If you’ve recently purchased a home in the Florida Keys, you’ll want to make it your own. Before you begin decorating your new home, read this post – filled with valuable information from top coastal designers.
Don’t start to design without a plan!
First and foremost, avoid the urge to race to nearest Home Depot and start making purchases. Five, ten or twenty years from now, you won’t want your house to scream: Home Depot circa 2017. SLOW DOWN and resolve to live with your current furnishings for just a little while longer.
If you’ve purchased a home in the Florida keys, odds are great that you want to design it in a coastal style. But what Coast? Now is the time to start brain-storming. Where did your love of the sea come from? What are some of your fondest memories? What is your heritage? Consider your unique personalities, hobbies, interests, inspirations and influences.
Are you or your partner an avid sportsman, artist, musician or author? You may want to incorporate this into your design. Avid football fans may want to consider building a large outdoor entertaining area. A writer or artist will covet a quiet, contemplative space with great views.
What is your favorite coastal destination?
Savannah Georgia, with it’s cobblestone streets, plantation mansions and carriage lights.
New Orleans with it’s ornate wrought iron gates and balconies, vivid colors, rich tapestries, antiques and religious artifacts.
Cape Cod’s clapboard houses with wrap-around porches, ship-lap walls, nautical antiques, artifacts and art.
Cuba’s Spanish influenced architecture, lushly landscaped courtyards, thick stucco and time-worn accessories with rich patinas.
San Francisco’s grand Victorian era homes with ornate gingerbread architectural embellishments, kaleidoscope colors, lace curtains, antiques and curated collections of art.
Find a style that speaks to you.
Plan to design a home that you will love ten or twenty years from now. Curate it with cherished items you’ve collected over time. Before you buy anything, spend time on the internet visiting high-end coastal realty sites. Capture images of properties or rooms you love and use them to create a dream home folder.
Know how the story ends.
Approach designing your home the way writers approach great novels. They always know how the story begins and how it will end… writing the actual book is just a tedious process of filling in the details.
Clearly define the look you are going for, then proceed methodically, one room or even one project at a time. Resist the urge to start new projects until others are finished. Understand that it may take several years to reach your goal. Start with your common and entertaining spaces. If you are really patient, you may want to start with your exterior landscaping….by the time the interiors of your Coastal Italian Villa are complete, the olive trees you planted outside will shade your backyard patio.
Create a home design planner
Create a project list that looks something like this:
LANDSCAPING
EXTERIOR COLOR PALETTE
INTERIOR COLOR PALETTE
FLOORING
LIGHTING
DOORS
WINDOW COVERINGS
FURNISHINGS
ACCESSORIES
Spend plenty of time researching options and pricing materials. Create mood boards for individual rooms then combine them together. Look for items that will tie the look together. You don’t have to use the same wall color in every room, but the colors should complement one another. Try to find a floor that works seamlessly throughout the entire home. Botanical prints in the master bedroom should mimic the exterior landscape. If you have have wrought iron patio furniture, carry that aesthetic into the kitchen with iron drawer pulls or hardware.
If your home is a starter home, think of every purchase as an investment that will eventually transfer seamlessly to your dream home. If you live in a square box now…but covet a different home in the future, purchase furnishings, art and accessories accordingly. Buy the sturdy wrought iron outdoor dining set now, that you envision dining at on the patio of your future dream home.
Happy Decorating!
