When I asked for tips on how to decorate the house I’m in the process of buying the most common tip I received was to pick a style and buy slowly and intentionally. That idea makes sense until I realized that I have no idea what different styles of decorating are, let alone what my style will be.

One of the big things that I have to keep myself from falling into is the trap so many of my peers have, which is to try to replicate the standard of living that it took my parents thirty years to create, all within the first few months of having my own house. Initially I am going to be on a very tight budget and unlike many people, I will not be using debt to furnish my new home. To try to soften the blow I’ve been picking up things here and there for a while that I think wild be useful, but as I look at the pieces I’ve amassed over the years there really doesn’t seem to be a common theme other than I got a good deal on it. Hopefully things will fall into place and make more sense as I place items throughout a house as opposed to stacked on top of each other in storage.

I don’t have a lot of money tied up in any of the furnishings I have purchased to date, so I won’t be heart broken over replacing anything and my goal certainly isn’t to have a “bachelor pad” or “college dorm room” feel to my new home. In the beginning things are going to be spartan and rough, but hopefully that will only be temporary. I don’t claim to have any interior design expertise at all, but I do have a pretty good idea of what I think looks good and what doesn’t. Watching TV shows or looking at articles for ideas hasn’t been as helpful as I’d hoped as it seems that when they redo a room there is little to no attention given to any sort of budget.

I’m going to try to keep my eyes open and pay more attention to design elements in my friends homes and in the world around me. Two things I have learned as I have been doing research is that even if I won’t be able to live up to them initially, I have pretty high standards, and I’ve determined quite a few decorating mistakes that I don’t want to make. Hiring a professional design consultant certainly isn’t in the cards, but hopefully with some help from my friends I’ll be able to figure out my own sense of style sooner than later.