Just Moved in & Confused – An Informal Guide for the Designer Wanna-Bes.

You unlock your new home’s door and face the inevitable vacuum that it is for the time being. A solid, dramatic opening sentence, but that is really how it feels like sometimes! 

So, how do you put together the perfect living space? How do you know where to start? How do the elements come together? 

We know many of you think they’re exceptional interior designers because you know how to match things, but let us give you a little insight!

Concept Me’s Chief Vision Officer, Nina Parvaresh follows a basic formula for interior decorating. The formula has a three-tier skeleton.

Tier 1 - The Shell

In the process of organization, approach your space from the outside in. Simply put, start with the outer environment and work your way towards the small details. The shell of your residence is composed of two main components. Those are your walls and your floors. Think of them as your X and Y axes. They are imperative and serve as the base for your little residential project.

Step one, our dear WBD (Wanna-Be Designer), is to paint your walls. The shade of paint has the unparalleled ability to change the very mood and personality of your residence, so choose wisely. If you’re aiming for minimalist, modern moods go for a toned-down shade of grey. If you’re interested in the intimate and the intense, dabble with some darker, deeper colors. To understand more on that, watch Nina guide you through painting walls in one swift minute here.

When it comes to your walls, every room needs to have its focal one. This wall is the entity upon which the rest of your room is based. It is the base to your color scheme. It could be the wall you set your TV upon or the one you choose to display your art or family portraits on. Regardless, your focal wall needs to be darker than the other walls' colors. That special attention-seeking wall is a great place to start right after you unlock your door to face an empty space. Roll up your sleeves & start rolling color across those walls!

WBD, if you’re still paying attention, the second step is focused on dressing up your walls with some quality fabric.  Curtains are the elements that elevate the status of any space. Moreover, curtains work on providing a layered aspect to your space, adding volume and a textured fill to the emptiness...the drama strikes again - but we are in a sentimental industry after all!

When choosing your curtains, make sure you exhibit generosity. Cheap curtains have a tendency of being easily noticeable. They also dilute the value of the space itself. So, invest in quality fabrics and do not assume that curtains are easily disposable. They can always be repurposed for different sections of the residence or for new residences all together. Point is: splurge on curtain fabric.

One last point, your curtains must always display a contrast with your walls. Light walls mean dark curtains and vice versa. Concept Me’s Founder has some pointers on the topic of curtains here.

‘Splurge on curtain fabric, WBD!’
-    Nina Parvaresh

Thirdly, it is time to cover those cold tiles. The second element of your shell is the flooring. Make sure you get the right rug before any furniture. Rugs offer less options than furniture pieces and thus, buying them first enables you to experiment with furniture rather than a narrowed down reverse process. Moreover, rugs define spaces and give them organizational functionality. Utilizing different sized and shaped rugs enables you to create small zones within your overall shell zone. Watch Nina educate us on rugs here and get to defining the space!
 

Tier 2 - The Big Pieces

Being a WBD comes with great responsibility. The first duty that falls under that is for you to live in your space and to experience it for a while before investing in excessive furniture. Don’t fret about side tables and kitchen accoutrements the minute you move in. Live in your space and understand what it requires functionally and aesthetically. 

Once you do that, you’ll be able to purchase your big items including your couch, bed, dining table, etc. These items will fit into the shell definition that you created in the first tier. So, this process involves the filling in of space without making it cluttered because you are focused on buying the essential items. Ensure you really have an overall perception of your space. And while we’re on the topic of perception - it is integral to speak about lighting.

Lighting is the lens through which you will see your home. It changes everything. We mean everything. Lighting can either create or damage the beauty of your residence. So, word to the wise, do the following -

1.    Diversify your lighting sources (floor lamps, spotlights and table lamps)
2.    Make sure your lightbulbs have warm temperatures (learn more here)
3.    Do not focus your lighting on one central pendant
4.    Never have overly bright lightbulbs
5.    Allow the diverse light sources to cast their rays on different elements with different angles

You are now done with the larger picture - time to get detailed and textured!

Tier 3 - The Small Pieces

‘One should never be the oldest thing in one’s home.’
-    Patsy Stone

Now is the time to get creative and add depth and meaning to the different items that you will populate your overall shell with. Steal your grandmother’s contemporary vintage side table, take your mum’s oldest photo frame and buy that weird-patterned cushion cover. These small pieces are what truly bring the place to life and you want to make sure that these elements have genuine soul to them. Stack your favorite books on a coffee table, use a family heirloom as a vase and get that bamboo plant because it’s a metaphor of strength, you soldier!

These small pieces should not be mere aesthetic accoutrements, they should be the tiny tellers of your home’s story. Have fun with them and allow them to display their character and their deep details flamboyantly. Focus on the textures, the richness, the variety of patterns, the spectrum of colors and the personal meaning they possess. 

Above all, take your time with them. Rome was not built in a day.

So, our dear WBD, we hope this was informative. Throw on your worn-out jeans and paint-riddled t-shirt and start moving things around. 

After all, every space can be a blank canvas. Get to it!