient.  Next, paint colors, furniture styles and wall coverings can be selected.  Finally, we choose lighting, decorative accessories and bedding.  Remember, decorating is a process and your home will change along with you. Why doesn't it look right? When clients come to us and ask "what's wrong?" we see many of the same mistakes repeated.   The following are the top mistakes that we have encountered. 1.  Scale.  Most everyone tends to underscale art, furnishings and rugs.  This doesn't provide the eye with a focal point. One is constantly trying to find a visual resting place with all the clutter.  Hence my number one mantra for decorating: BIGGER AND FEWER. 2.  Light colors make a small room feel bigger.  Hogwash! This is most often not the case in our experience.  Stopping and starting the eye with high contrasts is distracting. This is what shrinks up a room.  We solve this one by lowering contrasts between the floors, walls, furniture and lighting. 3. "It works because I like everything!" Not true.  Just because you own it does not mean that disparate furniture and objects will miraculously transform themselves into a harmonizing composition.  This takes careful editing, time and money! 4. "My husband's things will never work with my stuff."  Also not true.  Usually, we can combine things in a creative way to make it successful. 5. THE 6'-HIGH-LINE-AROUND-THE-ROOM. This one can be hard to detect if you have lived in the same space for a long time.  Many times we will go into a home with 9' ceilings and       there is nothing above 6'.  This "brings down the ceiling" and creates an uncomfortable, empty feeling on the walls.  6. Warehouse living. Not to be confused with loft decorating! This is furniture  lined up against the walls like a warehouse.  Integrate your furniture with appropriate walkways and dynamic furniture placement. 7. "My place is too small."  Our favorite places in New York and San Francisco have been quite small, many of them under 500 sq ft.  Creativity flourishes with constraints.  The rules of scale and proportion begin to change in a small space.  There are many things one can do to make it feel grand.  This may even include making everything larger! 8. Good Taste/Bad taste. "I have no taste" or the "I don't need a decorator because I have great taste." Ironically these go hand in hand because taste is  often not the issue.  We have daily experience working with the details of decorating. The result is a great liveable space.  How many times do you check arm heights, seat depths and back fills on a chair or the double-rubs on your favorite chenille? 8. The Leticia Baldrige factor. There is a sense of appropriateness that pertains to decorating.  This is all for the benefit of making  family and guests comfortable in your environment.  People first, things second.  Personal photos should be in secondary rooms/halls/bedrooms.  This also means keeping your t.v. out of your formal living room.  This way it will never have a chance to be turned on when a special guest is in from out of town. 9. "The hue of this color is a value I don't care for."  Remember when discussing your colors: hue gives the color its name -  green, blue or red, value is the relative lightness or darkness of the color (if you copied a color on a black and white copier this would be it's value) and saturation is the strength of the hue. 10. Stop fanning your magazines!  Nothing is more trite and uncomfortable than sitting down on someone's sofa only to find you have wreaked havok in their world by flatening a pillow, moving a throw or disturbing their perfectly fanned magazine pile. It's just stuff! Yes, we work with beautiful homes and wonderful things, but people and their comfort always come first!