My room is truly my happy place. You could say it’s my sanctuary at this point. If you haven’t seen my room, you should definitely check out my room tour on YouTube. I walk you through where I purchased and picked out everything. I’ve gotten so many questions about how I came up with my design approach. You all have been asking for tips and tricks for decorating to achieve the Instagram worthy room or apartment on a budget for ages. And yes, you can follow all of these as a fresh-faced college grad. I’m breaking it down from start to finish and I’d just like to throw out a disclaimer: I definitely spent too much time planning out my room [at least 2 or 3 months]. Anyway, let’s get into the blog post!
I wrote a very detailed room tour post in August with links to most of my furniture and decor.
Study Pinterest for decorating inspiration.
I suggest studying Pinterest for a variety of reasons. One, it will help you narrow down what you want aesthetically. I started by pinning anything that I thought was cute at first. I didn’t want to commit too soon to any one idea because I’m a fickle human. However, you’ll probably begin to notice that you end up saving the same styles. Also, you never know how you’re physical apartment will change the layout that you may envision. I ended up having to change my decor strategy because my room has no closet, but I wanted most of my clothes to be physically in my room. This is now the focal point of my room. but started as an intense source of stress. It’s why the rest of my room is devoid of color and distracting patterns to avoid it all being too overpowering.
When you’re actually serious about starting to plan out what you want to do with your room, narrow down your pins to your top choice. I thought about stores and options that would be in my price range to bring my vision to life. I knew I would be shopping IKEA, Target, and HomeGoods. These stores always have city chic items so I knew it would work out nicely. My greenery plant friends and girly pastel friends will find super success at these stores too!
Search for bloggers/content creators living in your city.
This can also be a source of inspiration for sure. But, I personally didn’t have much luck as it seems every content creator has a budget 10x what I was working with and I’d finish videos feeling frustrated. This is more of a tip to help you figure out how apartments are built in your specific city. For example, I learned that the apartments that I’d likely be considering would have square wooden floor tiles, radiators, and no overhead lighting. I looked for girls and guys who were closest to my age and if they were college students are freshly out of college that was even better.
This will also help you guesstimate how much space you have in the kitchen for Tupperware and whether or not you should invest in a simple hallway bench to help keep your winter boots organized and hidden.
Clothing Racks | Letterboard Sign | Jewelry Organizer
Put your interior designer hat on: make a rough sketch/blueprint of each room to scale.
I’m a type a crazy person, but I actually found that the blueprint that I made to the actual scale of my room helped me immensely. It helped me see how much space I would actually have left over once I had assembled the essentials [bed, desk, drawer, clothing racks]. When you are looking at apartments, make sure to take measurements [or ask your realtor/landlord] what the dimensions of the room are. I made my blueprint in adobe illustrator, but you can also use basic shapes in Microsoft Word or a piece of paper in that journal you haven’t opened since you bought it.
Set a hard budget and start estimating how much each piece will cost you.
Budgeting is big here because it is very easy to get yourself in trouble. furniture is a lot more expensive than you think, or maybe that was just something I wasn’t expecting. I could have easily blown my budget on a very cute bed frame, but I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to live out of my suitcase and needed to also have enough money to buy a dresser. My best tip for budgeting is to make a physical list of everything that you plan on buying and how much each final item costs. Do not diverge from the list and do not add things precariously.
Ikea Raskog Cart | Makeup Organizers
Determine which pieces you want to invest in and which items can be second hand or from budget stores.
Part two of budgeting is identifying your investment pieces. Figure out what you can save a lot of money on if you purchase now, but use over the next several years. I will probably sell or donate most of my IKEA pieces just because moving furniture from the city is a nightmare. Mattresses, sofas, and rugs are all items that you could invest in now and use for a really long time. Also, I’m not saying that affordable budget items will make you sacrifice quality. I do think that investing in some better pieces will save you money in replacement costs down the road. If I lived alone or in an apartment where I needed to furnish the living room, I would have definitely purchased a sofa that I truly loved and taken it with me into my next few apartments.
Worry about the frilly decorations last.
This one is really important. I always watch videos where someone has purchased a focal decorative piece. But, it’s before they’ve even signed the lease to their apartment. Whether it’s a funky chair, a cool bookshelf set, or some other random decorative and functional item, I personally would say don’t buy it before you’ve planned out everything else. You don’t want to be stuck with a random piece of furniture that will be hard to pawn off to someone else if need be. ONLY buy these decor pieces if you truly couldn’t live without them and stop being dramatic about it. Graphic prints, random trinkets, and other decor items can be filtered in later. My mom has always told me, “ good things come to those who wait.” Momma is always right ya know.
Hopefully, that gives you a little insight into how I approached planning, furnishing, and decorating my room. The whole process should be fun and give you a way to express your own creativity. How are you approaching the moving process and do you even prioritize the decorative aspect of furnishing your apartment? Sound off in the comments!! They make me happy!
Desk Chair | iMac | Desk Lamp
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keep on keepin’ on,
