Interiors Inspiration for New Build Homes

Hi everyone, happy Wednesday. So I watched the new series of Interior Design Masters on BBC 2 last night with Alan Carr. It inspired me to write a blog post because the first challenge was to decorate a room in a new show home for a brand new housing development. A really hard task! It's also an idea that's been brewing in my brain for a while so now was the perfect time to put it to put hands to keyboard and give you some ideas and inspiration.

As if buying a home wasn't exciting enough, if you have bought a new build home, it comes as a shiny new box with everything brand new and never been used or lived in before.

Decorating a new build is a great way to put your stamp and reflect your personality in your new home, as it's a completely blank canvas. If you buy the house or apartment early enough along in the process there is often the option to choose some finishes and fixings before they are put in, but sometimes these may have already been put in place when you come to move in.

Photo Credit Millwood Designer Homes

Daunted? Don't be.

Sometimes moving in to a big white box of a home can feel daunting. Remember you don't have to decorate it all at once, and sometimes living in the space with your furniture and your belongings for a bit first can be a good thing to do, so try not to feel too overwhelmed by the prospect of decorating. This approach can be said for moving in to any new home. A new build home can feel quite cold and quite stark with it huge white walls, and can feel a little overwhelming and not knowing where to start. Do not fear, I've got some tips and ideas to get you started.

Blank Canvas

If you don't already have a strong sense of the look and feel you want to create then start first by thinking about the colours and textures that you love and that make you happy. Try looking in your wardrobe first. Sometimes subconsciously we buy clothes in colours, styles and patterns/ textures that we love, make us feel happy and make us feel good wearing them. So if you have a bit of creative block, this can be a good first place to start.

If I have a good sense of where I want to start with a colour scheme, I've usually saved pictures and photos that try and achieve the look and feel I'm looking for, so I can start to collate those.

My next step is Pinterest. Creating a digital online mood board is a great way to collate the look and feel for a concept or room scheme. Add any images that make you feel good and give the look visually you like. They don't have to be of items you would use in that space necessarily, just that give the look and feel you want to achieve. Once you have started the online mood board, if you want to move to a physical mood board then this can be a good way to have something you can handle, feel and be a bit more tactile. You can gather any pain samples, fabric and colour swatches that you have ordered and start to have a mood board with a bit more personality and 3D feel to it.

Photo Credit Millwood Designer Homes

A whole House

When thinking about decorating a room, also make sure you are thinking about the house as a whole and how it will connect and flow together in the schemes and ideas you have chosen. It's easy to just go from room to room decorating which can sometimes lead to a disjointed look as your travel around the house. That's why forward planning is a good thing, and having an overall scheme for the whole house can help with this, and then drilling down to look at specific rooms and how they fit into that overall scheme. It might be a simple as having a dominant colour that travels around the home (but isn't necessarily in every room).

If you choose dark strong blue for example as a colour on the entrance hallway and up the stairs, you can add accents of this in to all the rooms, or use colours that blend well with this colour. For example using a cool duck egg blue in a bedroom or bathroom that compliments the dark strong blue, but isn't that exact same colour. Adding in the same colour dark strong blue into cushions, curtains and art work in an otherwise light serene living room to follow the colour around the house helps to blend the look and feel of the whole house together.

Budget

Don't forget to plan your budget too. If you are moving with existing furniture into a new home, it doesn't mean everything now has to be new to go into the space too. If you are upsizing then you may want to add more furniture in at a later date. Move in and see what you have works out in the space. If you are downsizing, try using a floor plan of your home and adding in scaled pieces of your furniture to see how it might all fit in. You might end up selling or giving away some pieces of furniture that you feel just don't work in the new space.

By decorating the space with a more warm and natural paint colour that isn't as stark and bright as the fresh white paint often used by new build decorators, it can make adding in already loved furniture more forgiving against a softer colour backdrop.

Character

Remember this is your opportunity to add character to your new home and that it is a true reflection of you and what makes you happy. With us spending even more time in our homes lately, this couldn't be more true or more important.

So once you have decided your colour palette, think about how you would add interest in the shape and form of soft furnishings, cushions, art work, rugs and accessories, and again having similar details in all the rooms across the whole house will help pull a look together.

The supermarket is a great place to pick up on trend and very affordable accessories to help pull your scheme together. Most supermarkets have a home section and there is often a good offering of accessories that won't break the bank.

Add in some family photos too, people who make you smile and of memories you wish to cherish. Seeing those each day can be a great mood lifter if you are feeling a bit low. Think about paintings, canvases or prints that evoke the sort of memories you want to be reminded of for example of a much loved family holiday or pets.

Large scale rugs are a great way to add pattern, texture and interest into a space. They can help break up the sometimes vast areas of neutral colour carpet or wood style flooring and make a space feel cosier too.

Photo Credit Taylor Wimpey

So, I hope you have gained some nuggets of advice if you have just bought or moved into a new build house or apartment. If you live in a new build home and have put your stamp on the space then talk to me! What did you do and how did you do it? How does the scheme that you put in place make you feel? I love hearing your ideas and examples of what you have achieved.

If putting together a scheme isn't something that comes naturally to you, or you're struggling a bit to execute your plans, then get in touch, I can help. Email me on hello@laurenmayinteriors.com, or call me on 07712 185467.

I offer a free 30 min zoom or call to talk through what you're looking for. I can help you plan your ideas with a mood board and curated shopping list as to where to shop your look from through to helping you implement and shop for your scheme. All services start from £50, so not price prohibitive at all, and I'll work to your budget to achieve the look you are looking for. More details availbale at www.laurenmayinteriors.com/services

Hope your enjoyed this blog entry, and happy new home if you are moving into new build home soon. Come and join in the conversation over on my Facebook page on https://www.facebook.com/LaurenMayInteriors and our chatty facebook group for all discussions interior design related on https://www.facebook.com/LaurenMayInteriorsGroup

Finally if you sign up to my mailing list on my website (just wait for the pop up box to input your email address) to get notifications of new blog posts and news, promotions and of course, interior design ideas. www.laurenmayinteriors.com.

Have a great day, Lauren x