How to Choose Your Apartment Decor When There Are SO MANY Options
Struggling to choose your apartment decor due to the fact that SO MANY pretty options out there? I feel that!
Choosing home decor can be daunting; you may be wondering how to find your decorating style, trying to figure out your small apartment aesthetic within limited space, seeking out small apartment tips so you can make it all look stylish... all while simply attempting to narrow down all the different decor options available to you. It's a lot!
In this video, I'm walking you through my step-by-step process for tackling the decorating overwhelm and figuring out if a piece of decor is right for you. So the next time you're shopping for apartment decor, you can go through this checklist and make a confident decision that aligns with your authentic personal interior style!
Video Transcript ↓
Do you ever find yourself scrolling through a site like Etsy or Society6, trying to find decor for your apartment, but you're left feeling completely overwhelmed with the sheer daunting number of options you're confronted with…
✨Shiny object here! Shiny object there!✨
…And therefore you can't seem to make any decisions at all?
It’s like some mischievous little decor goblin is guarding the bridge to your dream apartment, and in order to cross it, you must solve its riddles three.
And all of his riddles revolve around things like, “Will this look good in my apartment? Will this make me happy? What is my style anyway? Who even am I?”
It's enough to make you turn away from that bridge to your dream apartment and just say “Peace out decor goblin. Your riddles have bested me and I am opting out from making any decisions at all.”
But the problem with that is it means you are not creating the beautiful, inspiring apartment you deserve.
You have to make decisions when it comes to decorating your space. Even if it often feels like an unsolvable riddle.
So in this video, I'm gonna walk you through my step by step process to choosing the right decor for you, amidst a never ending sea of options, so that you can finally start making confident decisions that benefit your apartment and your lifestyle!
Less overwhelm, less self-doubt, and less goblins involved. 🙃
And before we dive in, I wanted to let you know that you can now watch my free workshop, "Decorate Your Dream Apartment Without Spending Money on the Wrong Decor For You" whenever you want!
In this FREE, 1-hour workshop, I’ll teach you how to…
Discover your personal style so you can decorate a space that feels like YOU
Create mood boards to help you visualize what your apartment could look like before buying things
Shop for decor in a way that will save you money and allow you to buy things that actually fit your space and your personality
If all that sounds like exactly what you need to create the dreamy apartment you’ve been yearning for, click here to watch the workshop!
1. The Sparkle Check
So the first step I recommend to figuring out if you should actually buy a certain piece of decor is to ask yourself, “does it give me that sparkly feeling in my chest?”
And what I mean by this is…
Do you feel that really excited, sparkly, I’m-in-love feeling when you're looking at a piece of decor?
Does this piece of decor feel more like a long-term relationship or does it feel like more of a one night stand?
If it feels like the latter, then it's probably not worth spending your money on. As fun as a good one night stand can be. 😉
No, we're trying to get you to a place where you're spending your hard-earned money on things that give you the sparkly feelings!
The whole reason why I'm doing this video, by the way, is this actually came up when I was talking to a group of my Small Apartment Styling School students yesterday on Zoom.
We were doing a fun Q+A session where I was giving apartment styling advice to them, and one of my students asked a question that had to do with this exact thing. She has hundreds of things saved on Society6 on her wishlist. And she just was like, “How do I choose what to actually buy??”
And this is all too common. There are so many pretty things out there, but it's a matter of finding the right pretty things for you.
And not just based on their prettiness level, but based on how much they resonate with you and how much they give you those sparkly feelings.
So when you're looking at a piece of decor, do the sparkle check!
and if you want more help figuring out which interior styles might give you those sparkly feels, watch this video quiz I created! ↓
2. What’s the story?
So once a piece of decor passes your sparkle test, then it's time for step two, which is to think about whether or not it fits in the overall visual story you're trying to tell in your space.
When you're shopping for decor, you honestly shouldn't be buying things as individuals. You should be buying things thinking of the greater whole and how they fit in it.
So what is the overall picture you're trying to paint in your space and does that one piece of decor fit in that picture?
You want to visualize the role that a piece of decor is going to play in the story you're telling.
And if you have no idea what the overall visual story you're trying to tell in your space is, think about it this way:
If your apartment were a movie, what genre would it be?
Look around your apartment right now and ask yourself that!
Or think about what images on Pinterest really inspire you. Think about those spaces as stories, as movie genres, and think about what story or movie genre you want your space to evoke.
For example, my space is definitely on the darker, moodier side. There's a lot of black and white photography of musicians in here, a lot of gloomy weather artwork, various pieces of skull imagery, and yet it also feels really warm and cozy.
These are all the various characters in the movie of my apartment!
And when you add all those pieces together, I would say my movie genre in here is rock and roll horror movie. Something like that.
So try thinking about your apartment in this way and see if it helps inform what the overall visual style and story you want to tell might be.
And once you have that bigger story, that bigger vision, that bigger style you're going for, then you can zoom in on a single piece of decor and figure out:
Does this piece of decor belong in the story? Does this belong in the movie? Would this character make sense in my movie? Or would it feel totally out of place and incongruous to the plot?
3. The Practical Stuff
Step three when it comes to figuring out if you should buy a certain piece of decor is actually the practical stuff, like measuring out if it will physically fit in your space.
And if it does physically fit in this space, then it's a matter of figuring out if it fits in terms of scale and proportion. How would it measure up to the other things within the space? Will it look like it fits in and flows well, or will it look too small and dwarfed compared to the other things? Or will it look too large and too overwhelming for the space?
Just because an item will physically fit in your space doesn't mean it will flow well with everything else. And that's where you need to take scale and proportion into consideration.
And I understand it's hard to visualize this. It's one of the tough things when it comes to picking decor. But the best you can do is measure things out - literally take a tape measure and measure out the dimensions of the piece you're thinking about buying and do your very best to visualize how it will look in the space.
Another practical thing you'll want to consider is return policy.
Because if that thing doesn't end up fitting well in your space once you actually get it in, then you want to be able to make sure that you can return it. Unless you're willing to take the risk, which is fair too. But definitely look at the return policy. Figure that out so that you know what you're signing up for!
Watch this video of mine for more practical small apartment styling tips! ↓
4. Sparkle Check No. 2
So if a single piece of decor passes the sparkle check, and it also fits within the visual story you're trying to convey in your space, and it will physically fit in terms of measurement, scale, and proportion into your space, then it's time for the final step to the process of deciding whether or not a piece of decor is worthy of you in your space.
And that is to do a final sparkle check!
If, after going through the three steps I've talked about, you still feel that smitten, sparkly, excited, feeling in your chest about a piece of decor, then it is probably worth buying.
And the main reason why you want to do a final sparkle check before clicking add-to-cart is it's entirely possible that, after going through the first three steps, you might kind of start realizing that it's maybe not as good of a fit as you initially thought.
So before you ultimately pull the trigger on a piece of decor or furniture, do one last check-in with yourself. Are you still smitten? Are you still excited? Are you still feeling the sparkly feels?
And if that's the case, then my friend, you have found a piece of decor that is worthy of you. And I say, buy it!
Watch this video for my tips on saving money on the decor you decide to buy! ↓
Just remember that you can only create your dream apartment if you take action. And at a certain point, you just have to take that leap of faith and trust that you've done the inner work prior to buying, and then just enjoy your decor from there. And do your best not to second-guess your choices.
Shopping for decor doesn't have to feel like a shitty riddle given by a shitty decor goblin. Instead, it can feel fun. It can feel light. It can feel empowering. And it can feel like you are authentically expressing your creative self.
Remember, this is all supposed to be fun!
Let me know in the comments below, where do you get hung up in the decor shopping process? Do you have a hard time figuring out what pieces you should actually buy? Do you ever feel overwhelmed with all the options? Let me know what shopping for decor is like for you below!
And if you’re still not sure how to create your dream apartment and you're wondering things like:
“How do I discover my personal style so that I can make these good choices for my decorating?”
“How do I become more confident in my interior styling choices?”
“How do I mix styles?”
“How do I actually arrange things in my apartment?”
Then I got you covered…
If you're wanting to dive deeper into learning about how to style your apartment step by step, that's where my online course Small Apartment Styling School comes in!
Small Apartment Styling School basically holds your hand through your styling process and tells you exactly what to do step-by-step, so by the end of the course you feel like you know your style, you know what to buy, and you know how to place it in your apartment with confidence.
Imagine living in an apartment that actually boosts your mood everyday and makes you feel welcome, and makes you feel a sense of belonging and being at home.
Just because you rent your space doesn't mean you can't own your style, and Small Apartment Styling School helps you do that!
My current students have been a raving about how helpful the course was for decorating their apartments and I am so proud of what they've achieved after enrolling in the course!
Small Apartment Styling School will help you decorate your apartment step by step, including:
Figuring out your personal style
Choosing a color palette
Mixing different interior styles
Learning about the different interior styles that are out there and which ones might be a good fit for you
Arranging and accessorizing your apartment room by room - living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom.
All of this and more is in Small Apartment Styling School, so if you want to learn more and join the waitlist for the next time it opens for enrollment, click here!
For daily glimpses into my studio apartment life, you can follow me on Instagram @moda.misfit.
And for regular doses of apartment styling tips and small space decor inspiration, subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when a new video goes up every week.