3 Steps to Getting your Dream Space - Prioritize Your Needs
3 Steps to Getting Your Dream Space - Prioritize Your Needs
So it’s a new year and you want to turn over a new leaf, organize your closet, attempt to lose weight, get in shape, stop consuming so much sugar, refresh your living space, aaaaand save the world. Whew! That’s a lot of ambition! While I can’t help you put down that extra donut, I can help steer you in the right direction when it comes to refreshing your living space.
But you say, “I want a new look for my home right now!” Newsflash. We can’t snap our fingers and have a brand new abode appear right before our eyes (even though we would LOVE to see that happen). We are not magicians.
You absolutely can get what you want but it may take a little bit of time and the dreaded “p” word…patience. You don’t have to have it all done at the same time.
One of the things I often suggest to my clients and potential clients is that design can be done in phases. You still inevitably get your dream space but there are some things that are required of you too. Quid pro quo my love.
In the spirit of not overwhelming you, I’m going to break that elephant down into manageable pieces that you can chew and eventually consume.
I’m going to treat this like a little mini-series and over the next couple of blog posts, I’ll explain what I believe are the three main aspects of designing your space over time.
Rack and Stack
The first thing you need to do is “rack and stack”. In other words, prioritize which rooms you’d like to redo. If every room is important than none of them are important. You dig? Yes, it would be awesome to be able to design every room in your home all at once and you can do that if you have deep pockets.
Identify Paint Points
Most of us are on a budget and have X amount of dollars we want to invest in our home. So my first question is, what are your pain points? Do you have a kitchen that’s outdated and not very functional because it’s cramped and you can’t open the dishwasher without hitting a cabinet?
Take Inventory
Do you have zero storage in the main bathroom that everyone uses? Go through your home and take an inventory of all of the things you don’t like about your space. Write it down like you’re making a grocery list.
Once you’ve done that, sit down and really take a look at your list so you can begin to assign a level of priority to each item. Keep it simple by just numbering them – 1 being the most important and your highest number being the least important.
Double Check your Inventory
Once you have prioritized every item on your list, take a look at it again and ask yourself, “what can I live with? Will it kill you to have extra toiletries all over the bathroom counters due to a lack of storage or will it just be more of a temporary nuisance?
Compare that to a non-functional kitchen that perhaps you use every day and you can barely move around in it because it’s so cramped and the layout is horrible.
These are all things you need to consider because it will help you truly figure out what you can and want to spend the money on to improve the way you live. It will also put you at ease knowing you will only be doing one or maybe two rooms at a time, rather than the whole house.
If you’re still stuck on what you should do, I recommend starting with the main living areas of a home. This could be the kitchen, living room, and entry way. It may be different for everyone but those spaces are always a good place to start.
The entry way is the first thing people see when they come into someone’s house. The kitchen is the “hub” or heart of the home and in a lot of houses that are open concept, the kitchen opens up to a living room or great room.
Families and friends gather in this area where the homeowners can entertain and chat with them while they’re preparing a meal.
As mentioned above, make sure you consider what your immediate needs are of not just you but the other members of the household. You want your home to flow and be functional to your particular lifestyle.
Planning is key to getting what you want and this takes time. Don’t skip this step just because it’s not the most glamorous step in the process. It’s not pretty but when your space transforms from blah to amazing, you’ll be so glad you did it!
While you chew on that, stay tuned for the next important aspect of designing your dream space in my next blog post coming soon!
Stay tuned for more interior design tips and tricks!