How to style a professional looking room by yourself

Updated: Sep 29, 2021

Hello my darlings! I have been away from writing blogs for a while but I promise you I was busy creating content that I will be able to share with you now on a more regular basis. :D So keep tuned! (And subscribe at the bottom of the page so you will have it in your inbox every two weeks or so.)

How many times did you try to "replicate" a look of a beautiful room you have seen on Pinterest or the latest magazines, that you loved so much and saved ages ago and then when time comes, you do it, just to end up in disappointment and wondering why yours doesn't look the same by far?

Where you have looked at a house with new wall panelling or amazing colours and design, you have pinned lots of pictures for you to attempt.

Or you think you have it all figured out in your head but the end result is just not quite what you wanted. I know... This was happening to me too, even at the early years of being an interior designer.

So what is going wrong? Is it even possible to do it without professional help? My answer is yes! While an original and innovative design idea or a truly "thinking out of the box" feature almost always require a pair of professional eyes, decorating a room to make it similar to another (like the one in the picture) is not actually that difficult.

Think about a chef, who's job is to create recipes of a beautiful meal. You might not be able to do it all, BUT you CAN follow a recipe! Yayy!

So, when the time comes, you look for inspirations. The starting point of this is to identify your vision, i.e. how do you want the room to look and feel.

You may have something in mind about what style you are looking for but a search based on style often narrows down your choices too early in the process.

Based on your vision, look for inspiration.

This is how it goes:

collect your inspirational pictures (collect as many as you like, use Pinterest or just a folder with saved images, or even a traditional scrap book - whichever you prefer, it is your choice)
narrow down the selection to 10 then 5 then 2. Now this may be hard, because you may like something in one and another thing in another one. But I want to give you a super safe recipe here, so I recommend you trust the process ;) The way you can do this (you can do it!) is always deciding between only two at a time. Like... which one of these two? This one. then take another and compare that two, and so on... (You can try this with your children in a toy shop when they cannot choose which one and only toy they can get that day :D)
when you have only two, you really need to see why those two are the winner. Are they similar in some ways? Are they completely different? If they are very similar, then you can keep the two. If they are very different, well..., I'm afraid you have to choose just one. But hey! They are both beautiful, so you WILL HAVE a beautiful room after all.
So now, looking at the picture carefully, we are going to make the list of "ingredients".

I have picked a simple bedroom for this demonstration, but it works in ANY room, just it may make a longer list of ingredients. Do not miss out ANYTHING that you can see on the picture, though. Not one thing! Do not! No, not even that hat in the corner!

You need to be specific of what you see. Just in a cooking recipe, you need to know what and how much and when and what to do, etc...

I created this little styling board as a guide, but, of course, you can create your own, similar to this..

At the bottom of the page you can also download this in pdf for yourself and keep it handy for later.

I also started filling in what I can see in the room, but even this simple room has quite a lot of items that makes the whole, so I didn't quite get to the end and will continue on a second page.

I would really like to stress the importance of listing and sourcing everything that you see here! Would this room be the same without the plants? The cushion and the throw? And without the hats on the wall? And how about the subtle pendant light?

No, it would not be the same. And the small section of the wall painted grey may not seem significant but it really has an impact. Be thorough and observant, and follow the recipe and you will be successful!

Here is a template that you can use as your guide and slip in your bag for shopping :) so that you can be sure not to buy something that is not on the list our doesn't mach a criteria. It may happen that you don't find something for a while, but that is OK! Just keep the styling board handy, you can also pick up some colour watches from paint shops, as well, that goes with it, so there is no failed purchase. However, if you did buy something you regret later, do not stick with it. I know it will feel like a waste but you can just give it away or swap it or even sell it.

Keeping an unwanted item does not justify its place in your home!

Good luck! And pretty please let me know if you succeded with my method! I would be delighted to see some of your pictures, as well.

Any questions? Do not hesitate to ask in the comment section or in private message.

Till next time xxx, Agi