Interior Design Basics For Your Own Home
These home interior design basics are designed to help you in decorating your own home. First, I’m going to tell you an easy starting place that is designed to help you in every step. Part 1 outlines finding your style, what room you should start with, working with the room, choosing the colors you’ll decorate in, and Painting. Along the way you’ll find helpful tips and suggestions for avoiding pitfalls.
As you continue through this series we’ll also cover furniture, rugs, window treatments, and on to decorating with the little details.
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Part 1: Look Book, Styles, & Colors
Your First Step- Putting Together A Look Book
Before you begin anything, you have to figure out what you like and what makes you happy. More than likely you’ve already started. You see pictures of different rooms and ideas on Pinterest and you pin them to your various boards. But refine this step. Do some more searching, categorize the pictures specifically, make notes on what drew you to that specific picture so you don’t have to re-decide when you comb back through your collection.
This is what I call your “Look Book”. It’s simply a file folder where you gather pictures and ideas that you love, from magazines or anywhere else. Pinterest is an excellent source for collecting pictures to your “digital” file Look Book (your boards), giving you an easy way to store and organize your photos. Consider looking through professional designer blogs to pin directly from their site. Branch out to similar topic magazines, such as Better Homes & Gardens, Country Living and even Real Simple.
Collect the pictures that speak to you and bring you happiness and write why. If you don’t love everything about the room or the picture but you love something in it, maybe an accessory, keep the picture and write that note on there.
Not every picture will be a good home interior design decision. However, this shouldn’t matter at this step as long as you follow the rule: pick what speaks to you and figure out the elements that make YOU happy. Because this should be who you’re trying to please when all is said and done. Trends will influence you some, just don’t get enticed because someone else tagged, “love this!” or because it’s the popular pin. Looking in a variety of sources and finding a lot of pictures to look at will help you.
Your Home Interior Design Style
I read somewhere one time that Joanna Gaines, from Fixer Upper, asked her clients to make a Pinterest board so that she could get a sense of their style. Not surprised, right? It makes sense. She met with them in person briefly only twice so, how could she nail their taste so well? There was no interview where they answered, “Oh, I like the transitional style,” or “I want something shabby chic but with brick walls.” It didn’t happen that way. She knew when they liked shiplap, or natural butcher countertops, or when they preferred the black metal stairway railing.
Sure, Joanna Gaines has a real gift for putting it all together in a fantastic way. But the same starting point is still true for you. Get to know yourself. Put your Look Book, or Pinterest Boards, together and you’ll be able to pinpoint better what it is that you like. You’ll then figure out what you’re going for in your own home. You’ll also have a reference to come back to when you’re in the thick of decisions and options, or just trying to tie pieces together.
That being said, knowing and understanding styles can be helpful. It can help you when you’re looking for more pictures of a certain taste or asking for help at the store. Other times it’s just nice to have a name to put to your style even if you don’t follow it to a tee. In fact, there’s a name for a style when meshing two styles together- Transitional. If you want you can read about home interior design styles in this article.
Additional Benefits From Your Look Book
One of the hardest things when starting on your own space is figuring out where and how to start. A Look Book gives you a canvas to paint from. You’ll get an idea of what basic furniture setup to go for and then the other pieces will fall into place.
The Look Book can help give you a reference for what will look good when you have an idea in mind but aren’t sure (instead of guessing and hoping). Will a giant gold and gray frame really go with my wood floors? Oh yeah, I have this picture saved that had something similar and it looked great. Bingo! Don’t have a similar picture yet? Search in Google Images or Pinterest for “gold grey frame wood floors” until you find something with the same wood tones to see how you like it or what made it work.
You’ll gain inspiration as you look for what ways you can add an idea to your room, even though you won’t incorporate every idea you see and love. Not every picture in your collection will be the same either. You may have a couple of different furniture colors showing up and you love all of them. This will still help you paste the end product together when you know what options to consider.
Also get an idea of what colors you are drawn to (see the section ‘Colors’ below)
A Word On Trends
If you have a collection of pictures that you love and you use this to piece together furniture, wall colors, and accessories, you’ll less likely be making bad decisions just because you’re trying to be trendy or because you see something pretty in a home store and then you get home and try to fit it in somewhere.
Home Interior Design : What Room Do You Start With?
You need to choose with what room to start. If you aren’t renovating a specific space and simply decorating a whole home, start with your main living area and front entry way, then you can branch into the rest of the home.
Home Interior Design : Choosing Colors
A color scheme can be difficult. Knowing your primary colors, secondary colors, intermediate colors, analogous, etc. can help you understand why colors go well together, how to pick your colors, or very importantly, choosing neutrals with the right undertones.
What mood do you want to have in the room? How do you want to feel? What color do you love best (and what goes well with that color)? Are there other rooms in the home that you want to tie together with a specific color? These are all questions you should consider asking. Again, understanding the color wheel as it pertains to interior design can help answer these questions.
But guess what? Although helpful, you don’t have to know the color wheel or have a color wheel to figure it out these days. An easy guide is your Look Book. Remember that? Go through and see what colors you were drawn to and what worked well together. I give more color scheme shortcuts at the end of this related article.
Working With The Room
When choosing your colors you also want to be aware of the room you are working with and what characteristics are already set. What color is the floor? Are there curtains or fixtures that will be staying? Do you have furniture already or a piece of art that you would love to incorporate? Is there a theme with the home already? For example, the natural wood floors and large windows in my living room set a tone for what pictures I started collecting for one part of my Look Book. The overwhelming neutral colors of the flooring, backsplash, and cabinets in my kitchen, that I knew I would not be changing, meant I picked out a bold color. Which bold color I picked for my kitchen came from my living room to help the flow when walking from one room to the next.
Finding More Inspiration
If you want more inspiration or have a specific color but need help with color combos, Pinterest has awesome ideas. Search “color palette” or anything similar and you get loads of palettes to scroll through. Search for “color palette” and type in a color or two after that you want to see more of to figure out what else goes with those colors. Another option is to go to the paint store or Home Depot and look at color schemes the paint companies put together for you with decorated room examples.
I one time was changing a boys nursery to a girls nursery but was stuck with Navy curtains and a gray-blue rug. Palette ideas on Pinterest helped me figure out a beautiful girl scheme I liked that would pair well with Navy.
Typically you want to choose three colors that work well together, with a possible fourth. If you do want to read about the color wheel and why colors go well together, read my article on Colors here.
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A Word On Trends, Again – Avoiding Mistakes and Bad Ideas
Let’s talk about trends for a moment. A really light, fresh look is the current trend, and maybe gray is the trend still too. However, don’t get carried away. The monochromatic all white or all gray can look fabulous in model pictures, but notice that even then there is color and most definitely texture in there somewhere. (Do you really want to live day-to-day that way?) Sometimes a designer can pull things off for detailed reasons while a novice, who is still learning and getting experience, can struggle. Plus, what do you do when the trend changes?
In the early 2000s the trend was the Tuscan espresso everything. Currently it’s the gray as you may well be aware. It’s fine to let the trend influence some of your decisions but don’t choose gray (or whatever current trendy color may come up) blindly, over and over again with each color decision you have to make. Gray is a beautiful, classic color that will always be around so long as you incorporate it. If you decorate in all gray with little variation, your home will end up screaming ‘Decorated in the ______trend’. Plus, grey on grey on grey isn’t what looks good. Gray with color looks fabulous. Light and Bright is also trending but don’t go overboard with every decision- add variance.
A Quick Example
I knew a couple who were mass renovating a home. They sanded down the floors and stained them a beautiful dark wood color. Then they painted the walls a beautiful grey. They had neutral colored curtains and rug with a red couch. It was beautiful. Then, as they got closer to finishing the main living area, they bought new furniture. It was a stiff grey. They also replaced the curtains and rug to be grey.
The end effect was too stale. Instead of the warm color of the couch complementing the rest of the room, and slight variance of the rug and curtains, the end result was blah. And then they redid the basement in all grey as well- carpet, wall, everything. Now they are painting the outside of the home to either gray or white. I was sad and disappointed. But it was trendy, right? Not really. Like I said before, the designer can add the little touches that make the difference in those tough jobs. Don’t make it hard on yourself. Don’t go overboard.
Interior Design Basics For Color
Neutrals are classic. These colors include beige, tan, ivory, taupe, black, brown, gray, shades of white and maybe a few more that I’m missing. Basically it’s “without color”. With very few exceptions, at least one of your colors will be neutral. Choose the neutral based on what other colors you wish to use, how much natural light the room receives and your personal preference for lighter or darker walls. Currently light and bright is the trend. You can use neutrals themselves as a color scheme for your decor or as a background color with accents.
If you are using neutral as the color theme (meaning everything you decorate with is a neutral, not just a basis), you need to add texture to the space. Texture, the shape of furniture pieces, wood features, glass and metal will each add in the variance the space needs to not be too boring or bland. I would also encourage you to include a variety of shades (lighter colors) and tints (darker colors) for contrast. If you aren’t careful, you’ll end up with a washed out room.
Painting With Color
If you are planning to paint your walls, consider painting them after bigger ticket items are purchased. Painting a bare room sounds easier, and starting with your walls seems basic, but think about it this way. Paint color is more versatile than the color of a couch. I mean, there are 30 different paint options of white! Even if you choose a neutral color for your paint, those neutral hues have undertones. Plus, a bucket or two of paint is a fraction of the cost of a new couch, not to mention easier to find. Moving out a few pieces of big furniture or covering them up is not that big of a hassle.
Here are some great tips once you do decide you are ready to paint. Buy a little $2 sample of several colors you think you’ll like and then paint a swatch on the wall before you commit to that color. Better yet, paint a poster board and then you can move it around the room or between rooms to see how the color will lighten or darken (and you can take it down). If a color is too dark but you don’t want to pick out a separate color, you can ask the paint store to make it 10% lighter (or darker, etc.). Live with it for a week. Observe and compare the color swatches on the wall at different times of the day and with different lighting. It will never be what you thought it was in the store.
A quick note. Picking out a paint color just by eyeing the color is risky, even for a piece of furniture that you’re redoing.
Neutral Vs. Color
Do keep in mind that neutral wall colors are more versatile and are easier to decorate around. Even with neutral colors, paint on walls looks exceptional when you can see a difference from the white trim color. On the flip side, if you want to try something different, paint color in a room can alter moods, stretch or shrink spaces, raise or lower ceilings, and make neutral furniture come to life. Some examples. If you have a long hallway, painting the far wall darker will bring the end of the hallway to you. If a room has no texture, darker paint will add texture. Did you also know you can buy textured paint?!? I’m serious. I would only recommend the suede or candle light options to not get crazy or look like your home is dated.
Interior Design Basics Part 1 Recap
You are putting together a look book to know what you like and what you want. You know with what room to start. And you’re putting together the three or four colors, at least for your first room, that you’ll decorate in. These are your first home interior design steps to get you thinking and planning how to tackle your home. Keep reading in Interior Design Basics Part 2 for choosing out furniture, window treatments, rugs, and more.
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