Step 2 – Six Steps to Your New Look – Step by Step Redecorating

So, you have an idea file. You know what you like. You have walked through furniture stores and gotten ideas. You have inventoried what you already have and decided whether it is staying or going.

2-Develop a plan.

Measure your room and put it on graph paper. Mark in the windows and the doors. Make sure that you mark in the swing of the door.

Measure any furniture that is staying. You can sketch it on another piece of graph paper if you don’t really know how you will lay it out. Cut the furniture pieces out so that you can push them around. Make sure you leave plenty of walk space.

What are you going to use the room for?

This is the list when I planned my living room.

• Reading
• Watching TV
• Entertaining
• Easy to move the furniture to make room for more tables for a dinner party
• Easy conversation
• A fireplace
• Storage for sewing stuff

What do you have that is staying?

The only piece of furniture that I had that was staying is a large antique piece. It has two divided top drawers, a large bottom drawer and two big doors. I use it to store my stereo equipment.

What problems are you trying to solve?

The open floor plan makes it feel like all one big kitchen. I decided to raise the bar higher than the counter top to obscure the kitchen and replace the pot rack with three pendants over the bar.

So, here’s my list.

• Hardwood floors (throughout the whole house)
• Sofa
• 2 armchairs
• Floor lamps
• 2 end tables with lamps
• 1 floor lamp
• Coffee table, perhaps with storage
• Large floor rug
• 2 coordinating runners
• Steamer trunk to store fabric & sewing machine
• Add stairs to the attic with storage under it
• Drapes that close and make the room dark enough for guests to sleep
• Replace the wood stove with a fireplace
• Remove the wallpaper and paint the only wall that is not logs

Make a timeline. Some things have to be done first. Other things it doesn’t matter.

I started with the floor. I selected wood that was almost the same color as the log walls.The logs are made of red cedar that has naturally aged. The ceiling is almost identical in color. I found a cherry colored prefinished wood.