How To Decorate Like An Interior Designer In 12 Easy Steps

Let’s face it - Decorating is fun, but girl it ain’t easy.

ICYMI, I’m an Interior Designer & Decorator by profession, with years of experience working in London, Chicago, & now NYC. To say I love what I do is an understatement (#blessed).

While the process is fun & fulfilling, it is also long & requires multi-tasking, patience, pre-planning, & most of all, considering a million different things all at once.

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Not to fear! As your new, design-expert friend, I’m here to simplify the process for you! You’re welcome! I’ve rounded up my top tips for decorating any space by creating an easy 12-step process you can follow to decorate your space like an Interior Design expert!

Ready? Grab a pen, a notepad & keep reading to take your design journey into your own hands!! Let’s go!

Step 1: Define

What is your ‘why’?

First things first - define your project! This is the ‘why’ behind your new design. Figuring this out first is so essential, as it will later inform what items you do and do not choose. And if you ever feel lost or overwhelmed in the process, you can always refer back to your reason for the project. This can help re-focus you!

OK but how do you do this? Well, as a paid Interior Designer, my clients are the ones who let me know what their ‘why’ is. But here are some questions you can ask yourself:

• What room(s) am I decorating?

• What do I do in this room?

• What is my budget?

• When do I need this to be complete?

~ KEEKS Tip: Once you have answered these, keep those notes nearby to reference later! ~

Step 2: Refine

One thing about me, I LOVE Pinterest

Next step is to decide what your overall design vision is! If you’re ready to tackle a decorating project, you probably have an idea what decor styles you like. With this knowledge, go online and gather images that fit this style. For example if you are designing your living room and love contemporary style, you can try searching “contemporary living room design” in Pinterest, Google, Instagram, TikTok - or wherever you find visual inpso.

~ KEEKS Tip: Hop on Pinterest, create a whole new board for your new project & start pinning! ~

Step 3: #Mood-board it up

Get creative! Anything can be used as design inspo

One of my FAVE steps - next, you’ll create a moodboard! This can be as simple or detailed as you want. A moodboard is a visual presentation or ‘collage’ that can include images, text, & material samples. Your mood board will be used to convey a general feeling, or ‘mood’ you want to achieve for your project.

~ KEEKS Tip: Still confused? Check below for 2 recent moodboards I created for my clients. ~

This client ~a Makeup Artist~ loved color, pattern & a 70s glam aesthetic. For her I included images that featured strong geometry, 70s tones, and lots of color.. I finished it off with Pantone fabric swatches to explain the color palette I chose for her.

For this client, ~ a Fashion Designer ~ I included images based on her design style, that suggested a Japandi & Rustic feeling, with multiple images to reference Fashion Design & working from home. I finished it off with Pantone fabric swatches to explain the color palette I chose for her.

Step 4: Make a List

Make that list & check it twice

So you now know what room you are designing, why you want to design it and have a good idea how you want it to look. Great! Next, you’ll want to get a bit organized by creating a wishlist of sorts, including every type of item you want/need. Your list should include general items - for example “lounge chair” or “wall mirror” (we’ll get into specifics later). You’ll also want to note the quantity of each item you need.

~ KEEKS Tip - Creating a spreadsheet is so so helpful to keep track of what items you need! See below for an example ~

Include every item you need! From furniture to lighting, to art.

Step 5: Measure, measure, measure

Measuring is key!

Such a small but incredibly important step! You’ll need to measure your space to make sure every piece you source will fit. How much you measure will depend on your project. For example if you are designing your entire living room you should measure the entire perimeter of the room. If you are just refreshing your bedroom with accents, you may just need to measure for a new rug or just to keep in mind dimensions of your bed to design around it.



~ KEEKS Tip: If you are designing the entire room, try creating a floorpan layout of the room, featuring the items of furniture you listed in the previous step. See below for an example of a floorpan / furniture layout. ~

Floorplan by Happy Home Designs

Step 6: Make a Budget

Crunch those numbers boo!

Once you have your list and measurements, think of an overall budget you want to spend on everything. You can even go a step further and figure out a budget for each item. For example, if you want to plan to spend $900 maximum on a sofa, take note!

~ KEEKS Tip: add another column to your spreadsheet for budget! ~

Step 7: Browse

Think - “fabulous not perfect” & spend 30-45 min browsing per item, to save time!

Now it’s time for the really fun part! Start by browsing your favorite furniture and decor stores (here are some of mine), taking note of what pieces you like. A mix of online & in-store shopping is best, but I suggest browsing online as much as possible first for the biggest variety of options. Take note of what items you want by saving pics in a folder and saving links in a notes app or spreadsheet to reference later.

Need ideas where to shop? Check out 10 Great Stores To Buy Furniture From (Besides West Elm) and 11 BIPOC Decor Brands To Shop From Now (and Forever).

~ KEEKS Tip: don’t forget to shop your values! For example: as a Black designer & small business owner, I love highlighting & supporting other BIPOC owned brands & small businesses.

Step 8: Visualize

This next step is optional, but very beneficial IMO. Sometimes its hard to visualize how every item you’ve selected will look in your room, and you want to make sure the things you like will actually look good together, right? For this, I recommend creating a visual design board where you can put images of specific products together. Think of this as more of a “specific” moodboard, or what I like to call, a Design Board!

~ KEEKS Tip: I always create a room-by-room Design Board for each client, to help them visualize the overall design. See below for a Living Room Design Board I created for a previous client: ~

Step 9: Shop

I see you, CB2

Time to shop! As I mentioned before, I like to do a mix of online and in-person shopping as both have their own benefits. Online shopping has a huge variety of options at your fingertips & you can get things delivered and even set-up for you (#whiteglovedelivery). Whereas, shopping In-person is great to experience items before committing to it - whether you are confirming an item’s comfort, size, material or color.

~ KEEKS Tip: See something you like online but not 100% sure? Go to the actual store to see specific items in person, taking note of the color, material, and dimension in person. Then go back home and order! ~

Step 10: Set up

Once your items are delivered, you can begin setting everything up. This is the most ‘physical’ steps of all! This means building furniture and arranging pieces in your room according to the Floorplans & Design Boards you created earlier. You can DIY your room setup or hire someone to do it for you!

~ KEEKS Tip: Don’t have time to build furniture? Try selecting “whiteglove delivery” when ordering your furniture - this means for an extra fee your item will be delivered indoors, set-up and trash will be removed. Alternatively, hire someone on TaskRabbit, or an Interior Designer 😉 to handle the set-up. ~

Step 11: Admire your work

You did that!!

Great job friend! You just completed your design project! So step back, admire all your hard work, take some pics for the ‘gram & take a deep sigh of relief cause you’re done!

Step 12: Or just ask me to do it all for you…

A design by me, @ KEEKS Interiors

If you’re like - “Ok girl, all of that sounds really great but there’s no way I have time to do all that work” I gotchu. That’s what professional Designers (like me) are for! Have a look at my Design Services to learn more about getting your design project completed with KEEKS Interiors.

Questions? Comments? Let me know below!

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