How did you get the hang of making your house nice?

[smellysmellycat]

We’re buying our first house in our 40s. We’re used to renting and being unable to decorate beyond adding our own curtains, lampshades, soft furnishings etc. And our furniture is mostly whatever was cheapest in Argos and Ikea.

Now we’ll have a whole house where we can choose everything from the floor to the light fittings. We want to do the place up gradually, and I’m just wondering how to get the hang of really thinking about all these things we can now control. I want to make things look really nice. What helped you get good at this?

I was obsessed with house magazines when I was younger and had my first houses (pre internet). They will help you identify your sense of style (or in this internet age try Pinterest).

If you join your local library many house magazines are available as free online versions via your library’s app, great if you have a tablet so you can browse to your heart’s content.

Yes to house magazines too. I use Pinterest to put my style together. Milanote is handy for interior stuff like this, you can create a moodboard, projects, draw your plans in first using photos of your space. It’s really good. I like YouTube creators for ideas or instructions for DIY.

House magazines and some interior design books helped. Mostly, they helped me realise what I didn't like which was just as important, if not more

Im no expert my any means but have found a style I like. I have joined various groups on Facebook where people show their homes and its great for ideas and inspiration.

For stuff I needed to do before I moved in I went fairly neutral. And had mood boards for what I wanted each room to feel like. Some rooms took longer than others. In my second house I've waited a year and am going very very slowly.

I follow interior designers on Instagram

Instagram. Just look through some home accounts and soon you will find that you are drawn to some styles and others you aren't.

Instagram is a good place to start
I know the colours and styles I like, and change things over time. For me it's influenced a lot by my budget!

This is a bedroom when I first moved in, and what it looks like now and I've changed the blinds since the last photo (cameras have improved too!!!)

It was a new build so I started with choosing
Carpet and bathroom flooring
Tiles for bathroom
Paint colour
Then the big things like sofa, bed, chairs etc
Storage
Artwork and accessories etc came over time and evolved as I live here
And also as you live there you find what you need, maybe the side table is too small or the lighting isn't quite right or you spot a painting you love that would be perfect

Before doing all the pretty bits make sure the electrics, windows and plumbing are up to scratch.

Decide what's important to you and how you want to live. This is my top five priorities:

1. Affordable
2. Practical

3 Comfortable 4, Easy to maintain

1. Efficient

To achieve this I:

1.Bought a small house with no mortgage

1. Got rid of all my unwanted/unnecessary possessions
2. Own very few ornaments
3. Put together a freestanding kitchen which was cheap and will last much long than the previous chip board kitchens I wasted £££ on
4. Painted it all white and bought good quality fabrics for sofas and bedding.

I just own much less stuff because I don't want to waste my life tidying up and cleaning.

My Mum loved decorating her house and we had conversations about what went with what and why when I was a child. I loved interiors magazines when I was younger, now I like blogs (Mad About the House is by far the most interesting and useful) and looking at houses on instagram (Lisa Dawson is my favourite with a fabulous Georgian house in York).

If you've already got furniture then you don't need to rush out and buy loads of things, slowly decorate and buy a mix of second hand/vintage from family, auction sites, ebay, freecycle, facebook marketplace, gumtree etc etc as well as some nice new things. There are loads of sites selling unused fabrics and carpets from commercial projects for much less than the RRP which is a good way to be environmentally friendly without having to buy preused stuff if that's not your thing.

My top tip is attractive storage, everything looks better when e.g. toys are in a cupboard or sideboard than in plastic boxes.

I think you have to ask yourself a tonne of questions.

Do I like patterns and colour? Maximalist or minimalist? Carpets or hard floors? Comfort over style? Shaker kitchens, high gloss kitchens? Curtains Vs blinds? Is there a particular thing you own that you love? What's it like? Silver/chrome Vs brass/gold. Period/vintage/retro Vs modern. Matchy matchy Vs eclectic etc. And so on.

I love Apartment Therapy and Houzz

Thanks everyone!

This looks lovely 😊

Thanks for the links!

I use Pinterest to gather ideas and I’ve got a very clear sense of my style from doing that but I think it’s worth leaning a few basic principles of design and decoration too to guide you.

Right but how do I learn those?!

Try Design Rules by Laurence Llewelyn Bowen. It was a BBC series with accompanying book. The style examples are dated, but the principles are timeless, e.g how to use a colour wheel, how to change the proportions of a room by using dark and light colours in different ways, how to place furniture.

The programmes are still on YouTube and the book can be bought for about £3.50

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=design+rules+laurence+llewelyn+bowen&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

This is what I did in a similar situation: first I kept the house as empty as possible. Bought nothing. Decorated nothing. Did nothing. I just allowed myself to settle into the space. I let ideas come in their own time. In the meantime I took inspiration from anywhere and everywhere... magazines, Pinterest, instagram. Eventually I figured out what I liked as I got more and more drawn to certain styles and colours. Give it time and don't expect your dream home to happen overnight

Oh also... if you have one or a few key items that you own and love.. see what works around them. Remember you should have nothing in your home that isn't either beautiful or useful.

Start a new thread and ask (I will follow with interest! :D).

Here's one: 60-30-10 rule for colour in a room. 60% main colour, 30% contrast colour, 10% for accent colour.

Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration, ideas and developing your own style.

Then take one room/area at a time. I started off with my living room, as we spend most time there, and it's not going to change over time (other bits of the house will be extended).

I took everything out of the room, and started with a blank canvas, first painting the walls and ceiling, then added sofas, soft furnishings and accessories.

Houzz is great too!

Get or download a colour wheel to help plan a colour palette. Look for features or views that you want to highlight. Storage for every room, so everything can be neatly stowed in the right place - e.g. ottoman beds, to neatly hold all spare bedding.