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Just moved in? Where to start

Tags: wall color paint
Buying a new home or even renting at a new place can be so exciting! Fresh start! But for many, it can be stressful and daunting. Well don't worry, we got you covered from the interior and furniture stand point. All the other items on your to do list (post office address change, new school, new neighbors to meet)..well...you can do it! Adam Sandler style...
Assess the size of your new rooms
Are the rooms in your new house bigger or smaller? Will you need to de-clutter your life before the big move? Or will you be left with just two pieces of furniture in a large seemingly empty room? 
New house is smaller..
This is your opportunity to go through what you have and really edit it down into a "what you really need pile". My rule of thumb is if I haven't used it or even thought about it in a year, I can probably get rid of it. This doesn't include any family keepsake items, antiques, etc. However if you do have those types of items I would try to find a way to use or display them in your new home, even if that means getting rid of some other things to make room. Displaying items of value or with family meaning brings depth and personality to your home that is unique to your point of view. I won't go into detail about how to organize and de-clutter your home here. However, there are plenty of blogs out there that will walk you through how to do it! 
 This is a normal to small living room and the way the furniture is laid out, it doesn't feel crowded. They have only one large piece of furniture (the sofa) with a tall but not wide lounge chair. The console on the back Wall is nice. It can serve as an extra space to serve drinks, food, etc.
 The furniture in this room is closer together, with a smaller coffee table. It feels nice and cozy, doesn't it? Again, not too cluttered! The less extra stuff in a small room, the better.
 This room is teeny tiny, but what I like about this space is that they put narrow shelves on the back wall behind the sofa. This is a nice place to display some of your decorative items and also you can set a drink down if needed.
New house is larger...
Okay, go shopping! No really, but first you need to figure out what furniture you need in your room. Don't just buy stuff to buy it, right? For example, if it's a living room and you are bringing a sofa and chair, but are wondering what else you should put in the room, think about no. 1: what are my main functions for this room? No. 2 will I entertain here? And No. 3 will there be kids in this room a lot? Let's break it down:
No. 1:What are the main functions of the room? For the sake of simplicity, let's use a Living Room as our example. Are you mostly going to watch t.v. in here? If that's the case then positioning the sofa and chairs facing the t.v. is totally acceptable. If you won't be watching t.v. in the room, choose another feature to focus your furniture around. Maybe a fireplace, a window view, etc. If you don't have any type of interesting feature in your room, create one! You can fill one of your blank walls with photos or artwork to create a gallery wall. Or you can stencil something cool on a wall. Once you find that one thing that you can focus your furniture around, everything else seems to fall into place. 
No. 2:Will you entertain in this room? If your room is large enough to add more furniture, consider if you will entertain often. Maybe you like to play games with friends, or drink tea and chat. Think about putting a small two or four top table and chairs in the room. This also helps make the space more flexible. Some people can chat on the sofa while others play a game across the way. Do you only entertain sometimes, but you mostly enjoy quite time when you get a chance? You can place two oversized lounge chairs with an accent table in between in a vacant spot in your room, behind a sofa, or tucked in a corner. This allows you to move the chairs closer to the other seating in the room when needed, but when your just home alone it offers up a nice space to curl up and read a book (don't worry my more introverted friends, I'm looking out for you too). 
No. 3:Will there be kids in this room often? This probably seems self explanitory, but humor me for a minute. Kids are a huge blessing. They are also huge mess makers. If you have really young kids (6 and under) I would consider buying furniture from Ikea or the like. Seriously. If you buy something nice, chances are it's going to get messed up at some point and you're not going to be happy. Trust me. I have learned this the hard way. If you already have nice things, like a sofa, buy a sofa cover. I'm also talking to you, newly weds. Don't buy the nice expensive furniture right off the bat. It's better to spend less on your furniture now and save up to buy something nicer after you have kids and they grow a bit older. So that really narrows down the places you will shop at. For inexpensive furniture that still looks nice I like to look at Ikea, Target online, and Living Spaces. Sometimes you also find deals at Overstock, Wayfair, World Market and Pier1.
 This room is really large. It has a built-in bar, so that gives you an idea of the overall scale of the room. But notice the different seating groups that allow for different types of functions in the space.
 This is a pretty decent sized room. I really like that they put a large bench on one side. It doesn't block your eye-line to the fireplace.
 This room is really long. They have two separate sofa seating groups, with a chaise lounge in between. You can use furniture, such as how the chaise is used here, to break up a space and designate different areas in a room. 
Are you going to Paint before you move in?
So, you bought a nice new house but the previous owner really liked green and you despise green. You loathe green. You and green just don't get along. Now what? You can paint your walls! Paint is the least expensive way to drastically change the look of your room. Choose a Color that works well with your style and furniture colors. Try to stick to only two paint colors in one room (if you want to do an accent wall somewhere, murals are exempt from the two color rule) and try not to make each room in the house a different color. Overtime you will get tired of too many colors everywhere and it will make the house feel disconnected. Here are some of my paint color rules:
1. Choose a color that won't blend in with your furniture. If most your furniture is upholstered in grey, don't choose a similar grey paint color. Unless you really really love tone on tone rooms. There wants to be a little contrast, even if you don't like colorful spaces. You can paint your walls more of a warm beige, or a lighter or darker color of grey (just make sure there is contrast). 
2. DON'T paint five colors in one room. Seriously, please don't do this. It never looks good. Stick to two colors in a room max unless you're really going for some type of special feature wall. Your accent color can be anything you want, as long as your primary color is natural. I would stay away from doing two really strong primary colors (think: McDonald's classic red and yellow- good for fast food- not for a home). So one neutral and one accent color max. Done.
3. DO paint with a stencil to add some fun. Wall stencils are super fun. You can find tons of patterns on Etsy, Michael's, any craft store really. You don't have to paint your stencil pattern in a crazy color either. If you wall is grey, consider using a white or black paint as your stencil design color. You can even experiment with different paint finishes. If you want a more contemporary look, you can paint your stencil using a gloss finish paint on a wall painted with an eggshell finish. The stencil pattern that you choose can add some more of your personal touch, your story to your new place. 
4. Stick to a color story. If you want your entire house to feel cohesive, then its best to keep your paint colors in a similar color story. Try not to choose a new color for every room. Especially if they are open to one another. If your Living, Dining and Kitchen are all open to each other then paint all three rooms the same color. Its best to use a new paint color in a bedroom or a separated space. The exception to this rule is if you have an open floor plan, and maybe your kitchen nook is tucked away inside the kitchen, or is surrounded by wall on three sides. You can paint the back wall (or all three walls) a pop of color to add some drama, a surprise when you walk in to the room.
5. Have fun with it. There are other ways to create patterns using paint colors just using masking tape. Be creative! Make this house your home and show off your style. Don't let that paint bucket intimidate you. 
If you're a renter, don't feel left out. Most landlords these days will let you paint, or at least stencil a pattern on a wall somewhere, just ask. Most the time if you paint the wall the same color as you found it before you move out, anything goes. That's the beauty of paint. You can have layers upon layers underneath and no one will ever be the wiser.
 You can create your own stencil pattern using cardboard.
Use blue masking tape to create a custom pattern.
 Another way to use blue masking tape to create a color block technique using paint.
 Use paint directly on the wall to create the look of a large piece of artwork hanging on the wall. You can eve use painted trim to frame it like artwork.
 Use paint to create wide stripes.
Don't let the boxes overwhelm you..
When ever I move to a new place, I want to unpack as soon as possible. There's something about seeing all those boxes stacked up in a room that gives me anxiety. I also am not a huge fan of living out of boxes. I want to encourage you, that when you unpack, don't rush it. Really try to organize your items into what makes the most sense functionality, then do the decorating last. It's such a pain when you can't find something that your looking for. Take the time to be thoughtful, to imagine yourself in the room on a daily bases and what would make things easiest for you. Put all your little nick-nacks and decorative items to the side. Keep them together in one pile. Then when you have all your furniture placed where you want it, all your curtains are up, and everything is organized and put away, then have fun placing all your collectibles around your house so that the colors coordinate well with whats in the room for the long haul.
Curtains go first
Make it easy on yourself and put up your drapes/curtains before all the furniture arrives. Bring a tape measure, step stool, level, iron, drill and pencil. Then measure for your rods or curtain hardware. Your drapes should be at most 1/2" off the ground and if possible you should have at minimum about an extra foot of rod length on either side of your window. This allows you to push most of the drapes out of the way when you want to look out at the view, and it helps to frame the window. Make sure your rod is level and that all the rods in the room are at the same height. Iron your drapes (if applicable, always read the manufacturer's care instructions) and put them up. That's it. Now you can place your furniture in the room, and you don't have to worry about pushing it out of the way to put up your curtains. Which, lets face it, is not very fun to do.
Think about light
Before you move in, this is a good opportunity to assess your lighting situation. I can't stress how important lighting is in a home. Think about your overall room lighting (usually coming from the ceiling such as down lights, ceiling fans, pendants, etc) as well as your lower level architectural light such as wall sconces, and finally your ambient light such as table and floor lamps. If you own your home, you can decide if you want to hire an electrician to add some more down lights in a certain room, or a j-box for a pendant light or ceiling fan. The first thing we did when we bought our house is have that we had everything completely re-wired. We really didn't have a choice, our house is old and the electrical was still all knob and tube. We took the opportunity to add down lights in our living room since the ceiling is about nine feet high and there wasn't any sort of overhead lighting. We also added some down lights in our very long, narrow closet because you kind of need task lighting in your closet. I am so glad we did because we use our closet often at night. We also had the electricians bring all of our wall outlets up to code and industry standard. So now we have at least one outlet on every wall which is so helpful because, honestly, I have learned that you can never have too many outlets.
Where should your lamps go..
I provide all these examples to say, you should really think about what you need and where you want to place your lamps in the house before you move in. That way you can add an outlet on a wall where there may not be one so that you can plug a lamp in, or add a ceiling light somewhere that is lacking. Also, when you are placing lamps in your room think about balance. You don't want a dark corner in your room and you don't wall all your light sources on one side of the room only. Lighting is more then just function. It's also about ambiance and creating a mood. It adds depth and highlights your furnishings.
What kind of bulb to use..
When choosing your light bulb you want to choose something with a warmer hue for your lamps. Something in the yellow family.
For your ceiling lights its better to choose a warmer light also, unless it's a room that you will be working in a lot, like a garage. You can use more of a white light there.
You should use more of a bright white light for task lighting, like a desk lamp, etc.
Wall sconces at a bath room vanity should be warm and diffused. The light source should be placed at the center of your face when mounted to the wall. This gives you the most appealing light and reduces the amount of shadows on your face.
Finally, decorate
This is my favorite part (for obvious reasons). Once you get all your furniture in the house, you can put the final touches with your rugs, decorative items, and artwork. Lets break this one down further:
Rugs and Decorations
If you are buying a new rug, think about a few things. A rug is a great place to bring colors together in a room. If you are using a few different colors in your space; for example, grey on your walls, beige in your sofa and chairs, orange in your pillows and green in your drapes then your rug can have a busy pattern with all of those colors mixed in. That way the room feels cohesive. If you don't have many colors in your room or you want to keep it more neutral then a rug is a great place to add in texture. Sisal or jute is great for this application. I recommend buying one of these at a store to make sure you like the way it feels underfoot. Some of these more textured rugs aren't that soft, depending on what it's made out of. For your rug size, try not to get something too small. Try to find something that covers all the floor space with in your seating group. This is a bit hard to explain so see the images below for more explanation.
 This room actually has two rugs, but lets focus on the smaller, darker rug. If you JUST had that rug in the room, it would be too small. The rug should be more the size of the larger beige textured rug. This is a great comparison example of good and bad rug sizes. 
For your decorative items, try to place items around your room that will balance out the colors and textures. If you have a lot of wood in one spot, place accessories made out of glass or metal to add a little sparkle. If you have a large concentration of one color on one side of the room, but not on the other, this is a great opportunity to use pillows, vases, or larger accessory items to expand the color to the other side of the room as well. Balance my friends. This is a very subjective process so have fun with it. Rely on your feelings for this exercise more than some sort of formula. Make it your own.
Artwork & Mirrors
This is a whole other blog post. I will give a general idea of what you can do with your artwork for now, there are so many options out there from paintings, to photographs, to wall sculptures, to frame-less floating art, etc. First thing you want to do is to figure out where your eye goes as soon as you walk in the front door. You want to put a nice piece of art on that wall. I personally like big oversized artwork as the first thing you see when you walk in house, but you can also do a gallery wall here too. The key to a gallery wall is that all the frames or the picture mats need to be the same color for it to look cohesive. You can use this "focal wall" approach for any room in your house. Also, don't forget about mirrors. Mirrors can be a very strategic piece of wall decoration in your arsenal. Put a mirror on one side of a room to make a room feel bigger. Put it across from a window to reflect light and a beautiful view. Use smaller mirrors in a cluster to create a focal piece. Use it on one side of a room, to balance a door way or window. Endless possibilities.
 Gallery wall with same color picture frames and matte color. All the frames are the same size.
 Gallery wall with different sized frames, and different color frames. All of the images have white as the background to tie it all together nicely.
 Random gallery wall look. Three different frame colors are use, and a variety of sizes. Again, most the photo's are matted in the same color so it ties it all together.
 A mirror is hung behind the nightstand near a window in this room. It helps to reflect the natural light coming through the window.
 The mirror hung at the entry in this home is really nice. It's always nice to have a mirror near the front door just for practical reasons. But also, this reflects the doorway across from the mirror itself so it creates symmetry. It makes the room feel larger as soon as you walk in.
 The large scale of the mirrors here really creates a lot of drama in the room.
 Again, this large mirror reflects the light from the windows across the room and it creates drama while making the room feel larger.
There you have it. Hopefully this gives you a something to think about before moving into a new home, so that you can really make your new house into a home. The key take-aways are: de-clutter and organize your stuff, buy the appropriate furniture for your needs, paint your walls and consider customizing them with a wall stencil pattern, put up your curtains before moving your furniture in, think about your lighting, don't get overwhelmed, and finally have fun decorating!
Did this blog post help with planning for your new home? Let me know in the comments below!


This post first appeared on Sara Ho Design, LLC, please read the originial post: here

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