I am a 24 years old guy and I just purchased my first home. Obviously my style is whatever I can piece together, but I believe its more contemporary. I have a 1257 sqft home which is 2 bedrooms and a nice size kitchen and an extra bathroom bigger. I dont know where to start. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Congratulations on your new home!

One of the best suggestions I've seen for areas that you just don't know where to start is to look thru magazines and catalogs. Tear out pages that have furniture or layout ideas that appeal to you. Be sure to mark on the page what it is you like about that page.

When you start thumbing thru your tearsheets you'll start to see trends. Maybe you like dark furniture. Maybe abstract art. Possibly green walls appeal to you.

Once you see a trend, you'll be able to start decorating your home. And even with things you may already have, you'll start to see ways you can change them to make them work better with the design theme you've started.

I've done this for a couple rooms and it really helped me a LOT.

Enjoy your new home!

"Contemporary interiors feature tone-on-tone color palettes relying heavily on brown, taupe, cream and pure white. Shots of color are sometimes found on one wall, in a striking floor rug or a special piece of art."

That's if you want to do it like the magazines/decorators do.

For real life on a budget, take a look at your furniture and belongings to find a color scheme based on what you have. There's no right or wrong - take what you like and what you think looks good together, and build from there. Paint your walls a color that you're comfortable with, and use that color to accentuate what you've got.

Contemporary does mean clean lines, no clutter, so keep that in mind! Check out this article for more of what contemporary style means - and you can base your decor decisions with what you pull from the article: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_styles_contemporary/article...3512_2703491,00.html

Good luck, and congrats on the new home!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: NavyWife1993,

Some tips on how to start a decorating project:

http://interiordec.about.com/od/articlesonbasics/a/wheretostart.htm

I like Tomuchstuff's suggestion, look at the rooms on Rate my Space and Decorator's notebook also. See what you like and take ideas from there. Congrats on your home.

I'm 26 and also just purchased my first home so I know how excited and eager to decorate you are! I'd suggest finding an inspiration piece and work from that. The possibilites are endless. It's hard to make a suggestion without knowing more about your personality and personal style. Have fun!!!

When I purchase my first home, it was overwhelming to say the least. A friend of mine suggested that I live with what I had for at least a year, before I began to decorate. I enrolled in an Interior Design class at my local junior college. I selected my living room to be my first project. I ended up using one of my favorite water color paintings for my color pallet. I went to a paint store and selected paint chips based upon the colors in my painting. I took all the paint chips home, hole punched them in one corner of the paint chip, put them on a key ring. Then, whenever I was shopping for an item, I took my "paint chip key ring" with me. It eliminated lots of mistakes.
The end result was a room that I absolutely loved.

Congrats on the house!

As far as decorating goes, it's all up to you! What are your hobbies, what are some of your personality traits? Don't just look in a magazine and copy them, make it unique and your own style, but most of all have fun while doing it.

I have a site that I use and I only buy the sale items because the prices are a bit steep for me. I use touchstone.com if you look through the pages or get on their mail list you might get some ideas. Good luck and enjoy you wonderful home.

decorating can be tough and fun check out how others do it http://hometour.radcribs.com/

Thank you all so much for your help. I really am taking all of your suggestions. This is going to be a venture. But a good one. I will keep all of you posted and will take pictures.