Some of us dream of having our home with a real interior design like those Pinterest board inspirations that could be impossible or very challenging to have. First, they’re impossible because we have interesting combinations of furniture pieces that we have collected with no interior design perspective. Second, sometimes we chose some of our interior pieces based on price or comfort. For example, that gray couch we selected because we thought how easy it will be to clean our little one‘s fingerprints off of. And finally, those dream boards are impossible because we have some lack of color understanding, size perspective, or time to organize simply.
If you look for “local furniture stores,” you will find more than 30 results. Other retail stores and online stores have multiple decor choices too. So the challenge is not where to buy these items. The real struggle is how we can address all our ideas, preferences, and family needs to get that dream house we want to see and enjoy every day.
Good news! I asked the help of my sister Ana Luisa who is an expert in the matter. She is an interior designer with more than eight years of experience working with residential and commercial projects in the borderland. She helped us understand the very basic practices to create a home as inspiring as those inspiration boards we dream of.
1. Select the area, debug, and clean.
The first step is to start with a single area. It can be the kitchen, the backyard, or that one room we have the biggest struggle with. Then, we need to debug what we have. Think about simplifying. Keep useful things only. Use the rule of throwing away those things we did not use during the last year. Doing this will make the space easier to organize. We need to find the right place for every single item. Once we use it we can return it to its place again.
In the meantime, a very important step is cleaning. Keeping our areas clean will allow us to maintain our new decor. There are a lot of Instagram reels or TikTok videos with awesome cleaning and organizing hacks we can follow easily.
2. Go shopping for decor.
The next step is to fill up the blank spaces by adding an accent chair, a colorful art painting, or a new book shield. For this action, we need to create a list of needs per area. With the help of Pinterest or Instagram, we can select the colors and styles we like that can be applied to our own space. We can choose between classic, contemporary, Tuscany, and many more styles. Our style is part of our personality.
Once we have the list of new things we need with the defined style and color patterns, we need to establish a budget and timeframe for the project. There will be areas with a low level of time and budget investment, and there will be others we need to consider long-term projects. It is important to consider low-cost design solutions like pieces we can restore or utilize in other areas. During your shopping, be conscious about your objective based on your budget.
3. Replicate in other areas.
Finally, replicate the same methodology in other areas. Think about the idea of 80% of an interior design is based on the organization and the usefulness of every single item in an area.
My sister Ana Luisa and I hope these ideas were helpful for your next home improvement project.
