9 Things New Homeowners Know to Be True

You’ve secured the mortgage, you’ve got the keys, and you’ve sent out the new-address notices. Congratulations and welcome to your new home! The hard work is over, right? Well, no. A new phase is about to begin, and it will be familiar to anyone who’s ever bought a house. A world of paint charts, fabric swatches and furniture decisions awaits. But don’t worry; you’re going to love it. Here are some of the steps you might recognize.

1. You will spend your weekends at home improvement stores. With the newfound zeal of the recently converted, you will find yourself happily browsing the shelves of your local DIY store on a Saturday morning, humming to yourself as you fill a cart with paintbrushes, rollers and cans of paint. Weekends will consist of DIY challenges as you experiment with feature walls and upholstery projects.


2. You will steer every conversation to home-related issues. When friends come over to visit, you will find yourself dragging them into the living room and quizzing them on the relative merits of carpet or wooden flooring. You will bring out fabric swatches and paint chips and eagerly ask their opinion on feature walls. They will nod politely and sidle into the kitchen to make their own cup of tea.


3. Your Houzz obsession will go up a notch. Think you have a lot of ideabooks now? Give it a few months and you will find yourself spending even more time trawling the site, looking for the best pros for your projects and creating ideabooks for each room in your new home. Night will fall as you keep on adding “just one more” photo.


4. You will happily swap fashion for interiors. Your formally fabulous wardrobe will take second priority as your focus (and disposable income) moves from clothes to cushions. That savings account that used to fund your shoe obsession is about to be become a sofa fund.


5. You will dream of paint charts. You will obsess over the perfect shade, and the difference between indigo blue and royal blue will take on an overwhelming importance.

You will paint swatches all over the walls and live with them as instructed — watching the way they change according to the light at various times of the day. You will look at so many different options, you might even forget what your favorite color even was in the first place.

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6. The same goes for fabric and wallpaper. You’ll order endless fabric and wallpaper swatches and pin them up all over the house to see how they work with the aforementioned paint colors.

There may well be a period of confusion before you arrive at the phase of enlightenment, as you wrestle with pattern and color combinations. If you find this stage a bit overwhelming, this could be the time to call in the experts and consult a professional.


7. You will drool over “before” and “after” images. Your dreams will be of the day when your house will look more like the one in the “after” photo than a building site. Stay cool — you will get there. Revisiting your inspiration ideabooks will help to keep your spirits up and your motivation high.

Browse Before & After discussions


8. You will become a sofa expert. Don’t know a modular from a chesterfield? Just wait; you’ll be an expert in no time. In fact, you may well find yourself debating the merits of corner sofas over cozy love seats with others in the Houzz community.

Anyone who has ordered a sofa or another large piece of furniture will also be familiar with the moment of doubt when it arrives and you wonder whether it will actually fit into the living room … or even through the front door. But when your new piece finally takes pride of place in your living room, it will be worth all the drama.

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9. You will finally finish your home makeover. Settle back and savor the moment when the hard work is over, and you’ve created a home. Enjoy this feeling — chances are, you’re already looking around for your next decorating project. And then it will all begin again.

Tell us: What would you add to this list? What stage are you in? Share your “before”s and “after”s in the Comments.

More: Decorating 101: How to Start a Decorating Project

URL: 9 Things New Homeowners Know to Be True http://www.decor-ideas.org/cases-view-id-25506.html