I always feel the need to rearrange my room, either because I’m bored with it or I don’t like the set up. The flow and energy of a room can change a person’s mood and it is important to have a relaxing living space.
Whenever I would go to spice my room up I would always get stuck or not like what I did and have to change it again and let’s be honest, moving furniture around is hard. I would come up with an idea and then overthink it and it would fall apart and my room was left looking the same or torn apart. But then I discovered these steps and it became much easier to feel chic and happy in my own room.
Step 1: Account for lighting
Along with the flow of the room, lighting has a heavy effect on your energy and mood. The most important thing to do when deciding on the lighting in your room is to take into account how much you actually use the lights and what lights you use the most.
I love natural light more than anything, so I rarely use my overhead light. However, overhead lighting can bring your room to life. Depending on what type of lightbulb you buy, there are different tints and strengths of lighting. For example a darker room, maybe painted gray with black furniture, would pop in a room with stronger and more white light.
Lamps are also an amazing way to add light to your room, and they are decorative (overhead lights can be decorative too). If you’re a person who doesn’t use your overhead light very often, lamps add uniqueness and are just as good at animating a room.
Since this is the first step and you don’t know how you are decorating yet, just take into account which style of lights you prefer. Then later, when you’ve decided on your aesthetic, look for decorative lights in whatever style you love!
Step 2: Choose your inspiration
This step is the most fun because this is when you get to pick your theme, your vibe, your energy for your room. Here you will also pick a base color scheme you like.
To do this best, find one thing you really like for your room. Whether you already have it or it is something you want to buy, this will be your “statement piece”, something that ties everything else together.
This item could be a rug, a unique shelf, a paint color or wallpaper, anything big enough to catch the eye and strong enough of a theme to connect your other decorations.
Step 3: Arrange your room
Here is where the manual labor gets put in because you have to move around your furniture and other things.
I start by clearing my walls off so I can focus on my furniture in the room (if you haven’t picked your rug yet, you can put it down first in the next step). I am a fan of a very open set-up and I like to be able to see everything from one spot. However, I like my bed in the corner so I have to make sure I put it there when rearranging. I like to make a sketch of my room and dabble with different ideas on the paper. Sometimes this is hard due to scaling and won’t always help as much as you would like so don’t depend on your sketches.
Make sure you measure your furniture pieces before going to move them because nothing is worse when you’re already halfway there and one of the items doesn’t fit right where you need it to. If you don’t have a tape measure like I do, you can use a ruler and just go down the piece of furniture.
The layout of your room is completely up to you. You can look up ideas or borrow from friends, a tv show, anything, however you feel stress free in your room!
Step 4: Soft decorations and colors
This is my favorite step, because in the end your blankets and curtains pull the room together. Once you have your furniture how you like it and your inspiration piece chosen, it’s time to pick out your blankets, pillows, rug, and curtains.
Taking into account the item you chose for your aesthetic and what furniture you already have, base your colors and patterns off those. If you are looking for a colorful room, then mix and match your soft decorations on your color theme. For a more monotone room, following the colors of your furniture helps, furniture usually comes in what I call “furniture colors”. They are black, white, and different woods and using these neutral colors will balance out your statement piece or give the room an even more relaxing vibe.
A very suggested “don’t” of mine, is to never mix furniture colors. If you have a black bed frame, don’t get other furniture of a different color.
Step 5: Accessorize your room
Almost done redecorating your room, doesn’t it look great! This is possibly the longest step, depending on how indecisive you are on your decorations, but hopefully Steps 3 and 4 helped you narrow it down.
I don’t like a lot of wall space, so when I’m looking for decorations I set my focus on wall art and tapestries. I put my tapestries on my larger walls and save my smaller walls for other things. Pictures, shelves, corkboards, posters, art, whatever decor speaks to you the most. But if your walls are part of your aesthetic and you would like to have some color showing, other decorations look great as well. Plants are one of my favorite things to add to a room because they literally bring so much life to it and a lot of color themselves. If you don’t have a green thumb, then table decorations like books and sculptures can bring liveliness to your room.
Also your room accessories can be funny, modern, even something that represents a part of you. Just like your soft decorations, base your colors on your theme or the furniture. This step is about having fun, so try not to worry about really small things and focus on the bigger picture.
Step 6: Enjoy it… there’s an extra step!?
Yes there is one more step, and it is the most important.
When you’re done and your room is stylish, comfy, happy, healthy, everything, take it all in. Look at the room all together and look at your art of decorating and rearranging.
You did that!