How To Redecorate A Room Step-By-Step

Decorating a room can be a quick and easy way to update a home. Learn how to redecorate a room with tips here.

I’ve recently started to redecorate our sunroom. Seems like the rooms here are always evolving. Over the years I’ve developed an easy system for updating and redecorating or decorating almost any room in my home! Let’s look at the smart way to redecorate a room in your home!

Here’s how the sunroom looked before I began to redecorate it…

Functional! But not the pretty room I envisioned in my head.

I asked Bobby to help reorient the sectional and remove the chaise. I wanted to see how putting a sofa on a different wall would look. Hmmm, I liked it much better! So this is how redecorating our sunroom began.

Let’s chat about all the steps that go into redecorating a room! And the decisions you will have to make too! Following these steps will help you confidently move the redecorating process along to your goal of a beautifully functional room. And it will help you be more confident in your decorating decisions and choices!

This is a huge post filled with the best step-by-step savvy directions for redecorating a room so at the end of the process your room will look its best! This post is a must-read for everyone who does any decorating!

Let’s start at the beginning!

ARE YOU GOING IT ALONE?

The first thing we should do when you redecorate a room is to decide if you are going to redecorate it alone or if you are going to call on a professional.

For our sunroom, I started it alone but wanted a second opinion so I did call on a professional to give me a little help! Ethan Allen’s wonderful designers will come to your home for free and give you decorating advice. Since we were buying a sofa from Ethan Allen I called Carolyn (Ethan Allen, Lancaster Pa) and she was a big help!

I needed a second set of eyes on our small sunroom, which lives very large, to tell me if I was going in the right direction!

Even if you are a confident decorator it’s good to get a second opinion!

ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU REDECORATE A ROOM

Answering these questions before you redecorate will go a long way to making the best redecorating decisions.

• What will the room be used for?
• Who will spend time in the space?
• What is the biggest plus of this room?
• What is the room’s biggest drawback?

These may seem like easy questions, and often they are, but when redecorating you want to be sure you know the answer to these questions because almost all your decisions will be made with them in mind.

Here’s how I answered the questions for redecorating the sunroom…

Our sunroom will be used as a place to watch tv or read and relax, especially in the evenings. It is also the space we give over to the grandchildren to use as a playroom when they visit.

Bob and I will spend the most time in this room, but when family comes (usually on the weekends) lots of family uses it if we watch tv.

We will probably have part of the basement refinished so eventually the grandchildren will go there to play.

The biggest plus of the sunroom is the windows and the views overlooking the golf course.

The biggest drawback is the sunroom’s size. It’s rather small and we cannot build it out.

Now that I have answered the purpose of our sunroom, all my redecorating decisions will be made with those in mind.

Same with keeping in mind how we use the space.

The biggest advantage or plus of our sunroom is its views! They are ever-changing with the season and each season is so beautiful!

So, keeping the views in mind, there will be no big furniture in the sunroom to compete with or hide the views.

The biggest drawback of this room is its size. Oh, I wish it were twice as big. But, wishing does not change anything so I must work with what I have!

REDECORATE A ROOM USING SOMETHING THAT INSPIRES YOU

One of the easiest ways to find the inspiration to redecorate a room is to find images of rooms you love! Visit blogs, Pinterest, and Instagram. Peruse magazines and books. 

Did you see a neutral room with a beautiful texture that stopped you in your tracks? Or a magical piece of art that you want to use in your room? These are good examples of inspirations!

Finding an inspiration often helps give you direction when redecorating a room.

The inspiration for our sunroom was the rug! I found it here. This rug was on a super sale, made of rugged material, and I thought it was so pretty! A wonderful decorating trifecta!

Because our grandbabies play on the floor of this room I needed a rug that would stand up to lots of wear. We have had lots of spills on this rug and they have all been easy to clean up.

I also wanted to bring a little more color, albeit neutrals. into the sunroom. This rug added a little more warm gray to this room.

CREATE A MOOD BOARD

I think this is a step many people do not do and when we redecorate a room we should! Using PicMonkey (free) I made a collage of all the things I’m thinking about putting in our sunroom.

I can get a very good idea about how the colors, style, and how everything will work together.

The sofa is not the same sofa and is the wrong color but it’s just a stand-in! And the rug is not the same rug but the colors are somewhat close to the rug I have.

You can see sources for all the items I’m using in our new sunroom at the bottom of the post.

WHAT MUST STAY AND WHAT MUST GO

It’s important to decide if there is anything you are going to keep in a room you are redecorating. The paint color, the curtains, and hardware, the furnishings, the accent decor, the rug, the lamps… everything!

Here’s our list of things that are staying…

• the paint color
• the coffee table
• the leather chair (you can see its nailheads)
• the small accent chair (for awhile)
• the rug (new)
• the pillows (new)
• baskets
• the curtains and blinds
• most accent decort

Here’s what is going…

• the sectional (we are giving it to our son and daughter-in-law)
• the old rug
• the chair on the right
• the floor lamp

SET A BUDGET

When you redecorate it’s important to set a budget for any project no matter how big or small. A budget is a guide!

For me, it gives me peace of mind. I like to work within the parameters of a budget. If not I could way overspend!

Many if not most of your decisions will be made by the pricetags of things you want to put in your room. And knowing what you have planned to spend is a wonderful thing!

Here’s something important you should know about a budget…

A budget is actually a suggestion and is not usually written in stone. As we redecorate there may be times that we have to adjust what we have budgeted for a project. Just make sure what you are spending you can afford!

KNOW YOUR DECORATING STYLE

If you read StoneGable you probably knew I was going to say this! More decorating mistakes are made because home decorator don’t…

STAY IN THEIR LANE

I’m talking about our decorating lane!

Know your style and use that style to filter every single thing you use to redecorate a room! From the rug to the curtains to the furniture to the accents to the shelves to EVERYTHING. Filter it through your style! Stay in your decorating lane!

To help you figure out your decorating style you might like to read HOW TO KNOW YOUR DECORATING STYLE

PICK OUT A COLOR PALETTE

Knowing your decorating style and picking out a color palette before you redecorate a room goes hand in hand.

These are really big decisions and your choices should work with the rest of your home! A home looks cohesive when the rooms in your home have the same style and color palette. Then one room seamlessly flows into another. And it’s a wonderful thing too.

Like your style, everything you put into the room you are redecorating needs to be filtered through your color palette! This is so important! No color outliers!

You can use a pop of color in a room. Just make sure it works with your whole home color palette.

Our style is Transitional with a bent towards new Traditional and just a taddy bit of Farmhouse 2.0 and French. And our color palette is neutrals. White walls, light, warm-colored furnishings, and accessories. So everything in our sunroom will be Transitional and neutral, like the rest of our home.

I did add a bit more warmed up gray to the sunroom though. But you can find bits of warm gray throughout our home.

SET THE MOOD

Setting the mood of a room you want to redecorate works in unison with the style and color palette of the room you are updating.

Think of the mood of a room as the feeling it evokes! Is it happy, relaxed, moody, cozy, serene, airy, or another mood?

I like to think of the mood of a room as the adjective that is tacked onto the front of the style of a room that helps explain your room.

The sunroom’s mood is open and warm!

So I would say that our sunroom is an open yet warm Transitional style room.

Again, the room’s mood will be a filter to help us put only things into our room that will help create the mood of the room.

MEASURE BEFORE YOU REDECORATE A ROOM

I love the old adage…

MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE

It means that knowing the exact measurements of something helps to ensure that there will not be any mistakes!

MEASURE YOUR ROOM

Knowing the measurements of a room and the architectural things in it is very important! Because we want to know that what we choose for a room will fit and look comfortable.

Measure things like…

• windows
• doors
• fireplaces and a mantel
• built-in pieces like bookcases
• architectural features

Items that cannot be moved must be measured to create a room layout.

Our sunroom is 15ft 3 inches by 12 ft. A small room. The left and right walls on either side of the opening to the room are 41.3 inches long. And from the floor to the base of the windows is 32 inches high.

I don’t have to worry about measuring anything else for this room. However, you may need to measure the window and door openings and more.

MEASURE ALL THE FURNITURE YOU PUT IN A ROOM

It’s important to know the measurements of all the furnishing that will go into a redecorated room.

Nothing is more frustrating than guessing that something will fit and finding out that it is either too big or too small!

Because we were ordering a sofa with custom upholstery it was so important for me to get the measurements right! When you can’t return something getting the measurements right is extra, extra important!

The wall the sofa will be resting on in the sunroom is 183 inches. The sofa we ordered is 95 inches and will be centered on the windows. The end tables that will flank either side of the sofa are 20 inches wide and 24 inches deep. So that gives me plenty of room for them to fit between the side of the sofa and the wall.

What peace of mind those measurements give me!

THINK ABOUT THE ELEMENTS OF GOOD DESIGN

It’s important to have a working knowledge of some of the elements of interior design. Knowing about visual weight, scale and proportion, rhythm, color and a few more elements of good design will really help you make confident and good decisions when you redecorate a room.

One of my blogging superpowers is to take interior design concepts and break them down into easy-to-understand, repeatable processes!

So, please read these posts! They will be so so helpful in creating a room you love!

I like to think of the total of them as a mini interior design course!

HOW TO KNOW YOUR DECORATING STYLE

CAN YOU MIX WARM AND COOL COLORS

WHY VISUAL WEIGHT IS IMPORTANT

SCALE AND PROPORTION

COLOR IN DECOR

SPACE IN DECORATING

WHY BALANCE IS IMPORTANT

RHYTHM IN DECORATING

THINK ABOUT THE LAYOUT OF YOUR ROOM

When you decide to redecorate a room it’s a good idea to think about the layout of all the furnishings in that room!

The way a designer would figure out the best layout is usually through an app or a program online.

Floorplan.com is a great free online layout planner for the home decorator.

Or you draw a room’s floor plan using graph paper, a pencil, and a tape measure.

Having a floor plan will ensure that everything in your room will fit.

Here is the floor plan for my sunroom.

My designer helped me by drawing out a virtual image of my sunroom on her floorplan program.

I knew I wanted a long sofa and wanted matching end tables to flank the sofa on the long wall. Virtually seeing how they would fit really helped me picture how the room would look.

CHOOSE YOUR FURNITURE AND MORE

After you have done all the prep work, now you are ready to choose all the things that will go into your room. You can confidently choose what you need for your room because you have…

• answered the important decorating questions
• know what you are keeping and what you need to get for your room
• set a budget
• know your decorating style
• choosen a color palette that works with your home
• set the mood of the room
• know all your room and furniture measurments
• have a basic understanding of good design
• know the best layout for your room’s furnishings

Wow, that is a lot of prep work! But, here’s the thing, taking the time to work out all the “behind the scene” details will make you confident to pick out what you still need to put in your room! And that is decorating gold!

To have a room that works together and is attractive we must think like a designer! The extra work is so worth it.

START WITH WHAT YOU HAVE

It’s important to think about the furniture you have when you redecorate a room. Does it fit the purpose of the room to be redecorated? And does it work with your style, color palette, mood, and does it fit seamlessly into your room?

The furnishings that are staying in our sunroom were an easy fit with the new things we are bringing into our sunroom!

CONSIDER RUGS, WALLPAPER AND MORE

We need to think about things like a rug, wallpaper, paint color when we redecorate a room. These

These may not be the stars of your room but they are big contributors! These items bring beauty to the floor, walls, and ceilings in a room.

Here are a few things to consider when redecorating a room…

• a rug
• wallpaper
• a fresh coat of paint
• window coverings
• and binds and shades
• ceiling treatments
• architectual features like columns and alcoves
• speciality windows and doors
• accent wall

They should all be filtered through the prep list! And they should work with everything you put in your makeover room.

Some decorators start with a rug or paint color or wallpaper as an inspiration for the whole room.

But most of us make decisions about things like window coverings or shades as we choose foundational furniture and accent pieces.

Just be aware that these very important elements in a room need thought.

Our sunroom is painted the same as our whole open home, Simply White by Benjamin Moore. This soft white is a wonderful background for all our furnishings and lets the views outside shine!

The rug was the first item I bought for the room. I just loved the colors! The rug added a big dose of warmth to the room.

FOUNDATION PIECES

Now, it’s time to choose any foundational pieces you will need for your room. Foundation furnishings are usually large or big-ticket items that go into a room.

They might be…

• sofa
• bigger chairs
• dining or kitchen tables
• buffets
• beds
• armoire
• large bookshelves
• tv console
• tv
• other large furniture

Once I did all the behind the scene work I was so excited to pick out a sofa, end tables, lamps, an accent chair, and some new accent decor!

But I started by choosing a new sofa.

I chose this 95-inch sofa with firm cushions. The fabric is a performance fabric, Tuckahoe Ivory. It is the exact same fabric that is on the sectional! I love this fabric because of the color and its durability! And it is so easy to clean. And believe me with 5 grandbabies 5 and under a lot of messes get cleaned up!

You can see sources for the rest of the items I chose for the sunroom below.

ACCENT FURNITURE AND MORE

Accent furniture are pieces that are not as big as foundational furniture and usually don’t carry such a big price tag but are must-haves for making the room functional and attractive.

And these pieces should support the larger foundational furnishings!

Think of furniture like…

• a dresser
• nightstand stands
• end tables
• coffee table
• drink side tables
• small bookshelves
• benches
• dining room chairs
• accent chairs
• bar carts
• more

Accent furniture help to make using a room easier!

Think of all the things a coffee table in a room is called to do. We can set a drink on it or a bowl of popcorn! Or we can use it as a table to play a board game. And we can even stack books on it and my grandsons use it to play dinosaurs or race their cars across it.

I would love to get another coffee table but our room is small and this is the best small coffee table I can find. And I really don’t think I could find another coffee table that could look so good after taking so many beatings with toys!

Accent furniture should not only be functional it should add to the beauty of the room! These are big jobs for a piece of furniture!

I’ve gotten so many comments asking where the tv is in our home. Here it is in our sunroom. We put it on the wall.

That way we can use the space under the tv to put a chair.

I am toying with the idea of adding two small upholstered decorative ottomans on the wall between the sofa and the chair. I’ll wait until the end tables come in to decide. I like these upholstered in Emmaline Sisal Crypton Performance.

DECORATIVE ACCENTS

Decorative accents are things you put in a room to make it attractive, more functional, and to show off your personality and personal style.

These include…

• throw pillows
• trays
• vases
• picture frames
• artwork
• throw blankets
• candlesticks, candles, lanterns
• plants and containers
• lamps
• baskets
• object d’ art
• more

I love the embellishing part of decorating because I love making things pretty!

Remember, decorative accents should all work together with the focal point in a room.

For our sunroom, I have almost every decorative accent I need. I’ll probably shop my house and basement! The coffee table is the focal point of our room so everything I put in the room needs to support the coffee table!

REDOCORATING A ROOM TAKES TIME

It’s important to remember that redecorating a room takes time and a bit of work! There are lots and lots of decisions to be made. And they do not have to be made all at once. So take your time so you make the wisest and best decisions as you redecorate.

Use these steps to redecorate a room and you will be able to move forward confidently to create a room that is useful and beautiful!

HERE ARE SOURCES FOR WHAT WILL GO IN THE SUNROOM…

You can see the rug here and the sofa here in Tuckahoe Ivory Performance Fabric.