Guest Blogger: How to Decorate Your New Home with Ease

Guest Blogger #982, Entry #2512, June 11, 2013

Most of us want a home that looks like it could be featured within the pages of a home decorating magazine. For a lot of us, though, trying to decorate a home in any sort of planned fashion feels overwhelming. Here are some tips that will help you create a cohesive, organized and beautiful look for your home:

Ignore Fashion

When you walk through furniture showrooms and peruse home decorating magazines it’s easy to get overwhelmed by just how fashionable (and expensive) everything is!

How will you decorate your new home?

Image via: Susan Glick Interiors

Here’s the truth: fashionable furniture and decorations are not meant to be touched. They’re meat to be photographed. You want a home that you can live in—a home that won’t be ruined if someone spills juice on the sofa or doesn’t notice a dropped chip on the floor before she steps on it. Aim for comfort and “livability” first. Look for washable fabrics, stain resistant carpets and rugs, etc. There’s plenty of beautiful stuff out there!

The Color Wheel is Your Friend

If “cohesive” is a look you’re going for, create a color scheme for each room (or for your whole home). This way you can make sure that everything matches. These days following a color scheme is easier than it has ever been before. For example, now you can shop for art by color (which cuts down on the time you’ll need to shop for art considerably). Many stores group decorative items by color. You can even display your children’s art based upon which room’s color scheme it most matches.

Color wheel – use it to help coordinate and match color in your interiors

Image via: Lieblingsdecke

DIY is Your Best Friend

Learning how to do things for yourself is a fantastic idea. It helps you save a ton of money. Painting your own rooms, learning to make your own simple pottery, sewing your own linens, curtains and even making your own basic furniture—these are all good skills to have. DIY is also considered incredibly fashionable right now and you’ll never stop loving the sense of pride you get when someone exclaims “you made that? That’s awesome!” If you’ve never done any DIY projects before, that’s okay—there are lots of tips and tricks you can learn to make your projects easier for you to master.

How will you decorate your new home?

Image via: Alexander Design Group, Inc.

Minimalism

When you first start thinking about decorating your home, you probably picture the walls covered in art, every flat surface featuring something decorative, beautiful things everywhere you look. Stop! A beautiful home doesn’t have to be a filled up home. Leaving spaces empty can say quite a lot about you and your family too. In fact, the fewer things you put into a room, the more attention those things will get. Some families say that switching to a minimalist approach has even helped them with anxiety and stress because the open spaces help them feel calm instead of cluttered.

Above all else—even when you’re using these tips—you want to be patient. Yes, you want your home to be “finished” right now but here’s a truth decorators will never tell you: creating the perfect home takes time. It will look so much better if you’re patient and only decorate with things as you find them. Instead of hunting for inspiration, wait for it to strike! You’ll be glad you did.

For more summer home decor ideas on Stagetecture, click here.