Decorating a New Apartment from Scratch?
One of the most exciting things about moving into a new luxury apartment is decorating it over time. By selecting from different works of art, rugs, and other decorations, you can express yourself and help turn your apartment into a place that truly feels like home.
However, as you’d probably expect, decorating any interior space requires quite a bit of skill, experience, and attention to detail. If it is your first time decorating an apartment (or the first time you are seriously going to try), then you might not be sure where to start.
And that’s okay!
In this comprehensive guide, we are going to discuss some of the most common questions that people have regarding how to decorate an apartment, including the essential dos and don’ts, tips for expressing yourself, and more. By developing a comprehensive interior design scheme, you can turn your current pad into a lasting oasis.
1. Review Your Lease to See What You Are Allowed to Do
By law, every apartment lease is required to outline things residents are allowed (or not allowed) to do in their own homes. For example, most leases allow residents to make minor changes to the apartment, such as putting a nail into a wall to hang a photograph.
However, there are a lot of other modifications you can make to the place that might not be so readily welcomed. For example, most leases won’t allow you to paint or make permanent changes to the walls (at least without paying a fee to eventually paint it back to normal). Suppose you want to make permanent structural changes to your apartment, such as tearing down a wall. In that case, the odds of the property owner approving the project become even lower.
In any case, reviewing your lease will help you get a better understanding of your interior decorating boundaries. And if you are still deciding whether something is allowed, it certainly never hurts to ask.
2. Identify Your Personal Aesthetic
The way you decorate your apartment will be a very personal process. That means the decorating scheme that is ‘best’ for one person might not necessarily be the best for another. For example, someone who loves antique, patterned wall art will have substantially different preferences than someone who considers themselves a minimalist.
This doesn’t necessarily mean everything you enjoy or like to look at has a place in your new apartment. If your goal is to create a visually appealing environment, then you’ll want to be sure to develop a strategy.
Luckily, there are many ways you can help define your ‘personal aesthetic,’ even if it’s something you’ve never done before. One of the best places to get started is on social media, particularly Pinterest and Instagram, where you can efficiently compare moods, themes, aesthetics, decorations, and more.
It also helps to think about your own experiences. Are there any apartments you’ve visited that you particularly admired? What made them stand out?
3. Choose a ‘Key Piece’ that Establishes Ambiance
When starting the decorating process from scratch, it often helps to focus on a single piece and then build out from there. For example, if you have a highly detailed rug, a specific piece of furniture you consider beautiful, or a large ‘statement’ piece of artwork, this can help you begin creating a broader theme.
Of course, not everything in your apartment has to exactly match. In fact, most interior decorators will caution against making things match too much. Nevertheless, if your statement piece has a specific color or pattern, it will be easier to support smaller supplementary pieces.
4. Think About the Seven Elements
There are a lot of different approaches you might take to designing your apartment; you’ll always want to consider each of the seven elements of interior design.
These elements include color, form, light, line, pattern, texture, and space.
Perhaps even more importantly, it is essential to think about how each of these seven elements directly interact with one another. For example, if you add a significant light fixture in the corner (or even the center) of your important, that will have an immediate impact on the overall ‘light’ element. But it will also directly affect how specific colors in your home are perceived, as well as whether or not certain patterns are visible.
Even small changes in your design scheme can have a significant impact on how your apartment is generally experienced (both good and bad experiences). Keeping these essential elements in mind will make it much easier to create the perfect look.
6. Don’t Be Afraid of Your Green Thumb
One of the best ways to—quite literally—add some life to your apartment is to incorporate some living plants. This is especially true for homes such as luxury apartments in Gainesville, Georgia, where residents are regularly surrounded by lush and impressive greenery.
Contrary to popular belief, becoming a ‘plant parent’ doesn’t always require a lot of work or resources. A simple succulent plant, for example, will require just a little watering every few weeks and is otherwise self-sufficient. As time goes on and you continue to enhance your plant-keeping skills, you can always go for larger plants requiring more upkeep.
8. Be Willing to Take Your Time
If you just made your first lease payment on a luxury apartment, you are probably (rightfully) excited and are ready to get the whole place decorated.
However, as plenty of experts within the interior decorating community will attest, it is much better to take your time and only incorporate decorations you genuinely care about. With a bit of patience and an eye for design, your dream home will eventually come to be.