Make Decorating Your Home Work For You: The Cheat Code for Beginners

Interior Design, home improvement or just sprucing up rooms can be very exciting. Home decorating comes natural for some. For others, it can be a  stressful and dreadful experience. Whether you're experienced or a newbie there are always countless ways to infuse your personality into the rooms of your home. Before beginning your project, think about how you will use the room. Having some idea for the use of rooms will allow for better planning. Will you use your dining room for formal entertaining or will you turn it into the home office? Will you use your guest bedroom for a gym or an extra closet? Knowing this information beforehand can make or break a budget.

Wasted time and money isn't the end of the world but when you can avoid it it's a win win. Measure the room so that when picking out your furniture you will have enough space to fit all of your selections. Next, think about how often you plan to use the room. If you are on a tight budget; consider spending less on the guest room in the beginning , which will only be used once in awhile, compared to what you will pay for a master bedroom which you will use every day. Don't rush the process. Quick spending sometimes leave us with unwanted purchases in a short period of time. Ignore the pressures to have everything completed fast. Take your time. It's better to take long and have home decor you really like vs decorating fast and being stuck with a vibe you don't even like. When working with a tight budget focus on furnishing one room at a time. However, if you stumble upon a piece you really like that fits better for another room, buy it. You can store it and come back to it when you're on to decorating the netxt room.

Often we want to decorate our home using our favorite color. Depending on the color, more than likely you won't use that color to paint an entire room. However, you can use your favorite color to accent any room in your home. Using paintings, flowers, towels, and multi-colored accent pieces will bring that desired hue to any room. Adding pillows and rugs to your decor will not only give your room color, but will also add comfort. Accents will help your favorite color stand out and will become the focal point of your room. When choosing colors for your room consider the feeling you want your space to express. Warm colors like red, orange and yellow will create an upbeat lively mood. Cool colors like blue, green and violet tend to be more relaxing and calming.

When decorating a room, you should view your home as a totality instead of attempting to decorate each room with unique colors and themes. That's a quick way for the home to look junky and all over the place. Make an effort to have the same theme or aestethic  in all your rooms. This does not have to be boring, you can still have fun and make it your own. For example, if you want your home to have a contemporary modern yet 70's earthy vibe you can still do so. However, you would need to pick uniform colors to keep the home consistent while pulling fun unique accent pieces reminiscent of the 70's. You can make your rooms uniform by forming a color scheme. Select three or four colors then utilize them in different ways all over the house.

When decorating a room, often the big wall space becomes intimidating. Adding wall decor like a big clock, a painting, or family pictures can take a boring space and bring it to life. With a little imagination your wall can be transformed from a dull wall. Utilizing wall paper is also a great way to make the wall pop. Lastly focus on keeping your staple pieces simple and bring in bold eclectic design elements through your accent pieces. (i.e., pillows, curtains, throw blankets, lamps, accent table decor, etc.) Doing so will allow you more flexibility when you want a change since these pieces are less expensive compared to having to switch out a staple piece such as a sofa. 

These tips for the beginner are just the first steps toward creating a home that expresses your personality and style. Once you get started, you will come up with your own ideas and will soon have the home of your dreams. Channel your creativity and have fun!