How to Take Your Design Style with You When Moving Homes

This is a collaborative post.

Excited about moving to a new house? Congratulations! One problem you’re about to run into is design. You’ve probably spent years decorating and designing your current place and all your hard work is about to be ripped apart.

Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. While the exact decor of your new place will depend on its layout and your personal preference, you can always incorporate design elements from your old place into your new house.

This will not only save you money but also the time and mental energy it will take to furnish your new place from scratch. And of course, you won’t waste the items you currently have. 

Here are some helpful ideas.

Swap furniture!

First, make sure all your furniture gets to your new place safely by finding furniture removalists with Muval or similar comparison sites. Damaged furniture will make your new place ugly. 

Once you move your furniture, consider swapping different furniture elements and see if you can get a new look with the same, old items. This is going to be a bit tricky because furniture usually comes in “sets”, and all elements of a set are designed to complement each other.

However, after some trial and error, you may be able to achieve a brilliant look that doesn’t seem odd. Chairs are the easiest bit of furniture to swap. For example, you can swap the kitchen chairs with your dining table chairs.

If swapping all chairs looks awkward, try swapping only the head chairs between the two sets.

Use pictures.

Pictures make for excellent design elements and chances are you’re already using them to style your current place.

Pictures are also one of the easiest design elements to transfer to a new place. One great idea is a picture wall, where you dedicate an entire wall of your house to pictures that mean the most to you.

Not only will this add warmth to your new place, but it’s also going to serve as a cheap design hack!

Make new purchases smartly. 

Let’s be realistic — you can’t use everything from your old house for styling your new place. After all, a new place should feel new, so you’ll inevitably need to make some new purchases.

Unless you want to drastically change the design style of your new place, you can incorporate some of the aesthetic themes of your old house into your new purchases.

Begin by taking a close look at all the style elements of your current house. Make a list of all the items you have and divide them into two groups — items that you’ll take along and items that you will let go.

Once you shortlist the items you’re going to take along, try to find similarities between them. This will help you discover your “design personality”. Keep this list with you when you’re shopping for new items and you’ll be able to carry a large part of your current design concept to your new place.

Play with the lights. 

Many people believe that lighting is the most important aspect of interior design. Good lighting can light up a relatively dull area while bad lighting can spoil even the most brilliantly designed spaces.

Studying your current lighting system carefully and replicating it in your new house can help you retain a large part of your design style. What areas are currently highlighted? What areas are relatively darker? Have you used lights to landscape the exterior of your house?

However, a better practice would be to improve upon your current lighting style (yes, there’s always room for improvement). While you can get new lights, you don’t have to. If you’re on a tight budget, consider rewiring your old light fixtures to give your place a new look. 

You can also use household items to make new lights. Although this is going to take considerable time and effort, it’s going to save you a lot of money. One interesting idea is to combine old jars and LED bulbs to create farmhouse-style lights. There are many more lighting ideas on the internet, and you shouldn’t hesitate to try them out!

Don’t ignore functionality.

Realize that the ultimate goal of good design is to provide good functionality. When thinking about styling a new place, people tend to get carried away by extremely fancy ideas that are not only difficult and expensive to implement, but also provide poor functionality.

Your house is for relaxing. Make sure your design style complements this purpose!