Food, water, clothing and a place to give you shelter is the necessities to live a decent life. While it is true that you can make do with the most minimum of furnishings in order to create the shelter that protects you we are fortunate enough to be able to create a warm and welcoming environment in which to spend our lives. If we are careful in our planning we can create this environment with an eye to visual beauty, cost effectiveness, comfort and high quality.

ANALYZE YOUR ENVIRONMENT- By reviewing your space and determining what design style and function you need for each room of the home you have begun your plan. Take in to consideration each member, including pets, guests both long term and short, along with future addition to your family when determining best usage and style for your space.

Ask yourself honest questions about yourself and fellow house mates. Are you really going to need a formal living room or is your lifestyle more of comfortable casualness? Are you private sort and creating a very personal home environment or are you a social family creating a home theater and game center for friends to pop in and relax? By asking these questions you can develop an accurate plan for investing in your personal atmosphere.

INVENTORY YOURSELF- While buying furnishings and accessories will be necessary, one cost effective tool is working with what you may already have, or what friends or family may be willing to donate to your home. By carefully documenting every piece of furniture and accessories you have to work with you have effectively warehoused your collection like a designer inventorying their stock for the client.

INVENTORY YOUR WANTS- Next list the reasonable wants that fit in to your newly analyzed design plan. While many people believe they must buy more furniture for cheaper prices, in fact the opposite is true. The bulk of your furniture should be considered an investment. Are you investing in furniture that can grow and change with your life? A well furnished home is one that can grow and change as you and the family do.

Remember that wise home design means choosing a few high quality pieces that will last rather than disposable furnishings that must be replaced in a few years. By carefully choosing pieces that you can live with and that will last your investment will pay for itself. Quite simply, as your tastes change over the years you can change out paint schemes, accessories, rugs, art, lamps, etc and effectively and inexpensively create an entirely new back drop to your high end investments like hand crafted Amish furniture.

Tags: Amish Furniture Styles, furniture investment, game center, home environment, intelligent design, personal atmosphere

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Accessories, Adirondack, Arts and Crafts, Baby Furniture, Bedrooms, Cherry Furniture, Clocks, Craftsman, DIY Projects, Decorating Ideas, Design Style, Dining Room Furniture, Furniture Tips, Hickory Furniture, Home Life, Home Office Design, Lamps & Lighting, Linens, Lodge, Log Cabin Homes, Maple Furniture, Mirrors, Mission, Modern & Contemporary, Oak Furniture, Organization, Rustic Furniture, Shaker, Sofas, Upholstered Furniture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.