7 Tips For Decorating A New Home

Putting your stamp on your new home is easy when you know how. Whether you’ve bought a new build which just needs a quick lick of paint to suit your style, or an old doer-upper which requires a complete refurb from top to bottom, here are our top 7 tips to help your decorating project go without a hitch.

1. Start straight away

You may have people telling you to move in and wait to see how you feel living in the place, before making any changes. While this may be good advice for big, structural projects, if you wait to redecorate, it will never happen. How many unpacked boxes do you have from your last move? Or rooms still waiting to be painted? If you have the luxury of being able to redecorate before you move all of your furniture in, grab it with both hands. If not, cover up your boxes and furniture with dust sheets and get going before you unpack too much.

2. Come up with a colour scheme

Decide on your ‘hero’ colour for each room and 2 or 3 colours to complement it. If you’re struggling to make a decision, white walls with colourful accessories, such as cushions and throws, always work well.

3. Plasterboard the walls

If your walls are old and crumbling and you don’t have the time or money for someone to plaster them, plasterboard is a nice alternative. You can simply attach the plasterboards to the wall and they’re ready to go.

If you have a house with plasterboard stud walls, you can still create a stylish display. Here at Traditional Beams, we now offer a range of shelves suitable for plasterboard walls, so you can create a beautiful wall display without worrying they’re going to fall down.

4. Pick a feature focal point in each room

Whether it’s your fireplace with an oak fireplace beam above it or that beautiful kitchen island, pick an area of your room that you want to draw attention to and focus your attention on that when you’re decorating.

5. Mirror, mirror on the wall…

…whose home is the most beautiful of them all? Yours will be if you hang at least one mirror in every room. Mirrors reflect light and make rooms feel more spacious. Use them on walls perpendicular to windows (not opposite them) for best results. 

6. Give your kitchen cabinets a lick of paint

Most kitchen carcasses (the cupboards themselves) are the same, with only the doors differing. Painting your kitchen cabinets and swapping out old handles for new ones, can give your kitchen a whole new lease of life, without the expense of having to buy a new one.

7. Tape out your furniture

Use tape or even pieces of cardboard from your move to mark out where your furniture will go. This saves you heaving it around your room, as you can get a good idea of what works before you even bring your furniture back into the space after decorating.