New Home, New Space… New Furniture?

A brand new home offers a clean slate for décor, a tabula rasa that you can fill with new furnishings, artwork, paint colors, and more. However, this can quickly become overwhelming. There are many ways to go about furnishing and decorating your new home: filling it with your old furniture, starting fresh, or a mix of the two that fits your new space perfectly.

If you are on a budget, it is especially important that you prioritize in decorating.

It can be tempting to buy all of the pieces you love and fill that blank space quickly, but patience is important. Think about what pieces or furnishings you need and will use most – a couch, beds, and other things you need to live in your new home. That beautiful antique armoire can wait if it would send you in to debt.

Focusing on less expensive new accent pieces is a way to change the look of a room without changing much.  “Accents draw the eye – that’s where an edit is important,” said Bay Area interior designer Cynthia Spence. “If you have too many, it looks like clutter. It says something about the person that lives there. It’s what personalizes the space.” NewHomeGuide.com recommends that you make the most out of what you already have until you can afford to design your dream home. “Get the most mileage out of items that are still usable until you can afford to replace them,” states the website. They recommend repainting or re-staining wooden pieces or putting slipcovers on upholstered furniture.

Buying new big ticket items like beds and couches is something you might want to wait to do. “The most important thing I think is to try to avoid spending money on something you know you want to change in a big way down the road,” said Spence. She recommends buying accents in a favorite color, and painting the walls in a way that becomes a part of the décor.

“Avoid apartment beige; use saturated pigments for your wall colors, such as chocolate brown or taupe slate gray. Don’t be afraid of black for accent colors,” said Spence. “Paint is definitely your friend.”