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Home is where you sleep. It’s also where you eat, work, cry, laugh, socialize and celebrate. It is a spatial extension of the self – which can make home decorating daunting to some.
“People get in their heads about decorating their space,” says Drew Michael Scott, interior designer and founder of the lifestyle and decor brand Lone Fox. It can be hard to know where to start, what you can afford or accomplish, or if you’re getting it wrong.
“Decorating your home is not that serious, and it’s nothing to lose sleep over,” Scott says. “Your house is probably never going to look like it belongs in a magazine, and that’s OK. The goal should be to create a space you love, and that will look different for each person.”
Whether you’re moving into a new place, refreshing an old one, renting or buying, here are some tips from experts on how to start decorating your space.
Why does decorating your home matter?
If you’ve dated straight men who are in their 20s, you’ll know that some people don’t see the point in decorating.
But research has shown that the physical spaces we inhabit can have a profound impact on our mental wellbeing and productivity – one small study showed that curved rooms, for example, increased creative thinking, and research shows clutter can increase levels of stress and anxiety.
“Home is where you’re supposed to feel safe, happy and completely free,” says Imani Keal, content creator and interior decorator. “Loving your home is an extension of loving yourself.”
And if you feel safe, happy and completely free in an undecorated apartment, that’s fine too.
“If you don’t mind a blank space, don’t enjoy decorating and can’t afford to hire someone to do it for you, then live in your blank space,” says Scott.
How do you start decorating your home?
Identify how you need your space to function. “It won’t matter how nice [a space] is if it’s not functional,” says Tara Pallay, interior designer and YouTuber.
Consider your day-to-day needs. Will your space need a lot of storage, comfortable seating or a workspace? Do you need to take other people’s needs into account, or a pet? Once you have the answers to the relevant questions, you can make a plan.
Be honest with yourself about how you live. “If you watch TV regularly, hiding a TV for the sake of aesthetics is stupid,” says Keal.
Think of how you want the space to feel. Once you’ve identified the function of a room, imagine how you want to feel in it, says Dani Klarić, interior designer and co-founder of the Euphoria Collective design group.
“Do you want your bedroom to feel romantic and calming? Do you want your living room to feel playful and energetic? Once you identify an emotion, the design decisions become much easier,” she says.
Start with the big stuff. The items and elements that take up the most space visually – a rug, sofa, paint color – play a major role in the look and feel of a room, so experts agree it’s good to start with them and go from there.
Scott recommends starting with a rug, because “a rug helps anchor all the pieces and helps determine the color scheme”.
Make it personal. Mood boards and inspiration pics are great, but if you hew to them too closely, “you can end up with a technically beautiful home that looks like a storefront with no soul”, says Keal.
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Keal made a list of seven essential items you should include in a space when decorating: something you’ve made, something thrifted, something stolen (!), something gifted, something you saved for, something you’ve inherited and something you’ve earned.
Even if you don’t have all seven, choosing items you have a connection to will make it feel more personal and alive.
“If someone walks into your home and says: ‘This feels so you,’ then you’ve done it right,” says Klarić.
Let the space evolve. Too often, experts say, people feel pressure to finish a space quickly. But “the most beautiful homes are layered over time”, says Klarić. Buying everything all at once can make a space feel more like a showroom than a home.
And if you make a design decision and decide you hate it? “Change it,” says Keal. “It’s not a big deal. Paint over it, sell it on Facebook Marketplace and buy something else. We’re decorating, not doing brain surgery.”
More from How to start:
What are the biggest decorating mistakes to avoid?
Not sizing properly. “People struggle a lot with scale,” says Scott. “Rugs are often too small, curtains too short and couches too oversized.”
Other designers also bemoan undersized rugs. “The rug is almost always too small,” says Keal. “A 5’x7’ has no place in a living room.”
Focusing too much on trends. “The decorating process should be about cultivating personal style rather than trying to copy what’s popular,” says Pallay.
Following trends can also quickly leave a space feeling dated. “I always encourage people to mix eras, mix colors, and incorporate pieces that carry meaning,” says Klarić.
