Home Decorating: Do I? Don't I? Thursday, 22 July 2010 07:50 Written by Julia Taylor

When it comes to decorating your house, apartment or even just one room there are some simple Do’s and Don’ts that you should follow to make the process easier and the make the decoration effort a success.  I will try to cut these down to a simple list of “Do’s”.

1. Do Sketch your Floorplan

Take some measurements and do a rough sketch of your room plan.  This should include windows, electrical outlets, and special features that will remain in the room, etc.  When going shopping for materials, furniture, etc take this with you, which will take the guess work out of the actual dimensions of things.  You can draw this up at 1:100, which I know sounds daunting, but that just means that 1cm equals 1 metre, which means you can use a standard ruler for this.

2. Do Some Research

Personal style doesn’t stop at what you choose to wear each day.  It also extends to what your living space looks like.  Take the time to look around, look at magazines, go to furniture stores and see if there is a specific style, colour, furniture type that you like.

3. Do Decide a Focus

A focal point is a great way to create interest in a room and it also helps people’s eyes start somewhere when looking over the space.  This could be a view, bed, signature piece of furniture, a fireplace and so on.

4. Do Coordinate

It is important to choose flooring colour, material and then coordinate it with fabric choices, before deciding paint colours.  It is much cheaper and easier to the change the colour on the walls then it is to rip up the flooring and replace it.

5. Do Big First

Buy all the big stuff first, like rugs, curtains, upholstered furniture, etc and then you can match all the small stuff later.  The small stuff is way easier to buy and once you have the large pieces established it is way easier to head out shopping with an exact idea of what you are looking for.  I think most of us have small things that we end up putting in cupboards, because we bought it without thinking about the overall look of the room.

6. Do Allow Pathways

There is nothing worse than no clear walkway in a room.  If you have to jump over the bed to get to the cupboard on the other side you can safely say that the design is not working.  This not only helps with function, but also makes the space look nicer and feel bigger for small spaces.

7. Do Allow Repetition

This should be considered at the beginning stages of the redecoration if possible.  If you put one bright orange chair in a room that is filled with another colour it could look like there was no thought about it, but if you include in that same room so other objects with the same colour it would look like it was planned.  You could do this by having some orange in your artworks or a throw cushion here and there.

8. Do Decide the Function

It is important to actually think about the full function of the space before going out to buy bits and pieces.  Take into consideration all the things that you plan to do in that room, e.g. eat dinner, work on your laptop, read books, etc.  Furnishing should match with everything you plan to do in the space.

9. Do Plan Your Lighting

This ties in well with the functional issue.  If you plan to read then think about where you want to do that and have a lamp there.  Spaces work better with multiple light sources, e.g. ceiling lights, wall lights, floor lamps, etc so try to use a variety so you can create different moods.

10. Do Buy the Best in Your Budget

You have all heard the term “you get what you pay for”, well this is very true when it comes to furniture.  Look around and don’t just opt for the cheap one, because it will not last.  By spending more you will be getting a better manufactured product that will have a longer life span then its cheaper counterpart, which in the end saves you money.

For the next article I will be talking about some simple says to decorate your walls on a budget.  Also, if you have any questions about things you are trying to achieve in your apartment let me know and I will try to answer them.