How do you learn to decorate your home?

[margaritasbythesea]

We've recently bought our first house that we can really decorate. Our last house was so tiny, there wasn't much we could do.

I realise now I don't really have an aptitude for it, and neither do I take an active interest. I get very put off by the amount of money that goes into magazine shoots. I just don't have the resources to buy a new sofa etc. I need design something that fits in around what we have. They all seem to be already set in beautiful houses and my house is a really ordinary 60s semi.

Neither do I seem to be very good at visualising what things would look like.

Honestly, I have never understood why people hire interior decorators before but now I do, not that I can afford them.

I've tried a couple of apps but found them hopeless. They're not any more realistic than the dress up dolly ones DD uses on her tablet for fashion design. I found the Dulux visualiser app completely useless. It insisted my sage green wall was dark get, for example.

I watched a TV programme where people compete to have the best designed normal house but I thought most of it looked horrible.

I bought a book I hoped would be inspirational but it was all based on rustic farmhouses, Swedish architecture in the woods or swanky city appartments (lockdown purchase over Amazon so couldn't look at it first). It just put me off as none of it seemed to translate to a British suburban semi on a budget.

I would like it to look nice, though. All the posts on here seem so knowledgeable. Can somebody help me out? What on earth can I try to get my head around it? Are there some basic steps to take for choosing colours etc?

It is!

Searching for things for us is difficult. It's a 45 minute drive to the nearest, fairly old fashioned furniture store, which is why we have a dining table we live but which is about 2 inches too big for its space. Sigh.

I sometimes go to London and look in John Lewis but by the time I get home I lose confidence. And DH is never with me.

I have made a start with Pinterest and have found some helpful things. I even phoned the man to do the floor, so thank you. Progress made.

Well done!

I picked up a pearl of wisdom from MN a year ago which was about breaking down a room into layers and giving yourself lots and lots of time.

Most bloggers advise getting one room perfect before moving on which would never happen for me. Actually the pressure of that is paralysing for me.

The layers were along the lines of walls and floors/ big furniture/ lighting/ curtains/ accent furniture (like side tables)/ artwork/ rugs and throws/ beautiful items/ plants and flowers. That’s not an order to work in because you can start anywhere.

For me, taking time to live with what I’ve done is how I work out whether I even like it, or if it’s working in that room. And they’re is much more pleasure in slowly gathering the individual pieces for a room than trying to put it together quickly.

I keep measurements, photos of my rooms, and various other notes on my phone in case I see something that might be suitable. Because I have zero awareness of size.

That's very helpful. Thanks. I just did my bedroom from start to finish and while I like it I wish I hadn't and I won't do it again, do that's great advice for me

Pintrest and instagram are great for ideas. Also looking at Dunelm/John Lewis ect for ideas.

Just don't fall into the trap and paint Everything grey and white and putting a tray on your hob for flowers. Hobs are for cooking not floral displays.

Choose your own design.

Take your time to learn your style and what suits your home. It's taken my years to understand what works with the light we have in different rooms. I still regret the grey living room although I'm learning to live with it! I find the cheaper interior design magazines better for loads of different ideas, and some cheaper options. Finally - plants! They can change the style of a room, and I find they often are the final touch I need

You've got some great advice already and a 60s style house is one of the perfect shapes/sizes to work with - I always imagine them
to be light filled with big windows and good sized rooms.

Remember just about EVERYTHING can be painted (with the right paint) including fabric! This was a game-changer for me when I discovered that Authentico chalk paint can be successfully used on fabric chairs/sofas. I think Annie Sloan can too.

I totally agree that a limited colour palette works brilliantly, and adding coordinating accents in cushions, rugs, throws, lamps, plant pots etc means you can swap and change things between rooms to change the look around.

My favourite house was my last but one, when I finally painted every room white! It really worked well as colour and interest came from all the bits and pieces - I stuck to neutral curtains/blinds too and had lots of wood (natural or painted).

Hopefully you'll find this thread and Pinterest inspirational, and keep a look out on Facebook Marketplace as people often sell things perfect for upcycling (eg painting) as well as 'bundles' of cushions/rugs/throws/ accessories that they're fed up with. Also people seem to sell - or sometimes giveaway - amazing sofas and chairs, bed frames, bed side tables etc. I've had some cracking bargains that don't look second hand.

Can all be done quite cheaply and should be fun, I hope you enjoy it!

I like to use plotboard.io which is a mood board website, so I screenshot/take photos of things I like and have a board for each room. Some things I won’t end up buying/using but having it all on one screen visually helps me work out what works together

As I have fairly eclectic taste sometimes, I also had an approach for planning my wedding that might help - I thought of 2/3 keywords that describe the look I wanted, then with things I thought I liked I could evaluate against my keywords and decide if they go with the theme or I just like them but don’t need to get them involved.

This will sound very geeky, but I use squared paper to make scale rooms with every alcove, door etc marked, then if I like a piece of furniture I make a paper square/rectangle etc to scale and you can move it around your paper 'room' to see where it fits best. When you have several pieces you can look at different layouts and see problems you might not have otherwise.
I have very strong opinions about colours etc so that was never my issue but I could find it hard to visualise layouts. I didn't love any of the apps and found paper was the best way. My SIL mocked me until she bought a sofa that didn't fit in their living room ☺️

Thank you all so much for taking the time.

@KingdomScrolls

This will sound very geeky, but I use squared paper to make scale rooms with every alcove, door etc marked, then if I like a piece of furniture I make a paper square/rectangle etc to scale and you can move it around your paper 'room' to see where it fits best. When you have several pieces you can look at different layouts and see problems you might not have otherwise. I have very strong opinions about colours etc so that was never my issue but I could find it hard to visualise layouts. I didn't love any of the apps and found paper was the best way. My SIL mocked me until she bought a sofa that didn't fit in their living room ☺️

I always wanted to do this! I need some squared paper...

Oh yes @KingdomScrolls before I even start deciding wall colours I have to get the graph paper out

@Twatterati

You've got some great advice already and a 60s style house is one of the perfect shapes/sizes to work with - I always imagine them to be light filled with big windows and good sized rooms.

Remember just about EVERYTHING can be painted (with the right paint) including fabric! This was a game-changer for me when I discovered that Authentico chalk paint can be successfully used on fabric chairs/sofas. I think Annie Sloan can too.

I totally agree that a limited colour palette works brilliantly, and adding coordinating accents in cushions, rugs, throws, lamps, plant pots etc means you can swap and change things between rooms to change the look around.

My favourite house was my last but one, when I finally painted every room white! It really worked well as colour and interest came from all the bits and pieces - I stuck to neutral curtains/blinds too and had lots of wood (natural or painted).

Hopefully you'll find this thread and Pinterest inspirational, and keep a look out on Facebook Marketplace as people often sell things perfect for upcycling (eg painting) as well as 'bundles' of cushions/rugs/throws/ accessories that they're fed up with. Also people seem to sell - or sometimes giveaway - amazing sofas and chairs, bed frames, bed side tables etc. I've had some cracking bargains that don't look second hand.

Can all be done quite cheaply and should be fun, I hope you enjoy it!

came on the thread to get some tips and saw this! can you really paint furniture?!

And I have shiny kitchen cabinets (laminate or whatever?) - can you paint those too? (They're not wood).

Buy some interiors magazines or go on Pinterest and start putting together mood boards of everything you like. After a while a theme or mood should start to emerge and it'll make you realise what you like and don't like.
A good idea until you find your feet is to paint everywhere off white (farrow and balls strong white is a good one) and add colour with accessories you like. You can always add colour to walls later. A stylish home will be built over time by adding things as you go along - going out and buying everything in a rush all at once or from the same shop won't have as good an effect or reflect your personality.

And choose what you love, not what is in fashion - you're the one who'll be living there!

I don't know really. I think we have quite good taste, though are sadly very messy! DH and I are both quite influenced by the houses we grew up in - I like colours and patterned wallpaper, he likes stripes (MIL has immaculate taste and their house is just lovely)

I have a strong sense for what's really fashionable right now, as in I generally want to avoid anything like that - eg everything being grey, mismatched spanish tiles (though i love matched ones but you can't bloody find them now). Because I don't want my house looking really tied down to a specific trend. We did a hallway with patterned paper in the lowe half of the wall and I'm pleased with it as it doesn't seem to be a 'thing' at all at the moment and it looks really nice.

I read magazines and note colours and styles that I like. I try to think of a few colours to base a room on, but without going too mad about being matchy-matchy with everything.

We've ended up with a lot of blue in the house as I want colours, DH says he wants colours, but always balks at anything too strong and asks for more bloody grey, and blue seems to be about the only one he doesn't get uncomfortable about.

You can get an MDF primer that may also work on laminate - I've used it to paint IKEA furniture and it works surprisingly well.

You can use plastikote spray paint on furniture too (Ikea type stuff) - lots of thin layers and do it outside, but pretty good!

Do you have Kindle unlimited? If so you can read Elle Decoration, Ideal Home magazine, and a fair few other interior design ones for free every month - I get tons of ideas from flicking through these.

I think the poster who mentioned layering is on to something. If you need to work with what you’ve got pick a paint colour fir your walls that works with your existing upholstered furniture. Even if you decide you just want W neutral colour, there are many shades of grey, white or beige. Picking on that works with the couch you’ve got will go a long way. Then you add curtains, lamps, throw pillows as you can afford them. I find these things can all be eclectic. I quite like an evolved look rather than matchy-matchy.

@margaritasbythesea what’s this TV programme you speak of where people compete to have best designed house? Sounds great.

It's called Best House in Town. It's on iPlayer ATM.

I'm a fan of having old and new - including lots of different textures. So for instance I have a velvet sofa, fake fur throw, wood, metal candlesticks etc, some patterns. And wall art also gives personality and colour. I've just moved into a a new house and they have put in a very natural colour palette on the walls but all the doors have been painted a flat green khaki colour. It adds interest and looks really nice.

Its fashionable to mix patterns into rooms and not just to have block colours, the tip for how to mix different patterns - apart from colour palette is to have one with a big bold pattern and then others with smaller scale patterns, geometrics or stripes. I also agree with not too matchy matchy. There are a lot of YouTube videos of people making over rooms cheaply and of course expensively too. But they are good for ideas.

You can get nice bits of furniture from Facebook marketplace cheaply.

@margaritasbythesea - I know of at least one interior designers which over lock down was doing advice over zoom - which I am sure is much cheaper. So you take photos videos etc and they give advice. If you want to know of one I know let me know - used them before and then bit of updating via phone photos etc since then)

(It isn't me - this is not an advert - for avoidance of doubt )

Google how to use a colour wheel to understand which colours work together. Some people are more interested in Interior Design and have more ability in it than others naturally but I believe a lot can be learned if you want. You might find a friend has a passion for it and will be only too happy to help suggest things to you for free or you can pay her mates rates to come up with designs for you. Look at different styles of interior design images on the internet or in magazine shabby chic/minimalist/Scandinavia/maximalist/Boho/Glamorous/Art deco etc and see what appeals. Obviously think about things that wont clash madly if they’re in the same room in terms of styles and colours etc (unless what your into is clashing style!) but mostly just buy things you love, especially big or expensive items as you go along and you may find your natural style is obvious as time goes on.

Think a bit about how you developed your clothes style/grooming aesthetic.

So what are important things for you? It is ease of use and how it fits into your lifestyle, or do you value creating a look that gives you visual pleasure even if it takes extra effort to maintain it?

What are colours you like, and also textures? So you gravitate towards plain colours or patterns? So you want to quickly find a template and get into a routine or so you want to build gradually and evolve as you go?

The one more thing I would say is as Le Corbusier - a house is a machine for living in

So if you have a small house like me - get what you need first for family living and then decorate afterwards - no point living i a pretty house if there is no where to store stuff you don't need and don't use.

Is it the hierarchy of needs I am talking about.

Or Wm Morris - have nothing in your house which you do not know be be useful or believe to be beautiful

I would get the basics sorted out ( you may very have done so ) and then organise the decoration.

I think a useful guide is have one background colour for lots of stuff , another colour you like and then one more modestly deployed which makes it look less like a showroom

But - just my thought - I think everyone should have the house they enjoy whatever