Raise your hand if at some point during quarantine you went stir crazy and either started craving a major home remodel or started rearranging your furniture. 🙋🏻♀️ Though, it wasn’t really quarantine that brought that out in me. I’ve been rearranging furniture basically since the time I realized I could lift it.
Just ask my parents – they can tell you about the nights when I was a child they tucked me into bed and woke me up the next morning in a completely differently laid out bedroom. I had bunk beds as a child, and I think I rearranged my room just about every single way imaginable. Beds together, beds apart, in an L-shape, pushed together, on opposite sides of the room – I knew no limits. Clearly, I haven’t outgrown that habit either. Whenever I’m having an “off” day, rearranging my home is my therapy. It’s a chance to look at things in a new light, feel re-inspired, and fall back in love with my own home.
Our living room layout has changed about three times in the last month (sorry, Ryan) and each time I’m amazed at how different it makes the space feel. A lot of people say there is only one way their room can be laid out, but I beg to differ! If you’re craving a little change during this downtime, here’s how I go about either freshening up a space by moving just your home accents, or doing a complete layout overhaul!
Find Inspo & Make a Plan
This past weekend, I saw this photo in Lulu & Georgia’s new catalog, and loved something about it. I was inspired to try our sofa in front of our window and go from there. If you feel stuck with where to start, open up some of your favorite catalogs or hop on Pinterest and search ‘home decor.’ Look for rooms that have a basic floor plan similar to yours – a fireplace, doors, or windows in similar locations. Then, start paying attention to how those rooms are laid out. As you can see, nothing about my inspiration photo matches my home at all, but it gave me jumping off point because of where the fireplace and windows are located.
Start with the Big Items
This one is fairly common sense, but when thinking of a layout, I always start with the largest item in the room. For a living room, I’ll imagine the sofa in different locations, or in the bedroom, the bed. Once that is mapped out (you can literally tape things off if you want to get a better idea before moving things), work your way down in size. After the sofa, I’ll move the coffee table, then chairs. Keep filling in the space until the room feels balanced. I tried the chairs in three places this weekend until I figured out what felt right and functional.
For example, with the latest layout, moving the sofa to the window wall felt too heavy having two black accent shelves behind it. I moved them over to the other side of the room and added a floor lamp instead, and it helped the space feel more even and less cluttered. Keep in mind, you can always move it back if you hate it, so there’s no reason not to play around!
Another tip – don’t forget items can move from room to room! We just switched out the chairs in our living room for ones that were previously in our library, and it feels brand new. After moving that, something felt off, so I moved our kitchen credenza into the living room, and swapped it with the black table that was previously in there. It’s all about trial and error until a space feels cohesive.
Restyle Home Accents
Not ready to do the heavy lifting? You can still create a completely fresh feeling room by just restyling home accent pieces. I did this over on stories a couple of weeks ago, and it made such a difference! I always start by removing ALL of my accent pieces from a room. I’ll then group everything I have together by type (ie. candles, vase, art, decorative objects, books, lamps, etc).
Next, pull up some inspiration photos and see how you can create those moments you love in your own home. As you can see in the two spaces above, I didn’t do much heavy lifting, but by swapping out the bar car for a plant, adding a table behind the sofa, and changing smaller accents, I was able to create a whole new feel in the room.
Another favorite tip is to switch around your artwork. I’m constantly moving pieces from room to room, which helps keep a space feeling fresh without constantly investing in new things. I do the same things with pillows and blankets. Shop your own home and I promise it will feel like new again. Happy rearranging!