Kaelyn Williams asked me this question so I’m gonna answer it to the best of my abilities. ⬇️
1) Start out with rooms that are about 10x12 feet or 12x14 feet and just decorate one room or make two or three! For practice do an “empty room design” and decorate a small empty room. I also recommend raising the default ceiling height to at least 10 feet. Any smaller can easily make even a large room feel claustrophobic.
2) For more of a real look as far as “not stiff”, how I like to design is some cross between “staged” and “lived in”. I usually start with putting the basic necessities in the space (in case of bedroom: bed, nightstands, dresser/closet) and then start building from there. Who lives here? What do they like to do? Do they paint? Add some paintings and art supplies on a blank desk. Do they play an instrument? Add one or two and a beanbag chair! Are they kind of messy? Place blankets and miscellaneous stuff that sort of match around the room and the floor.
3) The biggest thing I notice in most designs is that while they are beautiful and luxurious, they lack a personality. Some of my favorite designs I see have personality or a story or a certain mood to it. One I saw recently was a sort of mansion/villa accompanied with a story she wrote. Everything I see seems so staged and “perfect”. I feel there are too many luxury designs out there and not enough unique and creative designs. Even in the contests that are meant to make you stretch your creativity end up having a dozen plus “generic” luxury designs like a house with white white white everywhere and crisp likes and perfectly placed furniture. Yes, there is a handful of designers who actually press the creativity button and do awesome things like the lady who made the cool natural/cave home! Or the person who got 1st in the #TeaBreakContest and somehow made an awesome bakery with a huge cake/doughnut/whatever it was!!! 🤩
4) The best way to make your design feel real is to not get caught up in perfection and the popular luxury designs. Push your boundaries and make something totally out of the norm! Make a house that looks like a dollhouse (😉) or maybe it looks like a rubix cube (that was a cool design)!
5) Sorry, got carried away with all the cool stuff I’ve seen... As for real like “I’d live here” real, I have to admit I don’t usually do “practical” designs, but all I can say is what I’ve said before: Make it feel like a real person lives here! So many designs I see look like the kind of designs where no human being has ever set foot in this house! Sometimes if you have too much grey and black a design can feel too cold even for modern/industrial.
6) Even the slightest touch of color (beige, red, yellow, a brick wall!) can warm up a space too feel more inviting!
7) Think about scale! If you need help scaling things correctly, grab a measuring tape and start measuring actual doorways and items in your house! Even the ceiling height and beds! Do not count on the HomeStyler models already always being to perfect scale. One of the single beds I use is 4 feet across pillow width. I’m 4’8” and if I lay across my twin bed, more than 8” of me is off the side of the bed. So you may have to rescale some things.
8) Draw inspiration from your own home or interests or ask for ideas from other designers! Some of your best designs could come from ideas sparked by someone else!
There’s probably more I could mention but at this point you’d probably be better just looking at articles from the internet. Hope this was helpful and y’all like and follow!
~Grace River
