Yes, you CAN plan the room design yourself!
Maybe you want to reduce the investment required to design your room, or maybe you feel that the interior designers that you’re consulting with just do not understand your design preferences.
Or it could be something else.
There can be many reasons why you want to handle your room interior design on your own.
However, it is true that doing so can be a bit challenging, and can make you feel nervous.
Especially if you have never done it on your own before.
That is why, as a leading BD interior designer, we are publishing this blog post on planning your room design by yourself, to clear your doubts and give you confidence.
Why this blog post will help you
It is essential to remember that interior design is not a science. There are no hard and fast rules telling you how to proceed.
You have to be creative, apply personal judgement and let your imagination work.
That being said, having a roadmap to follow will always prove useful, especially for first timers.
And that is what this blog post is all about – giving you a roadmap which to follow.
It’s not about spoonfeeding you design ideas but about telling you how to come up with ideas of your own, and how to implement them into a practical design plan.
Think about the room atmosphere
Instead of starting by thinking about design ideas, start by thinking about the kind of atmosphere you want the room to have.
Once you know what kind of room atmosphere to have, it will automatically tell you what furniture, colours and textures you should have in the room.
How to get inspiration for this
Go through your favourite social media – Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and so on – and see what kinds of styles and choices are highlighted there.
You can check out lifestyle and interior design magazines.
Also, talk with friends and family to see if they can offer ideas.
Remember to remain practical
Don’t forget your realities when you’re thinking about the room atmosphere.
For example, if you’re part of a large family, it’s highly unlikely you’ll have the freedom to have a lightly designed room with as little furniture as possible.
If you have children, their safety will have to be your number one priority when planning the design.
If you don’t frequently have guests, it may not be the best use of your space to have an extensive dining room or a separate party room for evening gatherings.
Think along these lines, and make sure your design matches your actual lifestyle.
Cut down on clutter
Should be obvious, right?
If you’re redecorating your space, removing things you don’t need is a basic step.
If you’re designing a new space, think about whether you really need an item before planning a location to keep it in.
Keeping things just because they’ve been there for a long time, or bringing in things without thinking whether they’re really needed is not good room design.
Draw a map
There are plenty of free and easy to use programs, websites and apps that you can use to create a floorplan of your room.
However, remember to not get hung up on the technicalities.
You can simply draw on paper even.
But remember to scale things properly.
Before bringing in any piece of furniture, measure it twice and then see where in the room there is space for it.
Use tape to mark off spaces in the empty room.
And finally, make sure that whatever furniture you’re planning on keeping can be brought into the room (through the front door or however).
Plan your colour scheme
The colour scheme should be decided early in the design process.
Do you want to keep things neutral? Do you want a bright room?
Whatever it be, take the decision quickly.
Neutral rooms can be changed with brightly coloured accessories.
Green, pink or blue colour bases should be paired with complementary shades.
Start with the anchor furniture
Anchor furniture simply means the biggest and more significant pieces of furniture in your room like a sofa, a bed, a centre table and so on.
For example, buy your sofa before you commit on any cushions.
Making the larger purchase decisions first gives you a realistic idea of how well your budget is working.
If you decide on accessories beforehand, you may find that important pieces of furniture are not fitting into your budget.
Plan the lighting
Effective lighting is essential in creating a room that doesn’t look lonely or uninviting.
Without effective lighting the room will have more of shadows and dark corners, making it seem smaller, reducing the sense of cleanliness and may put people off from entering it and remaining inside it.
Maximise for sunlight in the day and add multiple layers of lighting – ergonomic lighting and decorative lighting – for the night.
Add accessories
With the essentials planned you have the space to add accessories. Decorative mirrors, paintings, photographs, pillows, plants etc everything comes in at this stage.
The question you should be asking to plan all this is – with the essentials covered, what’s missing?
This is the stage in which you humanise the room and turn a house into a home.
Ready to design your room?
This roadmap should be very useful to you in planning your room design.
Follow it step by step and you should be ready with your room design plan very soon. All the best!
