When it comes to designing a room in your home, there are so many different styles, options, color schemes, and decorating theories to choose from. 

It’s exciting to start from the ground up because it means you get to personalize your room exactly how you want it, but it can be overwhelming because there are so many options. All the photos and ideas on sites like Pinterest can result in “option overload.”

At The Amish Craftsman, we know you want a personalized home with quality furniture, great decor, and a personal touch. 

That is why we put together this guide –  5 secrets to designing a room that is both stylish and fun!  And if you are feeling overwhelmed, don’t panic! We will walk through it step by step together. We hope this guide helps you cut through that “option overload” and design a room you will love for years.

If you are ready to begin designing your perfect space, keep reading!

Choose High-Quality Furniture First

Designing a room begins with choosing high-quality furniture as the main pieces, These large pieces are “the bones” of the room. 

Like the bones of a body, the furniture provides the core pieces of a room’s design. The decor and extras are important, but if you don’t have a solid core, you quickly run into problems. 

So what happens if we don’t focus on the furniture, or the bones, first? 

When many people think of designing or decorating a room, they often focus on the decorations, accessories, wall-hangings, etc. that go with the room.  The decor becomes the focus, and the furniture becomes either an afterthought. 

This approach isn’t all bad–but it can result in some problems long term. 

When the initial focus of the room’s design is on the decor instead of the furniture, the following problems can happen:

• You may have beautiful wall decor, but the room looks off-balance because the furniture doesn’t fit.
• You put more thought and money into decor than the actual furniture, which is never a good idea! 
• Furniture is an afterthought, which means it might end up being cheap, uncomfortable furniture that wears out quickly, making the room even less attractive.
• Depending on your style and design, it can be hard to find furniture to fit your decor. 

Your guests won’t enjoy your room if the furniture is uncomfortable, cheap, or looks out of place. For one thing, the room won’t be as pleasing to the eye, and for another, they’ll be too busy thinking about how uncomfortable they are!

However, if you begin the room’s design by choosing high-quality furniture and determining good placement for it, then you don’t need to worry about uncomfortable guests.    

Instead, they will remember a comfortable experience with tasteful furniture that contributed to the design of the room instead of distracting from your style.

If you want tips on picking great furniture, read our recent blog post containing 13 tips & tricks on picking quality furniture.

Pick Classic Furniture Styles For The Room’s Core

Now that we established the importance of starting your room design with the furniture, let’s learn how to pick good furniture. 

Furniture plays a large part in any room’s style. 

The furniture is typically the largest item in the room, and it is one of the first things noticed if something feels out of place or missing in a room. That is why it’s important to choose good furniture. 

So as you think of choosing furniture for your room, here are three principles to remember.

First, your main furniture is not the place to experiment with current or unusual trends.  There is a place to bring in current trends–but it’s not your furniture! 

Second, stay classic with your main furniture.  Remember, these pieces are the bones of your room’s design, and keeping them classic allows you more freedom with your other decorations. You won’t want to replace your furniture every year or two, so you want to be happy with it for a long time. 

Third, even if you stay with classic furniture, you are free to play around with colors, accents, and accessories in your decor.  We discuss accessories later, and you do have plenty of freedom in choosing your furniture colors and accents.

Following these tips gives your room the strong core it needs and creates a stable platform for the remaining decor and design.

Choose Neutral Colors For The Main Furniture

We mentioned that you have some freedom in choosing the colors and accents for your furniture, but there are still some guidelines in choosing the main furniture.

One of the biggest mistakes many people make when designing a room is choosing bold colors for their main furniture. 

Bold colors are fun and trendy, but using them can result in the following issues with your room.

• Bold colors become dated much faster than neutral and other classic furniture colors.
• Some homeowners quickly find they become tired of seeing bold colors on their core furniture every time they walk into the room. 
• The bold colors are too large for the room and distract from the rest of the layout and design.
• Bold colors don’t match well with everything, so they make so you have less freedom to play around with the smaller decor over time. 

So are you allowed to have anything brightly colored, splashy, or trendy in your design? 

And the answer is, “Yes!”

The key, however, is choosing the right products and components to experiment with, and your main furniture is not the right place to try bold things.  Your accessories and decor, which we discuss last, are the places to experiment with modern styles, trends, and bright colors.

So, what are some guidelines for picking the right furniture colors?

First, use neutral colors for the main pieces.  This allows your accessories to bring the colors and trends while keeping your primary furniture classic and solid.  

Second, think about the colors you prefer when you go clothes shopping.  Remember, you need to look at your furniture daily, so choose colors you like to see!  If you do prefer clothing with bold colors, then select a neutral-based color with that accent.

Third, don’t overthink the color scheme.  If you aren’t sure which exact shade you want, that is OK.  As long as the furniture provides a great core to your room’s design, a slight shade difference won’t make a difference. 

And fourth, don’t be influenced by trends that you don’t love.  Homeowners often feel pressured to purchase certain styles or colors because they are trending, not because they love them.

You are the one living with your furniture and your design – don’t feel pressured to have it meet all the latest designs and trends! The primary person it should please is YOU. 

Buy The Best Furniture You Can Afford

When it comes to the financial part of designing your room, the discussion can go a lot of directions. 

After all, everyone comes to their design with different budgets and different financial capabilities, and that is perfectly fine. 

Thankfully, you don’t have to have a lot of money to design a room that looks great and has quality furniture!

Here are three tips for buying furniture and accessories for your room.

First, remember that you don’t have to buy everything all at once.  If you are on a tight budget, it is OK if you need to build your room over several months or a couple of years.  

And if you follow our previous guidelines and start with quality, classic furniture, then your main pieces will remain relevant for many years to come instead of wearing out or becoming quickly outdated. You can add to your room slowly. 

Second, keep the initial focus on buying high-quality furniture first instead of using the budget to buy smaller pieces and decor. 

For example, if your current budget is $3000, you have two choices.

The first option is to buy a couple of high-quality pieces of furniture, and possibly a few accessories to go with it.  This probably uses the budget without completing the room, and that is OK. You can finish furnishing and decorating the room as your budget allows.

The second option is to completely furnish the room with your $3000 budget.  The problem is that doing this forces you to purchase low-quality furniture and accessories.

If you take the second route, you will quickly find yourself running into the many problems that cheap furniture brings, and you may not be completely happy with it. The end result is that you will need to replace your furnishings several years down the road, and may end up spending more money than you would have if you had bought high quality furniture in the first place. 

And third, continue building around your furniture pieces as your budget allows, even if it takes 1-2 years.  

While this means your room’s design takes longer to complete, the finished result will be quality furniture and a layout you can enjoy for a lifetime.  In the long run, this saves time and money if you don’t need to purchase new furniture and redesign your room every few years. 

Designing and furnishing your room is similar to building a house – you can go with cheaper options and get done faster.  However, this often results in less satisfaction and enjoyment of the finished project. 

Taking the high-quality and patient route may take more time and more money, but it always pays dividends over time.

Experiment With Accessories & Decor

Now that we have the main furniture, or the bones, picked out for your room, we finally reach the fun parts, where you are free to experiment with designs, colors, and styles–you finally get to accessorize your room!

If your main pieces of furniture follow a classic design with neutral colors, then your room should be wide open to a multitude of possibilities with the decor. You can try anything you want–the sky’s the limit! 

Because they are smaller pieces, your decor is an excellent way to accent your room’s style with color and design.  Classic, neutral furniture will help make the additional style and color pop out even more. 

BONUS: Two great classic styles of furniture we love at the Amish Craftsman are the Mission and Rustic styles. If you want to learn how to design a room in these styles, check out these two pages:Designing a Room With Mission Style Furniture 
How To Style and Design With Rustic Furniture

The decor is also the ideal way to change the room’s style for a low cost.

How does this work?

Most accessories, such as lighting and lamps, wall art, or small rugs, are relatively inexpensive compared to the main furniture, so they can be changed out and swapped as trends change over the years.  While your main furniture should demonstrate a timeless style and last for decades, you should be able to change your room’s decor periodically without breaking the bank.

Conclusion

Designing a room in your home holds a lot of possibilities, and sometimes it’s tempting to go for all the latest trends and fashions. 

However, if you slow down a bit to plan and focus on creating a solid core by choosing classic main furniture pieces, you will find that redesigning in the future will be easier, smoother, and cheaper! You won’t be stuck with outdated decor you no longer like. 

If you are looking for quality hand-made furniture in Houston or the surrounding area, then take a look at the furniture available at The Amish Craftsman.

We listen to the goals for your home and work with you to create the ideal furniture for your style and home.

It doesn’t stop with furniture either! We also carry:

• Arts and Crafts Rugs 
• Craftsman Rugs 
• Lighting 
• Home Decor 
• And furniture for every room in your home!  

Take our free Design Questionnaire or stop by our store to see what is possible for your home!