Having an interior design project on your hands is fun – at least, it’s supposed to be. In terms of the “house moving process”, this is the moment when you can let your imagination fly.
Finally, you have a blank slate, an empty canvas, in which you can put anything you want. Any theme, any colour, any design. It’s all up to you.
So Why Does it Feel so Painful?
Well, the main reason why people struggle with their interior design is the same reason why you’re supposed to enjoy it. The freedom. See, when you have a blank canvas and a head full of teeming ideas, it becomes hard to control yourself and stay focused.
This leads the house to become confused, incoherent, dare we say it, ugly. Freedom becomes a catch-22. Brilliant and fun, but dangerous and tear-inducing at the same time!
So how do you choose and stick to one idea? If you have a number of design themes circling around your brain, how do you find the best one and keep the willpower to see it all the way through?
For Starters, Map Your Ideas Down
The first thing you need to do is make sense of your own ideas. If they’re all jumbled in your head, it makes it far more difficult to pick one and really contrast it with the others – especially when they all start to merge together.
Make sure you map every idea down, from decor ornaments to kitchen cabinets, to sofa sets. Everything and anything you think of, map it down, and you will find it far easier to compare them all.
Take A Journey Through Your Home
Once you have mapped everything down, get out of the house. Not for good. Make sure you take the key with you! No, once you’re out of the house, you’re going to walk straight back in and take a stroll. Move from the entrance hall to the lounge, to the kitchen, and so on.
Journey through your house and think about what you would expect to see and what you would like to see. Putting yourself into every room will help you to visualise your best ideas and start the work process.
Print Out Your Colours
Colours are, of course, a big part of interior design. In most cases, the colours of the walls, the furniture, the blinds, everything, will play the biggest part in how a room feels.
For this reason, it’s important not to make your decision on a whim. If you’re trying to work out what colours work in each room, make sure you print them out and stick them where you are going to paint. This will give you a visual idea of how it would look once painted and how the colours might work in the room.
Stick Your Plans To Each Room
In a similar vein, once you have chosen your idea from your map, make sure to mock up your plans and stick them to each specific room. This will help you to stick to each plan – no pun intended!
If you are working in a room and feeling yourself hover into a new idea, you can take a look at the plan and be reminded of how that original concept was going to work in the context of the house.
Keep Your Imagination Ticking
That being said, just because you are working on one design idea, that doesn’t mean that new features and concepts should be turned down. If you have been inspired by something or a new idea has popped into your head, think about how it might go with the idea you are working on now.
Is there a possibility of combining the two? Can the new idea feature in a more subtle way? Whenever you’re taking on an interior design project, it’s always important to keep your imagination ticking and stay open to unique, complimentary opportunities.