How To Build An Interior Design

If you fancy a go at designing your own interior but aren’t quite sure where to begin, we show you the steps you need to take in order to build your dream room scheme.

Research
First of all you need to do your research into what kind of colour palettes speak to you and what sort of mood you’re naturally drawn towards. We’d advise starting an Instagram folder or Pinterest board and scrolling through various home interiors, saving all of the ones you love. As time goes by you’ll begin to see patterns emerge from colour palettes to interior design styles.

Choose a starting point

Whether it’s a piece of artwork you love, a colour you’ve always wanted to use or a set of bedding you want to build your design around, it’s always good to have a starting point when it comes to building your dream scheme. From there you can pick a colour palette by drawing certain colours from your piece and building up from there. 

Consider other things in the room

Now you’ve chosen your starting point, you also need to consider what other items you have in your space that will be staying, such as flooring, window dressings, furniture and kitchen. If you’re starting from scratch, lucky you! But if not, you will need to choose a scheme that works with all the elements in your space.

Choose a wall colour or wallpaper
Considering both the existing elements of the room and your starting point, start to build a colour palette; firstly deciding on a wall colour or wallpaper. We’d advise sticking to a colour palette of between 1 and 3 key colours to build around. Using these colours, you can then choose varying shades of each to build texture through the use of soft furnishings such as rugs and cushions.

Don't forget the details
As well as your walls and ceilings, you'll need to consider your woodwork. Go for classic white for a more traditional look, the same colour as your walls (if you're painting them) for a more modern feel or a contrasting yet complementing colour to your paint or wallpaper for a bold and beautiful look. 

Build up texture
Whether you're sticking to a monochromatic palette (1 colour) or going bolder and using all 3, you can start to build up texture by adding patterned fabrics, natural materials and lighting.

Lighting
Lighting is an essential ingredient and has a huge impact on interior design, so remember to bear in mind when you're designing your room. Ideally you need more than one source of light including overhead, accent and task lights. For example a kitchen would have ceiling spotlights as the overhead lights, pendants over an island as task lighting and lamps as accent lighting. A bedroom would have a decorative ceiling fixture as the overhead light, wall picture lights lighting up artwork on the walls as the task lighting and bedside lamps as the soft accent lighting. 

Build a mood board
Once you have all your ideas, start to build a moodboard to include the paint, paper, furniture and accessories you'd like to include. It's great as a visual reference to make sure you're staying on the right tracks. We like to use Canva to build ours!

Bring your dream scheme to life
Next it's time to start decorating! We'd love to see your interior designs using Woodchip & Magnolia so don't forget to tag us on Instagram @WoodchipandMagnolia or email us your finished rooms at hello@woodchipandmagnolia.co.uk