What to do to avoid disaster

We all had time in our lives when we have to decide about our home interior. It sounds really exciting work to do, but it can by really overwhelming as well. There is always few ways to get your home done.

First way is not to think about it at all - just go and get all the things you need or you like it as soon as you see it. Sometimes it might work pretty well. Some people just have this intuitive feeling about the interior and everything whey bring to their home gives the feeling like everything was planned this way and it is easy to match everything you like at the moment. Don't get fooled by thinking it will work for you as well, it might, but it doesn't mean it will and it doesn't matter how many times you imagined how your home should look like. Most of these tries, finishes with random not matching furniture and decor items standing in your living place and not giving home feeling.

Second and easiest one is to get interior designer - the best thing about it is that you will save a lot of time and avoid bunch of mistakes. Good interior designer not only choose the style for your home and suppliers of furniture and styling items, but also think about your personal needs, house plan to get best option of using your spaces, they will know a lot about comfort of living to avoid mistakes when choosing materials and other things most of us don't even think about. The down side of it is that it will cost you extra money. If you decide to go with random interior designer with less of experience or lower cost you are always at risk they will make nice design to use it for their portfolio, but they will think less about functionality, comfort or your budget. If you decided that getting interior designer is the best option for you, my advice is to get one at early stage of your project - if you are building new house, good interior designer will help you with floor plan as well to get best of it.

Third option is to do it your self. I love this by option and of course it can be great experience and entertainment for anyone. As I already mentioned at the beginning it will take a lot of time so be prepared for that. It sounds easy for most of the people but believe me it's not and you will need a lot of information which will take even more of your time. As soon as you will start looking for inspiration and information about all the details, you might get lost very soon, so I am here to help you and give the direction step by step where to start and what you should avoid. Doesn't matter if you are updating your old home or you are getting new one these are the steps you should go through then choosing style:

Think about yourself and your family members - what you or they like in general.

What is your daily routine as some of the styles are consuming your time - some of the colors and furniture or details usual for particular style are collecting dirt, harder to clean or all fingerprints are very visible so should be cleaned more often than others.

If one of the people who will be living together have any mental issues some of the styles or colors may be harmful.

Considering all of the above mentioned things go through all of the styles and choose few of them, you and your family like the most, make your note book and write all of these down - I offer to choose maximum 5. Take your time when doing this and also make notes to each of your style why you like them. You may notice that it is not style by it self you choose, but can be details like color, furniture or styling things which caught your attention. But don't get these styles out of your list right away, keep them for now and mark them different colors or some signs on your book.

Make same list of styles you don't like and also write down the reason. If you find some details which are nice in these styles also note them and mark like you did before.

Now it is a time to check for some inspiration. I would offer to do it by room not by style. You may notice that you like different styles in different rooms. So this time we don't pay so much attention to the style. Just make a list of all the rooms at your home - don't forget to add hallways, entries and walk in closets as these are also parts of your home. If you have stairs at your home add them like separate area. So what does this collection say about the style? Do all the rooms have same style? Probably not. Maybe all of them has same colors? Maybe it was non of these. Maybe you just like the bed in master bedroom, shower in bathroom, or wardrobe in the entry. Try to note all the reasons why you have chosen the look. What kind of feelings gives you all these rooms? Does these rooms look big, small, you feel energized or calm when you are imagining yourself in this room.

Keep all pictures of these tasks in one place, make two folders or envelops for prints - one for everything you like and second for everything you dislike. Now just give yourself some time. After a week or two repeat all these tasks again but try to do it in different condition - if you was on holiday last time you did it, this time do it ones you are back to work again, if it was beginning of week, now it should be weekend.

What results did you get? Are all the pictures same in the folders like it was after first time? Probably some are different. The ones which doesn't match you should delete - most likely these are the ones giving you some short impression. It is same like you stay in nice hotel during your holiday - it looks amazing, but it is not how you would like to live.

After you repeated this game two times, you have something you can work on. Look at the loved pictures time by time - what feelings you have? Do you still like them or you notice that you want something else. If after some time you have same feeling like something you chosen before is not for you - delete it, what notes you had about the fotos you don't like anymore? Was it something about small details? Forms, decor item, color? Keep this information - you should use it then you are making decisions about colors in your home or you might want to get some similar items for your home to have same positive impression. The fact is that it shouldn't be your all home, but these details can give nice look in different style as well.

At the end of all this process you will notice that from all these inspirations and totally different styles you like only few different colors, shapes, styles, materials and items. Using all the pictures and notes try to make your own mood board for your interior. Now it is best if you will start cutting out items you like and putting together on one sheet. Have all the materials and colors you loved by hand and start collecting all the samples. Go and get small samples of few floor options, soft furniture materials and colors, samples of wall colors, furniture materials and all you can get.

Ones you have collected everything you could it is time to go to fun part. Make your own home "Mood board", print the sheet with items you like, take all your samples and put them all to one place, check how you feel about all the matches between. Now you can mix and match till you get the feeling of perfect colors, materials and items, don't be scared to change some of them if you don't feel sure about some of them. Don't forget to write down all the shops, color codes and other information from the samples it will be easier to get all the items ones you will need them.

Just don't forget to have fun from all of it!!!

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