How To Design A Room Like An Interior Designer [Stride Past Step]

Does overwhelm and paralysis gear up in at the thought of how to even start decorating your space? A living room, sleeping accommodation, let alone your unabridged dwelling? It tin can be (near) enough to make you dive dorsum under the covers and just say "forget it - I'll alive with it the way information technology is!"

I feel you lot and I'm here to assist with a methodical, step by footstep procedure that volition break down how to design your room into doable parts.

Even though it's my blueprint process, the whole point is to make it adaptable so it serves YOU, your home, and your loved ones. If you follow these guidelines, you will create a room that is comfortable, cohesive, functional for yous and yours, and reflects your own personal style.

Information technology also doesn't need to cost a fortune. I firmly believe that design constraints, whether budgetary or otherwise, often issue in a more interesting project, and not the other style effectually.

With some clever ingenuity and a little extra legwork, you can save money and your cease result will be a richer and more compelling reflection of your personal style. I really do believe this.

Gear up? Allow's get to it!

This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure .

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Budget for your design project

A budget is a must if you desire to go on your remodel/redesign nether command. Determine up front end what y'all tin spend on your projection. Prioritize your expenditures into "must haves," "nice to haves," and "non a priority." Then pencil out approximately how much those items will toll. (More on this below.)

I start off past creating a spreadsheet where I input line items for each and every element of a project. Any fixed costs go in forth with cost estimates that are replaced by difficult numbers once I have them.

If you're planning on sourcing whatsoever of the materials yourself, yous'll need to calculate foursquare footages to estimate your materials costs.

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Proceed your spreadsheet updated so you know where yous are budget and cash-flow wise.

  • Always add together in an additional ten% for cost overruns. Some would say 20% is more advisable. For a landscape overhaul, x% should exist sufficient. For a gut kitchen remodel in an onetime house - amend to go with 20%.

    • The betoken is, you lot don't want to be on such a tight shoe-cord budget that when your contractor opens upwards a wall and you discover dry out rot or corroded plumbing, (surprise!) you don't take a absorber.

  • In one case you've set your budget, stick to it. Don't be tempted to deviate from your upkeep mid-project with "Iit certain would be nice if (insert expensive upgrade). This is how budgets get blown. Unless yous can really and truly afford it, don't exercise it.

Here's a total mail on funding a abode remodel or pattern project.

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Pro Tip: Get three bids for any piece of work that needs to be done. You'd be surprised at the variation in cost sometimes, but of course, this likewise needs to be closely compared to your assessment of the contractor's quality of the work being washed and project management skills.

If your contractor is only going to show up every iii days or so to work while squeezing you in between other jobs, that's going to delay your overall project timeline which may have cost or scheduling consequences elsewhere. Be certain to discuss project direction expectations up front.

Read the total post on how to budget and fund your design or renovation project.

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Create a mood board

Before you spend any of your difficult-earned money, the first step in the design process is to create a mood board , and then accept a step dorsum to come across what the common threads are.

Having a plan ahead of time before you leap in is always smart. A mood lath and subsequent plan of attack tin aid you lot avoid ending up with a piecemeal look and making costly mistakes.

Some questions to ponder:

  • What's the purpose of the space y'all're working on? Does it need to be practical for families and groups or is it more of a private space where you lot want to relax?

  • What exercise yous want the overall feel or mood of the room to be about? Come up with a few descriptor words if that helps.

  • What styles, themes, colors are you drawn to? It'due south worth noting that sometimes we recollect we know what we like, but then we find out otherwise. More on that shortly.

[Want more design inspo and helpful plant tips? Permit's hang out on Instagram! ]

Mood-project board image by The Home Index, Napa CA.

Mood Board, Round one - Pinterest

Click here for a complete post on piece of cake ways to create your own mood board. My favorite quick and dingy mode is to brand a Pinterest board. Beginning pinning rooms, color schemes, piece of furniture and accessories that you similar.

If you don't already accept a definite fashion preference or even if you do, attempt to avoid having preconceived ideas. Merely start pinning what appeals to you.

Tip: When pinning furniture, look for the individual shots with just the plainly white background so you lot tin see the piece of furniture piece solitary in conjunction with your other items without the "visual racket" of a staged room scene.

  • Ordinarily the Pinterest "pin" icon comes up on company websites if what you desire isn't non already on Pinterest with a plain groundwork

Once you lot take almost 50 pins, take a stride back and wait at the board overall.

  • What styles/colors/forms/textures keep popping upwardly in your selections?

  • What styles/colors/forms/textures are continuing out to yous in way that makes you feel proficient?

For example, are y'all finding you're consistently drawn to soft, off-white walls or exercise you crave the vitality of stronger colour?

Are your pins plumbing equipment what you originally thought yous were afterward? If so, great! If not, don't be afraid to consider these new ideas that are emerging from your pinning.

Do a gut check! Upwards higher up where I asked if you actually know your fashion? At times I've discovered that just because I idea I knew what I wanted ahead of time, my pins don't lie. I recently realized that I'm more of a soothing neutrals and contemporary design person than I used to be, and don't laugh - Pinterest helped me figure this out!

After pinning many rooms that individually resonated with me, I looked dorsum over them all collectively and realized "Hey - I seem to be drawn to a lot of light-neutral walls and clean-lined decor (with black windows) and lots of plants!" OK the plant part wasn't exactly a shocker, simply I had always idea I was more into color than I actually am.

Just as the camera doesn't lie, neither do your pins when taken in as a whole. Information technology'south possible that Pinterest can facilitate your mode gut check for you.

Mood Board, Round ii - refine your ideas

If you want, after doing a Pinterest mood lath, (quick and easy requiring no graphics skills) you can drill down a scrap further and create a board like I did below. Information technology'southward non admittedly necessary but it does provide a clearer picture of what you lot're because.

Again, hither's a link for easy mood lath options.

You could too create a second Pinterest Mood Board with your refined ideas. Be sure to keep the showtime one though where you save all your original ideas and save source information from a pin representing anything screen shot and brought into Pinterest past you lot.

  • Be sure to pin items like to what you already have. Several of the objects pinned in my board represent things I already ain, and I want to meet how they gel with the new ideas. So the key here is to place your items alongside new ideas and run into how they fit together. Brand sense?

  • Be sure to effort out different options for each of your pieces - more than one sofa, pillows, rugs, coffee tables, lamps etc. See how they piece of work together comparatively. Too much contrast or too little? Too much pattern? Too much blue? Practical plenty to stand upward to your family? Have a adept hard await and evaluate.

Greenhouse Studio home office mood board. Photo credits - upper left inspirationsdeco.blogspot.com, bottom left, @melissamlo via Instagram, bottom right, Margo Hupert - margohupert.pl.

Greenhouse Studio home office mood board. Photo credits - upper left inspirationsdeco.blogspot.com , bottom left, @melissamlo via Instagram, bottom right, Margo Hupert - margohupert.pl.

Choose a "springboard" (inspiration) object

A "springboard object" is a term I came up with that evolved from my own design process. (I moving-picture show the vault springboard from gymnastics days.)

In improver to your unifying elements discussed above, you lot tin select an object, artwork or decor piece that you use to aid organize and propel the direction of your design projection.

A painting or a rug for example, might inform the colour scheme you work with. Or if you fall in love with a quirky thrift store detect or antique, it could set the tone, style, or mood for your unabridged room if yous want.

Every bit always though, exercise a gut cheque. Just because you have a cool vintage painting with some purple in it doesn't mean y'all demand to dogmatically take up that color and incorporate it elsewhere if it doesn't feel good or "right" to y'all to practise so.

It wouldn't surprise me if the quirky painting were the springboard object in this beautifully moody deVOL Kitchen design.

It wouldn't surprise me if the quirky painting were the springboard object in this beautifully moody deVOL Kitchen design.

It besides doesn't have to be an object merely could instead be a particular image that inspires you. For case, for my domicile office redesign, my "springboard" was images of the fabled studio of Polish artist Margo Hupert. The wonderful imagery of her eclectic nature-inspired studio in greens, whites, and grayness-browns had me swooning and became my main source of inspiration.

My

Create a scaled programme (ie - make certain your article of furniture fits)

This is a bit of a chicken or egg scenario and can be done either earlier or after the next department on picking foundation furniture. Which always lodge, you MUST accept measurements and make a simple cartoon of your space and layout your proposed furniture and whatever other room elements before purchasing.

To get to the point where you're motivated to make a plan, you probably have your center on a few furniture pieces you're excited about. To know if they realistically fit or non, yous need to lay them out on paper (virtual or not) and see.

You can go out the graph paper, pencil, and eraser and lay out your scaled plan if y'all like, using one foursquare = 1 foot and interior blueprint article of furniture placement cut-outs (this can exist a lot of fun and works fine - don't get me wrong!).

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Or you tin can use a free flooring planner app to lay out your furniture and see how everything works in your space.

I accept a postal service reviewing free flooring planner apps including video demos. AutoCAD and SketchUP are my become-to software for 2D and 3D respectively, but roomstyler.com was the first simple, user-friendly gratuitous pick I constitute. To get started:

  • In Roomstyler, navigate to "Tools - 3D Roomstyler" and you lot can easily depict your room in plan view (overhead view looking straight down) and and so automatically generate a 3D image. Plan view will allow yous see how well your furniture fits.

    • Commencement cartoon your walls to their right dimensions. Then you can add in scaled furniture or you tin just describe out your furniture to the correct dimensions instead.

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Afterwards making a program view, another of import footstep is to take some blue painter'southward record (or I lay out a few intersecting tape measures in a compression) on the floor (or wall) and see how different objects fit irl. Again, laying it out on paper is of import, but so is a 2d cheque of how information technology might feel in your actual infinite.

  • Research interior design dimension standards on how much space is needed between dining room chairs and walls for comfortable passage or a sofa and coffee table for instance.

    • Later on all, laying out your furniture possibilities is important, but if you unknowingly only leave 12" to walk betwixt your virtual sofa and a wall, you lot'll detect it'southward a tight squeeze IRL!

  • Take this time to consider outlet locations and wall elements similar mounting a Television receiver, wall sconces, and ceiling lights with associated wiring needs.

Seeing your ideas laid out to scale provides an important reality check to the ideas and inspiration of the mood lath. The final thing you lot desire is spend a lot of money on something that doesn't fit well in your space, no affair how much you like it.

Kickoff with foundation furniture

Over again, which comes kickoff, picking some piece of furniture possibilities and measuring them in our infinite, or measuring our infinite to determine rough sizes for furniture. Realistically, I know which I would practise - I'd find things I love first and then determine if they fit, and if not, find something similar that does.

Either manner, nosotros can at present move onto the furnishing basics. If nosotros're talking near a living room, this might be a sofa and coffee table for starters, or a sofa and a couple armchairs.

To go going here, I'd recommend selecting a neutral couch and a unproblematic cocktail table, or the neutral couch and a couple of leather armchairs - whether midcentury, club chairs, or whatsoever, so long as they're streamlined and classic overall. The betoken is to choose foundation pieces that are versatile and tin can piece of work with a diverseness of styles, color schemes, and accessories.

seven years from now, you may be over modern farmhouse, or at to the lowest degree over it in the way you lot dearest to manner information technology now.

Before you go out the torches and pitchforks for that comment though, permit me just say I'm speaking from personal experience hither. It'southward amazing how much my tastes have evolved over the last 10 years. It's not that I now dislike what I loved dorsum then, it'southward simply that information technology'due south non what I would choose to get with now.

That's all. Just sayin'

The neutral sofa, chair, and coffee table would allow the client to dramatically change out the rest of this interior if they wanted. Interior design by Fletcher Rhodes, Sonoma CA. Photo: Thomas Kuoh.

The neutral sofa, chair, and coffee table would allow the client to dramatically change out the rest of this interior if they wanted. Interior design by Fletcher Rhodes , Sonoma CA. Photo: Thomas Kuoh .

So I would encourage yous to consider giving yourself the gift of future flexibility. If you have simple foundation pieces that can go with a multifariousness of decor styles, these big ticket items can continue to work for you lot if your style changes over time. This allows you to get nuts and have lots of fun expressing your manner preferences du jour with the smaller things like occasional tables, lamps, accessories etc, without breaking the banking concern.

On the other hand… .there'due south the very real possibility that your kids and menagerie will trash whatever sofa or soft effects you buy regardless.

I tin certainly chronicle. After having twin toddler boys and a couple cats contained in a yard-less condo, by the time I finally jettisoned that olive-colored wannabe Pottery Befouled couch dorsum in the day, the idea of what running a blackness light over it would reveal was truly horrifying.

So at risk of completely contradicting myself to a higher place, this could also be license to throw caution to the wind and get for that tangerine sofa. It might non last much across the babyhood-thru-unproblematic years anyway.

The struggle is real. Kids, pets, and whatever else can wreak havoc on your soft furnishings. Source: Crypton

The struggle is real. Kids, pets, and any else can wreak havoc on your soft furnishings. Source: Crypton

Pro tip: With this in listen, don't blow your budget on super expensive soft-furnishings or recollect of them as "investment pieces." I've learned to buy relatively inexpensive sofas and upholstered furniture, and I've been more than happy with that strategy. Regardless, they notwithstanding cost a lot, because they're sofas and chairs, right?

First of all, they're rarely statement pieces anyway. (Unless you exercise go for that tangerine sofa.) A neutral sofa often doesn't wait or feel all that dissimilar from a less expensive model, peculiarly considering the sometimes jaw-dropping price differentials. That being said though, frame construction, fabric quality, down vrs synthetic cushions etc certainly makes a difference.

FYI but in example you entertain fantasies of reupholstering that investment sofa when needed, or like me, yous found a "fabled bargain" mid-century Asian style sofa at Goodwill and drug information technology home thinking "I'g gonna reupholster this sucker and surpass it's original glory!" Let me share some truth - reupholstery about always costs more than buying new.

Aye, sadly that mid-century sofa eventually fabricated it's fashion to the adjourn with a large '"Costless" sign on information technology.

So between kids, pets, and your clumsy uncle clutching a big glass of red, you don't want to completely freak out when (not if) your couch suffers damage.

These mental images are what pushed me to go with my Bomar sofa from Joss and Main versus the pricey one that was on sale for 4.5 times the toll at a local boutique in town. (Those down cushions were dreamy though!)

I'thou very happy I did. I don't want to be the mom or hostess who breaks out in a sweat every time food/potable/pocket-size and-or furry creatures become near my stuff.

I also believe that an upholstery/carpet spot cleaning vacuum with a moisture-vac brush can be an first-class investment and sanity saver. I might not have survived toddler twins without mine.

Potential foundation furniture options:

1) Leather is slap-up for kids - if they or the cats throw up on information technology, you lot can simply wipe it downward, unlike upholstery. Do exist sure it's a durable end though, specifically, aniline dyed leather which combines a protective handling with a durable part of animal hibernate.

My TV room with a 12' long leather sofa where my boys can eat greasy snacks without worry. It's actually two pieces of a Thomasville sectional sourced through Ebay. I placed them end to end to create a

My TV room with a 12' long leather sofa where my boys can eat greasy snacks without worry. It's actually two pieces of a Thomasville sectional sourced through Ebay. I placed them end to end to create a "custom" sofa to fit this narrow room. Photograph | TDW Media

In contrast is meridian-grain leather. Always sabbatum on one of those lovely, supple sofas or chairs that feel more than like soft kid gloves or an expensive purse than a furniture? Nigh likely it's top grain leather. The acme layer is removed by sanding to get rid of surface imperfections. Considering of that, the leather is very soft but isn't durable and will stain hands. This is the kind of leather most handbags, wallets, and other expensive leather goods are made from every bit well.

Run your fingernail over leather furniture you lot're considering. If information technology leaves a marker, run away. It won't hold upward to any your kids, pets, and crimson-vino slinging family and friends dish out.

2) Spill and stain resistant fabrics like Crypton or Sunbrella. They are sometimes indoor/outdoor as well, and they've come a long way in terms of how they feel, await, and perform since commencement hitting the home decor scene in the 90s.

Arhaus sectional sofa upholstered in Crypton stain resistant performance fabric. Source: Crypton

Arhaus exclusive sofa upholstered in Crypton stain resistant performance cloth. Source: Crypton

3) Slipcovers. Although I've never tried them, slipcovers as well work and then long as they come out of the launder in the same shape and size equally they went in and don't require 3 hours of ironing. (Not gonna happen.) Many who prefer light colored upholstered piece of furniture swear past them.

4) Another stain defense strategy I deployed back in the day on my old Pottery Barn wannabe sofa was to put a large piece of fabric across the main seating area for a casual, boho vibe.

Ideas: a throw blanket, tailored bedspread, (I used a bones white cotton fiber duck IKEA bedspread), a simple cotton wool tab-less drapery panel or lx" wide (upholstery width) textile tin all work.

  • Drape tabs can exist cut off material and fabric hemmed without sewing using Sew Witchery fabric adhesive) .
  • You lot tin can even tuck the cloth behind whatever loose-back cushions for a tidy await and that helps keep it in place.

When liquid lands, hopefully the covered seat role bears the brunt of it and can be quickly thrown in the launder.

This slipcovered sofa from Serena & Lily comes in dozens of stain resistant fabrics.

This slipcovered sofa from Serena & Lily comes in dozens of stain resistant fabrics.

Picking a paint palette

Then after you've settled on the overall mood and mode and thought nearly colors based on your mood board, and called any inspiration objects, it's time for wall paint.

I'one thousand the first to admit that choosing paint tin drive me and anybody around me batty. (Read about my latest paint option side-show hither.) I actually recommend reading the post and the other posts linked from it.

Paint is important and an expensive process and needs to be chosen carefully to avoid plush mistakes. Here's the abbreviated version:

Going back to that Pinterest board, decide on what generally works for you; neutral or color.

If it'due south neutral shades you're drawn to, what kind? White? Greyness? Taupe? Greige? (greige is a warm greyness-beige philharmonic) Then, consider the undertones: do you desire a cool white/greyness/taupe vrs warm white/grey/taupe, etc.

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Photo: Shutterstock


Important note: neutral and colour aren't mutually exclusive. My living room is painted Benjamin Moore's Richmond Gray, which is much more of a neutral green than a gray. Same in my bedroom - information technology's painted Benjamin Moore's Sea Brume, which is a neutral blueish.

Perhaps you want a by and large pale neutral with a subtle undertone of a color such as a white with a touch of dark-green or a grey with just a hint of lavander. The aforementioned principals apply here as with stronger color.

You don't have to choose between neutral and colour if you lot don't desire to!

I'm not going to lie to you though, this tin become catchy (and expensive) fast. What appears on a color chip to be the most subtle warm grey tin can exist not and then subtle lavander grey once it's up all over the walls, especially where the corners intersect or where light hits it direct causing underlying tones to "glow" (not necessarily in a a good style).

My bedroom is painted in Benjamin Moore's Sea Haze, which is a neutral blue on the walls but on the chip looks gray. Photo: Greenhouse Studio

My bedroom is painted in Benjamin Moore's Body of water Haze, which is a neutral blueish on the walls simply on the chip looks grey. Photo: Greenhouse Studio

Some tips to guide your paint choice process

  • Do some enquiry on paint color palettes - once again, Pinterest is your friend. Lots of blog posts with titles similar "10 all-time whites for interiors" for example, recommending paint schemes. Then become downward the paint store and choose some chips.

  • Bring them habitation and stare hard at them during unlike times of the twenty-four hours and determine which ones might be contenders. So go back to pigment store and buy samples of ones you similar plus some white primer.

  • I always only paint straight on the wall, but you could besides go to a craft store and purchase some affiche board. Either way, paint the white primer and then it creates a border effectually your sample and and then pigment big samples and find in different light at different times of the day.

  • Pro tip: Paint color volition await more color-saturated on an entire wall than on the chip. Much more saturated. In other words, if you desire a hint of lavender to warm up your mostly gray paint choice, your paint chip that looks like a nice subtle French lavender grayness might expect a lot more like a regal Barney nightmare when covering an unabridged wall. ALWAYS paint a large sized sample including intersecting corners where color undertones reflect on each other. Trust me.

  • Pro tip: The color of your existing walls can really, really bear on how the potential new colour looks. (Really!!)

    • I said this to a higher place merely it'due south then of import I'thou saying it again: Subsequently my last round of painting, my solution is to put upwards primer so I tin paint samples on a white wall. At the very least, go with large white affiche board and get out a border around the sample.

  • Pro tip: Interior designer or pigment-skilful vetted paint palettes exist for a reason! The shades they recommend generally work for most spaces, or at the very to the lowest degree, stand a greater chance of working than a random shade that looks pretty on a fleck and and then produces a hideous undertone once you get it on the walls.

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Honestly, choosing paint tin can be then fraught with potential disaster, that perchance the best piece of communication I can give you lot is to pick a designer recommended color (look for cross-references betwixt recommendations) and thoroughly examination information technology rather than "going rogue" with ane of the bazillion other options out there. I hate to sound and so conventional about this, merely it really can be just that difficult choose a color yous not only tin can live with, but actually love.

Once more, I recommend reading the full mail on pigment color option with the skillful colour recommendation links, so doing additional research and sample testing on your ain.

Scale up

I debated including this considering I don't desire this taken equally a blanket recommendation. Nevertheless, in general, choose larger and fewer over smaller and numerous.

Too pocket-size and numerous = too fussy frequently. (Think your elderly neighbor'south collection of ceramic miniatures?) More oft, "too small" results in non making much of an bear upon and may create a feeling of ataxia.

I would also say, "scaling up" applies more to accompaniment type objects rather than say, a sofa. The last thing you desire to do is decide menu blanche to "get large or get home" and buy a ginormous reclining exclusive consummate with drink holders only to have to shoehorn it into your space. If this is your temptation, please re-read the Scaled Plan section above.

In the garden, it'south amend to have two or 3 statement containers (depending if you're going for symmetry vs. asymmetry) with big plants or minor trees rather than 6 small-scale containers huddled together.

This may seem more expensive initially, but often I find that I end upward spending more on numerous small things over time than on a thoughtful, larger upwards-front investment.

Instead of many small objects, the bedside table has a large lamp and a few carefully chosen accessories. Interior Design - Fletcher Rhodes, Sonoma CA. Photo - Rebecca Gosselin.

Instead of many small objects, the bedside table has a large lamp and a few advisedly chosen accessories. Interior Design - Fletcher Rhodes , Sonoma CA. Photo - Rebecca Gosselin .

Only like clothes, information technology's often better and ultimately more economical (and environmental) to purchase a few quality pieces rather than numerous mediocre items that are inappreciably worn and get quickly donated/discarded. (Guilty as charged on that one, but mucho better than I used to be at re-calibrating my notion of what is or is non a "deal!")

Speaking of containers though, if yous exercise have a grouping of smaller objects like a collection, decorative trays and platters can be used to corral and brand visual sense of them. Instance - decorative trays that house a collection of succulents in small pots.

This can also employ to wall art. If yous take numerous smaller framed pictures, group them into a gallery. When done correctly, the overall effect is that it looks like one large cohesive installation. (This concept reminds me of big schools of silvery sardines. They move in a behemothic group together because it fools predators into thinking they're one big fish, but I digress..)

For tips on how to hang a gallery, refer to your interior design dimension standards mentioned in the "Create A Plan" section higher up and cheque out this gallery wall mail by Pottery Barn.

A beautiful green, white, and black gallery wall in an artist's studio. Interior design + artwork: Margo Hubert

A cute light-green, white, and black gallery wall in an artist's studio. Interior blueprint + artwork: Margo Hubert

Avoid over-usuing any single source or style

This is a pretty simple concept. What I'm getting at here is you lot don't want your house to look like a Pottery Barn itemize for instance. Using some items from Pottery Barn is great, but if the entire space is overly sourced from whatever i manner or brand, information technology can create a flat, homogeneous look.

A good example of not overusing a unmarried source or manner is Magnolia Dwelling house - mecca for mod farmhouse, right? Notwithstanding, if you lot look closely at many Magnolia style shots, they oftentimes incorporate items that would be classified as something other than modern farmhouse.

Modern farmhouse style by magnolia home's Joanna Gaines. Joanna Gaines chose an eclectic look combining different styles from a mid-century Tulip table and Cherner chairs to create a sophisticated library living-room feel. Dramatic and moody home me…

Magnolia library & conference room renovation. Interior Design: Joanna Gains, Source: Magnolia


Note how Joanna Gaines has skillfully incorporated mid-century-style into the Magnolia Domicile corporate library and conference room through the mid-century archetype Tulip tabular array and Cherner side chairs. (LOVE Cherner chairs! Check out how to get your own Cherner side chairs for less.)

Mix information technology upward: Dorsum to modern farmhouse - if that'south your style through and though, that's not bad, but inside that, there are nonetheless mode subsets you may want to play with and join.

If y'all honey the shabby chichi, chippy furniture pieces that await rescued from the dorsum of a befouled, create a more layered look by incorporating more streamlined elements of French, Scandinavian, or coastal farmhouse style. I would notwithstanding encourage you to consider bringing in a few pieces from a different style or menses altogether that compliments your design for a richer look.

Then how in the heck exercise I "mix it upward" you say? Get back to your Pinterest mood boards and wait for unifying features like color, texture, and class like we talked about in the beginning. Then observe pieces from a gratis still different mode which at offset pass may seem too unlike, only really add harmony and depth to your overall blueprint.

For example, say you take a mid-century room merely you plant this industrial side table yous love with a blackness wrought-iron base. Use the blackness color in the base to tie the two styles together by incorporating midcentury pieces that have a bit of blackness in them also. You've instantly created more depth and involvement in the look of your infinite over a "one liner" type of design scheme.

Your rooms will love you for it, and yous will beloved them back.

Pro-tip: Speaking of black, a mutual interior designer truism is that every room needs a touch of black. I know at that place are spaces that look amazing without whatsoever blackness, but 85% of the time, I hold. I think information technology adds drama while providing a grounding effect.

I would alter though by saying a brush stroke of charcoal, deep navy, or blackish-green will practice only every bit well. Hey, if you don't believe me, only look again at Joanna's dramatic, moody conference room all done in that deep peacock blueish-green.

The black in this living room provides a grounding effect in an otherwise light atmosphere. Pamela Hope Design, Houston, TX.

The blackness in this living room provides a grounding effect in an otherwise low-cal temper. Pamela Hope Design , Houston, TX.

Inject your own personal mode and individuality

Now we get to the actually fun function! Yous've done the heavy lifting of choosing foundation piece of furniture and pigment. With the smaller and normally less expensive pieces similar accessories, accent tables, lamps, pillows, plants etc, you have all the freedom to express yourself about what always makes your centre sing or speaks to your soul. This is your advantage for suffering through the trials of paint selection!

Quirky, thrifted, plant, natural, metal, rustic, old, new.

A bowl that held a dessert bought at a school fundraiser is repurposed to hold a Moroccan astrolabe and brass beads lined with fabric samples. A thrifted brass snail sits on an Ebay limestone cocktail table.

A bowl that held a dessert bought at a school fundraiser is repurposed to concur a Moroccan astrolabe and contumely beads lined with fabric samples. A thrifted brass snail sits on an Ebay limestone cocktail table .

This is your chance to experiment! Exercise it without fear, accept fun with information technology, and I guarantee you'll acquire something in the procedure.

Attempt mixing old with new, loftier terminate with low finish, rustic with streamlined, large with small, and just run into what happens.

Read here for tips on how to decorate with natural and establish materials and objects. See what interesting and eye-catching combinations and arrangements yous come upwards with. Best of all, they will be a unique reflection of you and your personal style.

House of Harvest antiques does a brilliant job of incorporating eclectic objects together for a one-of-a-kind-curated look. Source : House of Harvest

House of Harvest antiques does a brilliant job of incorporating eclectic objects together for a i-of-a-kind-curated wait. Source : House of Harvest

So that's my "manifesto" on how to blueprint a space. I hope y'all got some helpful tips that you lot'll be encouraged to try out in your own habitation.

Information technology's a lot of piece of work to blueprint a space only it's also a lot of fun, and the end event is worth information technology. In that location'south nix better than coming home to a place y'all beloved.

[Desire more blueprint inspo and helpful establish tips? Let'southward hang out on Instagram! ]

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