Home Decorating For Dummies

Overview

Want to be your own decorator? Design on a dime with Dummies!

Home Decorating For Dummies packs all the information you need to know about décor into one easy-to-read source. Whether you want to decorate one room or make over the whole house, this book has everything you need to design like a pro. This is the only reference you’ll need to transform your home into a space you’ll love. Dummies offers no-nonsense help, so you can plan perfect projects and stay within budget. Updated with the latest on smart homes, short-term rentals, DIY décor, and more.

  • Learn how to optimize your home’s floor plan
  • Discover tricks for mixing patterns, colors, and textures successfully
  • Refresh your home’s style without spending a fortune
  • Decorate rental properties with eye-catching, trendy style
  • Untangle the terms—mid-century modern, farmhouse, minimalism—and pinpoint your design style

For those seeking ideas, resources, and budget-wise tips to spark their decorating creativity, Home Decorating For Dummies is a must-have.

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About The Author

Katharine Kaye McMillan is a Behavioral Scientist/Decorating Lifestyle Coach. She helps people design solutions for home, life, and work. Patricia Hart McMillan is a nation­ally recognized interior designer, writer, and magazine editor. She has coauthored several books on interior design.

Sample Chapters

home decorating for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

Home decorating draws on your creative side, as well as your inner engineer. Whether you dabble in home decorating or make it a career, you get to play with color, texture, and pattern, in addition to tape measures, graph paper, and paint. Finding the furniture you want is important, and so is doing the planning that makes your decorating a delight.

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Just what accessories do you really need? Accessories that have a function have a competitive edge. For example, pillows can cushion as well as add color and pattern. An ego wall of your diplomas and awards in your home office lets your clients know how accomplished and professional you are. Here are some other possibilities: Pillows: Pillows have become a major decorating tool because they’re an easy source of color and pattern.
When remodeling your bathroom, consider functional and decorative touches. Two of (almost) everything comes in handy when two people share a bathroom, for example. And don’t forget luxury touches. Even a tight budget can allow for a few luxuries to enhance the bath’s ritual. Consider these tips for creating magic in your bath: Add a standing screen (made by hinging louvered shutters together) to create privacy for the toilet, if you have enough room.
The bed is the key piece of furniture in any bedroom, and it naturally becomes the focal point. Bedroom furniture is traditionally arranged according to a few general rules. For the most part based on common sense, here are some general guidelines for you to follow: Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/hikesterson Traditionally, folks tend to place a double, queen-sized, or king-sized bed against the center of the wall opposite the main door to the room.
One of the cornerstones of any home decorating project is choosing a color scheme. Color schemes exist for every taste. Use your color wheel to find the perfect color scheme. Some of the most popular and enduring schemes include One-color neutral: Monochromatic (one-color) schemes come in two varieties. You can use a single color, or tonal variations of one color.
Cabinets are a kitchen’s main furniture. If you must replace old cabinets, buy a style and color that will be the basis for your new scheme (French, English, Country, Victorian, Euro-Modern, and so on). If you think you may prefer a period style, rip photographs from decorating magazines, brochures, and kitchen style books.
To figure out which bed suits your decorating needs, think about the bed you currently have: its size, its style (which may be the starting point for your room’s style), and the comfort of the mattress. Are you satisfied with what you have? Or are you looking to purchase something new? If a new bed is within your budget, keep reading for tips on selecting the best option for your space.
Decorating needs differ for informal (casual) dining and formal (dressy) dining. Informal dining can take place on almost any surface, from coffee tables to TV trays. The formal dining room, on the other hand, features a table (often a large one) and chairs that are especially for family rituals, formal meal service, and holidays.
The Modern or Contemporary design age in furniture begins roughly with the start of the 20th century. Following are the most popular Contemporary furniture styles created after 1800 — sleek designs that prompted the move from the more ornate Historic style. Shaker (1830-1850): Shaker furniture designs are plain in appearance, stripped to bare essentials (few turnings, no decorations), featuring natural materials; no ornamentation; strong emphasis on function.
Following are the most popular styles created after 1800 for the common man, not for royalty or the elite. Although the Modern or Contemporary design age begins roughly with the start of the 20th century, this list begins with designs that prompted the move from Historic to Contemporary style and continue to be favorites.
If you’re faced with an awkwardly shaped room, you can use floorings to reshape it. Consider the following list of trouble areas and how to incorporate all types of flooring materials, including carpeting, laminate, ceramic tile, stone, and wood. Draw on these suggestions when you’re ready to redecorate and reshape rooms in your house.
Shades, blinds, and shutters are hard window treatments, as opposed to curtains, which are soft treatments. When used alone, hard window treatments provide crispness to a Contemporary room. For clarity’s sake, we call the old-fashioned roller type (up and down) shades, and the newer verticals and horizontals (once called Venetians) blinds.
Curtains and draperies work hard at blocking light, sound, and temperature. In addition to these functions, they’re also extraordinarily decorative, adding enormous personality to a room through color, pattern, and texture. When choosing a patterned fabric for a curtain, especially an unlined curtain, scrunch the fabric in your hand.
Your bathroom’s ceilings, floors, walls, and windows join forces to create the perfect background for your cabinets, faucets, fixtures, and accessories. But because of what goes on in the bathroom, there are a few considerations that you must take into account — privacy and humidity being the most important — when you decorate a bathroom.
Are you wondering how to decorate to get the country cottage look in your home? Achieving the country cottage look is a largely a matter of collecting the right fabrics and accessories. Ruffles and flourishes in the form of dressmaker details (pleats, ribbon, welting, and other trim) distinguish this feminine and pretty look.
An English manor is a big house located in the country, so it's not hard to figure out how to emulate the look: just think flowers. The English Manor House style combines colors and patterns in soft fabrics with traditional case pieces. Floral bouquets abound in this classic traditional style based on English country homes.
The French country look embraces the warmth and grace of the Provence region for France. By learning how to decorate in the French country manner at your home, you can add a sense of elegance and warmth. French country has the warmth of American country, but its furnishings tend to have a less homespun feel: Earthy textures and bright calico patterns found in the fabrics make this look enduringly popular.
Wanting to get the Greek Mediterranean look in your living room? Decorating with the Greek Mediterranean look is a question of knowing how to combine the right elements and colors so that they don't overpower the viewer. The Greek Mediterranean look is a decorating style that (as you might expect) tries to evoke the feel of homes in the Greek Islands.
Furniture shopping can be overwhelming. You may not know how to tell if furniture is well-constructed or if the wood frame is worth the money you're paying for it. Getting used to the lingo and knowing which details to look for are just two steps you can take toward becoming a knowledgeable home-decor shopper.
Getting the Lodge Look brings the feeling of the Old West to your home. If you know how to get the Lodge Look properly, you can bring the Western style to your home without turning your living room into the OK Corral. The style of the American West doesn't stand on pretense. It uses comfortable, natural pieces instead of ornate, decorative ones.
If you know how to get the Shabby Chic look, you can create a warm, elegant, and inviting space. The Shabby Chic look combines gently aged fabrics and colors in a warm, comfortable palette. Shabby Chic design, created by Rachel Ashwell, combines the elegance of English Country living with the comfortable casualness of a California lifestyle.
With any interior design project, you need to focus in on how a room will be used. Bedroom needs vary depending on who will be using the room. Teenagers usually know what they want in a bedroom, whereas a child’s bedroom needs to be planned with the future in mind. Setting aside a room for guests makes their stay more comfortable for them and for you.
When it comes to buying art, there is one main rule: Buy what you love and can afford regardless of the type of art. Don’t hesitate to hang different types of art together. The only time you shouldn’t mix fine, decorative, and fun art is when it doesn’t look good together. Following are some tried-and-true tips for selecting art: Buy art that speaks to you: Well, not literally, but something that makes you laugh, sing, feel nostalgic, or jump for joy.
With or without fancy treatments, windows provide a focal point and a spot where everyone wants to sit. They open a room’s interior to the views outside and flood it with natural sunlight. Do you need window pizzazz in a hurry? Try some of the following ideas: Add silk flowered vines, especially roses. Artfully drape them across the top of a window.
A large part, literally, of your home decorating scheme is the furniture that populates the room(s). The following list offers definitions and tips to help you choose these large (and often large-ticket) items: Furniture is marketed in three distinct price ranges: budget (affordable), moderate, and expensive. To the trade means that only a decorator or designer can purchase these exclusive home furnishings.
Decorating your home requires lots of measurements. You need to know whether furniture will fit where you want it, how wide and long windows are for window treatments, and how much paint you need. Use the tips in the following list to help you decide what you need to measure and how to calculate quantities: Find your room's overall square footage by multiplying the room's length by its width and squaring it (this is the area).
Home decorating draws on your creative side, as well as your inner engineer. Whether you dabble in home decorating or make it a career, you get to play with color, texture, and pattern, in addition to tape measures, graph paper, and paint. Finding the furniture you want is important, and so is doing the planning that makes your decorating a delight.
Choosing furniture for large rooms leaves many scratching their heads. Knowing how to choose the right furniture for a large room can keep your wide-open spaces from seeming cavernous. Rooms with two-story-high ceilings or extra large floor plans need furniture that is in scale with the room’s dimensions. The best choices are substantial items that have visual mass, which makes them have a bigger impression in the eyes of the beholder.
How long should curtains or draperies be? Generally, the longer the curtain or drapery, the more dignified, dressy, and formal the look. Shorter curtain lengths always imply a casual, relaxed, and informal mood. The decision is yours: In formal or dressy rooms, curtains should just touch the floor. A romantic room deserves elegant, extra-long curtains that pool or puddle on the floor.
Creating a focal point in a room without architectural elements (like a fireplace or beautiful window) can be challenging. A focal point makes a room feel inviting, provides balance, and is the basis for your decorating. Many newer homes have plain, boxy rooms that lack architectural interest. Establishing a focal point is worth the effort, because without one, a room will feel disorganized and messy.
As you begin your interior design project, it can help you to create a style board to craft your color scheme and collect samples of fabrics, colors, and inspiring photographs. Arrange these on a large sheet of white paper or poster board. Professional designers use these to show clients how the room might look.
Understanding how to deal with multiple focal points in a room can be challenging. Where do you look first in a room with focal points like a fireplace and a bay window and a large entertainment center? For a room to feel balanced and well designed, you need one focal point. The focal point is the central design element that draws the eyes attention.
Early Americans often used attics as bedrooms, but now they are more commonly used for storage. Because the structure (walls, floor, ceiling) exists, attics are relatively inexpensive to claim for living space. You usually need to remodel an unfinished attic before you can begin decorating. After you’ve done this, let the decorating begin!
Walls, floors, and ceilings are your rooms’ background. Some people give more thought to the color of these surfaces than the texture. Think of them as equally important. Color can create spatial illusions, but the tactile sense adds another, unique dimension to style. Traditionally, texture is distributed in the following way: Use a fine texture on the ceiling (so that it never seems heavy or as though it’s falling).
Don’t start decorating without an analysis of your space and an accurate floor plan. A floor plan is the easiest way to get a handle on how much space you have, and what that space’s strong and weak points are. To create an accurate floor plan, start by measuring a room: Measure along the baseboard the length of one wall, from one corner of the room to another.
Anyone can walk into a room and say, “I don’t like this room.” To fix a problem-laden room, you need to step back and figure out what went wrong. A little distance can help you find the solution to make that problem go away. When you walk into a room and you don’t love it, follow these two easy steps: Ask yourself three main questions: Do I like the color of the room?
Formal dining rooms make even ordinary menus seem extraordinary. A fancy dining room can double as an elegant library or study (and with a hideaway armoire for the PC, perhaps a home office) between dining occasions. Whether or not your formal dining room does double-duty, decorate it with comfort, movement, color, texture, pattern, furniture, china and glassware, linens, and storage in mind.
Why hide your television? People generally want to know how to hide a television because they don't want the television to be the focus of the room unless it's being watched. Granted, some TVs are easier to hide than others are, but there are things you can do to make the television less noticeable. So, what are your choices?
Ergonomically designed work surfaces and chairs are available in many affordable price ranges, and are scaled for children and adults. Forget about using a quaint kitchen table and a straight-back chair as your office furniture. You won’t find carpal tunnel syndrome, a stiff neck, or other discomforts very quaint when they keep you from doing your job.
Making your own headboard can be a satisfying way of bringing your own personality to a bedroom. The following tips can show you how to make a headboard that’s quick, easy, and inexpensive. Remember, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get a great look. Antique shutters: Attach shutters to the wall at the head of your bed.
Maybe your bathroom remodel project budget doesn’t allow enlarging your bathroom, or maybe you aren’t in a position to remodel at all. You can still make your small bathroom seem larger. First, combine smart layouts and small-scale fixtures. Next, consider these suggestions: Add mirrors. They’re great space (and light) expanders when used on opposite walls and even on all four walls.
The bedroom serves many functions — catching alone time, dressing, exercising, reading, sharing intimacy, watching TV, and more. Meeting all these functions within a room’s limited space — most bedrooms average a modest 10 by 12 feet — and making it dreamy can be a tough challenge. Although storage space for clothing, shoes, accessories, and myriad other things is a necessity in any bedroom, space is usually at a premium given the limited space of most bedrooms and closets.
Fabric is a favorite wall covering for almost any room in the house. Certain historic houses have velvet-covered walls, while others have linen. Fabric, such as polished cotton, works well for tenting (covering the walls and ceiling) powder rooms, fancy bathrooms, and even bedrooms. But fabrics are impractical for use in kitchens, where they’re a fire hazard.
You can use a traditional design strategy and combine a plain background on the walls and floor with patterned furniture. Then spread coordinating patterns around the room on the draperies, decorative pillows, Oriental lamps, or an area rug. This technique commonly combines several patterns in one room, which usually calls for clever mixing and matching of fabrics so that they relate (for unity) and contrast (for interest).
Using basic interior design strategies, you can make your porch and patio into a second living room. To maintain continuity with the interior, use the same style, especially if a porch or patio is visible from the living room or family room. On the other hand, you may create a completely different mood, making your secluded porch or patio an exotic retreat.
Just because you have old tile doesn't mean you have to replace it. If you know how to update old tile you can transform even a powder puff pink bathroom into a modern contemporary spa. Tile is expensive to replace. Fortunately, you have options. Faux paint. Paint the wall above the tile, using layers of color that relate to the old tile.
Updating kitchen cabinets make tired drab kitchens look fresh again. Knowing how to update kitchen cabinets, can save you the cost of completely replacing them. Most cabinets, no matter how unattractive or outdated, can be drastically improved by following the tips below. Clean your cabinets. A good cleaning may bring new luster to tired but handsome wood.
For a room to feel balanced and well designed, you need a strong architectural focal point. Knowing how to use architectural focal points isn’t hard. The trick is to assess the architectural characteristics of your room and to know how you want it to be used. Without a focal point, rooms feel disorganized and messy.
Patterns on walls, floors, and ceilings can create a highly distinctive background for a room. Use them to compensate for inadequate architecture (a vertical stripe raises the too-low ceiling, for example), to make up for the lack of a view (choose a mural), or to add texture to lackluster sheetrock walls (pattern implies texture).
Color can change a room by creating a mood, disguise flaws, and create illusions. Knowing how to use color in a room reinforces your design ideas. To make a room look bigger, use light, cool colors to create an atmospheric look. Paint all surfaces the same color and match the upholstery to the flooring. Add interest with contrasting textures.
The right mix of fabrics and patterns in your living room can set a specific style. If you know how to use fabric effectively, you'll be half way to reaching the style you want. In the living room, use patterns on pillows, window dressings, and chairs. When deciding on a style, why reinvent the pattern-mix wheel, when others have done such an excellent job?
You don’t have to know everything about lighting or spend tons of money to make rooms look light and lively. You do need to know the basics of functional and decorative lighting and how to get help for planning and buying lighting. Lighting design is broken down into three kinds of illumination: general lighting, task lighting, and accent lighting.
Using your imagination and some elbow grease to transform an ugly bathroom into a beautiful bath saves money, and it’s fun! Simple changes to vanities and tile can go a long way. Bathroom vanity cabinets are sometimes less than beautiful, even when they’re brand-new. Age certainly doesn’t improve them. Before you give yours the old heave-ho, consider these possibilities: Add pizzazz: Create an Old World look by outlining cabinet doors with a row of decorative brass upholsterer’s nail heads.
Whether you're redecorating one room or hiring a professional designer to revamp your entire living space, it helps you to understand the basics of interior design and what they encompass. A design is an orderly arrangement of five basic elements: Color, the creator of illusion and maker of mood Form, the overall shape of any object Line, the implied direction or boundary of an object Mass, the bulk of an object that occupies space Texture, the touch me, feel me of matter All artists, whether painters, sculptors, architects, or interior decorators work with these same basic elements to achieve certain effects, all of which must work together to form a unified whole.
To demonstrate that you can arrange a room in more than one way, here are three different layouts for a the same living room. The first two arrangements take into consideration many functions. Each layout provides seating areas for big gatherings, small and large conversation groups, television viewing, reading and writing, scenery watching, piano playing, and group sing-alongs.
Have you ever noticed how decorations on a wall can look so organized and attractive in some cases and just be a distracting mess in other homes? If you follow these steps, you can create a perfect grouping every time, without making frustrating mistakes: Measure the wall space that you want to fill. Outline that exact size on your floor using masking tape.
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You can't wait to get started on your home decorating project, but taking a few minutes beforehand can save you time, money, and aggravation down the road. Use the tips in the following list to ensure that your home decorating projects run smoothly: Fix your budget! Spend no more than what you have. Formulate an action plan.
Thinking of selling your place within two years or less? Shift your bathroom colors into neutral white, almond, and other classics that prospective buyers prefer. If you don’t know what’s hot and what’s not in bathrooms, ask a local real estate agent. Incorporate these simple tips as you redecorate: Add glass handles, classic silver or pewter pulls, or hand-painted ceramic knobs to your cabinets.
Whether you want to change items that you already own or desperately need some budget-conscious ways to begin defining your holiday style, you can start by repurposing, reusing, recycling, and restyling what you already have. Credit: ©iStockphoto.com / Olaf Seier 2012 Give your things a new purpose Repurposing means to use an item that’s normally used for one thing (like a throw or painter’s drop cloth made of cotton canvas) and change it into something else for another function, like turning it into pillows or a slipcover.
Americans are casual diners, so not everyone has a formal dining room for dinner parties. Whether you just have a small dining room or you are planning a meal for a dozen guests and you don’t have space, let alone a big-enough tablecloth, don’t panic! Consider the following suggestions: Bring into play a couple of sawhorses and a 4-x-6-foot sheet of sturdy 3/4-inch plywood as a table for 10 or more guests.
Ceilings are often overlooked when people are thinking about interior decorating. But all sorts of techniques — from raising and lowering your ceiling to adding beams or creating coffers — can change the look of your room. Constructing a false ceiling: Take the idea of a dropped or lowered ceiling to new heights by asking a carpenter to drop (lower) only the outside perimeter of a too-high ceiling.
How furniture is situated in your living room — even if it’s a formal one — should be flexible enough to handle multiple activities. If your living room also serves as a den or family room, you probably expect more of the room, perhaps more seating or entertainment space. If you have a family room in addition to your dressy living room, you can probably leave the dressy room for more formal occasions.
Selecting a color scheme for your interior design project can seem like a difficult test of your decorating ability. An easy way out is to choose a decorating style that comes with a particular color, distinct color palette, or strongly suggested color direction. Some examples include: City Chic: Think neutral colors, black, white, and beige in luxurious, high-quality textures.
Decorating your kitchen should be fun. Collect photographs from decorating magazines, brochures, and kitchen style books. Make a list of your likes (and dislikes) about photos. By mixing a little of one and a lot of another, you craft your own personal style. Here are some basic decorating tips: Use contrast: Cabinets star against a background chosen to show them off.
Basements are often the first areas that most homeowners consider using for additional living space, especially if ceilings are a comfortable 8 feet high. Before you begin remodeling your basement, consider the function or functions it will perform. If you want it to serve as a home office, you need wiring for lights, computers, and phones.
When you think of children’s bathrooms, primary colors, clown motifs, and other tried-and-true themes may come to mind. If that’s what your child likes, that’s fine, but ask before you decorate. In a child’s bathroom, safety takes center stage. Following are some suggestions that spring from real-life experiences: Avert scalding by installing hot stop valves that prevent a child from turning water on to the highest, hottest temperature.
You can find upholstered furniture at secondhand sources. But for sanitary reasons, you may want to strip off the old upholstery and padding down to the frame, and then rebuild with new padding and upholstery. If you plan to reupholster, choosing furniture without exposed wood frames can save a lot of money in labor charges, because exposed wood frames are more difficult to cover.
Professional decorators use a long list of traditional rules for displaying art. You’re free to accept or reject experts’ opinions, but it never hurts to consider them. When you hang a large, important picture, repeating some of the dominant colors in other accessories throughout the room is a good idea. Relating the painting to other objects in the room is a kind of bonding that emphasizes unity.
Refurbished furniture can add a lot of character to your home. Decorating old or unfinished furniture lets you make a creative statement. Take a look at the following decorating tips. Try some out on your furniture: Consider new uses for old furniture and unique items. Turn an old combination radio/phonograph in a beautifully veneered cabinet into an elegant foyer console.
If you don’t have the funds to redo an entire room, consider revamping just the walls. In the best of all decorating worlds, a terrific wall treatment almost magically makes problem areas vanish. Consider some of the decorating tricks in the following list: Cut too-high walls down to size by dividing them into three horizontal bands.
Wall-to-wall carpeting fills the floor area with pattern, color, and texture. An area rug is an accessory that defines a special spot in a room. Both can be used to update a room. Sometimes, just changing your floor covering can give a room a whole new look. Carpeting has many advantages. When properly padded, it’s extremely comfortable and among the least expensive floorcoverings.
Color, pattern, and texture are the stylistic building blocks of your home decorating palette. You use these three elements to create the style, mood, and feel of each room in your home. Creating with color Paint small spaces in whispers of a cool, light color. Cover big spaces in a cozy, warm, confident color.
Any pattern that captures your fancy can serve as the basis for a foolproof decorating scheme. A wonderful wallpaper, beautiful bedding, upholstery, an area rug, a plate, or even giftwrap can provide interior decorating inspiration. Geometrics are Contemporary patterns created from basic geometric figures, such as circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, and ovals.
Curtains and draperies are chameleons. They work hard at blocking light and sound, heat and cold. They're also extraordinarily decorative and add enormous personality to a room.What's the difference between curtains and draperies — and does it even matter? Traditionally, windows were treated to three types of curtains: a sash curtain (to filter light), a draw curtain (to block out light), and an over-drapery (which was purely decorative and is now just called a drapery).
Historic patterns reappear from year to year in fresh, new combinations of colors. Color and scale affect a pattern, making it more or less formal. Some historic patterns, originally seen in monochromatic colorways, look very different in multicolors. Some perennial favorite patterns are listed here. Keep in mind that many appear on materials other than textiles: Calico: This cotton fabric is printed with small, brightly colored floral patterns.
Mirror, mirror on the wall . . . Reflective glass can be decorating magic for one and all! Wall mirrors serve as looking glasses, double the view they reflect, and add sparkle. Perhaps best of all, mirrors make spaces seem larger, a real bonus for a too-small room. Place a mirror where you want to see your own reflection (an entry hall), reflect an interesting view (opposite a window), create a strong focal point (above a mantel), or light up a dark area (above a hall console or table in a corner).
Choosing the materials to use on your walls involves practical, aesthetic, and budget considerations. Make a clear distinction between what you want and what you need, especially if you don’t necessarily need everything you want. For example, if your house is home to small children and pets, you need something more practical than a white rug.
As a home decorator, you never know when you'll need to create some magic. Take a tip from professional home decorators: Pack a portable carry-all filled with all the must-haves of the trade — suggestions are in the following list — and you'll have decorating magic to go! Glue gun: Use this for a variety of decorating and crafts projects.
The numerous interior design options you have can make choosing just one style or even two or three difficult. When you’re having trouble making up your mind about which decorating styles you want to include in your home, knowing more about yourself may help. So take a few minutes to answer the questions in the following quiz.
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