Decorating your home can be both an exciting and expensive endeavor. While it is possible to hire professionals to do it all for you, it is much more rewarding to do it yourself – and that also makes it incredibly time-consuming. You want everything to go right from the very start.
For this reason, you need to plan well. Don’t just dive into decorating your home. Do these things first.
Check Your Insurance
Your insurance policy won’t come through for you if your property gets destroyed by accident. Insurance is there to protect you after a natural disaster or fire. That said, plenty could go wrong while decorating, which would lead to an insurance claim.
Check what your provider covers in your homeowner’s insurance. Take a look at Lemonade’s personal property coverage to see what any good provider should offer. Personal property coverage is the part of your homeowners’ or renters’ insurance that covers your possessions. If something happens while you are working on your home that destroys these possessions, you may be able to claim them back.
This is especially important if you have workers coming in and out, and your belongings are vulnerable to theft.
Choose A Color Palette
Do not simply start decorating without making a plan. The very first thing you should decide on is a color palette. While you may have many great ideas for your home, they need to complement each other. Certain colors work brilliantly together, while others will create an eyesore.
There are endless great color palettes available, and you should choose one that is both unique and personal. Remember, however, that you might struggle to find decor and furniture that works if you select a palette that is too obscure. If you’re doing everything yourself, this won’t matter that much, but if you are buying pieces from stores, you are better off sticking to colors you’ll be able to find.
Make A List Of Your Creative Inspirations
Most creative people don’t really know how they come up with ideas. They strike inspiration suddenly. This can make it difficult to decorate your home on demand. However, the reality is that creative ideas can be generated even when it feels like you have no inspiration.
Start by making a list of the people and places that usually inspire you. Then, take a look at these artists or installments and think about what ideas you can bring into your home. This will help you snowball into your creative vision, bringing together your muses’ stylings and personal expression.
Set A Budget (Research)
Once you have ideas of what to do with your home decoration, you need to put a budget in place. Quite simply, if you start working on your home without a budget, you will run out of money before you are anyway near completion.
Your budget does not need to be set in stone, but it should provide boundaries. Once you know how much you can spend, start researching the cost of all the improvements you want to make. Get a few quotations for the bigger projects so that you can see whether the cheapest way will be worthwhile.
With everything priced, you will now be able to decide what you need to do, what you really want to do, and what will have to wait. Ensure that you leave some of your budgets open if certain projects end up being more expensive than planned. This happens a lot, unfortunately.
Find Alternatives
If you are struggling to do what you need to within your budget, look for alternatives. These may include using cheaper materials, choosing different colors or themes, and doing hard work yourself (even when it’s the last thing you want to do).
There won’t always be an alternative, and you will have to make some sacrifices, but these can be minimal if you are handy and willing to adapt.
Decorating your home is a time-consuming and expensive endeavor, but it is also exhilarating. Prepare well in advance, and you can avoid disappointment.