How do you furnish a newly built house?

A newly built home offers the perfect blank canvas for creating a home that is a true reflection of you, your personality and your lifestyle. After all, you're not inheriting someone else's taste and you don't have to do any stressful structural work before you can start decorating. But knowing where to start can be daunting when you are faced with plain walls and empty spaces that haven't even had a round wall sticker placed yet. Use the tips below when decorating a new home!

Find your style

Before you start, think carefully about how you want your home to look and feel. What atmosphere do you want to create? What style of interior design would make you feel happiest and most comfortable? Collect images, textures and materials that appeal to you and create a mood board that you can refer back to as the project progresses. Pinterest, Instagram and magazines are great sources of inspiration for this, but be realistic about what works for you and remember that rooms created for editorial purposes often don't reflect everyday life. You may love the idea of a bohemian, vintage-inspired look, but it won't work if deep down you know you can't stand clutter.

Play with furniture and layout

When you buy a new home, you won't have any preconceived ideas about furniture arrangements from the previous owners, so you have the opportunity to create a layout that suits your needs perfectly. Start by identifying what activities will take place in your home and how you want to use each room. Do you want a room for dinners or family meals? Or a cosy corner where you can snuggle up with a book? Large open spaces can seem particularly daunting, so think about how you can 'zone' them to create defined areas for different things.

Take your time with colour

Once you've chosen a style, it can be tempting to rush into painting or wallpapering, but it's not advisable to do this for the first 12 months while your home is still settling and drying out from the building process. So use this period to get an idea of the light and how it changes during the day, and consider what colours might work where. You may already be able to buy paintings to hang them up, for example a Plexiglas painting.

Get the lighting right

Lighting has a huge impact on the way a room looks and feels, and can make or break an interior design. Lighting generally falls into three categories: mood lighting, which mimics daylight and illuminates the room as a whole; task lighting, to help with certain activities; and accent lighting, which can be used to create beams of light or to highlight specific features. The beauty of new construction is that you can choose whether you want pendant lights or downlights, so think carefully about how you will use each space.