Interior Decorating: Creating a Vision for your Space When Redecorating

If there’s anything I’ve learned from being an avid Life and Style Blog reader the past fifteen years, it’s that having a Vision and plan for your space is essential to curating a space that feels like you.

For the longest time, I would decorate my space with whatever felt cool. But cool doesn’t always mean cohesive. In my early twenties I frequented antique shops and would buy random cool items that didn’t match the style of my sofas or the color scheme of a room. I would buy rugs that I loved, but then they would arrive and it felt like they didn’t match any of my furniture. I was unhappy with how my home looked even though I’d been happy when I bought all of those things individually.

After years of LOVING interior design but not really understanding HOW to create spaces, I stumbled upon a tride and true A Beautiful Mess post by Elsie Larson (one of the OG-est bloggers out there). She detailed how she planned out the rooms in her house from start to finish, starting with the flooring, rug, paint color, and then adding decor and furniture that centered around those base items.

My world was changed. I’d never started decorating with a rug first. So, I tried it to see if it worked. We were renting a home with an extra bedroom I wanted to use as my office. I’d inherited a really beautiful green antique sofa from my grandparents, so I put it in my office and started with the rug first. I found a rug that really complimented the sofa. Then I started choosing my desk, pillows, desk chair, and coffee table items based on the colors in the couch and the rug. I even chose the plants and plant colors based on the colors in the rug. It all flowed so well and it was the first time I felt confident about my decor choices.

When we moved to NYC, we had sold almost everything we’d previously owned and started from scratch when it came to decor. We weren’t purchasing very much because, well, we live in 485 sq. Ft. But it was exciting to get to create a vision for our space. Here’s what I wrote almost a year ago when I was considering our vision for our home:

Living Room Vision:

I want it to feel like us. We love movies, we are from the southern desert (cowgirl? Paisley? Cactuses?), we love doughnuts, I connect with nature, we both loves books.

Visually: I want the eye to be drawn to the pops of color in the living room. The pillows, curtains, art, and statement wall. I don’t want the rug to be the statement unless we are going full maximlalist (still out for debate on this)

Colors: dreamsicle Orange, Moss Green, Light Brown, Dust rose pink? Bright pink?

Values: We value comfy furniture. Soft and easy to vacuums rugs. I value seeing the art we’ve invested in. I value hiding the television/making it look like a piece of art.

Statement Wall Ideas: temporary wall paper; fake plants; really funky material. Tapestry over tv?

The craziest part about that vision, is that it worked and it came to life (mostly). There are still things that need to happen (like finding or creating a tapestry to hide the TV), but for the most part, that vision helped me make decisions about the space. I also used Photoshop to put together different variations of the space. Since we already had our couch, I used the couch as the base (not the rug) which ended up being much more challenging than I thought it would be. But overall, I love how it turned out and can’t wait to keep adding to it. I definitely feel more inclned to go bold into a maximalist direction because of how small and temporary the space is.