First of all, since you are reading this article, congratulations on your new home.
There are few things as exciting and liberating as moving to a new place and organizing everything according to your style. To make this experience even more thrilling and less confusing, here are the six tips for decorating your first home.
Clean Up Before Moving
Instead of moving all of your old stuff to the new home indiscriminately, it’s a good idea to go through it and remove everything you don’t need. What’s the point of sticking to the old garbage if you are starting a new life? Moving is a perfect opportunity to clean your shelf and wardrobe so only things that matter and have emotional value can make it to your new house.
Be pragmatic and patient. Go deep into every locker and be merciless with all the old clothes, impulsive purchases you tried to bury, and weird gifts from distant relatives. There are many ways you can get rid of them — throw them out, donate, recycle, or sell them in the garage sale. If you are not yet sure about some items, storage space comes to the rescue.
Start With Rooms You’ll Spend Most Time In
This will help you distribute the budget in a way that the most important rooms get all the needed attention. Since the solutions for the global housing crisis are still mainly on paper, you’ll want to go smart with the funds you allocated for decorating your new home.
It’s always a good idea to start with the bedroom. Start with the necessities and go for the bells and whistles if you have money left afterward. And don’t forget about comfort because it is surely a necessity in a place where you sleep. Choose the colors that correspond with your style and sleeping habits. Go for the bed and mattress of your dreams. Aim to meet these goals: your bedroom should fit into your visual tastes, be comfortable, and last for years.
Don’t Chase Similarity
Matching the looks and styles of your new home seems like a logical thing to do, especially after you go through dozens of tidy displays in furniture stores. However, something that looks nice on a showcase will look lifeless and boring in reality. Having a few matching elements or pieces of furniture is fine, but the real beauty comes from incorporating different elements tied by certain motives.
What makes a beauty are proportions and color palettes. With the right size and color of elements, one can easily achieve harmony and a pleasant appearance. But since not everybody is a born designer, we suggest searching for references on the Internet instead of trying to come up with proper colors and furniture layout all on your own. You can then arrange them using a moodboard template and get inspired by others’ good work.
Fill The Gaps With Colors
Let’s say the place you’ve moved in is already furnished, but the pieces don’t blend at all, and you can not buy new ones at the moment. This seems like a hopeless situation, but fortunately, it’s possible to overcome if you can find at least one common element among your bitty bunch of chairs and sofas. If they have at least one color in common, no matter how visible it is, you can paint the room with it. This will visually unite the ensemble and “justify” the presence of all the different pieces of furniture.
Sure, repainting a room can seem like too much. If you are not ready for such radical measures, you can throw in a rug of said color, curtains, or any other accessory. This will have the same effect and is much easier to execute.
Fill The House Gradually
If you’ve decided to furnish the house at 100% before moving in, it’s better to reconsider. Since you haven’t lived there yet, you may waste lots of money on things you won’t need or eventually like. At the same time, there will be no money left to fix issues that you find along the way.
A much better approach is to start with the most necessary items and add things after you’ve spent about 1-2 months in a new home. This way, you won’t need to guess what you need and what you don’t.
Go For Inexpensive Fixes
If you don’t like the look of your bathroom, you do not have to tear the room down and start from scratch. Changing the lighting can be enough to give the room a fresh breath. This applies to everything: go for the easy solution first, and if it doesn’t work, bring in the heavies.
Conclusion
Decorating your very first house can be confusing and somewhat scary. Every decision seems vital and permanent. Yet it’s an exciting experience, and the reward is too good to miss. So, keep your head cool and enjoy the process.
