Moving into a new home is an exciting time. Your new home is perfect, and you want your decorating scheme to make it look even better. Every room is a blank slate, which can spark your creativity, or quickly become overwhelming. There’s a lot of blank wall space. There are also hundreds of possible furniture arrangements in the living room alone. Whether you’re planning to use your existing furniture, preparing to buy new furniture along with other new home essentials, or considering a new color scheme, home decorating can be intimidating. Before you go all out and make expensive purchases you might regret, it’s important to make a plan and prepare for a step-by-step process that will take you to home decorating success.
Whether you’re already in your new home or moving day is on the horizon, tried and true decorating tips alongside timeless trends can help you develop the home decor style that reflects your style and enhances your new home. Our handy decorating guide includes tips to keep in mind for decorating, room-by-room design tips, and interior design trends.
What To Keep in Mind When Decorating Your New Home
Decorating a new home can be fun, but without the right planning you may end up doing a lot more work than expected. These tips can help you avoid making poor decisions and completing the same job twice.
Make Friends with Your Measuring Tape
The dimensions of your new home will play an important part in the way you decorate. If you’re moving into a newly built home, you might have blueprints on hand with the dimensions you need. However, your measuring tape will still be an important tool. Measurements like ceiling heights, window sizes, wall measurements, counter lengths, and fireplace dimensions can help you decide on everything from curtains to art to furniture.
Gather Your Inspirations
Whether your decor inspirations are carefully planned on Pinterest boards or gathered in a box of magazine-style clippings, it’s a great idea to gather everything together and develop a cohesive plan. Take the time to narrow down your choices and eliminate items that are no longer relevant.
Find the Focal Point of Each Room
What catches your eye when you first enter a room? The focal point of some rooms is determined by architecture like a large window, a fireplace, or an accent wall. These things naturally draw your eye when you walk through the door. Use them as a visual anchor to work from. In rooms that offer a blank slate, consider how the use of artwork, a mirror, or a contrasting paint color can act as a focal starting point for your decorating scheme.
Work from Big to Small
Similar to the way a focal point works, your key decor pieces are likely to be large pieces of furniture. These pieces will be the items that dictate what comes next. Even if you’re starting with a new set of furniture, your home will look pulled together while you take your time adding the finishing touches.
You Don’t Have to Purchase Everything New
Whether you’re maintaining a comfortable, fashionable style that you enjoyed in your previous residence, or moving in an entirely different style direction, you don’t have to purchase all new furniture. As a matter of fact, blending old and new furniture pieces and decor pieces will keep any room feeling more comfortable and attractive. Classic furniture pieces can make the perfect accent or focal point for a variety of styles when surrounded with new pieces.
Neutral Colors Can Work Wonders
Neutral colors serve as a background for a variety of accent colors and different styles throughout a home. By using colors like beige or gray for walls and large rugs, you can minimize jarring transitions and make small rooms feel larger. Utilizing neutral colors throughout your home makes updating easier with the flexibility to easily switch accessories.
Make a Floor Plan First
This could be the most important step in successful decorating. Poor-fitting furniture choices and other decor items can completely destroy the look of a room. Once you have the measurements of your room, it’s time to put them to use with a floor plan that gives you a clear view of the home. While most professional designers use software, you can create a simple floor plan with paper and a ruler. By using a floor plan to experiment with the placement of furniture, you can determine how to make the most of an open floor plan or make small rooms feel larger.
Lights
The importance of lights in a great home decor plan is fairly obvious. You’ll want to consider what actions will take place in certain rooms, the ambiance different lights provide, and how to highlight your home’s best features. Most rooms will require overall illumination from ceiling fixtures, task lighting in some areas, and decorative lighting, like lamps or wall lights.
Tips for Designing Each Room
The rooms in your home have different functions, and often, different personalities enjoy them the most. When you’ve narrowed down your style inspirations, it’s time to look for patterns and determine how specific items will work together.
Bedroom
In any room, the bed is a natural focal point. A large or ornate headboard can be used to make a large statement. Common ways to add a more dramatic focal point to the room include creating an accent wall with a contrasting paint color, natural decor look (like wood or stone), or large pieces of artwork. By highlighting a supersized focal point, you can complete the look with a variety of accessories.
Kitchen
Your kitchen decor should allow you to create an effective work zone while complementing your home’s beauty. Don’t forget to hang art in your kitchen area. It’s easy to get caught up in tucking everything away or just keeping a few appliances out on the countertops. However, the right piece of art can really pop in this often overlooked space.
Living Room
The living room is the area of great focal points. Don’t waste what your architecture has to offer since it can set the tone for the whole room. Think back to your style inspirations. Use one of those style points that you identified, and incorporate it here. If it’s a color, use it in a big way. For example, if your focal point is a big window, use it in the curtain fabric. If you are drawn to natural, rustic textures, think about using a fabric like burlap for your window coverings.
Bathroom
While it’s true that bathrooms need to be functional, they should be attractive as well. Most people start their day in the bathroom. Make the space a decorative area that can be enjoyed. Consider the use of traditional furniture in your bathroom. Bathrooms are larger and more luxurious than ever, and you don’t have to limit yourself to just built-in items and lightweight pieces. Let the decor and the feeling match the rest of your house for a modern feel.
Dining Room
Your dining room doesn’t have to match the workflow efficiency of your kitchen. Instead, a relaxing area where family and friends will want to gather and linger. A good rug is one of the best ways to keep a dining room looking interesting when it’s not in use. Don’t try to blend in – go with an interesting pattern or strong colors. Don’t forget to add interesting artwork to walls and utilize patterns and color to bring the entire look together.
Children’s Room
Ensure children’s rooms include a combination of the things they love and functionality for their age group. A child’s room can age with them if large decor items utilize classic styles and shades that allow accents and accessories to be updated frequently. By choosing storage items that can easily be accessed, rooms are easier to keep clean.
Interior Design Trends for Your Inspiration
Decorating your home is about more than furniture placement. Trends and styles can play heavily into the look of your home and the way different items can work together. Try these interior design trends to inspire your sense of style.
Pick Out a Decor Style
Knowing the looks you like is one step in defining your inspiration. Learning about different decor styles can help you bring your inspired elements together for a finished look. For example, if you like functionality and minimalist styling, consider modern decor. Conversely, if you like decorating with trends that are ruling right now, contemporary is likely to be more your style. Shabby chic utilizes a laid-back style, eclectic blends a variety of styles and choices, and farmhouse uses many natural materials.
Color Schemes in Trend
Color schemes usually fall into one of these three categories:
- Monochromatic: Use one color in different shades and tones.
- Analogous: Use Colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel.
- Complimentary: Use colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel.
When creating a color scheme for your home, limit yourself to three to five colors to avoid jarring transitions, you can play with shades and accessories to liven things up. For example, blue can create amazing accents alongside a variety of neutrals.
All About the Blues- Blues are strong in the color forecasts – and the shades are strong and intense. The richness of cobalt and royal are being used in everything from tile accents to pendant lamps.
Other color trends include utilizing gray-green for a neutral, yellow or eggplant for accents, and chartreuse for big pops of color.
Mirrors
Different styles and shapes of mirrors can be used in a variety of ways to transform every room in your home. Mirrors can make rooms look brighter by bouncing natural light around the room. They can also make a small room feel bigger by reflecting outdoor spaces or areas free from clutter.
Wallpapers
Wallpaper can change the entire look of a room with interesting patterns and beautiful colors. Patterns and colors can be used to evoke a specific feeling or mood in the room as well as make accents pop. Wallpaper can brighten without overwhelming when used in areas like entry halls, a study or den, or in the kitchen or bathroom.
Art Deco Returns
The best things always come back into style, and Art Deco is one of the freshest trends. The latest take on the look is updated and has something for everyone. It’s a little less sweet, and a lot more sophisticated. New looks include warmer tones of coral, contrasted with deep greens, dark wine reds, and midnight blue.
Handcrafted Accents
The use of handmade accents with a strong texture can change the look of a room or act as a focal point. Think fabrics like burlap and raffia, handwoven rugs, and unique furniture pieces that aren’t afraid to show off their artisanal quirks. Consider the benefits of finishes that look hand-applied and aren’t afraid to be bright. Hand-dyed and finished fabrics in interesting prints and wallcovering that looks hand-stamped are all part of the look. It’s fun, it’s bright, and it’s eclectic.
Texture Mixing
It’s chic to mix up your textures – contrasting the sleekness of stainless steel and marble with the earthiness of pottery and rough wood. This can be used throughout the home – loosely woven curtains with polished floors, barn wood accents in the kitchen, and grasscloth wallpaper in the entry hall, contrasting with glossy wood furniture. It’s an easy way to mix and match and can warm up any room.
Real Plants
They’re healthy, they’re gorgeous, and they have thousands of Instagram accounts dedicated to them. Urban jungles are the latest thing – and they’re easy to love. Even those with the brownest of thumbs can handle a kitchen window herb garden or some tough succulents. There’s something special about watching a plant grow up in your new home – try to put one in every room.
There are many layers to decorating your home. Don’t be afraid to mix and match styles to create something you love. Use this guide as a starting point to create the home decor style that perfectly matches your personal style.
If you’re dreaming of moving to Battleground, Washington, look no further than Cedars Landing. Contact us for more information or visit our model home.
