What can be more exciting than designing the interior of a new home or updating your current abode? While most people rush to find a professional decorator to guide them through the process, you can create a space defined by your good taste if you follow simple steps in home decor ideas.
Whether you move into a tiny apartment in the big city or live in a spacious mansion in the country, the following straightforward guidelines will ensure your home will be the envy of family and friends. When you complete your project, you’ll be searching for the best recipes to feed unexpected guests who want to view your home accomplishments.
As you learn about common missteps to avoid, you will turn your space from forlorn to gorgeous and from cramped to spacious.
Small Home Decor Ideas
Small homes have big hearts.
- Avoid keeping your backyard a secret. Rather than closed doors and blank walls, open up the back of your house to create an entrance to an outdoor room. Sliding glass exits and big French doors offer an airy escape to the backyard. Today’s outdoor furniture creates an inviting environment, and you can enjoy your extra living room more months of the year with an outdoor fireplace.
- Don’t neglect the kitchen. The kitchen is an essential room in your home. It is where everyone congregates when you entertain and where all the action happens. Make your kitchen elegant and appealing while focusing on efficiency. Investments in high-quality appliances increase your home’s value. It’s also essential to scour every spot in the kitchen for potential storage places.
- Be careful with an L-shaped sofa in the living area. While they are comfy, they can inhibit the flow of the space. L-shaped sofas are excellent for creating zones in a large open floor plan, but if your home is small, you will be better served, for example, with two small sofas facing each other.
- Avoid crowding every inch with books, vases, or decorative objects. Negative space is your friend in a small home because it creates a sense of openness. Open shelving is a perfect place to display a few of your favorite items, but avoid open shelving for dishes, glasses, and other functional necessities since it tends to look cluttered.
- Large plants in a small home may leave you feeling cramped. You certainly want to improve the air quality of your home, but choose multiple smaller plants or vertical plants so that you won’t feel like they are reaching out to grab you.
- Too many throw pillows may leave you without a spot to sit. It is easy to accessorize with pillows that add punch to your living area, but where will you place them when it’s time to read or watch television? Add a few to create personality to your room, but not so many so that they dominate the area.
Small Apartment Decoration
The theme for a small apartment is to refrain from thinking small.
- Small pieces you’ve collected from college years or first attempts at independence will add clutter to a small apartment. A mismatch of small furniture can be confusing ̶ the eye wanders from item to item without ever resting. Rather than fill your apartment with scaled-down sofas, tables and chairs, invest in a few weightier pieces that will define the space. Build upon these anchors with smaller accessories to complement them.
- Avoid dark-colored walls that can feel claustrophobic. Also, avoid all-white interiors that can resemble the inside of a department store. Choose shades that add dimension and character to your home, and go bold with a creative accent wall.
- Multiple small carpets may give the illusion of bath mats throughout a living space. One large rug can tie a room together while offering a feeling of spaciousness.
- A big mistake in small apartments is not utilizing the magic of mirrors. Mirrors add perspective, and they reflect the light from windows and lamps. An oversized mirror above the sofa can be an excellent alternative to artwork.
Condo Home Décor
The challenge with a condo is to create a space that differs from your neighbor’s condo.
- Avoid the tendency to use paint as the primary design tool in your condo. Too often, people paint their walls in bright, bold colors when a quiet palette will do. Your personality comes through with accessories like family heirlooms or art you purchased while traveling.
- Don’t worry about upgrading all the standard finishes of the condo. Rather than killing your budget on upgrades, choose one big-ticket item like limestone in the bathroom that will make a big splash.
- Avoid solely focusing on the latest trends in furniture. While they may look great today, you could find them outdated even a year later.
Modern Home Décor
Create a modern home that will remain modern for years down the road.
- A big mistake in creating a contemporary home is following the fads. Rather avoid choosing the latest trends at the expense of your tastes. If you focus on fusing the modern with your style, you’ll create a space you want to enjoy today as well as for years ahead.
- Modern homes have sleek and clean lines, which may encourage you to push furniture against the wall. However, a better alternative is to place furniture in ‘conversational groups’. If you pull the pieces toward one another and away from the wall, it creates more intimate and useful seating.
- Modern homes often lack sufficient storage places. When purchasing furniture, look for pieces that have built-in storage. A coffee table could open to store pillows, and a side table could have multiple drawers to keep knick-knacks hidden. Let creativity be your guide, but always be on the lookout for hidden storage when purchasing furniture.
The beauty of designing your house is that home decor ideas will never stop bubbling up. The moment you finalize your dream home, creative thoughts arrive with new ways to rearrange furniture or artwork or accessories. The fun never stops. If you avoid common mistakes, your house, apartment, condo, or mansion will sparkle with fun or will be a respite for solitude. You can make it whatever you want it to be, and we look forward to helping you create your perfect home. Please contact us with any questions.
