Hey friends and happy Monday! I’m back today with another reader design dilemma. Stacy, who lives in an open-concept floor plan, wrote in asking for help with three spaces in her home ~ her kitchen, dining and living room. She’s ready for a decorating refresh of these spaces, and she’s struggling with where to begin. Not wanting to start all over, but just wanting to freshen and change things up a little bit can sometimes be even more overwhelming than starting from scratch. Can you relate? Feeling like you’re ready for some decorating changes, but not really sure how to achieve the look you’re after? This is a very common decorating dilemma.
Start with Editing
The best place to start a decorating project like this is with some good editing. In the same way that you would start a reorganizing project with a really good purge, editing the spaces you’re wanting to refresh will help you to hone in on what you do and don’t love about your spaces. It’s time to go all Marie Kondo on the things in your space that are no longer bringing you joy. (But don’t pull an Emily Gilmore and get rid of everything! 😉 Unless of course you really want to.) As an example, while you may not be ready to actually remove large furniture items (until you can afford to replace them) by taking the time to really think through whether or not you want to keep each piece in your space you’ll have a much more clear vision.
I don’t believe in decorating around things you don’t love because you’ll just end up wasting your money trying to “make something work”.
In this case Stacy is no longer loving that large mirror over the sofa in her living room, and while the window treatments are custom, they don’t really represent her current style. Editing is one of the simplest, easiest ways to refresh a space. And it costs nothing! Simply removing pieces can have a major impact. Look what a difference simply removing the mirror made in Stacy’s living room!
Forget about Looks and Define the Feel
This may sound odd but rather than thinking about how you want your space to look, think instead about how you want your space to feel. Defining your decorating style in words can be really tough for most people, myself included. But thinking about how you want a room to feel is often an easier concept to wrap your brain around. Words like cozy, casual, inviting, comfortable, fun, happy, bright, cheerful, peaceful, swanky, sophisticated, chic ~ they’re all super descriptive words that are helpful in nailing down what you want for the design of a room. Describing how you want your spaces to feel will lead you directly to how you want them to look with much less stress or overthinking. It allows you to step outside the typical design category boxes such as “traditional”, “modern” or “farmhouse” and makes it much easier for you to find your true decorating style.
Choose an Inspiration Piece
Now that your space is edited, and you’ve taken some time to think about how you want your room to feel; you’re ready to choose an inspiration piece. It can be anything. Something you already have, or something you want to bring in, but this inspiration piece will serve as the catalyst or jumping off point for your design refresh. It’s especially helpful when decorating in an open floor plan to choose one inspiration piece for all of the spaces that are within view of each other. This will help to create design flow between the spaces.
In Stacy’s case, her living room rug makes for a great inspiration piece with colors she loves and that sophisticated-casual vibe she’s wanting to create.
Focus on One Space at a Time
In an open concept floor plan when you’re wanting to make decor changes it can feel daunting. Focusing on one space at a time is really helpful.
Living Room
Bringing in matching lamps and side tables will add balance. Side tables that have a more casual vibe will flow nicely with the kitchen table. They will also make the living room feel a little cozier. The arched wrought iron mirror will tie in with the chandeliers in both the kitchen and dining room. It will also bring some height to the space, creating a pretty focal point. Swapping out the formal curtain panels for plain white linen/cotton panels brings a light, breeze-y feeling with subtle texture.
(side table, lamp, shade, mirror, curtains, throw)
Dining Room
Replacing the chairs isn’t a must at all. But these lighter wood dining chairs bring an elegant but casual vibe to the space. In addition, the combination of the dark dining table with lighter chairs brings an interesting, collected look. The wine bottle riddling rack adds great texture and architectural detail ~ beautiful and functional art! Last but not least, the abstract floral print brings a punch of color and personality that flows nicely from the living room.
(wine rack, chairs, pillow, vase, art)
Kitchen
Replacing the shades with something lighter and hanging them as high as possible will make the kitchen feel larger and brighter. This will not only allow more light to filter in, but it will also make the windows appear so much larger. Replacing the picture and shelf currently hung between the windows with this cheerful floral piece will add a nice pop of color.
(roman shades, art, white bowl, pitcher, orange bowl)
More often than not just a few impactful changes can bring a whole new look to a space!
Thanks so much for submitting your design dilemma Stacy! I hope you found some ideas here to help you get your decorating refresh started!
Got a Design Dilemma?
For a chance to have your design dilemma featured here on the blog, send submissions to Carmel@ourfifthhouse.com with “design dilemma” in the subject line.
