It’s not easy decorating your own home. That is, unless you don’t care about what the outcome will be. Messing up the decors and color combinations of your own home is easy.
Hiring an interior designer is certainly your best bet if you want your home to look like something straight out of a home decor magazine. However, not everyone has the finances to hire one, especially someone imbibed with the right talent and who can share the same love you have for your home.
In this article, we’ll be sharing our best tips and tricks on how to style your home like an interior designer.
1. Create a mood board
If you consider yourself a good planner, or if you already have a specific home design in mind, you could skip this part and go straight to the next item on this list. On the other hand, if you’ve never had an experience in this sort of thing before, then the first thing you should do is to create a mood board.
Creating a mood board may seem tedious to people who aren’t very creative, but it’s extremely helpful if you want to keep things coordinated inside your home. Not sure how to start your mood board? First, think about what you want to see in your house. Do you want a pretty chandelier? Clean, white walls? A lacy bed? You can print or cut out photos of these and put them all in a single board to see how they’d look like together.
For example, your mood board could contain photos of a nice upholstered couch, a cozy-looking fireplace and light beige walls. This tells you that your place should probably have a cozy, country-home like vibe to it and could help guide you as to what other pieces you could add next. It may not seem much, but it’s a start. Plus, it’s always better to work with a direction in mind than nothing.
2. Prepare everything needed in advance
Once you’ve got your home inspiration pegged down, it’s time to get to work. But before you do, first make sure that you prepare everything in advance before working on your home.
This doesn’t mean purchasing every single picture frame and snow globe that you’re planning to put on the mantle. In this case, “needed” is an important keyword. For instance, you may not need your second bowl of ceramic fruits for the kitchen table, but you do need to have enough cans of paint, the right number of lighting fixtures and all the basic furniture such as the kitchen table, living room couches and bed for your bedroom. These items are rather hard to change later on, so think well before purchasing them for your new home.
3. Make it comfortable
Different designers tend to have different priorities when designing spaces, but for many, comfort is still their top priority. What’s the use of having an award-winning design if the people who are going to use the space aren’t motivated to stay there because it’s too uncomfortable for them?
Some things that could help people feel more comfortable in a certain space are personal mementos such as framed photos and sentimental trinkets, a touch of greenery like potted plants and flowers and customized or special furniture that aren’t typically found in most homes.
For example, if selecting an adjustable bed that you can use for a variety of purposes makes your room more comfortable for you, then go ahead and follow your heart’s desire.
4. Keep things simple
Decorating your home may not be easy, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. One of the best tips when doing anything creative is to always keep things simple. This means that you shouldn’t pile on different designs all on top of one another just to make things look more grand and elegant.
If one side of your wall already has marbled designs on it, maybe don’t add brick detailing anymore to another side. Similarly, if you’re already using a certain pattern as the main theme to your space, it’s best not to add another loud one to the mix, unless you want to make things look mismatched and disorganized.
By keeping things as simple as possible, you’re actually minimizing the possible errors that you could be making with the design. Professional interior designers know that a simple theme that sticks to just one or two main ideas is the best way to go if you want your space to look both inviting and yet still sophisticated.
5. Don’t be scared to get creative
Simplicity is key to styling your home like an interior designer – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get creative anymore.
Again, this doesn’t mean overdoing it and putting all sorts of mismatched items together. It just means that you shouldn’t be afraid to feature a few key pieces that define your unique personality in the space that you want to style. It could be as simple as a portrait that you painted yourself when you were younger or a beautiful knitted blanket that your grandmother made for you during your teenage years. It could also be something much more noticeable, like an entire wall painted in hot pink with black and white zebra stripes.
Certainly, minimalism has its perks, but it shouldn’t suppress your own creativity. Painting your living room white doesn’t mean that you can no longer buy those electric blue throw pillows that you’ve always wanted, and just because you’re sticking to a minimalistic theme doesn’t mean you can’t use a faux animal print slip-on cover for your couch anymore. It’s still your space, after all, so feel free to own it the way only you can.
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