You've bought a new place and you're ready to put your stamp on it, so how do you get started?
At My Bespoke Room, we are interior design experts, who have worked on thousands of rooms across the UK for clients of all budget sizes.
So when it comes to decorating, we know how to get the very best out of every room.
1. Thoughtfully choose what to bring with you
This step will take place before you even have the keys to your new home, but trust us, it's the most important one.
When you start decorating your new property, you’ll want as little clutter in the way as possible.
So before you move, you’ll need to create three piles for your items: keep, donate and discard.
And be ruthless: this is a great opportunity to sell any furnishings and have a little extra money in your pocket for your new home.
You’ll hear us say this a lot throughout this guide, but make sure you don’t leave it till the last minute! Start the decluttering process as early as possible, allowing ample time to think through what you really want to keep and what can be let go.
2. Don’t unpack all at once
Resist the temptation to unpack everything in the first few days as you’re much more likely to lose the motivation to decorate.
No one wants to repack all of their furniture just to repaint the walls or change the carpet, so try to wait until you have the time to properly renovate the space.
If you can, just unpack the essentials and perhaps a few personal pieces. This way, when the time eventually comes for painting and decorating, you won’t have to do the packing job twice.
3. There’s nothing wrong with starting from scratch
Wait, so you don’t love the purple wallpaper and orange carpet combo?!
Unless you're stepping into a sparkling new build, chances are you might be entering a home with some less-than-ideal design choices.
Or even if the previous owners had great taste, it may not be quite your style.
This is where the design professionals are invaluable. With a well trained eye to see the full potential in the room.
Painting all of the walls white can be really helpful as it will give you a blank canvas to work from.
Paint is one of the least expensive and time-consuming ways to transform a space and it may change your perspective on what you’d like to do with the room.
4. Don’t let existing pieces dictate your room design
Now’s the time to get critical.
If you’ve brought along an existing sofa and placed it in the space, does it truly look right? Is it too big, too small or the wrong style for this house?
Unfortunately, it can sometimes be the case that furniture that looked great in your old home, all of a sudden looks a bit meh in your new home.
In this scenario, don’t try to style the room around the existing piece of furniture you’re no longer in love with. You’ll only waste money buying items that you’ll later regret.
Instead, let the piece go and sell it on - then you can put the money towards something you truly love and looks great in your new home.
5. Prioritise rooms by functionality
If your home requires quite a bit of work, you may be bracing yourself for living on a building site for a few weeks.
So think about the room you spend the most time in or need to complete first.
For some people, this may be the bedroom, as they want a room they can simply relax in to escape the chaos.
For others, it may be the bathroom, so they have a clean, fresh place to prepare for the day in.
If you have children, it’s always a good idea to prioritise their bedrooms first as it’s a great way to help them settle into their new home.
Whatever room will make you feel most comfortable and at home is the room you should work on first.
6. Consider different layouts
As you start to spend more and more time in your new home, you may begin to notice certain spaces are not quite working as well as you had planned.
Don’t make the mistake of settling for an existing layout just because it requires some effort to rearrange!
The flow of a room is such an important attribute to how you feel in your new home and it shouldn’t be taken for granted.
To properly plan out your space, draw up a sketch of your room, making sure to add in elements such as windows, appliances or built-in cabinets that can’t be moved.
Then, test out different furniture layouts from your newfound ‘birds-eye-view’ and you might just be surprised by how many opportunities you have.
Layouts can be difficult, and they’re not always the most fun part of the decorating process.
But at My Bespoke Room, our design process always starts with the layout. Our designers begin by crafting layout options that will make the most of every inch of space and work perfectly with how you live and use it.
7. Establish a design direction
Simply put, ‘design direction’ is all about deciding on a theme or concept for your space.
It ensures you don’t make any expensive mistakes and that every purchase you make works together. Here’s one that we made for this client’s main bedroom:
As interior designers, we would establish a design direction like the one above for each of the rooms in your new home by taking inspiration from images you love.
Sometimes they are from Pinterest mood boards or pictures taken from magazines. You can really find inspo anywhere!
When designing client’s homes, we look at existing furniture pieces that you love and use them as the focal point of the room. Whether it’s a bold-coloured sofa or an antique cabinet, we can match your new pieces to your existing furniture.
We also use artwork as another great way to get inspired, by pulling colours or shapes from your favourite pieces and applying them to the rest of your room.
Plus, for clients who feel totally lost, we can look into other aspects of your life, such as your wardrobe. Looking at colours and patterns that clients love to wear is a great way to gain an understanding of what you may like your home to look like.
8. Think about the bigger picture
When decorating your new home, it’s easy to go room-by-room, tackling one space at a time.
However, we always have the bigger picture in mind when designing a home, as this means all of your rooms will have a unified style and look cohesive.
Try to stick to some common themes when decorating your entire place to make sure your rooms don’t look mismatched.
You can do this by using the same flooring throughout, picking a consistent colour palette or maintaining continuity with the use of similar lighting fixtures and soft furnishings.
9. Affordable ways to inject personality into your home
As we mentioned earlier, paint is such an easy and inexpensive way to change up a space and you shouldn’t be afraid of bold choices.
After all, you can always paint over a colour you don’t like later!
And you can add personality through affordable soft furnishings like cushions or throws. By experimenting with different shades, textures and patterns, you can really pull together a space that is as individual as you.
You can also try out implementing a picture ledge, so you can switch up images or art prints without having to bring out the hammer each time.
And finally, lighting is a super important aspect that is often overlooked. You can easily create ambient lighting with the use of plug-in lamps on tables and shelves to layer lighting throughout the space.
If you’re moving home, we can help! Our fixed-fee room design packages mean you can transform an entire room for just £395. If you would like to discuss your project with an expert, get in touch here. We’re all ears!
Get the WOW-factor for £395 per room
At My Bespoke Room, we're so sure you'll love us, we're offering all Zoopla readers 20% off your first room design. Let's get started.
