We love adding new luxurious pillows to spaces. This gives existing furniture a new lease of life! Opt for neutral colors or patterns that incorporate color from the space itself.
As an interior designer, I regularly have clients asking me how they can incorporate their existing furniture or items into their new home or space. This could be simply redecorating a room or even moving into a new home entirely. If you are moving house it’s likely that your redecorating or furnishings budget is quite small considering the larger cost of purchasing the new home itself. Either way, there are some key things to watch out for and ideas to consider to do this effectively.
Just because your new space will be decorated differently, or the size and proportions of the room are different, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your current furniture won’t work. It just requires some more creative thinking! And it’s all about experimenting with different arrangements, being creative with new accessories, and being slightly frugal with accent pieces.
Today I’m going to share ideas on how you can incorporate your existing furniture into your new space. We’ve also currated a collection of high-quality trade items that you can check out on SideDoor that we refer to throughout this post.
Let’s take a closer look!
Use neutral textiles to dress your furniture and bring the colors of the room together. Like pillows, throws equally renew pieces.
Furniture Sizing and Layouts
While you’re unlikely to be able to change the size of your existing furniture pieces (unless you have a sectional sofa), there are some key things to consider when making them work in a new space. If the size of the furniture isn’t right for the space remember that it’s much harder to make a piece that is too big to work. It will be easier to make a smaller piece work well in the room. It is visually far better to have more open and excess space around the furniture than to have a space that is overcrowded with furniture that is too big for the room!
You can however try rearranging the furniture differently from how it was done previously. This can often open up new perspectives on the space itself and new layouts that you hadn’t previously considered. While you may be tempted to arrange your furniture in the same way as before, experimenting with new layouts can completely rejuvinate an existing space.
A great exercise to do is drawing a rough floor plan of the space, taking the measurements of your current furniture, and playing around with different layouts. Use Pinterest as an inspirational tool for layout ideas. Remember to keep practicality, function, and aesthetics in mind.
Experiment with your furniture layout – move things around and try new ways of arranging your existing pieces. This will really help to find a new and practical way of using existing pieces.
DIY Makeovers
Give your existing wooden furniture a new lease of life with a fresh coat of stain!
The easiest way of making sure a room feels well put together and feels like a home is making sure the design elements match a certain style. Perhaps this is through the design of the items or the finish of them. Both of these aspects will help to create a more cohesive space.
One great way of using existing furniture in a newly decorated room is to give the key pieces a makeover! Don’t be scared of making some DIY changes to tables… Choose a new stain or even a paint color that will complement the new space. The key to successful DIY projects is in research. There are lots of helpful tutorials online that can show you how best to approach various DIY makeovers. This route may take some additional time and patience but the end result is well worth it.
For sofas, armchairs, or other upholstered pieces, consider getting them reupholstered in entirely new fabric. Not only does this give them a new life, but it will also completely change your perspective on them and will make them work with whatever new color scheme you have going on.
Accessories
Styling coffee and side tables with decorative accessories that reflect the color scheme of the room make all the furniture pieces come together!
\When working with items you already have, it’s easy to refresh cherished pieces in a number of ways… And one of those is with accessories. We’re emphasizing this because it’s important to style your furniture in a way that works well with the new color scheme.
People often forget that furniture isn’t the only aspect of a room that matters in design. There are many different components that affect how a room looks overall. Don’t worry if your furniture doesn’t come together perfectly… Use accessories and other finishing touches to bring the whole room together.
We love adding new luxurious pillows and layering an existing smaller area rug on a larger area rug. Adding a side table near a sofa and styling these with new pieces creates a polished look. If in doubt – use neutral colors to start with that complement other colors used in the space.
For the kitchen or bathroom, consider matching cabinet hardware to light fixtures or the faucet finish to create an aligned look. If you have a kitchen island, it’s also worth matching the finish of the legs to cabinet hardware or light fixtures too. Use existing stools and give a DIY project a go to give them a new life!
Although buying new furniture is probably off the cards, new accessories that work with your new space is worth the splurge! No matter which room you’re working on, use coordinating elements such as textiles, wall art, and other decorative accessories to tie the room together.
Investing in new accessories is worthwhile to create a cohesive and well put together feel in your new space. In this example, we can see that the textiles are in the same color as the feature. Neutrals help to balance everything out.
We hope these tips and ideas have given you a framework to start working with! Have you recently redecorated and used existing furniture? We’d love to hear all about your journey in the comments below!