Hello! So this blog has (obviously) been on a short hiatus.
What happened? I went to China for a buying trip for work and got all kinds of
busy. One of the things I have been busy with is designing a T.V. studio for a
local daytime talk show- Fresh Living.
What?!? I think I should stop and rewind
because I am still pinching myself. So, with my job I get some amazing
opportunities; one day, I got an email about the possibility of doing a trade with
Fresh Living- we would furnish their studio and get advertising in return. It
sounded like fun to me. I was invited to meet with the host Debbie and her
producer Brittany at our closest store to see what would work for the set. We
had a great time walking through the store finding their favorite items that
would work for T.V. A few weeks later (after the signing of many contracts and
lawyers mulling over the details), I was prepping the furniture for the install
day. A few weeks after that I was on the show to introduce the set. Since I
want this blog to be instructional, here are some tips I learned for designing for
T.V.:
1.
Go Bold!!! The bolder the better- what you
design for TV is probably too bold for a home. Go for high contrast, lots of
patterns and colors.
2.
Try it on Camera- it is crazy how different the
set looked on camera versus in real life. I brought in two rugs to try in the
table vignette. One I would have chosen for a home- the colors weren’t as bold
and blended in more with the chest. But the higher contrast one looked amazing
on camera so that one won.
3.
Moire- sometimes when something has a small
print, it will go fuzzy or moiré on TV and the print will look like it is in
motion. For that reason, we didn’t choose the above sofa for the set (it was our
second choice, but the subtle herringbone print wasn't going to film well)
4.
Comfort isn’t really a priority- at least for a
talk show, they really don’t want to “sink” into a sofa/barstool- they wanted a firm
seat so they could get in and out of that sofa/stool with a little grace
5.
Make a stop point- for every vignette on the set
(there were three), there was a stop point for the camera- like a screen or a
plant. That way, when the camera man hits that item when scanning the room with
his camera, he knows that is the end of the set.
(me with the hosts of the show)
6.
Give it depth- something I would never do in a
home is move all of the furniture a few inches out from the wall, but the
director told me that this would give it depth on camera so that is what we
did.
