When you start a decorating task, you have to look at it like a general planning a battle.
You can't just jump into the fray, throwing furnishings left and right in a mad tizzy.
That will quickly result in chaos.
Instead, you should start out with a battle plan that will guide you through the decorating process.
Have an idea of what the room needs to be, and lay out a strategy for getting it there in the most effective way possible.
This doesn't mean that you have to pre-plan every move that you make.
It also doesn't mean that there is no room for improvisation.
You are ultimately in charge, not the plan.
A strategy is just important because it keeps you a little bit grounded, and by doing so, allows you to stretch as far as you want creatively.
A good decorating strategy will consist of a few simple points.
You need to understand the basic purpose of the space you are designing, is it a place for lots of people, or somewhere designed to suit the needs of just one or two? Once you understand a spaces purpose, all of your decorative decisions can be made to help further the room's needs.
Next you should have a very rough idea of the layout of the space.
Things like the position of couches, cabinets, and tables are going to be one of the first things you have to worry about anyways, so you might as well decide from the start where you want everything.
Again this is only an initial plan, and can be rethought at any time.
While you don't have to completely choose all of your colors before you start decorating a space, it does help in matching tones to know the basic color and or pattern structure of the room.
One great trick for easily coordinating colors is to have one item in the space with a pattern that you really like.
The different colors that make up that pattern are all representative of colors which will easily match with one another.
In this way the rooms' centerpiece can also be its palette guide.
The only other thing you may want to pre-plan is if you want to use some sort theme to tie the space, or even the whole house together.
Themes can consist of styles, patterns, colors, or even more overt things such as a time period.
If you are going to use a theme, you will have to plan that out ahead of time, as each piece that you place into the space will have to be somehow connected to that theme.
While it isn't necessary to plan out every move you make when decorating a space, however having some sort of basic plan can be extremely useful.
If nothing else it will get you thinking theoretically about the decorative nature of the room before you start.
The more you think your moves through, the more detailed and attractive you can make the space.
You can't just jump into the fray, throwing furnishings left and right in a mad tizzy.
That will quickly result in chaos.
Instead, you should start out with a battle plan that will guide you through the decorating process.
Have an idea of what the room needs to be, and lay out a strategy for getting it there in the most effective way possible.
This doesn't mean that you have to pre-plan every move that you make.
It also doesn't mean that there is no room for improvisation.
You are ultimately in charge, not the plan.
A strategy is just important because it keeps you a little bit grounded, and by doing so, allows you to stretch as far as you want creatively.
A good decorating strategy will consist of a few simple points.
You need to understand the basic purpose of the space you are designing, is it a place for lots of people, or somewhere designed to suit the needs of just one or two? Once you understand a spaces purpose, all of your decorative decisions can be made to help further the room's needs.
Next you should have a very rough idea of the layout of the space.
Things like the position of couches, cabinets, and tables are going to be one of the first things you have to worry about anyways, so you might as well decide from the start where you want everything.
Again this is only an initial plan, and can be rethought at any time.
While you don't have to completely choose all of your colors before you start decorating a space, it does help in matching tones to know the basic color and or pattern structure of the room.
One great trick for easily coordinating colors is to have one item in the space with a pattern that you really like.
The different colors that make up that pattern are all representative of colors which will easily match with one another.
In this way the rooms' centerpiece can also be its palette guide.
The only other thing you may want to pre-plan is if you want to use some sort theme to tie the space, or even the whole house together.
Themes can consist of styles, patterns, colors, or even more overt things such as a time period.
If you are going to use a theme, you will have to plan that out ahead of time, as each piece that you place into the space will have to be somehow connected to that theme.
While it isn't necessary to plan out every move you make when decorating a space, however having some sort of basic plan can be extremely useful.
If nothing else it will get you thinking theoretically about the decorative nature of the room before you start.
The more you think your moves through, the more detailed and attractive you can make the space.