Decorating a new home - where do you start?

A new home offers a glorious, blank canvas, but can often leave you asking, ‘where do I even start?’

Open your wardrobe – what colours do you see? Is your jewellery preference for silvers or golds? This can be a great way to decide on colours for your new home. Over the past couple of years, gold has seen a resurgence and our love affair with ‘50 shades of grey’ has been replaced with navy, and more recently, green hues.

Personalising your home needn’t be daunting. Invest in items that that you’ll use regularly like your sofa and bed and then you can save money on accessories. I’d suggest keeping your main items like your sofa, chairs and floor coverings to a neutral palette – beiges/light greys and wood tones for flooring – that won’t date – changing cushions and vases is a lot cheaper than replacing a sofa! Adding in a feature wall won’t break the bank either and is relatively easy to change too.

Decorating a new home needn’t be expensive, and you can still achieve a high end, luxe look if you shop around. I buy a lot of furniture and accessories from Homesense (a division of TK Maxx). They have loads of unusual/one off items and they offer a wealth of accessories – great selection of candles – but take a van or empty car when you go! Ikea is a great place, and I also love the supermarket offerings – Sainsbury’s (amongst others) have a really good home section and Dunelm has a great range of interior products too (check out their bedding and lighting). For something more bespoke, most areas have local artisans making candles, diffusers, light shades etc and it’s great to support local.

I must mention here that the key to a great looking room is the lighting. Don’t just put a ceiling lampshade up, include table and floor lamps as they play a big part in bringing your room together and creating the overall mood.

To quickly bring your scheme together and make it ‘homely’, add knitted throws, textured cushions and rugs. Layer it up so it feels soft and cosy. Add family photos and pictures that reflect you and give a sense of personality.

As for trends, ‘Grandmillennial’, is a popular style that we can all relate to as it takes modern day living and incorporates hand-me down furniture and inherited pieces along with second hand and vintage/reclaimed furniture. This style appreciates the past yet fits nicely with modern interiors. You’d have to be living under a stone to have missed the massive growth area that is upcycling!

Catherine, Interior Designer, Bert and Wills