A Beginner’s Guide to DIY Interior Design
These are the 8 steps we took to DIY our modern home’s interior design.
When we bought our house in Summer 2020, we were so excited about the renovation possibilities that we didn’t even think about what we’d put in it.
At that point, we didn’t have any real furniture, other than an old credenza, a bar cart, and a pair of lamps. (I did have a storage unit full of books, though!)
We needed everything - bed, kitchen table, couch, dishes, all the way down to a vacuum. More importantly, we needed to get on the same page about what our home should look and feel like.
All the sudden, interior design was important. Trouble was, the only thing I knew about interior design came from a Kelly Wearstler Masterclass.
Here’s what I did know:
Interior design is all about creating a feeling in a space.
That, we could do.
We both have pretty specific taste: modern and minimalistic. My taste runs more earthy, natural, and even antiqued, while Nils prefers cleaner lines, finer finishes, and cooler colors. There’s a lot of overlap, but as anyone will tell you, the devil’s in the details.
Over time, we realized we’d accidentally established a multi-step process to find alignment as we were DIY-ing our interior design. I’m sharing it in the hopes that it reduces stress, gets everyone on the same visual page, and fosters more constructive conversations, like it did for us!
Here’s our 8-step process to DIY interior design.
Throughout this process, Pinterest was my best friend.
If you’re interested, you can download the free DIY Interior Design Guidebook here! It will help you implement these 8 steps, and foster collaborative, constructive conversations with your design partner.
Here’s how I DIY’d my way into a modern interior design concept:
1. Start with Your “Happy Place”
First, we talked about which spaces and places made us feel the best and tried to define why.
We realized that we both resonate strongly with natural elements, like the light in Santorini and Tuscany, and the lush plant life in Savannah. It’s not interior design, per se, but let us both realize that we care a lot about how interior spaces relate to the outside.
2. Explore Shared Inspiration
On Pinterest, I’d save and screenshot the pictures of rooms that I liked most. At that point, I was searching things like “modern living room furniture” and “minimalist kitchen.”
3. Make a Sharable Design Book
Then, I created a Google Slides presentation, with one slide for each room I was trying to find furniture for. I’d add my favorite pictures to that slide, like a moodboard.
4. Ensure Alignment
Next up: getting alignment. I showed Nils these pictures, and he’d tell me which ones he liked, and which ones he didn’t.
5. Exercise Veto Power
When he didn’t like one, I’d remove and replace with a different image that highlighted a feature, color, or style that he did resonate with. This way, we made sure that the direction was right.
Both of us had veto power, and we really stuck to that. Only when we were both happy (or happy enough to live with it) did we even consider buying.
6. Review and Refine
A few days later, we’d look at the updated images and see if we were on the right path.
7. Set Your Budget
IMO budget is a sticking point in interior design. I’d recommend talking about it (with yourself and your design partner) early and often.
Early on, we set an interior design budget of $10-15K for the whole house, including lighting. While this might seem like a lot (it did to us!), we found out quickly that this was slim for a larger, older house. Sticking to our budget meant exploring affordable mass-market options, hunting for discounts, and scouring Craigslist.
If I found something incredible, I would ask myself if it was worth its percentage of the allocated spend. (We used this strategy when deciding whether to purchase a designer dining table, and we ultimately decided not to.)
I’m happy to say that so far, this strategy has helped us stay under budget.
8. Start Shopping
When we got to an agreement, I’d then start shopping. I’d grab an image of the product, the link, and the price, and drop those all into a slide in the presentation, too.
9. Finalize and Buy!
Then, we looked at the actual products together and would make sure we both liked them, and felt like they were a good fit for what we were going for.
Because I know someone will ask: here are our favorite online modern furniture stores.
Hopefully those 9 steps provide a helpful framework as you start your own modern interior design project!
One year later, the interior design is still a work-in-progress; we’ve changed our minds about how rooms should feel, and shifted around where our furniture lives. But this is part of the journey, too.
When we get a little closer to the end of the remodel, we’ll share a few photos of the final results of our concepting.
