How To Decorate A New Construction Home

Do you find yourself at a loss when it comes to decorating your new construction home? I get it, when I purchased our current home as a new build, I was so excited and ready to move in, unpack and put my stamp of personality into the house. Little did I know that I’d have such a hard time making decisions with such a big, blank, open canvas. Decorating can feel overwhelming when you realize you’ll be decorating from scratch. There’s SO much to do, it can feel overwhelming when you don’t know where to start. Maybe you’ve felt the same? Well, if you have, I’ve got some good news for you. I’m going to share exactly how you can move past that overwhelmed stage and start turning that big empty box of a house into a home with personality. But before we get started, go ahead and join my FREE Decorating Made Easy Challenge. You’ll learn the tricks to easily decorate your home, even if you don’t have an eye for design. Now let’s get started.

Where to Start When Decorating a House

Get inspired – When we purchased our current home, I had a staged model home to look to for inspiration when it came time to decorate. This gave me at least a point of reference on what the home would look like when I decorated it. But if you don’t have a staged model home to draw inspiration from, there are other ways to get your creative juices flowing. You can visit other model homes or open houses and take pictures of rooms that look similar to the space that you plan to decorate.

Choose your décor style – do you have a specific decorating style that you like? Have you noticed a pattern in the furniture and décor items that you currently have? When you know the décor style you like, it makes a big difference in the rest of your home decorating process. That will make things much easier as you begin to decide what current items you want to keep or toss. Understanding your style will also help you decide if you want to replace any items that are in your new home, like the light fixtures or countertop so that they better match your overall decor.

How To Approach Decorating A New Home

Break down your new home decorating plan room by room – yes, one of the things about decorating your new home is that it seems SO large when it’s time to actually style it. Because, simply adding furniture to a space is only half the battle. Take it from me, if you just add furniture, your room will still feel bare. You’ll want to include rugs, wall décor, artwork, color, tabletop accessories, plants, pillows, pictures, books in your room plan. Yep, you’ll want to at least consider these items for each room. And it can feel like a lot. So, the best way to work through this is to choose the room that you’ll get the most use out of. Follow the below steps to create a decorating plan, and then move on to the next used room.

Understand what you’re working with – for each room, consider your limitations. The first way to do this is understand the size of the space, the lighting and any doors, entryways or heating elements that can’t be blocked. You’ll want to use your tape measure and write down the ceiling height, window size, room size, fireplace dimensions or island size. Think about how the room looks and the basic measurements. You basically want to create your own version of a floorplan.

A blank span of wall might be begging for a large piece of artwork or a gallery wall. And the color of your foundational items – the color of your cabinets, the color of your walls and the color of your countertops will play a key role in the color of the accessories and furniture you choose.

Find the focal point for each room – once you have your basic floorplan sketched out, you’ll want to determine the focal point of the room. The focal point is the main element that people see once they walk into the room. It’s the element that naturally draws the eye and commands attention. It could be the fireplace, large picture window or an accent wall. You want to point this out because you don’t want to create another focal point, with say, a large TV or piece of furniture that will fight against the main focal point. That makes the room feel cluttered and busy.

Define the function of each space – I’m a big proponent of making sure that you create a home that works for you. I believe that your home should be a reflection of you. And that what you see online should inspire you, teach you, show you how to create more of a home that you love to build memories in. So, as you begin to think about how you’re going to create a home, don’t overlook the function you want each space to serve. The way to decorate and style a formal dining room will be different from how you decorate and style a casual dining room. The wall colors you choose will be different as well as the furniture color and layout.

How To Give Your New Build Personality And Make It Feel Like Home

Consider the pieces you currently have to work with – start with the biggest piece of furniture that will go in each room. You most likely will be moving some of your old or current furniture into your new home. So, think through what you have to work with. What size is it? There goes that measuring tape again! And where do you want to put it? Will it work in the space? Take a few minutes to explores ways you can move the furniture, so it works best for how you want to use that room. Creating a furniture plan and furniture layout will help you confirm that you’ll keep certain pieces of furniture, and also reveal the pieces that you may want to get rid of.

Consider pieces that you want to add – want a tip? The more time you spend in your home, the more you’ll understand how you actually live in it. Not just how you planned to live in it. There will certainly be pieces of furniture and décor that you want to add to your home. You might even purchase them before you actually move in, and that’s OK. But what I’ve come to realize that you and your family might find yourselves spending more time in certain rooms than you planned. Decorating one room may end up taking priority over the other because you find that’s the most used space. So, go ahead and write the plan of what you’d like to do to each room, but be flexible. You might just find that you’ll end up purchasing some items for another room that was further down on your list.

Layer each room over time – I told you when I first moved into our current home, I was overwhelmed by how much space I had to work with and how much decorating it would take to get my home to look like “that model home”. My Dad graciously reminded me that I had purchased this home to live in for the foreseeable future, so I had that much time to pour my heart and personality into the home. In other words, there was no need to rush. So, I offer you that same advice. Take your time and don’t feel compelled to rush the process! Over time, you can add design element like wall colors, accent décor pieces, additional furniture, wall art, window treatments (besides the basics for privacy) and throw or toss pillows. You can also switch out the lighting and add additional storage – whether build-ins like shelving or more temporary solutions like moveable bins and boxes. And you can make these updates over time.

Add personality to a new build – now if the time to make your new construction house more like the home you envisioned it would be. And that’s by adding personality! Your home décor is important to how your home environment impacts your life, and your surroundings can either positively or negatively impact your mood. So, only choose items – whether light fixtures or door handles, or lamps or a bed frame that you really enjoy. It should brighten up your face every time you see it. I’d rather you wait and save to have the money to be able to purchase what you like, than to purchase something you don’t enjoy looking at. Here are a few ways to add personality to your new home:

Change the builder grade door handles
Upgrade the builder grade light fixtures
Replace the builder grade wood, tile or carpet flooring
Change the builder grade interior or exterior doors
Replace the builder grade window treatments
Upgrade the builder grade appliances
Change the builder grade cabinet handles and pulls

You can update many of these items to add a bit of personality and character to your home to make it your own.

How To Decorate A New Construction Home

Wow – we just covered a lot of things you can do to decorate your new construction home and make it your own. We went over where to start when it comes to decorating your home. Then I walked you through how to approach decorating so it doesn’t become overwhelming. And then I shared some great ways to give your new build personality and to make it feel like a home. With that said, if you’d like some more help, tips or pointers, go ahead and join my FREE Decorating Made Easy Challenge. You’ll learn the tricks to easily decorate your home, even if you don’t have an eye for design.

And please, take a few minutes and leave a comment below and let me know how these tips have helped you.

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