Have you heard of slow home design? Slow home design is a principle that thrives on designing and decorating homes as slowly and sustainably as possible. It is a slow approach to decorating and redecorating your dream home wherein you curate and build your dream home by putting only the most purposeful and meaningful items you could find. It is the opposite of the fast-paced fleeting approach to designing one’s home, which is common nowadays.

Even when you let your shine, the slow home design approach does not sacrifice stylishness and sustainability. Instead, you carefully consider your home, for instance, your choice of house and lot for sale in Pampanga, and make it your own, styling it unhurriedly so it stands out.

How do you redecorate your home using a slow and sustainable approach? Below are the answers.

1) Know your space

We all have a vision of how we want our dream home to look. However, before introducing any decoration changes, it is essential to know your space by heart. Get a few for natural lighting and how it changes at different times of the day. Know the measurements by heart, so you eliminate guesswork. This is especially useful when going to a store to buy decorative yet functional pieces. Visit each room to get a feel of each to realize the style and decor interventions it needs to make the space work for who will use it. Slow decorating pertains to taking baby steps until you find and make mindful decisions about how you want to use your personal space. Again, this is intentional in nature.

2) Find your style

A common pitfall in decorating one’s dream home is doing it in one sweep based on how envisioned the finished project is based on well-curated Instagram feeds and Pinterest pinboards. In the end, you realize that the style you eagerly pursued initially does not resonate with what your heart desires. And so you crave for change—and a costly change at that. Stop. You want to find your style first before embarking on the decorating or redecorating project. A considered approach to redesigning your home is what you need in actuality. Style is also about your relationship with your home as much as about how each space should complement one another. Thus, even if you cannot find your style for now, it’s okay. Personal style is supposed to develop over time as well.

3) Invest in a long-lasting design

When decorating or redecorating your home, one way to do this is by changing furniture. You might as well invest in high-quality furniture pieces as these are built to last instead of bulking up with pieces that can quickly fall apart or date. Yes, they require a pricier upfront payment, but you can pass it on to your children or grandchildren, making the investment worthwhile. While at it, let the ‘buy less but by better’ mantra be your guide.

4) Buy functional and purposeful items

You don’t have to fill your home with high street pieces. On the flip side, it is also okay to buy cheap household items. However, you need to choose carefully. Your best bet is affordable yet sustainable decorations. When you find something of interest, don’t buy the item too quickly, though, just because the cost is low. Instead, make a decision based on its purpose. If you will need it, then go ahead and buy it. But if you are still trying to find out or determine how it would fit into your home, don’t buy it. It will only accumulate needless clutter in your home. When you haste with the big-ticket purchases, you may unwillingly compromise the quality of essential items. Taking things slowly also allows you to budget your hard-earned money more effectively and spread the costs for longer periods.

5) Think beyond aesthetics

A well-designed and sustainable home is also about supporting the wellbeing of the dwellers. This should not be an afterthought but a priority. Indeed, a good interior design strikes a good balance between aesthetics and wellbeing. After all, the design and decorations impact a person’s mood and overall health. So the way your face makes you feel is as important as how it looks. So don’t compromise, and don’t sacrifice either.

6) Think about purpose

When redecorating your dream home, look around you first and think about how and what you want to do with space. For example, you may want to turn it into a quiet room where you can do some meditation or painting. Additionally, create a space for essentials where you can place accessories such as keys, watches, and sunglasses. It can be a shelf, a basket, a bench with pull-out drawers, or an ottoman with compartments.

7) Select sustainable materials

Whether you have the money to splurge or save up for a few standout pieces, your goal is to prioritize sustainability. Some examples are certified wood materials, energy-efficient lighting, eco-friendly paint, and handwoven fabric like hemp, organic cotton, wool, and flax. Steer clear from synthetic materials because they have a higher environmental impact. Recycled materials are also a good option. For example, some furniture stores sell chairs made from recycled wood chips. The costs of these upcycled chairs are cheaper than chairs that are built from scratch. So the bottom line is doing a bit of research about eco-friendly decorations and choosing from there.

8) Draw inspiration from trends

Interior design trends are there to inspire. Yes, it is worth keeping abreast of the changing trends but don’t feel pressured to adhere to them. When you let your home redecorating strategy governed by fleeting trends, you will end up living in a dated home. You would be eager to replace it once the novelty of the previous season wears off. So it’s a lose-lose situation if you do. Likewise, your home should reflect your personality, not someone else’s. Heirloom pieces, vintage finds, travel souvenirs, and personal mementos genuinely reflect the character of the person living in the space, and that is you.

9) Organize and simplify

In keeping your dream home neat, you need to declutter regularly. You want to slowly build a home that is filled with functional, meaningful, and beautiful pieces that make your heart happy. Don’t hang onto things that make your space look cluttered and disharmonized. Also, don’t hang onto things that no longer delight you. We Filipinos are big on sentimental value. You can keep these things, but if they don’t spark joy anymore, you should rethink their purpose in your life. If you think someone else will make good use of it, give it away. It is much better to pass on things that no longer serve you to people who will have good use of them. Or, if you cannot afford to part ways from these things, invest in a storage solution.

10) Reuse, repurpose or upcycle

The word upcycle is being thrown around these days, and for good reasons. Upcycling refers to the process of reusing discarded materials and objects to create a new product. The goal is to create a higher quality product or improve the value of the materials than the original. It makes more sense to upcycle than to rush into replacing worn-out items, particularly those that can be easily repaired or updated. This should be a conscious effort on your part, providing old, tired, and worn-out pieces a new lease on life.

On the contrary, opt for materials that age well. For instance, leather ages beautifully. So instead of striving for the perfect look, let worn-out leather seats stay. They can make your home feel more relaxed while adding more layers and textures.

11) Fight the urge for perfection

Striving for perfection and excellence is another pitfall when redecorating your dream home. Slow home design is a process, and every home can be a work in progress. You want a ‘collected’ look, not necessarily a ‘perfected’ look that makes your home seem like you took it out of the pages of an interior design lookbook. This is very alienating and upsetting.

12) Take your time

Since the approach is gradual, it would be wise to live in your home for a while before you make any major decision decoration-wise. Don’t rush into significant decoration projects. Acting on impulse, you may risk spending time and money on decorations that you regret having and changing sooner than expected or their lifespan. Finding, restoring, and collecting things to make your dream home unique and special to you also takes time. There is no shortcut to this process. While at it, always think from a long-term mindset. This is your dream home, and you want to keep it as pristine and well-thought-out, and well-decorated as possible.

In sum, you can embrace the slow home design concept, too, making your home more efficient, easier to maintain, and better for overall health and wellbeing. A slow and sustainable home purports intentional living, and there is no better way to live than anchoring your lifestyle on practicality, functionality, and meaningfulness. While it takes time to build, the finished product is a home that truly reflects your personality.