Last updated on January 19th, 2025

For plenty of people out there, buying a home for themselves is the ultimate sign of success because a house is a long-term investment into both the future itself and your own life. 

After saving up money and daydreaming about the idea for years, you finally managed to purchase a home—congratulations! The next step in this process is both a massive boon and a great stressor for any new homeowner: decorating it for the first time.

You need furniture, appliances, decorations and more to make your new house truly feel like home… but where do you begin? There’s so much to do that it feels overwhelming and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. 

While the company you hired to help you move is shipping furniture to your new abode, read the tips below to make filling your currently very empty space much less intimidating.

1. Go Room by Room

The first thing you need to do is to narrow your view. The most intimidating part of decorating a house is thinking about it as a whole because the largest, most expensive furniture pieces will be flashing through your mind. If you notice this happening to you then stop, take a breath and refocus. Walk into a room and focus solely on what you plan to do with it.

For example, let’s say the room you enter already has some furniture. More specifically, there is a stove, a sink, cabinets and countertops. This will be your kitchen. Examine the appliances. If they meet your standards and seem to work fine then hurray, one less expense. 

If they are too small, malfunctioning or clash with your chosen style then make a note to replace them later. Do similar with the cabinets and counters. 

Examine the storage space as well so you know how much extra shelving you may need to purchase. As you go through the house and furnish it room by room, make sure to keep each room’s budget in mind. Going too far over budget could bring financial troubles and leave some rooms lacking.

2. Begin in the Most Important Room

As you considered houses, the two most important rooms you looked at were likely the kitchen and master bathroom. You now must decide whether these two rooms are still the most important. 

While the kitchen may still be due to it housing all of the food and likely being attached to the dining room or living room, consider the current importance of the master bathroom. You obviously use the restroom there but you also shower and get ready for the day within. When it comes to decorating it may very well be high on your list.

However, some people may value other rooms. You value the kitchen, for example, but maybe your friend started with their bedroom or your aunt began with the study. You need your home to function for you even while not fully set up so you can still get work done, eat meals and so on. It may be prudent to list each room in the house and then order them by importance. Remember that all that matters is that the space functions for you.

3. Determine Purpose

So, you’ve amended your head space into not only focusing on each room one at a time but also focusing on the important rooms first. 

Now you need to walk into the most important room and determine its purpose. This will be easier in some rooms than others; the kitchen is always used for preparing meals but is sometimes also combined with a dining room, making it the place to make, eat and clean up meals. It does start to get a bit complicated when the kitchen is open plan and is therefore not separated from the living and dining rooms.

For many, the bedroom is the place where you sleep and that’s it. For others, it doubles as a work-from-home office as well. If you live with roommates then your room is your private place and can be used for sleeping, relaxing, working and more depending on your needs. As you step into each room, decide which of your needs it will fulfill and how you may go about making that happen.

4. Understand Feng Shui

As you search for decorating and furnishing tips you’ve likely encountered the term “feng shui.” The phrase refers to an ancient poem that describes how human life is connected to and flows with the environment. 

To apply this definition more specifically to interior design, you need every room in your house to flow and provide positive energy. Some of the methods of doing this are obvious; removing excess clutter will help decrease your stress and make you feel less claustrophobic. Other methods are a bit more uniquely complex. 

For example, keeping your bed, desk and stove as close to the spot diagonally across the room from the door, otherwise known as the command position, is said to be an important part of feng shui. Even if you don’t subscribe to all of the principles, at least understanding feng shui and how making some of the suggested changes could benefit you is an important part of interior design.

5. Utilize Online Room Planners

Even if planning a room’s layout comes natural to you, you’ll still benefit from online room planners. These tools allow you to create a room with the same dimensions as yours, add in doors and windows into the appropriate locations and then start adding furniture. 

These planners are typically free with accounts allowing you to save rooms for later reference or editing. This makes interior decorating cheaper, easier and quicker. 

You don’t have to completely move the couch before deciding that it was actually better in its previous position, you don’t need to purchase that bookshelf to see if it works with your space and so on. 

Even if you’ve done all of the measurements and are sure that your layout will work, it can’t hurt to do a final check with a room planner. Whether you’re filling a room from scratch or are redecorating an already inhabited room, you’ll find a lot of benefits from online room planners.