How To Shop Your Own Home

The interior design trick your designer isn’t telling you about!

Are you afraid to redesign and revamp your home interior because you think it will cost a lot of money?

Or maybe you just want to freshen up your room decor, but without going for a complete makeover.

You want to redo your room interior design and decor, but you hate going shopping for furniture and accessories?

If any of those sound familiar to you, then pay attention to this blog post.

Because I am going to reveal a way to give your room interiors a makeover, but

WITHOUT going shopping for new furniture and accessories.
WITHOUT having to order custom-made furniture in Bangladesh, and
WITHOUT spending a lot of money.

How?

Well, it’s by a little home interior design trick called shopping your own home. It’s a trick many house designers do not want you to know.

But we, as responsible interior designers, are revealing it to you, so you can upgrade your house design without going through the hassle of a house decoration project.

What do I mean by “shopping your own home”?

It might sound strange when you first hear it.

How can you “shop your own home”?

Is it even possible to “shop” what you already own?

Here’s the thing.

“Shop” is just a figure of speech.

When I say “shop your own home”, what I mean is that you need to take a look at everything you have in your home like you do at a store.

Pretend you don’t know any of the things that you have, and look at them with a fresh pair of eyes.

You will discover all kinds of aspects – from opportunities to remake and recolour them to other ways of using them – that will make it possible for you to simply take what you already have and use it in a different way.

And that’s how you can revamp your house interior.

A 3-step way to “shop your own home”

It might sound complicated so I will pull back the curtain at this stage itself and tell you the basic idea behind the 3-step process:

You go through your house, noting down whatever items, furniture, accessories and other things you have.
Walk through your house a second time, but now imagining it as a clean slate, and placing all the things you have noted in different positions where you think they will prove the most effective at recharging your home interior look.
- Based on what you find, make a plan on how to repurpose items.
Start removing and replacing items based on the plan.

Going through your house

Your objective is to look for items that can be repurposed or used in a different place and/or way.

Remember, you need to search everywhere – for items that are in current use, items that have been stored somewhere, and also items that have been discarded.

Make sure you look through every cupboard, every shelf and every corner of every room in your house.

Make a list of every item from those that are brand new to those that need some repair.

Note: Such a walkthrough may also prove useful if you’re planning home interior design.

Go on another walkthrough of your home; this time focusing on “restyling”

Visit each room, only this time you are trying to see it as a blank slate.

Try to get a feeling of the room, what its purpose is, what its atmosphere should be like, what the colours are, and the contours of the walls and the floor.

Now look for what there is that you can remove and/or replace.

We can call this as “decluttering”, only this time the clutter includes things that are not being used the most effectively, whether in terms of aesthetics or in terms of ergonomics.

Make a list of all such things.

Once you are done, make a plan of how to repurpose those items of furniture and accessories. Where they will go and what work (repainting, repair and so on) needs to go into it. Be as creative as you can be.

Note: Restyling is also a key element of living room interior design.

Now start removing, refreshing and replacing items

It’s time to get to the heavy work!

Following your plan, remove, refresh and replace accessories, furniture pieces and other things.

For the most effective work, start with the larger (so-called “anchor” pieces) like major furniture and central rugs, and gradually proceed towards smaller items (like side tables) and finally the more sidepiece items like artwork and fixtures.
- You can refer to blog posts like the one on living room design tips for more ideas and inspiration.
As you are focused on home interior design, try to focus on creating space for homely and family activities – like a space for the children to play, or a “quiet nook” where people can go to relax even if the house is full.
Don’t be afraid to disrupt patterns and sets.
- It might be a pattern of aligning furniture that has been there for long. It could be a furniture set that was bought together.
- Whatever it be, go ahead and separate them and see whether those can be put to better use elsewhere or in a new alignment.
If you’re willing to go a little bit bigger, try swapping rooms. For example, the living room can become the bedroom, the bedroom can become the dining room and the dining room and become the living room.
- This is seriously time consuming and should be done only if you’re up for a major house design revamp.

Some practical examples of shopping your own home

Here are a few specific steps you can try out:

Painting furniture and accessories: Instead of painting entire rooms, simply repaint existing furniture and accessories. That itself will give the entire room a new glow.

Add plants to the room: In-house greenery has more than one benefit – it adds to beauty, it filters the air, it creates a pleasant atmosphere in the room and so on.

Here are some plants you should keep in your room.

Add fabrics: Texture is a very important aspect of room design. And what better way of adding texture to your room than adding or substituting some fabrics?

For example, you could repurpose some bedsheets that aren’t used as window curtains and vice versa.

In fact, adding curtains and textures is a great way of decorating a small space.

Get new hardware: New hardware like cabinetry and shelves can completely change the look of a room.