It’s an exciting time when you get the keys to your new house. It can be overwhelming just to think about decorating a whole house at once. There are lots of different directions in how to decorate your new home. You might choose to start decorating your new home totally from scratch. New everything, furniture the works. This might be from preference or necessity.
The more budget friendly option, by bringing some loved pieces into your new home. Whatever the reason or style you choose, here are some tips to help you along your decorating journey for your new home!
How to decorate a new home
How do I start to decorate my new house?
1. Make A list
Making a list is great just so we don’t get overwhelmed. A lot of us can get so focused on how to decorate our new home that we forget some simple things. Like thinking how our day to day routines should work. Or how we would like them to work. Which why I suggest writing a list to start off with.
This isn’t a list of the furniture and shopping you need to get. Although you will definitely need to do that.
This is a list of everything you like or didn’t like about where you were living before. It could be anything from organization or lack of in your old house. Also are there any pieces you’re keeping from your old place? Where the fridge or sofa was positioned. Was it convenient for you or not? How can arrange it here to work for you? What’s the first thing you do in the morning? And what’s the last thing you do at night?
Asking these kind of questions will help you with your planning.
Of course this is a new house. So there are going to be lots of things that are different from where you were living before to now. But just being aware and writing down these things will help you make important decisions on what goes where. Which rooms or areas might be suited to different activities.
It will also point out the items you need to buy and invest in. And what those top priorities are for you.
2. Assess & Measure Your new Place
You’ve probably walked through your new home a fair few times before and after making the move. Thinking and going through all the ideas that pop into your head. Now is the time to get serious and make some proper plans for how you’re going to lay your space out.
Assess your house room by room. Look at all the pros and cons of each room. Go through your list from above and decide what you’re going to use the room for. What features do you like best about each room? Take in to account details that can’t be easily changed. Like wall niches, window frames and doors. How can you disguise them or make a feature out of them?
Make sure you measure each room. Draw your plan out on paper with the measurements. Remember to make notes of windows and the ceiling height. Also the width and height of doorways, switches, sockets and anything else that will impact the decorating.
3. Take some time
This tip could probably go in with the assessment of your new house. But if you can take some time to live in your new place beforehand, with just the essentials.
You can have some great ideas on how decorating your home will be. Only to find that when you’ve spent some time actually living there you have changed your mind on some things. Or you may have thought of some better ideas.
Try not to rush into decorating and buying all at once! If you do want to get your whole house finished on a quick timeline it’s best to hire a designer to help.
4. Inspiration
Now you have a clear idea of what your personal preferences are for you’re going to use each room for the day to day. Next comes the inspiration! This is for deciding your decoration style. And getting ideas of some of furniture and storage pieces you might need to get, if you haven’t already got them.
Go to Pinterest, your favourite Instagram accounts and see what ideas you can pull from there to use in your home. Have a look about in the shops and online. Save images or take photos of anything you like.
You probably already know what kind of styles you like. Finding inspiration will help you get clear on what you like. This doesn’t mean you have stick with only one style. Similar design styles can be easy to blend together. But gathering inspiration will keep you from going totally off the rails.
5. Create a mood board
When it comes to sourcing inspiration, it’s easy to go off on a tangent. Creating a simple mood board will define and narrow down your colours, furniture and materials. This will make the decisions of what to buy a whole lot easier.
Creating a mood board doesn’t have to be complicated. You can choose a few images for each room and put them down on paper. Or make a digital mood board using Canva on your phone or desktop which has a free version and so easy to use. There are other apps you can try too.
Keep your mood board with you for when you do your shopping. Online shopping and when looking in stores. This is your decorating guide!
6. Avoid The design mistakes
There are some design tips that you want to avoid when decorating your new home. Knowing what they are beforehand will save you time in the long run. Tips like making sure the scale of the furniture is the right size for the room.
Also little design tips that will make your room instantly look better. Like hanging the curtains above the window frame to make the ceilings look higher.
Here’s the full list of design mistakes to avoid!
7. Furniture
Now you know what your colour palette is and your design style. This is from taken from your mood board. The next thing is your furniture, start with the bigger pieces of furniture. These are your investment pieces like a good quality sofa, a bed and a dining table.
The big furniture pieces will usually be a focal point in your rooms. So it’s important to get the big items in first and then work off those pieces.
RELATED POST: 6 Great Tips To Remember When Choosing A Sofa
Think about what styles of furniture will work best for your space. Using furniture that sits off the floor gives the room a more open feel. If you have a small living room using furniture will help it feel larger than it is.
Plan out these big pieces first and then layer in your home decor and soft furnishings in. Things like wall art, cushions and curtains.
Which room should you decorate first?
It really depends on you and your family’s needs. And your time frame. The best rooms to start with are the living room and bedroom spaces.
These rooms are the most used. The living room being the social space and the bedrooms the private areas. Both types of space are of equal need when you’re in a new home. But do start and finish one room at a time to make it easier for yourself.
Some of us want to get everything decorated as soon as possible. Other’s might be fine with spending more time on getting the house the way they want it. So only the essentials will be their primary concern for moment.
As mentioned before, it helps if you can live in your house first. Without making any big expenses for furniture. Just to see how you naturally use the space as it is. It may come down to one area of the house having better sunlight or being less noisy. This may change where you put your home office. Or your guest bedroom.
Every house and family is different. How you decorate your home will be completely different to someone else. And that’s totally ok. It has to work for you and your life now and going into the future.
Those are my top tips on how to decorate a new home!
Chloe
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