How to Decorate When You're Starting Out or Starting Over

Few things in life are as daunting as decorating your first home. With so many options available and so many decisions to make, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. Many of us just retreat into the familiar or the expected, leaving a trail of disappointment (and Linen White paint) in our wake.

That condition isn’t limited to the young. These days it’s not unusual for people to find themselves starting over in middle age, with the ending of a relationship or a move precipitated by a new job.

Whether you’re starting out or starting over, these steps can help you navigate the difficult process of decorating a home for the first time.

How to Decorate Your Home From Start to Finish

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Friday: Get Inspired

Design: Emily Bowser; Photo: Sara Ligorria-Tramp

The first step is figuring out your vision. In order to do this, you need to have a plan. Start with gathering inspiration through interior images of furniture, textures, and materials that you love. Group everything into a folder or Pinterest board to keep a clear and coherent vision in one space.

Your deliverable: An inspiration board filled with your favorite rooms, furniture pieces, colors, and materials

Once you have all your inspiration in one place, find the common threads. Do you have a penchant for marble, minimal designs, or the color blue? Identify which items are catching your eye, and use these elements as the foundation for your design plan. The goal isn't to go overboard with any of them, but to create a coherent base and style for your space.

Your deliverable: A boiled-down palette of colors, materials, and textures to help you guide future decisions

Once you have an idea of your aesthetic preferences, take inventory of what you already own and decide whether each piece has a place in your new home. Can you find a spot for your favorite art? Does your grandmother's antique buffet fit with your minimal scheme? Remember—mixing periods and styles can add to your décor, but only you can judge whether each piece will add cachet or clash with your overall look.

Your deliverable: A list of everything you'll keep, sell, and donate—with actionable plans for each

This is also a good time to start thinking about your appliances. Select a style that looks good and has multiple features so you won’t have to invest in a new one in a few years’ time. For instance, the LG Mega Capacity Top Load Washer Duo has been winning customer satisfaction awards left and right, so you can trust it to get the job done.

Identify your core needs so you don't end up with a design that's pretty but impractical. You may love small midcentury settees, but is it practical for your lifestyle? What type of activities take place in your home: Do you love playing board games, throwing cocktail parties, napping on the sofa, or watchingNetflix marathons? Let your lifestyle guide your floor plan. Should your sofa face the TV, the fireplace, or a pair of lounge chairs? Should it sit in the middle of the room or by a sunlit window? How big should it be? These are all questions you'll need to answer before picking furniture.

Your deliverable: A core list of activities that take place in your home and the requirements that accompany them (e.g., a desk for working from home or a table to play board games)

How to Plan & Start a Home Decorating Project

The thought of starting a decorating project is exciting or scary, depending on your experience, your budget, your taste, or your time.

If you've never done any decorating at all, you might feel that you don't know how or where to start. If this is old hat to you, you might not know where to end. But when all is said and done, you want a new look and want to get started.

There's very little question about what element to choose last, but there are lots of things you can select first. Because paint is a very inexpensive part of the project and because the paint is available in an almost infinite variety of colors, you should hold off buying the paint until you have other things identified.

But just what should you do first? Should you buy a whole roomful of furniture or choose a rug that you love? Have you chosen an elegant wallpaper or luxurious fabric that you want to use?

You really can start wherever you want and work it all together into a plan. But it really does help if you start with a plan, an inspiration piece, and a color scheme.

Find your sources of inspiration and work your way through your decorating project. You'll be happy you spent the time to plan.

Put a Plan on Paper

As with any business plan, you should draw up a written statement for your project. Identify your style and then select a color scheme around your theme. Will you choose a garden style or a sleek contemporary decorating scheme? Put it in writing and stick to it.

What's Your Style?

Do you like formal or casual? Do you love French Country style or do you long to live in a cottage-style home? Spend some time to identify the style elements you love and make plans to bring them into your space.

Start With What You Have

Not everyone (in fact, very few people) can start with a fresh, empty room and begin decorating. Most of us already have some pieces of furniture, or the home has carpeting, tile floors or countertops, or architectural features that you're not ready to discard. If there are things you like, focus on them, and make them important. If there are things you don't like but cannot change, find ways to camouflage or downplay them in your newly decorated space.

Do You Have Decorative Pieces?

If you have a collection of beautiful crystal, delicate china, or rustic birdhouses, these can be the start of a decorating plan. Based on the color schemes, decorative themes, or formality of your collection, you can use them to identify the start of your decorating project.

If you're not sure how you should start your decorating project, read our list of places to look for ideas, color, and themes.

Start With Art

Often the art you choose to live with reflects what you like. If you choose beautiful landscape oil paintings, you'll probably like a traditional or formal interior. But if you choose black and white or sepia tone photographs or abstract art, you might want to plan your interior around a more contemporary design.

Do You Have a Favorite Color?

I have a friend who loves anything blue. Of course, then it is only natural that her home would be predominantly blue, too. If you have a favorite color, use it to guide your color scheme for your home. Use hues of it on the walls, in patterns, on upholstery, and in the accessories.

Choose a Fabric With Colors You Like

Possibly the most common way of beginning a decorating project is to select a fabric with colors, a pattern, and interesting texture you like. Use the colors in the fabric to identify colors you'll use on the walls, on other pieces of furniture, and in accessories you choose.

Choose an Interesting Pattern

You can choose a pattern for wallpaper, carpeting, tile. It can be scrolling, geometric, bold, or subtle. Use it as the foundation for the other elements in your home and carry the pattern into lamps, fabrics, and accessories.

Start With an Area Rug

With a patterned area rug, you can keep other elements simple, focusing on the rug instead of fabrics or walls. But if you want to use the rug as a starting point for everything else, pick colors from the pattern and use them throughout the room on walls, fabrics, furniture, and accessories.