DIY Interior Design Tips From The Pros
Every homeowner wants to have a beautiful home inside and out. Most often, they want to do their own interior designing to save some money and add a personal touch to their home. However, many don’t know where to start. Lots of ideas are posted on social media like Instagram and Pinterest, but it can still be confusing to determine how to pull off the ‘perfect’ aesthetics and design.
This article provided DIY interior design tips from the pros to copy for your home.
Mind your lighting
Lighting is vital in interior designing because it has both functionality and aesthetic factors. Your lighting needs to have a purpose; otherwise it’s only going to waste electricity and put your energy bills higher.At the same time, it sets the tone or mood in the home or a particular room. A few DIY interior design tips for illumination are:
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- Layer your lighting – You will need two layers of light to illuminate a room properly, and layering lights will enhance everything in your space.
- Ambient or general lighting – provides an overall level of light that’s needed in each room. Some examples are chandeliers, ceiling fans, pendants, vanity lighting, track lighting, flush-mount/semi-flush-mount ceiling fixtures, wall sconces, torchiere lamps, and recessed lighting.
- Task lighting – direct, intense light needed to perform specific tasks like cooking, applying make-up, reading, and others. Vanity lighting, desk lamps, island or mini pendants, under-cabinet lighting, work lamps, or track lighting can be used for this function.
- Accent lighting – highlights certain architectural or design features in your home. Track lighting, wall sconces, and recessed lighting can be considered for this purpose.
- Get a dimmer – a dimmer is vital when you want to change the quality or quantity of light. Besides functionality, it’s also economical.
- Update fixtures to the current styles – one of the simplest ways to modernize a space is to make sure that your lighting fixture style is up-to-date.
Paint has power
Paint can change the look of a room in an instant. Most importantly, it’s the most common DIY that you can perform in your home even if you haven’t tried it before. Here are painting tips for your home:
- Choose paint last – you might be excited to pick colors, but you will only know the overall visual once you move in and have all your things in place. Other factors can include lighting and other furniture or décor that you want to bring in.
- Pick your color palettes carefully – There are hundreds of colors and shades that are available, and it can be confusing what to pick for different rooms. Use a guide to choosing paint colors to ensure that your home will have the perfect mood that you desire.
- Mixing one batch of paint – 50% lighter than the base and another batch 150% darker creates the ideal color that you can use when striping a wall or when painting one area with different shades.
- Don’t paint when it’s humid – because the paint will dry slower compared to dry days. If you have no choice, you’ll need to paint more carefully.
- Don’t forget to protect everything that you don’t want to be painted – cover furniture, floor, and everything else that might be accidentally painted, including door knobs.
Make some room
In interior design, less is usually more. When dealing with furniture, make sure that you have room to move around and get to other parts of your space with ease. Don’t be tempted to overcrowd any space to avoid difficulty in maneuvering the area.
Other tips are:
- Invest in few but high-quality furniture pieces instead of purchasing lots of cheap items that you’ll want to get rid of sooner.
- Having one statement piece is much more visually appealing than having lots of small pieces everywhere.
- Take measurements of your rooms and passages before you purchase furniture.
Create a height illusion
There are ways to make a room seem taller so that you won’t feel cramped or boxed in. Whether you want to make a small space look larger, or you just want the ceiling to appear higher, there are methods to achieve this illusion.
Here are some of it:
- Hang curtains near the ceiling.
- Install tall and slim shelves that hit just below the ceiling.
- Painting your walls, windows, doors, baseboards, and ceilings with similar and light colors. Dark-colored ceilings will make them appear low.
- Install vertical wall sconces to create the illusion of a taller wall.
- Instead of eye-level fireplace height, bring it vertically to the top of the ceiling.
Doing your own interior design can be fun, and it can bring out your creativity. Don’t forget to incorporate DIY interior design tips from the pros that you can mimic like not neglecting lighting and paint, creating space and faking height to achieve both a functional and visually appealing home.