So I just moved

[Ibraihim the Betrayed]

Firstly I wish you the best of luck with your solo endeavours!

I don't actually have anything hung up on my walls, however I do have a lot of little figures and such sat on my desk surrounding my computer.

- Bob Marley pipe that my girlfriend got for me for my birthday
- Funny looking phone amplifier my parents got me for Christmas
- A chibi ninja looking thing representing patience that my mum bought for me one day
- A Florida souvenir that my oldest (and sadly most distant) friend brought back for me from his first ever holiday

Just things like that. Find stuff you like and pepper your new home with them! :D

 

[antemortem]

Go to Ikea and buy the absolute plainest stuff you can find. Things like plain white bookshelves, a coffee table, maybe a chair/love sofa for the livingroom, throw pillows and whatnot, lamps with plain shades, white or a very pale color of window curtains. Then take them all and do the splatter paint thingy where you maybe get some friend and brushes and handfuls of pain and sling it on everything. You can be satisfied that not everything is absolutely plain, on top of not having to spend a bunch of money on crazy, off the wall designer furniture, but you've also put your own creative spin on everything. The latter is something I know you're quite fond of. 8)

I personally don't have many 'cool' things in my room. I have things collected from year's past like a microscope that doesn't work, an old miniature entertainment center collecting dust in the corner but is still used minimally store all the old PS2/PS3/Gamecube games I no longer play, an incredibly old kerosene lamp, some weird Origami things, etc. I don't even have posters hanging, but maybe that'd be a cool thing to do. y'know, a Daft Punk poster or two and maybe a collector's helmet hanging from the ceiling that also doubles as a cool disco ball. I'm being pretty nonserious but that's just because I can't think of much besides my first idea since I'm not all that creative.

Ibraihim's suggestion is sound! Get a bookshelf or desk or... well, you could use any surface in your place, and fill it with cool knicknacks from your childhood or newones that you pick up. It'd be really cool filling a whole collection of shelves with some memorabilia that you can admire years down the road. Pick up some things in Europe while you're there - find a roadside flute maker in Germany, visit a prison in Austria and see if the inmates are busy crafting anything - and flood your place with all the neat trinkets. Make it a cultural warehouse of sorts.

I'll be very disappointed if you don't make a few runs to Kinkos to blow up and print a bunch of those really cool, trippy images you find so you can hang them on your bedroom ceiling. Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't consider that.

 

[Taemin]

Guess I'll throw in my two cents. -w-

As far as furniture and such goes, I'd pick a color that you like and try to keep that as theme - if you're someone who prefers things to match, and not be random colors.

Walls.. eh. I happen to have fandom things on mine, and I literally know people who hang video game posters on various walls of their house. xD; Likewise, some friends stick with flower paintings and such. Guess it depends on how "normal" you want your place to look.

Also, San Francisco, aaaaaaah. <3

 

[Shhmew]

Go to Ikea and buy the absolute plainest stuff you can find. Things like plain white bookshelves, a coffee table, maybe a chair/love sofa for the livingroom, throw pillows and whatnot, lamps with plain shades, white or a very pale color of window curtains. Then take them all and do the splatter paint thingy where you maybe get some friend and brushes and handfuls of pain and sling it on everything. You can be satisfied that not everything is absolutely plain, on top of not having to spend a bunch of money on crazy, off the wall designer furniture, but you've also put your own creative spin on everything. The latter is something I know you're quite fond of. 8)

Aww what a cute idea. When I move out I'm definitely keeping this in mind xP

I have hardly any possessions at all, and neither does my boyfriend, so when we move it will probably be completely barren for a bit. I'd have a job by then, so knowing myself I'd probably just make weekly visits to thrift shops and just pick out whatever's cute, or something. I'm not very uhh creative or tasteful or anything, so it'd really just be whenever I see something random at the store that I love and I pick it up, I guess. My house'd be littered with that.

Currently I just live at my dad's house, sharing a room with my sisters on the weekends (though I usually just stay the night at my boyfriend's then), and I have a bed that my dad bought me and my clothes on the floor next to my bed. The only thing on the wall is a crude to-do list I made for myself to get my life back on track. Really nothing exciting at all.

 

[Trev]

A fun decorative idea I found is to take a couple of mason jars and fill them with various collectibles/coins (I have two jars full of marbles and one jar filled with coins). They make cute decorations. You could also take some random object and try to make it into a bookshelf, because those kinds of things are always cool. A large spool should do you nicely.

I don't have a lot of cool stuff in my room. It's more a "I'll put this here until I figure out what to do with it" kind of situation for me.

 

[Puddle]

I don't have cool stuff in my room. A desk, a gaming chair, a PS4, an Entertainment Center and a Big HD Television. It's nice and simple.

 

[Tsutarja]

Hmm, definitely some good decor. We have a fancy clock in our living room and nice lamps all over. Just try not to have colors of furniture that don't contrast very well with the wall colors.

 

[Raine]

Go to Ikea and buy the absolute plainest stuff you can find. Things like plain white bookshelves, a coffee table, maybe a chair/love sofa for the livingroom, throw pillows and whatnot, lamps with plain shades, white or a very pale color of window curtains. Then take them all and do the splatter paint thingy where you maybe get some friend and brushes and handfuls of pain and sling it on everything. You can be satisfied that not everything is absolutely plain, on top of not having to spend a bunch of money on crazy, off the wall designer furniture, but you've also put your own creative spin on everything. The latter is something I know you're quite fond of. 8)

IKEA is the first stop whenever I need something for my room so I would second that if you're looking for furniture or simple things to decorate your place to make it your home (: Not at all an interior designer, but keeping with a theme and colour schemes throughout the place would be a better idea than having different ones, in my opinion XP My room doesn't have anything particularly special. I have my TV, desk with a gigantic monitor that I just purchased yesterday, bed, and my floor is littered with plushes. There are shelves part of my desk (which was from IKEA) that allow me to place special mementos and interesting stuff to display~

 

[Altairis]

SF <3

My dad bought a corkboard and put some wood on the back of it and it works nice as a wall that I can pin stuff like pictures and posters too :3 (It looks better than it sounds, promise!)

I guess thats all I can suggest other than agreeing with what Solace said - things that are white or even brown I guess are nice and go with everything.

Oh! Also if you dont have anything geeky specific in mind maybe check out Japantown? Idk if you'd like it that much but sometimes stores there have nice posters/Japan-related geeky things.

 

[Shining Raichu]

How much money do you have to burn?

 

[Kura]

How much money do you have to burn?

This! What's your budget like? Also.. can you drill holes in the walls?

Also.. shouldn't this be more of a blog than a thread?

A bed, a desk, a chair, and a laundry hamper/ clothes hangers are probably the essentials- and maybe like a simple dresser. Does your place have curtains?
Would be helpful with a photo of the place.

When I moved to the UK I literally only had 1 suitcase and a carry-on but I had also just graduated (poor student) so I know the feeling of moving in to a barren place.

 

[Hannah]

I can't put up any decor of my taste because me and my sister share the same room, and we're the exact opposite of each other. I'm afraid that if I put up a poster of Justin Bieber, I'd wake up and it would have a crude-looking mustache drawn on it the next day.

Anyway, like what the people above suggested, Ikea is a great place to buy quality furniture. I'm not really an interior designer, but my mom's in love with the idea of decor. From what I've learned from the magazines she buys--

For small spaces, you should go for things that can be placed on walls like hanging shelves. It saves a lot of space especially if you're thinking about having a lot of things in your room. Light colors such as white paint makes a space look bigger. Mirrors also help visually enlarge a room. Don't be afraid to put artwork and paintings because they make a space more vibrant and cheerful. For curtains, use fabric that's sheer and light to make a room feel airy, but if you're looking for more privacy, there's a cloth here in the Philippines that's sheer yet opaque enough--unfortunately, I'm not sure if it's available in other countries. You can also opt for things that can be folded, such as folding chairs and folding desks.

And like what Kura said, choose the essentials before moving on with the decor.

I'll probably add more tips if I can remember them. Good luck!

 

[Goo]

When I moved to the UK I literally only had 1 suitcase and a carry-on but I had also just graduated (poor student) so I know the feeling of moving in to a barren place.

I almost wish I had done that. When I moved to the UK I paid for some shipping of my items and after like three months they came in but I lived like three months with just the stuff I could carry with me, it was weird to not have my musical instruments or my PC. Have you furnished your place now?

 

[Yukari]

I personally think you should find whatever you like and just decorate the place with it, that's what I do. For example, I find memorabilia from my favorite games, movies, cartoons, ect. and decorate my room with it. I mean my room is covered with posters of spongebob, Mario, Pokemon, and the like. Not to mention the toys and plushies. I'm a total geek I know.

 

[Kura]

I almost wish I had done that. When I moved to the UK I paid for some shipping of my items and after like three months they came in but I lived like three months with just the stuff I could carry with me, it was weird to not have my musical instruments or my PC. Have you furnished your place now?

Yeah, it's somewhat furnished now. I say somewhat because I don't really have any art on the walls and I don't want to be drilling holes or going out to get a bunch of 3M strips and blah blah.

When I first moved I needed to get the essentials but I also didn't have a lot of money so I spent most of my money on a good mattress. It's only a single mattress though and I rather have a double mattress but it was what I could afford at the time. I bought a bedframe, a desk, chair, plastic dresser-drawer, plates and cutlery, a vaccuum cleaner, a microwave, a mini freezer (my place didn't have a freezer), drinking glasses, a few pots/pans, hangers, cleaning/ household products, bathing products, a hairdryer, a straightener, a mirror, bedsheets, towels, pillows, and a laundry basket.

Since then I got a tv and footstool (hand me downs from someone who moved away), a tv-stand, a futon-couch, a basic sewing machine (essential for me to hem my jeans), and a few other small appliances and things like an electric whisk, an iron, a fan-heater, a few picture frames, etc.

People don't realize how much stuff you actually need to buy to have a "proper" home. Especially when you move in to somewhere that's not a dorm and you're not sharing with anyone. I still don't have a lot of things (no dining table, no custom shelves, no slow-cooker, no shoe-rack, etc.) I don't really have any cool "home furnishings" (even the magazine holders I have I cut out of boxes and covered them with coloured tape like a DIY thing.) And the stuff I did buy I bought "basic" ranges of (so like Ikea/Wilkinsons/Walmart sort of ranges.)

I am saving for my own place which maybe in 3 or so years I can attain, and perhaps then I will think about really furnishing a place the way I want to because then I'll be able to paint walls and have wooden flooring and be able to decorate it the way I like with good quality leather couches or a nice dyson hoover or super expensive china/ cookware and crystal glasses and all that luxurious stuff. For now, my place is tidy, quaint, and nice. I have a few personal touches like a candle and some photos, and I do have a cork-board with cards and photos all pinned up on it. And I'm content enough with that for now :3 I should post a photo sometime, really.