Last Updated on 2 months by David Bergmann
What makes an apartment beautiful? A fundamental question that everyone answers differently. And that’s perfectly okay, because after all, it’s about YOU finding your home beautiful and feeling comfortable in it. There are few things more exciting than playing interior designer and decorating your own home, especially if it’s your first one! With these 7 interior design ideas we’ll show you, which principles you should consider when furnishing and how you can turn your new home into a timelessly beautiful retreat.
- Get inspiration
- Use a room planner app
- Be brave and use color!
- Furnishing styles: Mix and match!
- Let there be light!
- Materials and textiles
- Decoration: Add your personal touch
1. Get inspiration
An exciting phase before you start buying furniture and decorating your home is the search for furnishing ideas and sources of inspiration.
When it comes to interior design, there are countless creative approaches that you might not have thought of yourself. No matter whether it’s a small apartment, large apartment, teenager’s room, home office or simply additional storage space. You can now find furnishing tips for every room, every apartment size and every budget.
So our tip: broaden your creative horizons and look online, in magazines and in furniture stores beforehand. For example, you will not only find furnishings for sale in the well-known Swedish furniture store, but you can also be inspired by many perfectly furnished rooms thanks to its top interior designers.
However, there are also numerous websites, blogs and apps that are suitable as a source of inspiration and home ideas:
- Beautiful living
- Westwing
- Annabelle (Blog)
- Viennese sense of living (Blog)
- Apartment Therapy (English)
- Architectural Digest (English)
- ….to name just a few!
Even if there are naturally always certain trends (e.g. minimalism) that are heavily “advertised” on various social media channels and blogs: Be inspired, but stay true to your taste.
At the end of the day, you have to live in your new home and you have to like the furniture, decorative elements and wall color in the long term, not your Instagram or Pinterest followers (if you have any!).
2. Use a room planner app
Even if you have a strong imagination, a visual representation of your ideas is always helpful. There are now many good apps and tools that you can use to virtually furnish your new home in advance. It is best to ask the real estate agent or seller of the new apartment for a current apartment plan including measurements.
You can then use this to create a room plan of your new home in 2D or 3D. You can add walls, room dividers, windows and doors and experiment with different living styles and trends when furnishing.
You can try out different arrangements of the pieces of furniture – from sideboards and side tables to wall shelves. You will also get a better idea of what and how much space your new home actually has and can therefore avoid many furnishing mistakes. Advance planning is particularly useful for small rooms or rooms with an unusual floor plan.
A few well-known 3D planner apps are: Roomle, Roomeon, Roomstyler, Roomsketcher and Home Design 3D.
3. Be brave and use color!
White walls are widespread in the German-speaking world, after all, it’s always the “safe” choice – you can’t go wrong, can you? Yes and no. Even though “white” is a neutral color that goes with all furniture and textiles, it is a cold color that radiates little personality.
Colored walls have the advantage that they give rooms more character and radiate more coziness than pure white walls. Different colors make different statements and can have both a calming and stimulating effect.
In bedrooms, light colors or calming pastel shades (e.g. blue or green) are more likely to be chosen, in children’s rooms possibly a colorful wallpaper or strong, warm colors such as orange that stimulate action – depending on what you want to achieve.
But a combination of different colors is also possible. In principle, there are no limits to your imagination when it comes to the wall color, because ultimately it’s a matter of taste what “fits” and “doesn’t fit”. However, make sure that the color concepts appear harmonious, accentuated and lively. Complementary colors (opposite colors), for example, are a good option, they complement each other and set accents at the same time – for example blue & orange or yellow & violet.
Another good option is to get different color cards from the hardware store and hold them up to each other. This allows you to determine directly whether your selected shades harmonize with each other or not.
You can find a very detailed color guide with many different combination options on the Schöner Wohnen page.
4. Furnishing styles: Mix and match!
One challenge that many people face when furnishing their home is choosing a personal interior design style: modern, vintage, Scandinavian, industrial, country house…. Those who have the choice are spoiled for choice!
However, you don’t necessarily have to decide on a style. A good mix of different flavors is also possible.
You may already have some vintage-style furniture from your last home, but you now prefer a more modern style? No problem! With a little skill and courage, classic, antique pieces of furniture from the old apartment and modern, new furniture can be combined without any problems.
A mixture of different materials such as wood, glass, steel and different textiles is also possible. As long as the mix creates a coherent overall concept for you and gives you pleasure, there’s nothing to stop you!
5. Let there be light!
Even if the natural light that falls through the windows is particularly important, we can only influence it to a limited extent, as the building plan of an apartment is usually predetermined.
The right choice of artificial light is therefore particularly important. Try to place different light sources in one room – especially in the living rooms. These structure the room, giving it depth and cosiness: floor lamps, table lamps, pendant lamps, shelf lighting, fairy lights….
In very poorly lit rooms or rooms without windows, so-called “daylight lamps” are recommended. These are light sources that have a color spectrum similar to sunlight with 5300 to 6500 Kelvin. Such lights are also recommended if you are prone to winter depression and suffer from a lack of sunlight.
6. Materials and textures
First and foremost, you need to feel comfortable within your own four walls. Even if the white leather sofa with the black marble table looks very chic: Is it also comfortable? Remember that it’s the different materials that bring coziness into your home. That’s why you should always pay attention to the feel-good factor when choosing your furniture and textiles.
Cushions, curtains and rugs can not only give a room a lot of character but also a lot of coziness. Especially in winter, it is pleasant to stand with your feet on a fluffy carpet and not on a cold tiled or wooden floor.
Cushions and blankets in different materials and textures, especially natural fabrics such as linen, cotton, velvet and wool, add interest to a room and give it a timeless character.
7. Decoration: Add your personal touch
You can personalize your home with decorations such as pictures, plants, candles and other accessories.
A minimalist may have fewer decorative items than a collector, but even a few personal items give an apartment an individual character:
- Travel souvenirs: Bring a little nostalgia into your home.
- Works of art: Whether homemade or bought – a beautiful decoration for bare walls.
- Souvenirs: You can “honor” gifts from others in a display case or an open shelf, for example.
- Photos: are always more “personal” and “special” than bought photo prints in DIY stores or furniture stores. They look particularly beautiful in elegant picture frames!
In addition to attractive wall decorations, cleverly combined textiles in different colors and patterns can also create great accents in living spaces. You can also incorporate your own personal style here: From bohemian to country style, there are accessories to suit pretty much every taste.
Plants and flowers not only beautify a room, but also bring it to life, improve the indoor climate, have a sound-absorbing and calming effect.
Tip: Combine large and smaller plants and create your own little green oasis!
Conclusion:
A beautiful home is a great wish of many people in Switzerland. Particularly during or after a move, home furnishings and interior design become an issue. The new apartment should not only be an oasis of well-being, but should also reflect the personal taste and style of the residents.
Tip: Want to celebrate your beautiful new home with friends and family? Find ideas for your Housewarming party here!
Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik
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