Even when you are using different colors in different rooms, your home will have better flow and a calming feel if you choose furniture and accessories that could easily move from one room to another.

Red

Make a little book of fabric swatches and paint color samples that you have in your home, and always carry it with you. Then, when you stumble across that perfect item, you don't have to wonder whether it will coordinate with the choices you've already made.

"Make a little book of fabric swatches and paint color samples that you have in your home, and always carry it with you. Then, when you stumble across that perfect item, you don't have to wonder whether it will coordinate with the choices you've already made."

I did that and it has been so helpful. I bought the cheapest lightest weight photo album I could find and keep it in my purse. I keep all the wall colors and fabrics I've purchased in there. I also include notes about sizes of pictures I need frames for, widths of walls, etc.

If you're stumped for a color scheme for a room find a patterned fabric you like and use the colors in it for walls, upholstery, and accessories. Don't use equal amounts of each color. Have a dominant color, and a couple of supporting colors in varying and lesser amounts.

If you are doing eclectic mixes, try to stay in a two-thirds to one third ratio. Don't split styles too close to half and half. So, 1/3 antique, 2/3 contemporary for example. or vice versa.

Don't make any decorating decisions whilst in the midst of any kind of emotional crisis. It can be expensive, believe me, I know.

Measure! Measure everywhere and everything in your place -- full room floor spaces, windows, doors, hallways. Always have a small measuring tape at hand too! Keep one in your purse or car. You never know where or when the perfect item will appear! :)

Write the measurements down and carry them with you -- always good to know that the perfect item WILL fit through the front door or up the stairway or down the hall! LOL!

NEXT -- take photos of your rooms. This is proof positive of the old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" -- you can literally show-and-tell someone about possible items/colors/problem areas! Take hard copies of these photos with you in your Decorating Notebook. Tiny photos on your cell phone can help a bit -- but larger ones always do!

Finally -- always know a store (online or brick-and-mortar) or person's (Craig's List) policies on Returns/Refunds BEFORE you buy anything! I've seen women screaming, yelling and crying at stores because they did not read, remember or even care about those vital policies! Store your receipts carefully -- and mark the date and item on them to keep track -- some stores have Return By a certain Day/Date policies!

Jan

Make sure you love whatever you buy and don't just buy it because it goes. If you really love it, you'll find a place for it and it will make you happy seeing it.

And it's ok to throw out something that doesn't work or you don't like anymore even if you paid a lot for it or someone gave it to you.

One thing I think about is the impact on housekeeping. "Less" is less to move and/or clean, while "more" is more to move and clean. Somewhere there is a balance of efficient housekeeping/clutter control and having decor that is interesting and welcoming.

Never shop while pregnant for any furniture that you will be sitting in. You center of gravity is off and a pregnant body sits differently than a non-pregnant one.

If you have lots of photos, group them and frame tham all in frames of the same material (all wood, all silver, etc.) It will look much less cluttered.

When arranging the furniture in the bedroom, always place the bed so the foot of the bed can be seen from the door. Anything else closes in the room (unless it is a huge room to begin with).

Life is too short for white walls.

Nicole

Keep a tape measure with you.

And a hearty second to redbazels'
Even when you are using different colors in different rooms, your home will have better flow and a calming feel if you choose furniture and accessories that could easily move from one room to another.

When taking pictures of your rooms and/or furniture, put a yardstick somewhere in the picture. If you forget to measure, having the yardstick in the picture will give you some idea of relative size. This is especially helpful in an empty room.

Wow, you all have some amazing tips, this was a great idea and will be one of those threads we should hold on to!

The only tip I have is don't be afraid of color!

Look to your wardrobe when deciding the textiles for your home. This is true for me, anyway. I'm happiest dressed in neutrals, and my closet reflects this with cream, white, beige , browns, blacks. The hot pinks and bold splashes are reserved for just a few summer things, even though I'm in Ca.
I've drooled over big, colorful prints and, because I loved them, I assumed they'd work in my home. Wrong. I've learned to keep the prints on toss pillows,and an occasional chair here and there, in the main. Oh! another reason prints don't work well for me is due to my desire for change. If you like to rearrange, you may quickly tire of a print. They also can't be moved easily from one room to another.

A follow up to leahcat's - I don't only use the colors in my wardrobe for inspiration, I actually take my clothes out of the closet and try the colors in different rooms. I was thinking of a particular green for a window shade, and had a sweater in a similar color, so hanging it by the window gave me a chance to see how it would work. You can do this to see what color towels will work in your bathroom, colors for throw pillows and accents, etc.

Great tips everyone!

Let go of emotional ties to pieces that do not have a place in your home or bring enjoyment.

No reason to hang onto Aunt Edna's mish-mash of dishes or Uncle Herb's 1970's orange recliner for sentiment sake only.

Before you buy something, read up on its cleaning and maintenance and figure out whether that item fits your lifestyle.

Amy Dacyzyn had some interesting advice on furniture-buying, which boils down to, "Buy the item at a price you know you can resell it at later."

The Millionaire Next Door book, too, advised buying furniture that holds its value--antiques.

Wow - these are all terrific!

If you are redoing a room or starting from scratch, determine your accessories last not first - paint your walls, put your rugs and window coverings in place, situate your furniture - then see what accessories are needed.

To quote Magnaverde, decorate for the life you actually HAVE, not the life you WISH you had. If you have five kids under twelve, two cats and a big black dog, white carpeting, silk drapes, and spindly furniture may not survive for very long!

Decorate for yourself and your family, not friends or relatives or neighbors. When someone else is paying the bills, they can dictate how your home is decorated. :-)

Don't chase trends: if you are never IN style, you are never OUT of style.

It's okay not to frequently change your decor if you don't want to. The perceived need for constant "updating" and "refreshing" is a creation of the advertising industry (hired by manufacturers and retailers) to make you dissatisfied with what you have and buy-buy-buy more stuff.

Live in a home for a year before making any major (expensive) changes, unless they're necessary for basic livability and safety. You need to learn how you and the house function together, how the light behaves in different rooms over the seasons, etc. For example, I didn't know how I should rearrange the kitchen layout until I had worked in it for months. Goodness knows when we will get around to redoing the kitchen due to funding, but now I know how it should be for maximum efficiency.

Make sure you actually like any stopgap items you get, because you may end up hanging onto them for much longer than you expected if you can't afford or can't find the item you "really want".

Choose colors based on the time of day when you are most often in that room. For instance, if the only time you're in your bedroom is at night with artificial lighting, choose your colors at night with artificial lighting because that's when you're going to see it most.

Paint colors rarely come out looking like they do in someone else's house, because they are dependent on room size and shape, lighting, neighboring rooms, furnishings. Always test colors in your own home before committing.

Consider light paint for bright rooms, darker paint for dim ones. Strong colors can appear garish in bright light, pale colors can get drab or excessively shadowy in dark ones. Embrace the coziness of dim rooms.

Light paint does not necessarily make a small room appear larger - darker colors may actually do it better, because darker tones seem to recede from the eye while light ones advance. (This is the reason why dark clothing is usually considered "slimming".)

Another thing with small rooms is that using all itty-bitty things can make them seem even more cramped. While scale should be taken into consideration (such as avoiding gigantic furniture that physically crowds or overwhelms a tiny room), going bigger with things like artwork reduce visual clutter.

Always pick a yellow shade that is both paler and drabber than the end result you desire, lest you end up with a wall that appears like it was painted with egg yolks. Yellow almost invariably intensifies on the wall.

Look further down on the paint chip strip to get a better idea of the undertones in a paint color, especially with neutral tones - for example, it will help you tell whether a beige has a green or peach undertone.

It's usually easier to choose paint colors by riffing off a textile, rug, artwork, or other inspiration piece rather than trying to choose them to coordinate with a wall color. Sometimes, however, you are stuck, such as in a rental where you cannot paint; in that case, try to stick to neutrals that will be flexible enough to work when you move somewhere else.

Pet nails can hook into berber and looped carpets and create runs (just like nylons) that are not easy to repair attractively. Clip their nails and consider cut-pile floorcoverings.

Every seat in a room should have somewhere within reach to put down a drink, whether it's a coffee table, console behind the couch, or an end table.

I think we've made a great list!

Who else has something to add?

Paint Color!

The choice of paint color should usually come last.

Take your time! Before choosing a color, paint a large sample on all four walls, and then
look at it in all lighting situations -- daytime, nighttime, natural and artificial light.

I agree about paint coming late in the process: paint colors are endless (Fine Paints of Europe has 14,000 in their system) but rugs and fabrics much more limited. Its easier to match paint to something rather than the other way around.

Have a master plan and discipline. Many people can't afford to do everything at once, but if its going to be a process over a period of time, things won't be very cohesive if you keep changing your mind about the look you want.

Thank you, thank you for the above tips! Here are some of my own:

(1) When you aren't happy with the look of a room but aren't sure why, break it down into small sections from different angles. Even better, photograph these sections, and the problems will become apparent.

(2) Don't be afraid of NOT using color. Some people avoid color out of fear, but some people genuinely enjoy the calmness and openness of whites and creams.

(3) When you see a room that you like, take the time to analyze what it is that you like. Sometimes you'll find that it isn't really the decor at all, but the "bones" of the room that you are attracted to.

(4) Layer, layer, layer!

Wonderful idea, wonderful list.

Spend money on lampshades and picture framing. Cheap shades and poor quality framing in a carefully assembled room are the equivalent of tacky junk jewelry with a beautiful dress.

Think of every place that your eye lands as a vignette within the scheme of the room, and assemble it accordingly.

Everything you can see from the room is IN the room.

Give plenty of thought to lighting and its purposes in every room.

A good furniture plan requires good natural circulation...how you move into, around, and through the room.

And finally, accommodate junk. We all have it, we will all always have it, and we will probably accumulate more of it. Include a generous junk drawer in your kitchen and one in your front hall, a junk closet somewhere in your house, a junk carton under your bed, and junk storage behind closed doors in your basement and/or garage.

Arranging framed artwork on the walls --

Save yourself time, sweat and nailholes by tracing the picture(s) onto brown butcher paper, cutting out the shapes, and TAPING the shapes to the wall. Rearrange the paper shapes until you get the arrangement you want -- and only THEN nail a hole in the wall.

Christopher Lowell's tip has stuck in my mind for years. Every room should have something comfortable, something black and something unexpected.

I always paint my final top 3 to 5 choices of paint colors on large pieces of poster board bought at a hobby store (usually for $1.25 or less each) and then tack the painted board samples up on the walls with push pins and leave them for several days. If you are really uncertain, paint 2 poster boards and tack them side by side for a larger view. Much better than painting samples directly on the walls especially if you are indecisive and end up painting lots of samples.

Buy multi-purpose classic furniture pieces that can be used in several ways. I have an antique walnut dressing table that had been in the bedroom in a previous house, but now works great as a sideboard (with mirror removed) in my living room. A mahogany chest has had many previous lives: coffee table in the living room, as a bench at the foot of a bed, and currently resides in my office as storage and seating.

Libraries are great resources for decorating books of all types and they are free.

When sampling paint on the wall, create a "telescope" with your thumb and fingers and space it so ONLY the paint is seen and nothing contrasting around it...this will allow you to see the TRUE color. (Particularly useful when you think a color might be too strong.)

Another thing you can do when you might be thinking a paint color is too much is to put the sample next to dark furniture. Usually this will show that it's not as dark as you might think....or it might be lol.

STAND BACK when choosing fabrics to flow with colors. Many people have their nose practically on the pattern trying to see if it "goes" with whateva. Look at a room from more of a distance.

OH....the most overlooked thing in creating a warm, comforting room... LIGHTING. Lamps, lamps, lamps. The pink blush bulbs can be very complementary to certain color schemes. (Not to mention our complexions!:))

Come to GW decorating forum with pictures & let the talents here help you!!

Smiles:)

Comfort comes first, but beauty is second and individuality is third. I've seen too many rooms that seem comfortable, but there's nothing to hold your eye or beguile the senses. No books, flowers, gorgeous colors, interesting paintings, or indications of the passions of the people who live there. Your home reflects you, and will give you and others so much more pleasure when there is evidence all around of who you are and what you consider beautiful and exciting to have around you. Even if you have young children they're not going to rip your paintings off the wall or empty your bookcases, or destroy your Oriental wool rug. They will not change your gorgeous but washable wall color. Gracious living does not have to begin when you retire (by which time you'll probably have the grandkids). Life is short; have the exciting, beautiful home you've always wanted starting today.

"Even if you have young children they're not going to rip your paintings off the wall or empty your bookcases, or destroy your Oriental wool rug."

You never met my little brother. That was a one-kid wrecking company. Mom could have hired him out to demolition companies for what he could do to a room (and even a house - at one point he had a thing for picking at drywall until a little ding became a good-sized hole and carving up trimwork) in pretty short order if someone didn't ride herd on him every minute. Pictures had to be reframed with acrylic glazing, accessories and books put up high and fragile ones stashed, antiques given away or stored. He ripped apart the little handmade rocking chair I had had as a toddler just to see if he could. Time-outs and the like just gave him time to plot his next rampage.

Don't buy it just because it is only $29.99 and SUCH a good deal! You'll have rooms full great deals instead of rooms you love. On the other hand, if you find something you just love, that makes your heart skip a bit, buy it -you will find a home for it.

Add something black.

okay, johnmari, you've left me without a snappy comeback. To the best of my knowledge, your brother is not the average child (please let me be right about this). Of course, now I'm dying to know what became of him as an adult. Is he in jail for destruction of property or, hopefully, is he the wealthy CEO of a multinational demolition corporation?

Ingrid, I've met more than a few destructive kids (I had a couple of phases myself, I admit it - temper temper!), but none quite as much of a monster as he was, or as consistently. He went on to be very good at making various things go "kaboom" in the US Military, but even in his late twenties he can still make a room look like a tornado's been through it in fairly short order - and that's when he's not trying to demolish anything!

Pick your cat or dog first, then chose fabrics and rug that suit your preference--either to hide the fur or spotlight the fur, depending on how much you like to vacuum.

Don't buy something because it "goes." Wait until you find something that both goes and is something that you love.

It's much better to have a blank wall for a year than to fill it with artwork that is just so-so. The money you spend on the so-so stuff can be saved and spent on what you eventually find that you love.

If you travel, be on the lookout for art and accessories to bring home with you. Lovely reminders of wonderful times will always hold a deeper meaning than the latest piece of tchotch from HomeGoods.

Don't put anything on your walls or shelves that doesn't hold a personal emotional meaning for you.

Decorate your home so that if a perfect stranger showed up to visit and you weren't home they could still tell something about you just by stepping inside. Decor in a home should be a reflection of who you are, not who magazine editors and TV shows think you should be!

Great tips everyone!

Kat :)

Don't throw out stuff you love. Throw out stuff you don't like even if it is expensive or a gift from a relative. If they love you, they will still love you. Don't be afraid of change, but let your plans percolate a little. Unless of course you see a CL treasure that you totally are in love with.
Take a friend to CL treasures, be careful.

Okay, johnmari, my mind is made up. I am not marrying him!
My brother made things kaboom after the military (laser missiles); he couldn't before because that would have made him too conspicous (air force intelligence).

A beautiful home must also be an organized home. If everything doesn't have a place it will soon become a messy home. Luckily there are atractive ways to store items that enhance a room instead of draw attention away from it's beauty.

Johnmari's little brother sounds similar to my son and to his son who I now babysit part time. Though it's getting better he does still like to toss things on the floor.

I once heard a line from a movie that said "Your house is your calling card", it was a comedy and the lady was being very superficial. But in essence I think she was saying your house should reflect good things about YOU and your style. And I agree.

Oh, I try and keep a book with contacts such as painters, plumbers, electricans, furniture makers, antique shops, auctions, art fairs, good will, drape makers, upholstorers, nursuries, yard men, gardeners local hardware stores, handy men.

If you like the beach theme to decorate your house, check my tips on beach decor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Beach Decor - The Basic Rules To Get It Right

Kudos to teacats and bbstx.
We are renovating a very old house and have been taking pics before,during and after every room project.(down to the studs and everything in between). We use a "cloth" crafters measuring tape-looks like a tailors tape-that is 10' long in all of the photos,very convenient to find studs,electrical and plumbing later when it is all covered up. Also, with all of the finished room measurements it is easy to bring along the pictures when looking at furniture and other "stuff" for it.Tapes are cheap too about a buck at Micheals.
Also we use a nifty program from Benjamin Moore that lets you insert your room photos into it and "paint"the room and trim from their colors-Note,the colors will not be exact to the true colors due to monitor variations-but we have found it very handy.You can also hang fabric swatches in the room and work around them with color combinations.Think it was around $10.00 several years ago for the download but has saved us a lot of time narrowing down colors and or fabric.
Cheers

Add sparkle and position it for effect, such as mirrors near lights, or something shiny or crystal, anything to reflect some sparkle into the room. Candace Olsen has fabulous examples of bringing bling into a room such as sconces placed on mirrored walls or reflective surfaces/items introduced to maximize the sparkle from light sources.

If you don't know what size area rug to get, use painters tape to outline the size on the floor to see what looks good in front of or under your furniture! Same with hanging pictures...

Always keep your carpets or floors clean. Nothing can ruin a well decorated home even when all else is in perfect condition is if the floors aren't clean.

Hand crafted items and original art works, whether made by a professional or just by yourself or a relative, add soul to a room and will stop even the most modern decor looking like a doctor's waiting room or airport lounge.