Costco Connection - January 2011

for your home
Furniture
shopping101
Über-designer Christopher Lowell
tells you what to know before you go
By Christopher Lowell

96 ;e Costco Connection JANUARY 2011 Do your homework

Before you get in your car, go online and do your homework. If you know what you

The Costco Connection In addition to the items pictured to the right, and the room divider (above), Costco warehouses feature an expanded selection of furniture for every room in your home. Costco. com also carries furniture year-round.

want and have acquired some knowledge about it, you’ll be far more prepared to make an informed decision when you unexpectedly see something that fills the bill, instead of making an impulse buy you’ll regret later.

Keep a log of photos for easy reference. I use my smartphone to take pictures of items I’m looking for or a blank part of a room where I think I need, say, an accent table. I’ve also laid out fabric swatches and paint colors and taken a quick reference photo of them too.

Keep key measurements with you at all times. Many times I create a master document that includes all my vital home sizes and dimensions, broken down room by room for easy reference. I then e-mail the document to myself, so my home décor info travels with me.

Another trick is to take a photo of my
room and print it out on regular paper. I then
draw my ideas directly on the photo with a
Sharpie. This really helps determine the
proper scale of an item and its relationship to
the rest of the room. It’s a great tool for those
who feel artistically challenged. You can
include key measurements right on the draw-
ing so that these “idea photos” act almost like
a blueprint. The layouts will help you visual-
ize how the item you see in, say, Costco will
actually look in your own home.

Stay with the classics

Know what “classic” looks like. I tell my design team all the time to keep three things in mind as we design items under my own brand.

First, will this item endure the test of time? Meaning, in 10 years will I be as happy with the purchase as I am now?

Second, is there anything about this item that will prevent me from moving it from room to room or home to home? Meaning, is it flexible enough to live in any room in my home?