Decorating a room from scratch - where do you start?

[dottyblue]

With buying a new house, I have to decorate several rooms with literally not one piece of furniture/set of drapes/carpet to start with.  We are moving from 900 sq ft to over 2,000. (wheee!!!!)

I'm THRILLED to be able to set up my living room the way I want it, but I'm totally overwhelmed by pulling everything together.  Do I start with the furniture I love and then make the curtain/drape decisions?  Do I start with the BOLD print/colors I love or the muted ones?

Tips?  Thoughts?

[magdala]

When I decorated my house, I started with an inspiration piece for each room and pulled the colors from that inspiration piece. Pick out a piece of artwork or a item that means something special to you. For the living room, it was an antique chess set. For the dining room, I used a watercolor. For the den, it was a catcher's mitt. My DH loves his baseball and has a collection of memorabilia. We already owned these items and just decorated with the things we loved. For the bedroom, it was (shockingly) the bedding. Alternatively, pick something that isn't changing. For the kitchen and bathrooms, I used the marble counters and picked out a green and a taupe from the countertops.

[TBM]

I usually start with an idea of how I want the room the room to feel, what style/color/whatever (basically a theme that my DH can't envision, like 'a comfy mid century modern meets rustic modern meets...', or 'a sexy lounge/bar/travel vibe'-lol). I drive him crazy, but it all means something to me. I work well with vague specifics. ;p

It also helps me rein in my love of all things (I have serious appreciation for too many styles/colors/textures), if I can look at it and ask myself if it will help me achieve the look/feel that I am after it makes it much easier for me to make a decision, and makes it much easier for me to leave behind some amazing find that won't work with my vision.

I try to look for the big, more permanent pieces first...especially upholstery. I think it is much easier to find paint to go with something (it can always be custom tinted) than it is to find fabrics to match paint. I did have a particular, bold color for an accent wall in mind before I found the furniture and chose the fabrics, but I didn't paint until the furniture was ordered and would have been willing to repaint if it hadn't worked out. I didn't actually need for any of it to match anything exactly, since I am more into contrast and coordinating than I am exact matches.

I have no idea when one chooses carpet or rugs, since that isn't my thing, but I know with carpet, the undertones need to be considered when you chose upholstery or things can get clashy. I had to choose the flooring (cork) for this house before I had actually even seen the house or the area in person, and even though we weren't keeping any of our furniture and were planning a different color palette, I looked at the color samples for the flooring next to every wall color and every piece of furniture that we owned, to see how they looked with all of the different tones. I found that some colors/tones were far more neutral and versatile than others, and ended up with a color that was very different than what I thought I wanted, and it has worked out really well for us.


ETA:  I don't feel like art needs to match the room (it is art, not decor), or the room needs to match the art,  but I do find that I am drawn to the same colors over and over, so I guess sometimes it does kind of match.  It can be good place to get inspiration, but don't feel like your art has to match your furniture.

[boiler717]

Ditto magdala - I always find a piece that I love to work from. Usually it's fabric but can be a rug, artwork, etc.
I try to stick with neutrals for main pieces and then add in color and texture with the details.

[mrs.jacinthe]

As regards furniture, I'd pick that out first, then try to work around it. If you're picky about your ass perch, it's really the only way to go. Otherwise you'll wind up with a $1k+ piece of decor that you'll never sit on, because you don't like the way it sits.

[msmerymac]

If you are reusing furniture from your old place in other rooms, I'd start there - there are a few exceptions, but mostly you'll want your furniture and style to flow from room to room. So no mid-century modern if you have a lot of heavy late-18th century pieces elsewhere.

Personally, I do something similar for color. Bedrooms are anything goes, since they are enclosed spaces, but I like the dining room and living room to compliment each other, and in this house and a previous duplex, there is a large archway between the two, so they flow. I've used red, browns, golds, rich greens, and that kind of thing in those rooms, with a neutral wall color. My kitchen is red/white/black, so the red curtains in the dining room work with that, and the red throw pillows in the living room pull that together as well.

Also, consider function. If you're decorating a formal living room for the first time ever and using your old living room furniture in a casual family room, maybe you want something "nicer," or more on trend, since it will be more of a showpiece.

[sierramist03]

I agree I always find an inspiration. Either artwork, bedding or other fabric type items and go from there. I always pick the wall color last because it's usually the easiest to change. I usually know the general direction I want to go with furniture.

[froggy76]

I started by browsing Houzz.com and found a room that I liked. It was colorful, so I tried to capture that same vibe.

[TBM]

May 26, 2015 13:09:10 GMT -5 RamblingRose said:

I was lucky & annoyed to have been able to start nearly from scratch in this house, I sold the largest furniture to the buyers of my last house, so I really had nothing here but my bed and lamps when I first moved in! I stalked Craigslist in this town and the one where my parents live for a lot of the pieces so I love that I ended up with a collected over time look right away.

That is what I love about what we've done here so far.  Almost all of our furniture we have in the main living spaces is new or 'new to us', but it feels like it has been collected over time.  

[devonpow]

I start with one piece of furniture. I think I've only done two rooms totally from scratch. Our current living room we got all new furniture, rug, and paintings. We started with the sofa - DH had his heart set on a sectional ( we never had room before) so we found one we liked and then built around it for furniture. We used Ethan Allen 'a free design service and had someone come out and measure etc to help us make determinations on rug size, furniture placement etc. Rugs and art came last.

Currently we are just starting a new room - it's been empty until now. First we decided what to do with it ( finally decided on a study/library) and we just bought our first piece for it:

I actually have no idea yet what other pieces we are going to get , but having this one to build around means I know the vibe/ style that will be there .

[AAM2012]

You've gotten great advice already but I wanted to add to not rush to fill the space/house. Some of my worst buys (wasting $$!) was when I was rushing to fill and not thinking about how it fits into my overall design theme.

[grover]

No advice but I'll be in the same boat once we close. We are moving from a 2 bedroom townhouse (really one bed/office) to a 3 bedroom, lofted house with more living spaces as well.