I'm sure I am not the only one who decided to redecorate (or finally decide how to decorate) while working from home for the last year. My apartment had a ton of furniture and decor that was given to me by family and barely any pieces I hand selected. So I decided that it was time to decorate my dream home and I am going to share with you guys my tips on how to do it with ease!
Credit: Etsy.com
1. Decide on a realistic budget
If you are anything like me, you know that furniture and decor you LOVE can be very expensive. Budget is crucial AND you can find beautiful pieces that fit within the budget. You can easily get overwhelmed if you do not set a parameter for yourself on how much you're willing to spend and it can be extremely discouraging when you cannot find anything you love because of price.
2. Go Slow!
When I moved into my apartment, the HUGE list of everything that I needed to buy gave me so much anxiety because with a big list comes a big price point. I chose to live in the space for a while to really get a feel for what I was looking for and what would actually make sense. When you rush decorating, you can quickly realize that the pieces you bought you actually don't like. Crush your interior decorating goal room by room. Focus on completing one room at a time and slowly everything else will fall into place. I have an open concept living room/dining room, so once I finished the living room decor the vibe bled into the dining room and it was that much easier to find pieces I liked. My biggest tip would be to buy one component of the room each month. Baby steps my friends!
3. Decide on the vibe you are going for
This is where the typical piece of advice, "Look on Pinterest" comes into play. When decorating each room, you need to know what look you're going for before planning any furniture. Another great site to check out fully decorated rooms is Houzz. You can filter by which room and even search specific themes. Personally, I am your typical modern farmhouse girl. I spent MONTHS looking up farmhouse rooms. I joined a ton of farmhouse decor groups on Facebook and I am so glad I took it slow when decorating. I changed my mind about 2837402750298340298 times when trying to decide what level of farmhouse I was going for; however, wanting farmhouse never changed. Find a look that screams "home" to you. This look will be what you plan the rest of your house off of! Get inspired. This was my inspiration I found on Pinterest:
Credit: Amazon.com
4. Chose the focal point of the room
It can be overwhelming figuring out where to start when decorating, but here is the best tip... chose the focal point of your room. For me, when I was deciding what to do with our living room, the couch was my focal point. The focal point of the room is 100% up to you. It is what you want people to notice as soon as they walk in. For the big ticket items like couches, tables, or beds Facebook marketplace is a great way to find used furniture for less money. I bought a black industrial bed frame from Facebook Marketplace and it beats anything I saw in stores! Furniture stores almost always have outlet sections too, so make sure you shop around and check out the outlet! Bob's Discount furniture always has some great deals. I always search websites by filtering the results with my budget. That way, I don't fall in love with something I can't afford. One last big tip for you on this topic...make sure you measure your space so you know what dimensions you are working with. I am the queen of ordering miniature furniture because I don't read.
5. Think big picture
Now that you found your focal point of the room, we need to fill the rest of the space! I have seen so many people look at things for their house without thinking about if it will flow with what they have already. When you are looking for decorative accents, make sure to check if they will look great with the stuff you already have! When I picked new bedding for our master bedroom, I fell in love with a cream oversized knit blanket, but when i put a similar color scarf on the bed to see if it would go....it looked HORRIBLE.
Pinterest and Houzz will help with this too. Look up other people's rooms with similar furniture to see what they did. Copying is 100% okay in decorating! If you love it, buy it. I had to plan my living room around a natural wood coffee table that I refuse to give up because I LOVE it. So many farmhouse items are natural wood so in an effort for my home not to look like a forest, I had to really figure out what colors of wood would go together without clashing. Our coffee table, TV stand, dining room table, and decorative ladder shelf all have wood on them. The answer to our problem wasn't to avoid more wood, but to place certain colors in places where it wasn't too much. The living room has the grey/brown TV stand and the natural wood coffee table. The dining room has a natural wood table, but with how the woods are spaced out, it works! Don't give up on your vision if it doesn't flow right away; find ways around it! Loving your space is priceless.
6. Tie it together
Okay so now we have our budget, focal piece of the room, and theme picked out. The last part is to find the smaller decorative items that will really tie everything together. I am a sucker for a TJ Maxx or HomeGoods shop, and those are the best places to find decorative items. I went to TJ Maxx the other day for a throw blanket and created an entire dining room centerpiece. The centerpiece actually made me realize that I hate the wall decor I had in the dining room and sparked an entirely new vision that I think will be the perfect compliment to the rest of the house. Farmhouse decor can easily get monotone with neutral colors so throw pillows and blankets are the perfect way to get a pop of color in! I used decorative trays for my coffee table and TV stand to add some color in. Just a subtle rose gold accent made all the difference. Sometimes you won't realize you need something until you see it. That mentality alone is why I try to limit my TJ Maxx visits!
7. Love your space
Now that your vision is complete and the purchasing has ended, enjoy your new home! It feels so good to lay on the couch with a beverage at night watching a show. The comfort of my home is my oasis and it should be yours too! It is so satisfying to be in your home that you created yourself, because lets all admit it....a house is built, but a home is created.
I hope this guide helps you all, and please show me all your masterpieces!