Where to Start? By: Nicole Martinez, Knilans' Designer

If you’ve been keeping up with the Knilans’ design blog, you’ve already learned about making a plan for a room redesign. But once you have your plan, where do you start? This guide will help you begin working with a Designer to build a room or home that reflects your personal style!

Find Your Design Inspiration & Personal Style

Get inspired! Search your favorite home decor/design websites, visit your local shops, art galleries, and even your local parade home tours. Travel is also another way to see new and different ideas and be inspired. If you don’t already identify with a style, try to save some images or take some pictures of things that you like. Your Designer can help you determine your style this way. 

Start With an “Inspiration Piece” for Your Room

Next, the hunt to find that inspiration piece! This could be just about anything, from a fabric, piece of artwork, a rug, a sofa, to a picture of a room setting you want to recreate. Landscape, nature or architecture can also be your inspiration.  Finding your inspiration piece will give your Designer a starting point and a place from which to build. 

Furniture and Fabrics First

The next step might be selecting your furniture and fabrics. Your Designer will plug these pieces in your plan to make sure the dimensions are a good fit allowing enough room for walkways and that the scale is correct for the room size. Selecting a good mix of textures, finishes, patterns, and colors will be visually pleasing. This is another area where your Designer can use their experience and talent to help you choose the right combinations. 

If doing a full room makeover, I would suggest selecting flooring and paint after your upholstered items. There are thousands of paint and carpet colors to choose from and you will have an easier time trying to match those to your fabrics rather than the other way around. Tuck that tip in your back pocket!

Completing the Look

The final step is one of the most important ones: adding in accessories, artwork, and lighting. This will give your space a finished, complete look. A Designer can help you choose accessories that match each other, as well as the rest of the room. Don’t forget to sprinkle in your own personal touches with photos, or things that are significant and reflect your personality.