One of the most exciting aspects of moving into your new house is making it feel like a home. Styling your new home so that it feels both comfortable and personal is an important step in the transition from house to home, but not everyone is blessed with an innate sense of style, nor the designer’s eye to pull it all together.
Get inspired, make a plan, then execute
Most people do these steps backwards when it comes to decorating and then end up with a bunch of random pieces that don’t really work together. Unless you have the uncanny knack of “throwing together” the perfect eclectic room, it’s best to have a plan.
Start by compiling interiors for inspiration. Shelter magazines are an obvious resource, but also movie sets, restaurants, art and fashion can be good sources.
Once you have a general room style direction, you can drill down to each piece and find options you like. It helps to arrange these all in one place, like a bulletin board. The next step on styling your new home is to make a floor plan so you know what will fit in your space.
Subtraction before addition
If you start the decorating process with too much inventory, you’ll find it will prevent you from achieving the new look you’re going for. Even if you have a lot of space, this still applies.
People are compelled to fill space arbitrarily with objects and knick-knacks but fewer things have a greater impact. So, before you start making your shopping list, do an inventory of everything you own, and edit it down ruthlessly. You’ll be left with both a clearer mind and a collection of objects you love.
Think texture and contrast
Now that you have a clear direction for your room scheme and you’re looking for furniture pieces, keep in mind texture and contrast. Texture can get overlooked in favour of striking the right colour scheme but, without it, a room can feel flat and sterile.
It’s important to consider the material as carefully as colour. For first time projects, go with a neutral colour palette that incorporates several different textures. Even if the pieces are all variations of beige, the different materials bring richness and depth.
Lighting is EVERYTHING
For the same reason you walk into a restaurant and think “this is great ambience”, lighting is what gives your home the good “vibe” and pulls it all together.
A perfectly furnished space is nothing if you have 150-watts glaring down on it. An easy and low-cost fix is to replace an overhead flush mount with a dropped pendant that provides filtered light. Our go-to is the classic Noguchi paper globe pendant. It’s sculptural and diffuses light to create a perfect glow.
