If you happen to be decorating your house for the first time, or the eighth time for that matter, you’re often left around an empty apartment wondering just where to start. It’s a simple question that leaves us all confused, but the answer is also simple, start with your need and then hit your laptop.Before anything, there’s one thing that you need to get straight: Its all about you, you are the one who will live, use and enjoy every part of the house, so less of what people expect you to have and more of what you need and want.
Once we’ve established that, the first thing you do is to sit with your partner or family and have each person write his needs and vision for each space separately. Then make a combined list of all the things you need out of that space and all the different visions. Take your time in this step, its your home, so imagine and envision each and every corner, mapping out minor details about exactly what you need, the color scheme, the lay-out and even what sort of lighting needs to go with the ambiance.
Next, take a look online, before your head to the streets, you will be amazed how much you can get your hands on without leaving the comfort of your couch.
I’ve browsed and browsed for days on end to find inspirations, ideas and advice I have navigated through the odd, the useful and the utter useless of websites, but lucky for you, you don’t have to go through this, I have combined my secret website book for interiors.
Get inspired, snoop a little
Houzz This website offers around seven different styles for all different areas of the house, from small studios to lavish mansions. You can also create an “idea book” and keep all the pictures you like in one place, so that you can share it with your significant other, friends or family virtually and even comment on it privately. It has a large database of pictures and different styles and trends. It will also give you an idea of which style, or combination of style, best suits your taste to know what it is exactly that you’re looking for.
Other similar websites that will give you inspiration and ideas are:
http://www.designsponge.com/
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/
http://www.desiretoinspire.net/
http://www.cococozy.com/
If you are looking for smart ideas, especially for small homes, IKEA has useful tips on how to make the best of the tiniest places and corners around the house, equipped with videos for guidance.
Its also very useful to take a look at some interior design magazines, both local and international, to get inspired from all over the world. You can easily find those magazines in newspaper kiosks in Heliopolis, Zamalek or Mohandessin and at bookstores.
I would suggest Art and Decoration, Architectural Digest, Better Homes and Gardens, Style at Home and Interior Design. You can usually get a good bargain price if you buy a couple of old issues, you don’t really need the newest ones as you are only looking for ideas, not actual pieces of furniture.
There are also a couple useful Egyptian interior design magazines that will help you, not only with inspiration, but to also get to know which stores offer what around the market. Check Flair and El Beit for advice and design tips, and check Image for a roundup of major stores in the market.
After you’ve determined whether you’re into modern, classic, provincial, colonial or even country style, you have some further research to do. Google images can do miracles, so it is a good idea to simply search whatever style you like and save all the ideas into neat little folders for each room.
My advice is to always be on the look out for pieces you like, when you like something, ask whether you can buy it or where you can get it. You can also take a picture so you can ask a professional later on to recreate it for you.
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Get the look
Now that you have a clearer idea of what you want to make your home look and feel like, it’s time to get back to reality and start browsing for furniture you can actually in Egypt.
After a lot of searching, I came across two websites I found useful:
http://www.thedesignstreet.com/
http://www.thehomepage.com.eg/
They both offer a directory of showrooms and gives you the chance to browse through the pieces and see the prices from the comfort of, again, your own sofa. They also have a large directory of fabrics, flooring and lighting stores that you might have never seen before.
They both offer more or less the same thing, but with different variety of showrooms and pieces. From there get the contact information of the showrooms you like so that later on you have your own directory of favorite stores for when you hit the streets to shop.
Finally, don’t limit your self to the websites and magazines, it’s just a good way to start out. Even if you don’t have the budget to get an expert help, find a friend or a family member who can help you with ideas, contacts and practical tips. If they’ve done it before, I am sure they have learned a few things they can pass on to the newbie.
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