How to Decorate Your Home: Part 1 of 5

Part 1: Laying the Groundwork

Moving into a new home can be one of life’s great joys, but it can also be a time of 
uncertainty, especially when it comes to decorating. How do you make your space look 
its best while reflecting your personal sense of style? Do it well and you’ll end up with a 
comfortable, happy home. Do it poorly and you’ll end up with a collection of furniture, 
fabrics and paint colors that never congeal into a pleasing whole. With a little planning, 
and by following the same steps used by professional interior designers, you’ll have a 
much greater chance of success.

Interior Decoration: Laying the Groundwork

To reach the finish line, you first have to know where you’re going. 

 
Vancouver-Realtor-Carmen-Leal

DON'T START IN THE FURNITURE STORE

Many have heard the advice to avoid grocery shopping when you're hungry,
because it leads to poor choices. The same holds true for furniture
stores – don’t go shopping in a panic, just because you have an empty home.
Yes, you need a sofa. But if you pick the pink-striped sectional just 
because you like it in the store, without taking measurements or thinking 
about the rest of the room, you’re stuck with it. The rest of the room 
will have to be built around that sofa, and if it’s too large for the space it 
will look forever awkward. 

Start in the room you’re looking to furnish, armed with a measuring tape 
and a notepad.

KNOW YOUR MEASUREMENTS

Matching the scale of furniture to the scale of a room is critical. 
A deep sectional sofa can easily overpower a small room and svelte 
chairs can get lost in a wide-open loft. Before you start designing, 
measure the length and width of each room you intend to decorate, 
along with the ceiling height and elements that could get in the 
way – stairs, columns, radiators and other obstructions. 
It’s also a good idea to measure window openings, along with the 
wall space below, above and to the sides of each one, to get ready 
for window coverings. 

The first mistake most people make is that they buy things that are the 
wrong size – sofas that don't fit in the room, sofas that don't fit through 
doorways, tables that are too small, desks that are too big, nightstands 
that hang into the doorway. Carefully measuring your space can help 
avoid such problems.

CREATE A FLOORPLAN

Once you have the measurements of your room, it’s time to put them 
to use with a floor plan that gives you a bird’s eye view of the entire home. 
Every job should start with a floor plan You need to know the space. 

One option is to draw a floor plan the old-fashioned way, with paper, 
a pencil and a ruler. However, most professional designers use drafting 
software like AutoCAD. In between those two extremes are apps that 
aim to make it easy for homeowners to create simple floor plans 
(some even automate measurements with your smartphone’s camera, 
but double-check those numbers), including Magicplan, Floor Plan Creator,
and RoomScan Pro.

Once you have the outline of the space, start experimenting with the 
placement of furniture, making sure that the footprint of each piece is 
scaled to match the size of the drawing.

DECIDE HOW YOU WANT TO LIVE

This is the tricky part, and there are no right or wrong answers. 
Rooms can be traditional or modern, formal or relaxed, and visually 
warm or cool. To the best of your ability, you have to try to discern 
how you would like to live in a given space. What will you be doing? 
How many people live there? Are there children? What are your 
ambitions for how you would like to live?

The decoration of a home for someone who regularly hosts large dinner 

parties, for instance, should be different from a home for someone who 

eats out at restaurants every night. The person who plans to host lavish 

fundraisers should have a different living room than the person who 

dreams only of crashing in front of the TV.

COPY THE PROS

Look in design books and magazines, as well as at online resources like

Houzz, Pinterest and Instagram to sharpen your personal style. 

Figure out the style that you respond to most and develop a dossier 

of favorite images. 

Once you have images you like, study the details. See where pattern is 

used versus where solids are used, and where colour can be used 

successfully or not. It will also help inform everything from the type 

of furniture you might like to a potential strategy for window coverings.

TAPE IT OUT

To take ideas on a floor plan one step farther, use painter’s tape in the
 real space to outline where furniture will be placed on floors 
and against walls. 

Use blue tape on the floor to box out different elements, 

Where will the rug be? Does it need to be cut? How far is the coffee 

table coming out? Even though we have everything down to a sixteenth 

of an inch on a furniture plan, there's something helpful about visualizing 

it in the space, and being able to walk around.

DEVELOP A BUDGET

There’s no getting around the math: If you splurge on an unexpectedly 

expensive chair, you’ll have less money available for the rest of the home. 

You want to make sure you're being strategic about how you spend your 

money. A budget gives you a road map for how to divide the costs of things

between rooms. You can still make an exception if you find a one-of-a-kind

dining table, he noted, but in order to pay for it you have be thoughtful 

about where else you can cut back.

PLAN THE PHASES

Finishing drywall, refinishing hardwood floors and painting ceilings is 
all messy work. If at all possible, it’s better to have this type of work 
completed before moving any furniture or accessories into the space. 

If it can’t be avoided, seal large furniture under plastic cloths

and accessories in boxes with tape to protect them.

Hope you enjoyed the blog :) - Carmen

__________________________________________________________

Are you interested in selling or buying your home in 

the next few months? Work with award winning realtor,

Carmen Leal and her team that specialize in Real Estate

Vancouver and have qualified Buyers that are looking for

 a home in your area! 604.218.4846 & www.carmenleal.ca

Vancouver Realtor - Carmen Leal            This communication is not intended to induce breach of existing listing agreement.