One day, you wake up and look around at your home, and you realize… it’s ugly. The designs you chose years ago no longer look nice, and the small details make the whole house feel unloved. It’s time for a revolution.
Making the choice to start remodeling or renovating is extremely expensive, so instead of going that route, you may just want to switch out your interior design colors, styles, or feng shui.
Is it time to change the way your home looks? If you have a large or small budget, there are always things that you can do to amplify your space and give your home the upgrade it needs.
Keep reading below for some pro interior design tips that will help even a beginner decorate their home.
Table of Contents
1. Place Area Rugs Correctly
All four legs of a chair or sofa in a group of furniture should fit on the rug. The rug should be the “outline” of where the seating area is, so all of the seating needs to fit on it entirely. If that’s not possible, you need to at least have the front two legs on the rug.
Rugs that are too small won’t look right in a room, and they may end up making the room feel disproportionate. The same can be said of a rug that is too large.
You will usually need a rug that is at least 8 by 10-feet or 9 by 12-feet in most living rooms to accommodate your seating.
2. Make Walls Neutral
To create a better flow in your home, using neutral colors for your walls is a smart choice.
It makes the space feel more open and allows for more opportunities to create focal points with bold colors in your furniture or artwork. You’ll have more opportunities for flexibility when it comes to choosing any decorations for those rooms because a lot of colors go with neutral walls.
You also should consider using lighter shades on your walls to help the rooms feel a little wider.
3. Avoid Heavy Drapes
Heavy drapes are no longer in style for a home, especially since they block out most of the natural light that can amplify your space. Instead of using thick or dark drapes, consider investing in sheer curtains or panels.
These will give you a lot of light, but they still provide privacy if you live close to other neighbors. In rooms that get a lot of sunshine, you might want to still choose lighter colors, such as yellow or white, for these curtains to make sure that they don’t get sunbleached over time.
Lightweight fabrics are also a good choice because they hang more naturally, so look for cotton, silk, or linen blends. You could also take blinds into consideration. Look at these perfect fit blinds as a great example of what you might want.
4. Layer the Lights
All of your rooms should have ambient lighting, task lighting, and accent lighting. Not only do these all complement each other well, but they are all serving their own function.
Ambient lighting helps to provide general light in a room, often from the ceiling, while task lighting is great for areas where you do “things,” like reading or cooking. Accent lighting is more decorative lighting that could showcase artwork or special furniture.
Aim for at least 3 watts per square foot in rooms that get a lot of action, such as the living room.
5. Use Mirrors
Mirrors are wonderful for reflecting light and helping it bounce around a room to make it feel brighter and larger. They are also great as simple wall decorations, especially since many mirrors can be more than just your standard square or circle.
Add your mirrors on walls that are perpendicular to your windows instead of right across from them.
Try to find mirrors that complement your other decorations to make sure that the overall aesthetic in that room isn’t interrupted.
6. Create Height Illusions
Some homes have very low ceilings, so in this case, you may want to make them look taller by tricking the eye with how you place your furniture and decor.
The first thing to consider is adding curtains that hang higher above your windows instead of installing the curtain rod right above the window. Add at least 3 inches above the window so that the standard curtain panels will still be able to reach the floor. This adds length to the walls, which makes them appear taller overall and helps extend the room.
If you want to add a pattern in a room with short ceilings, vertical stripes are also a great way to increase the length of a wall. Your eyes will think it looks longer even if it really isn’t.
7. Update Dated Fixtures
If you have dated fixtures that aren’t the right finish for the look you’re going for, instead of replacing them entirely, you can consider spray painting them. A brass light fixture from the 1980s can get a whole new look with a coat of satin-nickel spray paint!
When you’re dealing with kitchen cabinets that look a little worse for wear, you can always update them with a fresh coat of paint or new hardware as well. These are definitely going to be cheaper upgrades than replacing the cabinets altogether.
Pay attention to smaller details, like your outlet covers, and make sure that they are also updated to the latest and greatest look. Make sure that you get matching ones so that the whole house comes together in uniformity.
8. Buy the Right Size Art
It can look a little silly if you have a tiny painting hanging high up on a tall wall. The same can be said if you buy a painting that is way too large for a wall and hardly even fits before hitting the floor!
You should try to make sure that you’re hanging any artwork on the wall at eye level. If you’re a very tall or short person, you may want to think about what the average height would be if you’re concerned about staging for guests or a future home sale.
With larger walls, it may be better to group small pieces together or go with one big piece.
9. Get Rid of Clutter
Clutter is one of those things that you might hear about all the time, but still not think is a big deal. In reality, having a cluttered space will detract from any other interior design methods you use to make a space look better because it’s a distraction.
Go through each room in your home and get rid of the items that don’t work or don’t get used. There are also things that you may simply not even like anymore that you can upgrade for better, more versatile options.
This is an easy way to create more storage because you’re clearing out old things that you don’t need, but it’s also a great option if you want to take inventory of what you have and what you need.
10. Begin With Most-Used Rooms
Your bedroom and living room are generally the two places in the home where you spend the most time. If you’re someone that also works from home, you may also have a home office that you’re in even more.
Use these interior design tips in the rooms where you actually spend time so that you can be comfortable and happy in those spaces before moving on to something else. If you’re dealing with a tighter budget, planning it this way will allow you to still enjoy your home during the “in-between” stage.
11. Buy a Few Items at Once
Instead of going crazy with spending as soon as you start to decorate, it’s much better to work on a few things at a time. You don’t want to make any big purchases either, such as expensive artwork or large rugs, until you really plan out what you want the home to look like.
Even with all of the tips we have described here, you need to have a plan of what sort of style each room in your home will have and what features you want to showcase. Pay attention to what you need, what you want, and how those two factors may coincide in each room.
Decorate Like a Pro With These Interior Design Tips
As you can see, there are plenty of interior design tips for anyone that wants to spruce up the look of their home. Whether you’re dealing with many rooms that need a change or you just want to mix things up in your living spaces, there are options available.
Pay attention to the latest trends, but always go with what you think looks and feels most comfortable for your home. After all, you’re the one that’s going to be living in it, so you need to be happy with what you decide to change!
Did you find this article helpful? Check out the rest of our website for more design tips next.
