5 Easy Steps to Design a Home You Love
Do you struggle to pull together a look to design a home that you love?
I'm writing this blog to help people suffering from the overwhelm of interior design with a step-by-step plan to create a home you can feel proud of. Also because I frequently work with people that have beautiful saved interior images but are unable to confidently take the next step. And that’s EXACTLY what this blog will help you overcome. I want you to move forward and take the next step to create a home you love that functions for you and your family. A home you can feel proud of.
Firstly, let’s start with some of the mistakes that prevent people from creating a home they love and feel proud of:
Shopping for furniture without knowing their style, needs or room dimensions - only to end up with something they don't like.
Looking for paint colours without thinking about the lighting the room or what colours make them happy - resulting in a colour scheme that's just not quite right.
Reading too many blogs and how-tos that result in overwhelm before they even start - and then continue to live with something they don't like.
Making an expensive mistake in the past and since then avoid decorating or updating their home for a long time - for fear of another failure.
Bespoke furniture and room design by Carrie Cotton Design
If you have been a follower of my blogs and/or advice on Facebook and Instagram, you’ll know that I am a big believer in thinking about your needs and wants long before the pretty stuff comes in.
Preparation is key to design a home you love
So, before you shop for a sofa or google 'beautiful living rooms'... start with the right preparation. Make sure you start off in the right direction to avoid overwhelm and feel confident in your plans.
“That’s great advice… but exactly how do I prepare??” Well I'm glad you asked! It’s incredibly important to define your needs FIRST. It doesn't matter if you have a magazine-worthy room design. If it doesn't function for you and your needs, you aren't going to feel happy using it. Similarly if you have some key pieces of furniture that you love but the rest of the room needs work, you aren't going to feel happy about your great furniture.
Here are 5 steps you can take right now to design a home you love (PS - These steps really help simplify and eliminate the overwhelming feelings you have around designing your home).
1 - Establishing your needs by starting at your front door
With a pen and notepad, start at your front door. Go through each area of your home with super critical eyes and write down everything that NEEDS to be done in each room or area for home. I know this isn't a lot of fun, but at this stage, do not think about design. You really just need to know what NEEDS to be replaced or repaired before the pretty stuff comes in.
"If you were going to sell your house tomorrow, what needs to be done to place your home in the best possible position to sell?”
On a purley practical level, what needs to be done in the house? Here's some questions you could ask yourself.
Do the walls need to be painted?
Any flooring or carpeting to be replaced, refinished or cleaned?
Is there anything that is broken or needs an upgrade such as a window or a radiator for example?
Any quick fixes you can make - fix that loose wardrobe door or finally hang that mirror?
What about the furniture?
Are any new items needed to make the room function?
This list is valuable because now you know exactly what needs to be done in each room without getting overwhelmed with the design of each room.
2 - Establishing your wants, go back to your front door (trust me on this!)
With a fresh page in your notebook, start at your front door. This time, go through each area of your home and write down what you want for that area or room in your home. At this stage, still do not think about design. You really just need to know what it is YOU want from your home to get you feeling proud about it. BTW - Do these lists in as many or as few rooms as you like... if you want to just focus on one or two rooms at a time, that's just fine! Think about how you want each room to "feel".
Here's a list to start you thinking.
Do you want the hallway to feel organized and decluttered?
Surely you'd love your bedroom to feel like a fancy hotel room?
How about dining, do you prefer a formal dining room or more relaxed spaces?
Or maybe a cosy one?
Do you want your living room to be cosy and relaxing?
Or maybe good for entertaining? Perhaps both?
Do you want your kitchen to feel high-end and contemporary?
Or like 'grandmas' kitchen?
Do you want a bold guest bathroom or maybe a spa-like shower room?
This stage will feel exciting as you start to list the possibilities for your home.
3 - List these by room or area of your home to start creating YOUR design plan
With your 'needs' list and your 'wants' list, combine them into one list but categorize it by each room.
For example: Living room
Needs - new windows and an area rug
Want - it to feel comfortable for my friends and family
This will help you from feeling overwhelmed about interior design.
4 - Prioritise, Rome wasn't built in a day and your home won't be either!
Now you know what each room needs and how you want it to function and feel. It's time to prioritise which rooms you want to work on first, second, third, etc...
Taking on your home in bite-size pieces allows you to work towards a home you love in a reasonable and realistic time frame. This is because it is an important part of the process to prevent the feeling of overwhelm (or getting design fatigue) from working on too many areas of your home at one time. Getting through these 4 steps is HUGE because now you have a design roadmap or strategy for your entire house.
5 - Get to work with your focused, personalised design plan
Now you can search Google, Pinterest, and Houzz for room inspo specifically with your design needs and wants using words on your list.
This is because I now feel safe unleashing you to the world of online inspirational images. Using these steps to create this specific list allows you to search for exactly what you want to achieve. For example, you know you want a comfortable family living room with a new area rug and windows. So now you can search for 'comfortable family living room'. Start saving these 'comfortable family living room' images into a folder. Additionally don't forget to take note of the area rugs and windows because now you know you need these things.
If you have gone through these 5 steps and now thinking, "how do I go from my design plan to my dream design at home?" Book a 1-on-1 design call with me. This design call lasts around 30 minutes and you will be speaking with me, personally. I'll help you identify what is already working in your home and give you ideas on how to improve.
