Moving into a new house—a dream come true, plus one of the biggest home decor projects you'll ever take on! Whether it's a new home, or just new to you, figuring out what to do with each room is a complex challenge that can be fun or stressful. It all depends on how you go about it...

How to Decorate a New Home

There are more than a few things to consider when designing a house, but with a design plan, you can do it yourself. Whether you love decorating, or just don't want to pay a professional designer, taking a step-by-step approach will give your home the put-together feel that you long for.

It's inspiring to imagine what you want your new home to look like, and how you want each room to feel and function. Good design makes home a welcoming, renewing place. Following these guidelines will get you there:

1. Whole House Design

Take an overview of your whole house before you make detailed room decisions. There are so many things to consider when designing a house. You'll be making hundreds of choices, so giving yourself some guidelines for the whole project will narrow your scope to make it manageable.

2. What Have You Got?

The size and style of your house will influence your choices. If you've got a brand new, sleek townhouse with clean lines and smaller spaces, that lends itself to a contemporary or modern style, where your furniture is minimal, your colors are neutral, and you make use of glass to make the space appear larger.

A glass-topped coffee table makes the room look less crowded than an opaque surface. A big mirror in your entrance area, with a custom frame that suits the space, opens up that area visually and draws in light. Check out MirrorMate's before-and-after makeovers for ideas.

An older home, say from the Craftsman or Victorian eras, may benefit from more traditional furnishings, or maybe a transitional style that mixes vintage with edgier modern pieces. Done well, this can be a sophisticated look.

3. What's Your Style?

Many people have no idea what name to give their preferences. Think of terms like Farmhouse, Modern, Shabby Chic, or Industrial as a shorthand for what you're drawn to. You can read up on styles or even take a quiz to help you know the vocabulary for your style or style combination. MirrorMate makes it easy to learn and purchase by putting products in style categories.

4. What's Your Budget?

Part of having fun designing a new home is to remember that everything doesn't have to happen at once. There's only so much change and acquisition we can afford, let alone have energy for! Know your limit, then decide what you'll live with for now and what you want right away. If your budget is low, make peace with living in the house as it is with the contents you bring with you. Careful arrangement and some fresh paint can do wonders.

If you have more money to work with, one useful exercise is to do a practice shop—price out everything you want and set your priorities by what you learn.

5. Think About How You'll Use Your Space

One of the most liberating new home design ideas is that rooms can be multipurpose, and it's up to you where things happen! Just because something's called a dining room doesn't mean you have to eat in there! Maybe it would be better for your family to take part of your open kitchen/living space for a table, and let the dining room be an office, a playroom, a homework room, or all three—you decide! Think through what you want to be doing in each of the spaces of your home, and that will tell you a lot about what furniture, storage, and lighting you'll need.

6. Know Your Favorite Colors

Color preferences are so personal. It's your house, so pick the colors that give you the vibes you want. Picking a dominant color and a secondary color for your home is one easy way to pull the whole design together. Maybe you are contemporary and you want a palette that's mostly white through gray. You can add pops of black for drama, and maybe gold or copper to warm it up.

You might be most at peace when you're surrounded by nature. You might be happier with wood surfaces in your home, plants featured in several rooms, and shades of green on the walls. Looking at lots of pictures and remembering places you've enjoyed will guide you to your color choices.

Now you've thought through style, colors, budget, and what you want to happen in each room. You've decided what changes to make to your space and what you'll live with. Next, you're ready for the fun part!

7. Have Fun with Mood Boards!

Like designers, take some time to gather images that inspire you. Add pictures of new furniture you want to buy, swatches of a color you just love, storage ideas you don't want to forget. Then, for each of your rooms, put all those images together and make a mood board. Whether you actually paste pictures on a piece of posterboard or work digitally on PowerPoint or your software of choice, this is a wonderful way to focus your vision for each room.

You can also include a floor plan for the space, where you put furniture and other large objects to scale. This will help you to be sure that everything fits, and alert you to possible scale issues, as in uh-oh, my favorite rug is way too small for this seating area, or uh-oh, my inherited buffet doesn't fit through the door.

As rooms start to take shape in your mind, ask yourself if you have some unifying themes that will carry through the whole house, so there's flow as you look from room to room. Maybe your two main colors will carry through the whole house, or you'll have the same flooring for all spaces. You might enjoy some whimsical theme popping up again and again.

Each Room Is Its Own Work of Art

Remember, even with a cohesive whole house design, you can give each room a different look and mood. You may want your house full of light, until it comes to your bedroom, where you'll give more play to darker colors, buy blackout curtains and keep your overhead lighting dim. You might prefer simple, clean-lined furniture, but opt for a comfy sectional where your family gathers to play games and watch TV.

When you get to a point where your vision is clear, order or buy your new items and arrange deliveries. The puzzle might not all come together right away, but you'll get there, and in the meantime, just keep looking at that beautiful mood board!

Design the Home You Love

If your ideas are bigger than your budget, consider what you can do yourself to design your new home. With its full range of up-to-date products, MirrorMate is a great place to find customized frames for any of the mirrors in your new home, with features that make installation easy.