Choosing the right furniture for your home can be stressful and it’s easy to get carried away by shopping euphoria without having a clear idea. Read our tips.
The first rule of interior design: there are no fixed rules in interior design. Any environment should be comfortable and filled with objects and furniture that you truly love. Of course, it is not as easy as it may seem, and often those who find themselves furnishing an entire apartment can risk having a lot of confusion and indecision, which are also a cause of stress.
Creating welcoming environments in tune with specific tastes and desires is not always simple and fun. But with a few professional tips, you can create beautiful, functional, and full of character spaces.
So, before you start looking for the right furniture, read our top five tips for decorating your home.
-
Don’t focus on one style
Often, in search of new trends, we talk about specific styles: Scandinavian, country chic, industrial, contemporary … But to have welcoming and fascinating environments it is better not to follow a single line of furniture: combining languages, mixing elements of styles different, makes each environment more interesting.
One thing we notice as interior design professionals is that many people want a particular style for a room, but they tend to overdo it. It’s nice to follow your taste, but if you fill your living room only with white shabby chic furniture, white retro sofas, and pillows, without taking into account some important elements for the interior design, the ensemble will start to look monotonous and unpersonal.
Choosing a theme (colors, materials, and mood) can help you more than leaning towards a specific style. So, certainly, start with your favorite decor style if that’s what you want, but try to add a personal touch with elements from other stylistic expressions. We can assure you that the most appreciated and welcoming interiors are those that do not follow a single furnishing trend. The mix of styles is the new trend!
-
Choose a focal point and give the furniture the right space
Few people will feel comfortable in a room crammed with furniture and objects. If there are too many things to look at, the eye will not know where to rest, creating confusion. This is why we advise you to give your home the right space to make it stand out. How? By making choices.
You will have to choose the focal point of the room depending on the type of space you are in. So you decide from the start what the focal point of the room will be, then you will organize most of the furniture around this.
For example in a living room, the focal point could be the fireplace, your beautiful vintage armchair, or the large window, etc. It would be a real shame if your room was full of beautiful, but under-valued things.
-
Living the house and furnishing “slowly”
It is particularly important, especially for those who are furnishing a new home without getting help from an interior design professional, to do it in a “slow” and progressive way. This means, that you literally have to live the environments, before making important decisions, since every decision has a cost (even a significant one) and you may regret it soon.
For example, when you go to a furniture store, don’t be persuaded to buy all the pieces of a set because you see them on display there: your room would risk looking like a catalog page, totally devoid of personality and interest.
Take some time to buy the different elements of a room a little at a time: this gives you the opportunity to evaluate how each piece fits the environment, before adding another and to understand if you really need something new.
Choose the main furniture, the ones you just can’t do without. If you do not have clear ideas, try to prefer clean and simple lines, which make the furnishings timeless. Then wait to see what daily life inside that house suggests to you. There is nothing worse than spending money, which you saved up so hard, only to regret the choices you made. Sometimes, you find that you can reuse an existing or salvaged piece in the attic or in a flea market. Other times you just need to add new textiles or simply move the furniture.
-
Take into account the architecture
There is no need to transform a room into something it is not. If you have period moldings we all agree to highlight them, but adding cornices around ceilings and walls in the 70s and 80s home isn’t quite the best of ideas.
The speech is similar to what we do about clothing: we need to emphasize our skills and minimize defects or weaknesses, not try to be someone else. Only in this way can we give the best impression of ourselves to others.
Highlight the strengths of the architecture of your home (large windows, a beautiful fireplace, exposure …) and don’t fight it, wanting to make it appear totally different, because it is not in line with your ideal of home.
-
Each room should have 3 qualities
In your home furnishing project, make sure that each room has these 3 qualities:
Personality: The unique and personal touch is what makes a room interesting. For example, include an unusual item, an heirloom, a piece of art, or even something vintage. Filling your home with brand new furniture and objects can be beautiful, of course, but it is only with pieces that make it unique and special, that you add that personality and soul that every environment needs.
Function: Is it the form that determines the function or vice versa? It’s an old stylistic battle. In our opinion, every room should be as functional as it is beautiful. If the distribution of furniture hinders your daily life, that room will never be welcoming.
Lighting: Not all rooms are lucky enough to have a good source of natural light, but a well-thought-out lighting system can create a truly comfortable space and will bring out the elements and strengths of the room.
You may also like to read, How to clean window blinds
