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The last 15 years have been raising children and husband building his career. Now I am at a point where I want the house to look stylish but still comfortable because I do not need to worry about the messes that come with small children. So most, but not all, of our furniture is going to go. Mostly it'll be my master bedroom suite furniture, my sofas and a dining table. I'll be adding a few upholstered chairs, one or two for the living room and two for the piano room and maybe one for my bedroom. I want to add seating to our media room. And I picture the game room as a spacious area for a big table where the kids can do their homework, play board games, etc. and I will definitely be adding a dry erase board to that wall so the kids can work on equations or whatever they want. Then the office needs some furniture although the office is not a huge priority.
Also, I went to Pier One and saw LOTS of things I really, really liked but as far as their furniture I don't know if quality might suffer a little.
You could try antique and vintage stores for some furniture. Usually they were more solidly built, especially the ones that have survived. If you have a good frame on a sofa, you can have it reupholstered repeatedly. My friends have a couch that fits their living room perfectly and it's on it's third reupholster, but it's also going on thirty years old now, so every ten years isn't too bad.
Don't try to do it all at once, IMHO. Choose one room or one area and work on that, but keep in mind how that area will integrate into the rest of the house.
I generally try to keep the whole house in more or less one style and that's usually based on the house itself. Currently, we're doing Mid Century Modern/ Retro because the house was built in 1950 and that style works well with the house.
As for colors, pick colors that go well with you. I've known a few architects to design spaces specifically to match a person's skin and hair color as well as their personal style. When the home owner is in their space, they are part of an integrated whole. So, when deciding what style to do your house in, have it match you, too.
Usually, you can have the house be neutral and pick out the colors with furnishings or you can have the furnishings be neutral and pick out the colors in the house. Or blend the two together. Currently, our house is "beach" so the colors are soft blues, greens and sandy colors. Occasional pops of brights. However, we still have furniture that doesn't match the house and my DH won't let me paint it, so it's not an integrated house design. But, it's comfy and we like it.
As my mechanic friend once told me: "get what you like, you can fix everything else."
My advice: Take your time, don't feel rushed and get what really feels right---don't try to fill the space just to fill it and finish it. Enjoy it---because once you start feeling overwhelmed and rushed (like I often do!) it stops being fun.
Every single post has been extremely helpful. Some of you could tell that I have no patience, that I want it now LOL!! But I have really enjoyed reading ya'lls responses and realizing that I need to have a little more patience. Thank you all so, so very much!!!
Since you mentioned Pier One, OP, don't forget to look at World Market. I have bought a few thing there lately, such as kitchen chairs, and I found the quality higher, and prices lower than Pier One.
Well, the furniture placement is all planned; there is that! Nice house. Did you get the brick version?
Start with the rooms that are most important to you and your family. You might choose the family room and the master, for instance. Out of the 10k allotted decide how much you want to spend for each room. I think leaving the original paint for a year is a good idea. You will know more about what you want after living in the house. Are the rooms painted all the same? A neutral?
Also, what colors are your floors? Trim?
In general I like to use the permanent features of a room to assist me in choosing colors. IMO, you don't want a red wall in a room with a bright orange oak floor, for instance. Your fireplace probably has a permanent brick or stone facing which also has to figure into your overall room scheme.
Are you planning to use any furniture you now own? If so, place those pieces in their rooms and try to see out they relate to the permanent features. Decide other things too. Do you like all matching things, or do you like mismatched things? I recently looked at a featured room in a shelter mag that had mixed finishes, and I loved the mix. It was inspiring to me. But some people might find the mix distracting.
In general, I'd recommend buying useful pieces, that you know will get use, and that speak to you. I'd also recommend making sure that your DH is on board with the bigger pieces. He has to live there too. You can take the lead and set the parameters, but allow him a voice. He certainly needs a comfortable chair in the family room--as do you.
Take it step by step and enjoy the process! Many of us have never had the experience you are having. Prioritize the things you need the most, and fill in the rest as you go along.
Silibran, thank you for your advice-great advice! To answer your question, we chose the 4851C elevation, the third one on the site. The slope of the roof of the garage kinda reminded me of Darth Vader's helmet LOL!! The rooms are painted a flat neutral color and the base boards and molding are white and the wood floors a dark brown. As far as colors I lean towards blues in my wardrobe and that is what is calling me when I go to furniture stores. Probably the couches will be neutral since that seems a true and tried choice but the upholstered chairs i want to get will have color. I am leaning towards teal, aqua, seafoam greens, dark blues, some greens, purples but I know not oranges, yellows, browns and reds.
A sales lady adviced that I start with master bedroom since that should be my peaceful, relaxing room for us. I might just do that.
Silibran, thank you for your advice-great advice! To answer your question, we chose the 4851C elevation, the third one on the site. The slope of the roof of the garage kinda reminded me of Darth Vader's helmet LOL!! The rooms are painted a flat neutral color and the base boards and molding are white and the wood floors a dark brown. As far as colors I lean towards blues in my wardrobe and that is what is calling me when I go to furniture stores. Probably the couches will be neutral since that seems a true and tried choice but the upholstered chairs i want to get will have color. I am leaning towards teal, aqua, seafoam greens, dark blues, some greens, purples but I know not oranges, yellows, browns and reds.
A sales lady adviced that I start with master bedroom since that should be my peaceful, relaxing room for us. I might just do that.
I think all the blues and greens would be great with neutral walls and dark floors. I had my light oak floors stained dark and I love them! I think you will too. I use greeny blues, bluey greens, blue and green in my rooms. I am not averse to a pop of orange, red or pink though.
get the things started that you already know you want. after things get places you won't feel so rushed. keep in mind that lots of times furniture is not in stock and you will have a wait time anywhere from 3 to 8 weeks wait. when I sold furniture I suggested when people were unsure of what colors to look towards their wardrobe. your instincts are right. finding a multi colored fabric sample is also a way to find a color palette you like. stick with 3 colors, 4 at most and use the colors though out the room. get your sofa, find some killer throw pillows and a throw rug. in your bedroom I would start looking for your bedspread, that usually is the biggest color/pattern in the room and you can work off that. don't be in too big of a hurry. look at your second hand and thrift shops for the off thing here and there. if you like chalk paint look there will be lots of things for sale at the second had shops that will look wonderful and unique with a chalk paint finish. have fun, the house is wonderful!
Silibran, thank you for your advice-great advice! To answer your question, we chose the 4851C elevation, the third one on the site. The slope of the roof of the garage kinda reminded me of Darth Vader's helmet LOL!! The rooms are painted a flat neutral color and the base boards and molding are white and the wood floors a dark brown. As far as colors I lean towards blues in my wardrobe and that is what is calling me when I go to furniture stores. Probably the couches will be neutral since that seems a true and tried choice but the upholstered chairs i want to get will have color. I am leaning towards teal, aqua, seafoam greens, dark blues, some greens, purples but I know not oranges, yellows, browns and reds.
A sales lady adviced that I start with master bedroom since that should be my peaceful, relaxing room for us. I might just do that.
Don't go "safe" if you want the furniture to be the focus of your rooms. Keep an open mind and just go with what you love! It might be that you get a beige couch, but don't go looking for that specifically. Head over to Pier One or whatever store like that you like. Find a pillow, rug, place mat, whatever that you just love and use that for your inspiration. If you can bring that to a decorator, maybe go through Houzz and Pinterest and pin some rooms that you like and show the decorator those, she will get a good feel for what you want and be able to coordinate it all for you. Even if you see a photo of a room and you can't even pinpoint what you like about it, she will know (if she is good) that the feel of the room is what you are going for, maybe it's formal and fussy that you like or relaxed and casual or whatever it happens to be. She can then direct you to pieces that will match that feel.
Also keep in mind, just because it's not on the showroom floor doesn't mean the can't order it. My living room furniture fabric was on some furniture in the showroom, but I didn't like the style of furniture. They had another grouping that I liked the style of the pieces so we ordered that style in the fabric I liked. I've had them for 10 years and I still love them! In our family room, we found some furniture that would work, a custom sectional, and went through the fabric choices and found a fabric that I liked and we ordered that too. It did not cost any more to do that, at least at the store I used.
I'm not sure what all you want to furnish on that $10K, but you can do quite a lot with that budget and end up with nice furniture and decor, or, you can blow the whole thing on one sofa.
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