The right order to decorate your new home like a pro

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Struggling to know where to start with that shiny new abode? With this step-by-step guide, you’ll be on your way to creating the home of your dreams in no time.

You’ve signed on the dotted line, the keys are making impressions in the clutches of your hand and the nightmarish home moving preparations are over. But here’s the thing with decorating a house… where do you start?

Before you start moving boxes to specific rooms and lugging giant pieces of furniture from one corner to another, consider the process in which you’re going to decorate your new abode. Once you’ve decided on the room you’re going to tackle first, it’s time to start approaching the task of redecorating in an orderly fashion.

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Which room should I decorate first?

Knowing where to begin with decorating a new home can be a little overwhelming. Naturally, when you were viewing your new abode, you would have noticed areas that need a little more TLC than others, such as the kitchen or bathroom, which need tackling first.

If everywhere is in need of a spruce up, we recommend beginning with high traffic areas. Generally this would be the living room, or any other room where you both entertain guests and spend a lot of down time. You can then use less commonly used rooms as storage spaces for the living room furniture. Once you’ve decided on the room, you’re going to stick with it! It’s best to finish one task before you move onto another.

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Where should I start with painting?

Firstly, it’s important to prepare your surfaces by making sure they’re free of any dirt, dents or irregularities.

If you’re painting the entirety of a room, start from the top and work your way down. Begin at the ceiling, painting down by about an inch onto the walls to give yourself a neat edge. Once you paint or wallpaper the walls you can cover this line, but it’s important to give yourself a bit of space to work with.

You can use the same trick as you work your way down to the floor by painting onto the skirting board, provided you plan to repaint these too.

Should you pick carpet or paint first?

Let’s say it again… paint first! Mixing up the orders of these steps might mean you shell out on a new carpet or expensive wood finish only to accidentally drip paint all over it. Nightmare!

Your flooring can also have a big effect on the appearance of the colour on your walls so it’s wise to buy this after you’ve decided on paint. If you plan on installing new doors, make sure you do this after the flooring, so that you don’t have to waste time getting your new doors re-planed.

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Give your furniture a new home

There’s a good chance you already own furniture which you want to integrate into your new home rather than completely replacing. Once you’ve packed away the paintbrushes, hammers and nails, the next step is to decide on furniture placement.

You should also start buying any new pieces the space may need, particularly larger investment pieces that can determine how your room starts to come together. When it comes to fitting furniture certain larger pieces, such as sofas, beds, wardrobes and drawers, should be assembled first so that smaller pieces can be fitted around these harder to move items.

Sofas and beds should ideally face the focal point in the room. Before you begin dragging pieces of furniture around, refer back to your floorplan to give an idea of how you’d like the room to look. Find out where the aerial for the television is to help you best decide on where your sofa will have to face, and where plug sockets may be to position lighting.

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Add the finishing touches

Once you’ve finalised the placement of your belongings, from the smallest side table to the kitchen bin, you can begin to really add personality to your new home decor. Consider the sizes of the rooms in your home and match accessories that make the most of the space. The larger the room, the larger an accessory you can get away with. This also works in the same way for high ceilings and tall accents.