How to Decorate Your Apartment or First New Home

Home Decoration

Here are some tips on How to Decorate Your Apartment or First New Home

Are you a renter or homeowner, short on funds or the time needed to decorate your new home?  You don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a finely decorated and landscaped home.  In fact, you can achieve beautiful results when decorating with less.  Over-cluttering and overdoing can be just as problematic as poor placement or not doing enough!  Success is all in how you work with what you have, not how much you can buy.  Ready to get started?

  1. Get ideas. Look at decorating magazines, Pinterest boards, TikTok, hardware and paint stores, gardening shops, and department store or antique shop displays to find what tastes you admire and want to replicate in your home. Then take notes on how to make what you already own work with any new items you might need to buy. Also keep in mind what color schemes you want to incorporate to coordinate with your artwork, furniture, flooring, and window treatments.
  2. Obtain a floor plan or make your own. Whether it’s a house or an apartment, ask your REALTOR® or landlord for a floor plan ahead of moving day (or draw/create one online) so you can pre-determine how you want to arrange your furniture. Also, there's an app (actually, several) for that! Measure the rooms to match your furniture, and then map out where everything will fit before you even lift any heavy pieces or unpack boxes!
  3. Set decorating goal. It can be challenging to come up with ways to decorate your home room-by-room, not to mention both inside and out. Which do you tackle first? You must start by prioritizing what you need to do, and how much you want to spend. Work your way around the house a little at a time, so that every room will at least have the basics. Eventually, you can create home projects for yourself – one at a time, so that you stick to your budget. Set realistic timelines, such as with our first few days, first week, the weekend, for the month, etc. Breaking your goals into mini-ones can help you stay more focused on what you need to do, and serve as motivators to continue on to others.
  4. Decorate in sections. Similar to having mini-goals for your decorating projects, when you decorate, do so in small sections, gradually building up the room. For example, if you want to decorate your living room, start by painting or wallpapering – either all the walls within the room or at least an accent wall. Add lighting and furniture, and gradually artwork and maybe pillows or an area rug. Other items such as plants, throws, and other seating or tables can then be obtained as you are able. And outside, at least have a functioning light, and a welcome mat in front of your door, with a clear pathway to it for greeting visitors. As you have time, install pavers, plant shrubs and blooms, and any lawn ornaments.
  5. Don’t be afraid of change. Be honest – sometimes you have the urge to redo what you’ve decorated, depending on your mood – and that’s okay! It is perfectly acceptable to rearrange and redecorate in different seasons, or whenever the mood strikes. If you start out simple in your decorating ideas, you will eventually build off of them, building confidence as you mix and match your furniture and various influences to better reflect who you are.

Above everything else, be patient with yourself when starting out.  It takes a lot of trial and error, and sometimes months to make your home look and feel the way you want it to.  But in the end, you will be proud of what you accomplished!

If you need assistance in selling your Naperville property please do not hesitate to contact us at www.RyanHillGroup.com. Call Listing Agent and Managing Broker of Ryan Hill Group, Teresa Ryan at 630-276-7575 for a no-obligation home sale consultation.

Get a copy of our Home Selling Guide written by Teresa Ryan specifically for homeowners in Naperville and the surrounding suburbs.

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You can also get a copy of our Home Buyer Guide written by Teresa Ryan for Chicagoland home buyers, visit: FREE Home Buyer's Guide

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Get ideasLook at decorating magazines, Pinterest boards, hardware and paint stores, gardening shops, and department store or antique shop displays to find what tastes you admire and want to replicate in your home.  Then take notes on how to make what you already own work with any new items you might need to buy.  Also keep in mind what color schemes you want to incorporate to coordinate with your artwork, furniture, flooring, and window treatments.Obtain a floor plan or make your ownWhether it’s a house or an apartment, ask your realtor or landlord for a floor plan ahead of moving day (or draw/create one online) so you can pre-determine how you want to arrange your furniture.  Measure the rooms to match your furniture, and then map out where everything will fit before you even lift any heavy pieces or unpack boxes!Set decorating goalsIt can be challenging to come up with ways to decorate your home room-by-room, not to mention both inside and out.   Which do you tackle first?  You must start by prioritizing what you need to do, and how much you want to spend.  Work your way around the house a little at a time, so that every room will at least have the basics.  Eventually, you can create home projects for yourself – one at a time, so that you stick to your budget.  Set realistic timelines, such as with our first few days, first week, the weekend, for the month, etc.  Breaking your goals into mini-ones can help you stay more focused on what you need to do, and serve as motivators to continue on to others.  Decorate in sectionsSimilar to having mini-goals for your decorating projects, when you decorate, do so in small sections, gradually building up the room.  For example, if you want to decorate your living room, start by painting or wallpapering – either all the walls within the room or at least an accent wall.  Add lighting and furniture, and gradually artwork and maybe pillows or an area rug.  Other items such as plants, throws, and other seating or tables can then be obtained as you are able.  And outside, at least have a functioning light, and a welcome mat in front of your door, with a clear pathway to it for greeting visitors.  As you have time, install pavers, plant shrubs and blooms, and any lawn ornaments.Don’t be afraid of changeBe honest – sometimes you have the urge to redo what you’ve decorated, depending on your mood – and that’s okay!  It is perfectly acceptable to rearrange and redecorate in different seasons, or whenever the mood strikes.  If you start out simple in your decorating ideas, you will eventually build off of them, building confidence as you mix and match your furniture and various influences to better reflect who you are.

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