There comes a time in many adult lives when the bachelor pad or couple’s flat has to be left behind. This is a period when it’s no longer enough to live with a mattress on the floor, a sofa, a television and not much else.
This is, of course, the transition into your first family home. Family homes require more space, increased functionality and a new approach to aesthetics, all of which are in service of additional, potentially growing company numbers.
After you buy your first home, the interior design and decoration can feel overwhelming, especially if you’ve only ever lived in houseshares or smaller flats. However, there’s no need to fear, as this guide will offer actionable insights into home decoration for family spaces, ensuring you secure a foundation of function and continue onwards with flexibility.
Start with the essentials of household functionality
Before you start shopping for or unpacking your personality-driven items, you need to ensure that your home works on a purely utilitarian basis.
Security features
It’s important to ensure your home will act as a safe, secure haven for your family, with features such as:
- Proper locking, from the back of the house to the garage door
- Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
- Proper window coverings (blinds, curtains)
Essential utilities
Beyond security, there are also plenty of utilities that you need to guarantee in your family home, including;
- Foundational LED lighting and bulbs
- Fully functioning HVAC systems
- White goods (fridge, washing machine, dryer, etc.)
- WiFi and network setups for whole-house coverage
Next, incorporate your foundational home decoration
After you’ve set your home up with the essential utilities and security features, you can start to bring your baseline home decor ideas. The first step should be to focus on the most used rooms in the house, such as the living room, bedrooms and kitchen, etc.
All of these rooms’ aesthetic profiles should be anchored by key, high-quality items of furniture, along with wall paints, chosen and applied while things are still relatively empty.
Being colour conscious
If you have small children, it can be wise to consider their spaces might benefit from brighter, more vibrant colours (albeit with awareness that they might need updates in a couple of years!).
Remember to always buy small samples of paints at a time, and try them in small spots across the wall, making sure to give each exposure to natural light to see how it will look throughout the day
Building a flow
With these guidelines, you can start to create a cohesive flow through your property, ensuring transitions between each part of the house feel as natural as possible.
Now, start incorporating your personal touches
Once you’ve crafted your foundation of utility and baseline decoration, it’s time to start bringing in these more personal elements that will define your home going forward. The kinds of elements that are going to make lasting impacts on how you, your family and your guests will experience the home include:
- Hanging up art on the walls
- Placing plants all over the property
- Choosing unique storage and organisation choices
- Mirrors placed tactically to create the illusion of space
- Stylish backsplashes for colour and texture in kitchens and bathrooms
- Ensuring there are plenty of areas designed for the children (consider these as flexible spaces to change as they grow)
Remember, there’s no need to rush the process. Buying your first home usually takes years to arrive at, so getting its aesthetic pinned down immediately is very unlikely.
So take the time to enjoy it!
Let it grow and evolve as your family does, making sure that you allow for change and hold onto the elements that make it special.
