3A DESIGN STUDIO

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New Year, New Home: Part 2 - A Functional Room that Brings You Joy

We spoke in our last post about how a de-cluttered house can have positive effects on your mood and productivity.  So can a well-designed room. While an organized space is great, a beautiful AND organized space is even better. When you think your home, what adjectives come to mind?  Calm, serene, beautiful? Or chaotic, unfinished, inconsistent? If your answers steered more to the latter of those, let’s discuss how we can remedy this.

We get that life gets busy and our intentions fall to the wayside.

Do you see this desk chair? Isn’t it pretty? Would you believe it took me over a year to finally decide to buy it.

A. Year.

We all get design decision paralysis. Even designers.  And we all have to do lists that are never ending.

But can I tell you something? When I finally clicked “purchase” and received my new office chair, I wondered why I had taken so long to purchase it. The impact that that ONE piece made in our productivity, mood, room, house is huge!

What piece(s) or room(s) have you been putting off? What things could you change in your home that would make you more productive, feel better and truly change your life from day-to-day?

Here are a few tips to getting a functional room that brings you joy:

  1. Start with one area.  What room in your home gives you the most angst? It easy to start feeling motivated and wanting to tackle several areas at once but that can cause you to get overwhelmed and walking away from making any progress all together.

  2. Analyze the space to figure out what isn’t working. Too much furniture in one room? Could the layout be better? Is the scale of the furniture wrong for the space? Maybe there’s not enough comfortable seating or storage? Is their proper lighting? Does your furniture need an update?

  3. Figure out your design style. You can’t love where you live if you don’t know what you love.  Don’t fall victim to buying something that matches colorwise and then get it home and not like how it looks in your home because it isn’t reflective of your style. Most people have a Home/Decor Pinterest board. Review your board and look for the underlying theme that attracts you.  Do you like neutrals or bold colors? Modern furniture or an antique collected feel? Remember some styles can be mixed and matched but you first have to know what you like and then know how to make them work together (why we’re here). If you don’t have Pinterest, don’t worry. You can do the same with magazine cut-outs.

  4. Put together a shopping list.  Once you’ve discovered what isn’t working and what you like, put together a shopping list of what you think is needed in the space(we can see the space and help with whatever you miss or don’t see). Be sure to take measurements so that if you come across the “right” piece while you are out and about you can confirm that the size will work.

Let this be the year you stop procrastinating and get that room that you have always envisioned. Make your home a place where you love doing life.   

If you need help, we offer a variety of design services, from picking finishes for your bathroom or kitchen remodel, a virtual exterior makeover for you to implement, or helping you design a functional space that is reflective of your lifestyle and tastes. All our service can be done in person or virtually. Click here to learn more about our services.