How to pull a room together like a pro

How to Pull A Room’s Look Together Like A Pro

 

When you walk into a model home or a staged home, there is something about the rooms that feel like it is beautiful, inviting, or cozy. The room makes you feel something.
But when you walk into your own home, you just feel like it’s scattered or messy.
So how do professional designers pull the room’s look together?

How Do You Want to Feel?

Think back to some rooms that you really liked. You may not know exactly why, but it’s a start for how you want to put your room together.
Maybe you want to evoke the emotion of a beach house on a rainy summer day, or a cozy bungalow with a roaring fire.
Print out pictures, pull pages out of magazines, and write down what you really want the room to be. And don’t rush this step. If you live with a family, get them involved. If you’re Danish modern and they’re Dark Old English, then maybe you can find compromises, or you can each create the main theme for a room.

Simplify and Storage

While you’re planning out the room, go through all the items and ask if it evokes an emotion, or if it’s just clutter. If you want to keep it, find a better way to store or showcase it. That may help you pull together additional elements. Let’s say you own a ginger jar, and you love Asian styles. When you’re out and about, look for other ginger jars at thrift stores, and look for an Asian inspired open bookcase to fit a wall in the room so you can showcase your collection. That will become the focus of the room.
Plan where you want to do the big investments of furniture. That way, when the right piece pops up, you’re ready to purchase it. Also look at updating what you do have. Beds can look different with new bedding. Couches and chairs can get a makeover with slipcovers. Add spots of color with throw pillows.
Most model homes and staged houses have very few furnishings, so they feel more open. Remove the clutter. Improve the storage. Then you can see the room itself and ways to remodel. It will also make it easier when you repaint the room.

Little Details Count

Professionals know what to do because they’ve studied in depth color, furniture placement, scale, texture, and pattern matching. Spend time reading books and magazines, and look at how they made their decisions.
If you own a special style of home like a Craftsman or a Victorian, look at books to find how they were decorated in the past. Then look into adding detail work to your home.
Once you think you’re close, let the room sit for a few weeks so you can see if it evokes the emotion you wanted. If not, slowly move things around, or replace items that may not be working how you want.
Also, it helps to have a plan if you want to update the whole house. Start simply with one room, and then move on to the next. When you’re done, you’ll have learned a lot more about decorating, and may have some new ideas for the first room.
Which room do you want to start with?