If you just bought a house and are moving into it, there’s a temptation to put your fingerprint on it immediately. But you may want to hold off for a bit, realizing that your new home can have as much personality as you do.
Decorating Your New Home
Every home has a certain ambience and energy to it… it’s probably what drew you to consider it in the first place, even if the price or terms weren’t exactly to your liking. It’s a lot like a relationship – you and your new home need time to bond.
So, what should you do when you move into a house and it’s not exactly to your liking?
If you have existing furniture, go ahead and move it into the new home. Take your time deciding on any new furnishings. There’s no rush. And the extra time you take planning your space and décor will pay off in spades down the road as you end up with the home of your dreams.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start planning immediately. The first thing you want to do when you’re ready to consider design options is to draw out a scale blueprint of your home’s interior. It doesn’t have to be fancy. And if you love to get technical with things, consider the 3-D planning software they have for computers these days. The dimensional views will make it easy to visualize what you’re planning to do.
If you want to do it the old fashioned way, just draw it out with a piece of paper so that 1 foot equals 1 inch on paper. That makes the match really easy. You can do the same with the furniture you plan to keep, so you can move it around the house and find the perfect place for it. This makes it easier to go furniture shopping, since you’ll know exactly what you need as well as how big it should be to fill the spaces you’ve identified on your blueprint. Just remember to leave lots of room so you can move around the house easily and keep primary traffic patterns free of furniture.
To make living in your less than perfect domicile bearable in the intervening time between moving in and redecorating, be sure to hang artwork and add the homey touches, even if the walls aren’t the color you want them to be. A house will always be a work in progress; so don’t worry too much if things aren’t exactly how you want them.
As you begin to solidify your ideas, pick up some small bottles of the paint colors you’re considering and paint them on a wall in swatches. Live with them for a while. Show them to family and friends and ask their advice. Seeing the colors on an actual wall will help you decide on the color or colors that are just right for you. Many home improvement stores these days sell small bottles expressly for this purpose so you don’t have to shell out a lot of money for a quart or a gallon of paint you won’t end up using.
A couple other good tips:
- Don’t use gloss paint on ceilings – you’ll see everything that’s uneven or worn with it at night.
- Use more daring colors on smaller walls or transitional spaces, such as hallways or staircases. This can increase the beauty of your home without the colors becoming overwhelming.
- If you’re extra tall, try to hang paintings at the eye level of an average sized person. You don’t want others to have to constantly be looking up to enjoy your taste in art.
Most of all, your new home should be balanced, harmonious and proportional. Don’t make it into a designer home you don’t like just because that’s what designer TV shows and magazines say that’s what you should do. And remember that other people’s opinions are just that, opinions. In the end, you have to make your new house your new home and your own sense of style and personal tastes should be reflected in it.
