Buying a new build home has many benefits, but one which our homeowners tell us they love the most, is the fact that it provides a blank canvas and a unique opportunity to create your perfect home from scratch.
As part of our series #newhomechallenge which celebrates all that is great about owning a new build home, we teamed up with Cheshire-based couple Ashley Preece and Jake Cooper (@ourargyll) and asked them to share how they’ve added that personal touch to their spare bedroom.
Decide which room you’re going to work on first
Ashley said: “Jake and I have lived in our home for around 10 months now. We decided we wanted to purchase a brand-new home as we loved that we would be the first people to live in it and could completely design it to our exact taste.
“Because we wanted to style the whole house, before moving in we decided on which rooms were a priority, and which rooms could wait a little longer. This made sure the rooms we spend the most time in (kitchen/dining room and living room) were finished first.
“I would really recommend this to first time buyers as it creates smaller, bite-size projects to manage at a time rather than being overwhelmed with a huge new home to decorate.”
Set the mood (board)
“From first reserving our home we both had so many different ideas about how we wanted our home to look and what items we wanted to buy.
“As with many first-time buyers, we had quite a strict budget to keep to and there’s no way we could have bought everything we were looking at.
“By creating mood boards for each room, it really helps you focus on what you need for each room, and it’s also a useful way to make sure the furniture/décor/colours all match and flow well from room to room.
“Picking a theme is also key. The boho theme is a key trend just now and we wanted to emulate this with nods to the theme throughout the house, tying everything together with neutral colours and house plants.
“I also recommend using apps like Instagram and Pinterest for inspiration - so many of our mood board ideas came from other Instagram home accounts. “
Be brave with paint
“When it came to decorating, we decided to go for paint. Although we don’t have anything against wallpaper, we found that paint matched our overall theme more and is easier to cover if you choose the wrong shade or colour.
“In our guest room, we decided to keep the side walls white, which is the standard colour that comes with Stewart Milne Homes, and colour the front and back walls using Farrow & Ball’s Sulking Room Pink which can be purchased for around £49 to create a beautiful feature wall with very little effort.
“When it comes to deciding what colour to go for - be brave. We played it safe at first and just painted one of the walls but after seeing it, decided to be bold and paint an additional wall and it really paid off.
“Just remember if you really dislike it you can paint over it!”
Extra touches
“Purchasing all the furnishings for the room was easy, as we’d already found most of them via our mood boards!
“We selected furniture which enhanced the space in the room, starting with our narrow, metal side tables from Beut (£89 each) These complemented our industrial light fixtures we found at John Lewis and cost just £49.99.
“Finally, we added some artificial plants from our local garden centre as well - we decided to go artificial as we will spend the least amount of time in this room so we wouldn’t have to worry about watering them!”
Ashley and Jake live in a three-bedroom Argyll home. Practical and stylish, the homes come with an open-plan kitchen room with dining area and premium integrated kitchen appliance fitted as standard. Perfect for first-time buyers, the homes have a cosy living room, private enclosed garden and master bedroom with ensuite shower room.
Ashley added: “The main thing I would say when making your house a home is to have fun with it. Buying your first home is an exciting time so take the time to enjoy it!”