How to Create Your Decorating Plan and Start Your Project

Living

Before you can start decorating your home, you have to take a step back.

You may be ready to dive in and reinvigorate your tired living spaces, your outdated décor, or rooms that just don’t work for you. However, you can’t get in there and start redecorating without doing some prep work.

You have to draw a map before you can plot your course. Here’s how to create your decorating plan to end up with a space you’ll love for years.

How to Begin Decorating a Room

Decorating is as much about planning as it is about doing. When decorating your house, learn where to start to set off on the right foot.

1. Look Around You

Begin charting your course by taking a step back and giving your target a good, hard look. Determine what you like about it, what you don’t like, what you love, what you hate, and what could be better.

Think doubly hard about how you use the space right now. Does it work the way it is? Or could you make better use of it?

2. Write Out What You Want

What is the ultimate goal for this room? How do you hope to use it? Pin that down, then write down a wish list detailing what you would want to make that happen. Throw cost out the window for a minute and dream a little.

3. Determine What You Need

What does the room need in order to function? What do you need in order to use it comfortably? Are there any fixes that need to be done now, and which ones can wait for later? Write these things down, too.

Once you have your wants and needs sorted out, you will have a better idea of the ideal way to overhaul the room while balancing the two.

4. Collect Inspiration

Start collecting inspiration for how you might want the room to look. Go low tech and tear out magazine pages with styles you like, or create a pin board online. Do this slowly, allowing yourself at least a few weeks, in order to get a true sense of your taste.

If you don’t know what your style is, forget about figuring it out. Just save images that call to you, ones that look like places you’d want to live. Look over each one and note what they have in common. Are you gravitating toward certain colors? Styles of furniture?

5. Decide What Stays and What Goes

Now you can look at your room again and determine which pieces will work with your vision, which ones you need to keep, and which ones can leave.

Don’t rule out a piece because it doesn’t work at face value, however. Remember that some furniture may only need cosmetic changes, like new upholstery, a fresh coat of paint, or a new wood stain. Some photos or art can be reframed or re-matted, and cushions can be recovered with new fabric.

Follow Interior Design Steps for a Flawless Finish

If you need to know how to begin decorating a room, start with drawing up a plan. Go over the details carefully to create a room you’ll love for the long haul.