This may well be the hardest interior design blog post I will ever write. However, it is something I believe I must share with you so you understand who I am as a person and interior designers. I wish always to be honest and transparent here at Decorating With Less.

My goal is through sharing this interior design secret and coming clean will not only help me, but will also give you comfort with the state of the home decor if you are just starting out in your home. It scares me a lot to share this confession because it will breakdown the facade I have hidden behind for over two years as a home decorating blogger.

My Big Interior Design Confession

My house is an interior design disaster.

I am happy that is off my chest.

If you were to walk into my house you wouldn’t think an interior designer lives here. The interior design of my house is nonexistent is most room of my house. Many of the rooms just have furniture placed in them with no decor in sight.

My house feels like a complete interior design let down. Many people who are not interior designers have better looking interiors than me. You maybe one of those people.

You won’t see my home in an magazine, but I still love my home.

How can I possible talk about interior design with you when my home looks like this? Now the really hard part…pictures.

Pictures of My Interior Design Failure

Living Room:

This is the first room off the main entry into the my house. This is the first impression my guests get when they arrive. Not very interesting or inspiring.

The Bad: No wall art, no curtains, and in need of a new coat of paint; this room is in a sad state.

The Good: The things I do love about this room are the bamboo flooring and tiled fireplace I installed 7 years ago myself. I believe furniture-wise I do like a leather sofa and the neutral color, but I think a L-shaped sectional would work better. The TV is sitting on my grandma’s cedar crest, which I have plans to refinish after the room is repainted. Speaking of re painting here are the colors I am looking. (insert picture of color swaps)

To Do List for the Living Room

  • New paint color scheme
  • Curtains
  • Wall art and accessories

The Dining Room:

This room is adjacent to the living room. Nothing much happening in this room. Ikea Expedit bookshelf with a few home decor accessories and a high top dining table.

The Bad: The paint color matches the flooring color, no curtains, no accessories to make the home feel complete and meaningful, and no focal point/wall. I also hate the semi-flush lighting fixture, which I installed 7 years ago. I don’t know exactly what I was thinking when I bought this boring light fixture.

The Good: The continuation of bamboo flooring connects the living and dining room. I also pocket doors into the kitchen on the left and playroom straight ahead.

To Do List for the Dining Room:

  • New paint color scheme that is a continuation of the colors from the living
  • New pendant fixture over the dining table
  • Window treatmentsCreate a focal point or wall with art and accessories

The Kitchen:

Our kitchen is the center of our home. It is located off from the dining room, playroom and the main first floor hallway.

The Bad: The creamy yellow paint color, counters, the two-tone cabinets, the trash can, lighting, and no window treatments.

The Good: The tile flooring which I do like, but I probably would install something different if I could. The amount cabinets are more than enough for us. We actually have extra space from purge a lot of our unneeded and unused kitchen items. We love having a cook top and wall oven. It is so nice to not need to bend over to pull cookies out of the oven.

To Do List for the Kitchen:

  • New Paint Scheme
  • New countersHide the trash can out of sight
  • New semi-flush ceiling lights
  • Window Treatments

The Playroom:

This room is close to the kitchen and dining rooms through pocket doors. This is where my daughter Hannah loves to draw, play with slime and blocks. It is also where my wife will start home schooling Hannah year which we are super excited about.

The Bad: Toys are not organized which is the biggest thing for me. I what it to be easy to find toys and put away the toys. We do have some plastic bins, but nothing is labeled yet. Also I need more of artwork on the walls.

The Good: The paint color is this room is actually really nice. It is a soft gray tone which is the perfect color to showcase my oldest daughter’s artwork. We love ceiling fans, so it is great this room has one. Big pro for this room is it location; right of the kitchen, we can keep an eye on the kids playing while cooking dinner. Another plus to this room is the sliding pocket doors, which can be shut to hide any messes.

To Do List for the Playroom:

  • Storage system with labels for toys
  • Artwork on the walls
  • Playroom would also be nice
  • Add the necessary items for home schooling (i.e. a marker board)

Powder Bath:

Located right off the kitchen, which in my opinion is a very bad place for a bathroom. This is the main guest bathroom, so I would like this room to wow our my guests. Right now there is not anything to amaze guests.

The Bad: The silver swirls are so bad the rest seems good. Our last tenants added these wonderfully out of date gems. The old wall hung sink and medicine cabinet need attention. The all white paint scheme is boring and not exciting.

The Good: The kitchen tile flooring flows into the powder bath to connect the two spaces. Brushed satin hardware fits perfectly and is a nice upgrade from standard towel bar and toilet paper holder.

To Do List for Powder Bathroom:

  • New paint
  • New sink
  • New medicine cabinet or just a mirror
  • Curtains
  • Add some art and home accessories

Upstairs Bathroom:

This is the home’s only full bath. This picture doesn’t show it very well, but this bathroom is a decent size. So there is a lot of room for improvement here.

The Bad: Boring white and black color scheme. Lynn, my wife, really likes this bathroom because it is crisp and clean. For me, it is too blame and needs a change with more energy and life. Not enough storage at the vanity. At our last house, we had more drawer storage to put the small things in the bathroom (medicines, hair products, hair brushes, etc.). This vanity is limited in usable and easy to find storage.

You can only see a little bit of it in the picture, but the pull-n-stick vinyl tiles are old and difficult to clean. Something that annoys me in the bathroom is not having enough outlets. In this bathroom, there are only two outlets, which are never enough. The mini blinds have to be removed and replace with curtains. Two vanities would be more ideal for our growing family.

The Good: We love the mirror, no need to share mirror space in the morning. We also like the large shower, which you can’t see in this picture, because there is enough room for two people to take a shower or bath at the same time without elbowing each other. The white is nice on the vanity and in the shower. The rectangle sink is appealing and not what you usually see in most homes. This bathroom has a linen closet in the bathroom, which is ideal for towels, toilet paper and other toiletries.

To Do List for the Upstairs Bathroom:

  • New paint color scheme
  • New window treatments
  • New tile flooring
  • Add at least one more outlet
  • Design a creative storage solution organize the clutter on the counter
  • Further down the road, a new vanity with two sinks

Master Bedroom:

The biggest bedroom in the house, which is actually too big for us. We have ideas to change the size of this room to make way for a second floor laundry space. All we need in our bedroom is a bed, night stands, and at less one closet to share (right now we have his and her closets). Moving the laundry from the basement to the second floor will make laundry day a lot easier, which worth sacrificing bedroom size.

By the way, that ball of fur sitting on the bed is our Yorkshire Terrier Corgan.

The Bad: This room desperately needs curtains to block out the morning light and some style to the space. No artwork on the walls, bedside lighting or soft rug to step on with your bare feet in the morning. All bedrooms need a full length mirror to see how your fabulous outfits look.

No on suite master bathroom, which a bummer but not too big at this point. When our kids get older, it will probably nicer to have a master bathroom.

The Good: We love the refinished original hardwood flooring, which I did myself 7 years ago. The remote controlled ceiling fan is a big plus. The crown molding we installed adds a finishing touch and character to the room. I also really like the color in this room, a soft and modern gray.

I am a big fan of the Mid-Century Modern night stand we bought from a local antique shop, for $70 for the pair. We love our new bed frame which we purchased off Craiglist for $45. At some point, I am planning to paint the frame white to match the night stands.

To Do List For the Master Bedroom:

  • New blackout curtains for the windows
  • Add meaningful artwork to the walls to create a focal point
  • Buy bedside lamps or wall sconces for evening time reading
  • Add a full length mirror
  • Add an area rug around the bed
  • I would also like a bench at the end of the bed to sit on to put on socks and shoes

Hannah’s Bedroom:

There is Hannah jumping on her bed while daddy is trying to take a picture. Hannah is room is probably the most complete out any of the rooms in the house. Since moving back into this house in June 2014, we painted this room with Behr Violet Fields, refinished her bed frame, and got some artwork on the wall.

The Bad: I don’t think there is anything bad about Hannah’s room. It simply needs some more finishing touches.

The Good: She loves the color purple, so the color is good. I love the white furniture and trim in this room. The alcove where her tent is right now is a cute area with a built-in cabinet which is perfect for books and other treasures as Hannah calls them.The size the of the room is just right for a toddler room.

To Do List for Hannah’s Bedroom:

  • Create Reading Nook in room alcove
  • Add a simple crown molding around the room
  • A bedside lamp
  • Make curtains for her room and fix/replace broken blinds
  • Add an area rug

Lauren’s Nursery:

The nursery is located in the front corner of the house and is right next to the master bedroom. We put the nursery in the second biggest room because there is more furniture in the nursery than in Hannah’s room. However, if we would have known that Lauren was going to be a girl we probably would have made this Hannah’s room and put the nursery in the smallest room. We plan for Hannah and Lauren to share a bedroom eventually when Lauren is older.

The Bad: We have not finished much in this room. We painted the room right when we moved in a celadon green to create a gender neutral nursery. Like most of the room in the house it needs decor, accessories, and window treatments. Thankfully Lauren is not sleeping in here yet so I still have to finish the design work.

The Good: I love the light that comes into this room in the evening. To me, it has a very cottage feeling with all the windows. The chair rail and crown molding add personality to the room. Overall I feel that this room is an ideal kids room.

To Do List for Lauren’s Nursery:

  • Organize the room and create a home for everything
  • Add window treatments
  • Add cute nursery artwork to the walls
  • A play mat for tummy time and crawling around

The Goal: An Interior Design Clean Slate

It feels good to show you what my home really looks like right now. It wasn’t easy to show you the current state of the interior design of our home. However, I have a goal in mind and that is why I am being so transparent.

You may be asking yourself what is in this post to help me in my home? That is a valid question. First off, I hope you now see that I am like you. I have a house that I am trying to decorate into the place my family calls home.

Second, I intend to share with you the step-by-step process on how I transform these spaces. During this, I will share you how-to’s, give advice, and show you ways I saved money decorating my home.

Third, to show you it is possible to turn an interior design blank slate into the home you always hoped for within a budget you can afford.

Thank you very much for stopping by and coming into my home virtually.

Now a question for you

What room in your home would you love to see most transformed? Share your answer below

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