what I learned when I needed help decorating my house
When we moved into our new home, it needed updating and changes to make it feel ours. I was overwhelmed with where to start. I needed help decorating my house. I hired an interior designer. During the design process I learned design tips for how to decorate. These 3 design tips really helped me understand the process. I hope they help you!
how to decorate
Making choices to bring a vision to life can be difficult. It’s hard to know what purchases will create the biggest impact keep the purchases within budget! Careful planning can help make the best use of your budget to make your home become the one of your dreams, but a little bit of compromise is needed.
I’ve received excellent design tips from talented interior designers on how to decorate. It’s helped me to see the big picture in home decorating and avoid paralysis by analysis so many times! For years I would focus on what I didn’t like in my home but felt stuck with. I thought I needed to “match” what I had even if it wasn’t what made me happy. I was so worried anything new would look out of place. By working with what I had versus what I wanted, I ended with rooms I didn’t love!
3 design tips
- Decorate for where you are going, not for what you have and don’t like.
- Some changes may seem like a waste of money, but they make the biggest impact on your room.
- Focus on one room at a time.
tip #1
My favorite tip without a doubt is to decorate for where you are going. I didn’t understand this at all when I needed help decorating my house. Too often people get sidetracked thinking they need to match what they have, even if they aren’t in love with it. For example, you may want a brand new kitchen but a complete renovation isn’t in your budget. You may not like your flooring or perhaps you wish you had a lighter color cabinets. All costly and all time consuming. However, you may have a small budget to make some changes in the kitchen. That’s great!
Start by looking at magazines and find inspiration for color palettes and looks for what you’re drawn to. Consider what you want your home to look like eventually, and ignore what you have that doesn’t fit in with that. Use your budget to start slowly moving in the new direction.
If the floors aren’t your dream floor type, so what? Don’t let that stop you and don’t buy things that match the floor you hate! Buy things and make decisions that match your vision and let each one build on the other until you end up with room you want to end up with! You will eventually check everything off the list and end up with a space you love! Buy a new kitchen table even if it doesn’t match the floors. Or even a new light fixture. Because maybe next year you will be able to do the floor and then you’ll be happy you’ve made new changes that match that vision in your head.
our kitchen before
our kitchen now
tip #2
Part of knowing how to decorate is to realize some things may seem like a waste of money, but they make the biggest impact. There are three design tips that make the biggest impact on a rooms design – lighting, drapery and wall color. Without a doubt those three things will make or break a room. These may also feel like a waste of money because you likely already have a light fixture, decent wall color and blinds so drapes aren’t needed.
However, all three of these will dramatically change the feel of a room and may even make your existing room feel instantly finished! When you look at rooms in magazines start to notice how each one has these three finishing touches. While they may not jump out at you – it’s the lighting fixture, the drapes and room color that are drawing you in and tying the bow around the room like a present. Invest and pay special attention to those three key pieces of the puzzle.
Instead of buying a new neutral sofa, buy some dramatic drapery for your windows. Or replace an old lighting fixture with something more current. Even $100 worth of paint will change a room. Don’t overlook those three things. Good designers who know how to decorate know they have impact beyond what you can imagine!
room with no drapes
room with drapes
tip #3
Finish one room at a time before moving on to the next project. This can be very frustrating. It was for me when I needed help decorating my house. Try hard to stick to this because you’ll be more pleased with the outcome. Spreading money thin across an entire house will not have nearly the same impact as using that money in one space and working your way through the project until the room is complete. It’s much more satisfying to sit in one room and enjoy the new paint, lighting fixture, drapes, throw pillows on the couch and maybe a few coffee table accessories that pulled it together, rather than seeing tiny pieces of the budget spread here and there throughout your home!
Decorating takes time and money. However, your home is the representation of who you are and should be your happy place. Don’t be afraid to go slowly and make it what you want it to be, one step at a time!
When I needed help decorating my house I wrote blog on blog diy wallpaper and these 4 tips to hang art!
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