How I successfully design a room in 6 easy steps!

I've caught the itch again... the itch to drastically change my house.


It's hard having a brand new house (I know, I know, poor me) But seriously we've had to budget for things like grass... plants... fences... which is all beautiful but it put the inside of the house on the backburner.... well not completely of course, our main living areas are put together and just needing fine tuning at this point. BUT our office, guest room and master bedroom are... BLAH and have been sadly ignored. I have changed things around in the office 3 times now because I just don't like what we have currently for the space. We literally only have a queen bed in the guest room. Our master bedroom is an awkward space that has nothing in it except our wedding decorations that I now feel like are just cluttering the space *sigh* Seriously how do people put their wedding memories on display and also keep up with the trends? My cluttery shabby chic wedding trinkets no longer fit with my minimalist modern farmhouse vibe. The husband wasn't going for my idea to stuff them in our closet... so I gave in... and now have no clue where else to go in there because our "wedding wall" is just not my style. So I have been pinteresting my heart away for solutions in these three spaces. Which this post was going to be an inspo post of my dream of all dreams for these rooms but then I had a thought...

Many have commented on the successfully designed spaces we have in our house and have asked me to come help in their own homes. Which got me thinking, I have a few secrets that could probably help any ol' person design a space to fit their needs and their style. So that's just what I'm going to do. I am going to unload my process for how I design my own house! And I really am just a normal person with a love for design, organization and DIY projects, so any non-designer without the budget to hire an interior designer can successfully design and style their house like me!

I'll use my family room as an example -

1. Think of the priorities for the space

            I learned the value in this after our first house. I expected a room to look a certain way when it really wasn't doable for the needs of the space. Your sitting room wont look like a sitting room if it also doubles as the play room. And a space with 3 chairs really won't help host a birthday party for our family of 30. So my priorities for my sitting room were as follows: 

1. As much seating as I could pack in - and still look uncluttered (because of our big family)
2. Usable on an every day basis, so comfortable but elegant
3. Something fixed as a central point to draw your eye that can be changed for seasons and change of style periodically (ie a mantle, shelves)

2. Measure, measure, lose measurements and measure again

         Technically you could do this step later on... but do you know how many times I've decided on a design fell in love and then had to rethink it because the amount of room just wasn't there (insert me trying every thing imaginable to still make it work, and failing). Unless you are sitting in the room (and not the bath...) dreaming about your room... you'll forget where exactly that window is, or that door or even the actual size of the wall! Even if you do chose to sit in the room for hours using Pinterest to dream up ideas, I guarantee you cannot eye how big that wall really is and what furniture will fit. So grab a friend and measure everything and draw it up. I like to draw a sketch of the room as it looks to me and write the measurements where they go to visually see everything at once. 

3. Dream away little dreamer

        

      This probably is my favorite part. Research and development. I loooove making mood boards. My best friend says I am that person that "Pinterests with a Purpose" I am not on Pinterest to waste time. I am on there to figure out what I'm doing next! (Okay maybe sometimes I'm on there to waste time, but nobody is perfect) This is when I get a little crazy, If I like it and it fits all my priorities its going on the board, even if that means its a 7k coffee table! Because I love to DIY I get all kinds of crazy ideas, and sometimes they work out and sometimes they fail miserably... but all of my favorite things in our current house started as a crazy idea! So pin away my friend!

4. Budget and review the "dream"

    Yes this one stinks, but we don't want to spend 7k on a coffee table and then have to sell the children. If the budget is small, think of one piece on the wish list at a time. You don't have to transform a room all at once. Find some realistic options that fit the mood board but don't break the bank. If you do have your heart set on an usually pricey item (this is me in a nutshell) scour craigslist or set an alert for the keyword item on Facebook marketplace. I have found MANY things in my house on these types of sites and nobody knows they've been loved by a different family before! Finding things second hand also helps ensure you wont have the same bench as the thousands of other people that also shop new at the big box stores closest to them. Antiques are what I live for and they've brought so much character to my house with just a little paint or stain. Better yet, find that coffee table as a DIY knockoff and build it! DIY is my other favorite budget saver.

5. Plan your space out to the last cm

     I do not mean you need to have something in every centimeter of the room (please no!), but make sure you have a very clear idea of what you want on each wall and in each area. I think this actually is a big piece of my successful designed spaces. I know exactly what I need so everything comes together, instead of buying a few things here and there without fully understanding what the space needs and throwing it together because it "fits" the space. I think it all comes together much more cohesively when you know you want the TV there, the couches here, and the mantle on that wall (I don't have a fireplace... but I'll tell how I fixed that problem later!). I actually use a 3d room planner quite often to figure this part of the puzzle out. If I've found couches I'll put them into a ruled room planner that will help me visualize how much space I'll have to walk around or how much space will be left on the wall, etc. This wont be a final draft as once you get actual items in a room you start to get the feel, but I would say before buying things such as floating shelves, end tables and more wall type decorations, you should buy your main pieces, ie couches, then adjust the plan you had.

6. Be patient and have fun!

    Don't let this be a daunting task. It seriously transforms your whole energy when you are in a room that pleases you! Everyone's style is different, there is no right way to do things. So have fun with designing your home. Don't buy things just because you want them right now or want to be done, wait on it and find the perfect fit! This way you wont have to redesign your room any time soon and all your work will leave you with a space you love to be in!

By -K-