How to Assemble Your First Home

How to Assemble Your First Home Audra: Are you looking to turn those four plain walls into something absolutely fabulous? Most people are. Jennifer Adams is here. She’s one of the nations most sought after designers and she's going to help you. She’s got some great tips on everything that you should do before you even step foot into a store. Good to have you back Jen. Jen: Thank you. It’s good to be back. Audra: Most people do the exact opposite way of what you're about to tell us including myself. So you said a lot of people do that, right? Jen: Everybody does. That’s why this is such a big important topic whether your assembling your very first home or your very first home that matters because most times people who are watching today already have some things purchased. But this is like a fail proof way before you buy anything to save money, actually if you plan and I'm a big advocate of dreaming big. Even if you have no money right now thinking terms of your home, there’s -- Audra: You got to be inspired by something, right? Jen: Get inspiration and dream like it -- what would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail. I love that statement. So think about it in your house. If you have any budget constraints, don’t have any time constraints, so I have a personal vision board that I do every time I do my own house. Audra: So you just kind of cut out different photos and things that you like and put it altogether. Jen: From magazines, from photos of other people’s places and I just start packing them up on a corkboard. And then, I started narrowing it down because certain pieces will go and you can start seeing certain arm styles that go well together and I’ll layer the furniture around like how I would do it in the room. But I think -- I don’t think about budget at that point. It’s just a dream. Audra: Okay, you're rich at this point and you do whatever you want to do. Jen: Anything I want is just fine. Audra: The next thing that you say that we’re supposed to do is really establish the color pallets. So how do you do that within this color? Jen: Establish the color pallet again, not thinking of the green carpet you have on the floor at this point. Think about what you love and you have to get inspiration by looking at nature, looking at paint shops, looking at fabrics. So this is just an example of something I'm working on right now. And I have all different fabrics. I don’t know where the fabrics are going to go at this point. But I know -- and I know I like the wood tone. So establish that then take a look at your house. So this floor plan here is just a hand sketch, something that you can do yourself. Measure your house and then you can get little furniture graphics or measure through Google what is the size of a king bed and draw in exactly how you want the space to layout. Audra: Then obviously, you’ve got to be a painting, the house and then the accessories come in too. Jen: Yes. Audra: Do you have a certain accessories that you place in first? Jen: The accessories have to be the very, very last thing or you're going to waste so much money. I still do it because I see like this gorgeous candlestick. Painting also, that’s when the very last thing to do because you don’t know what you're going to bring into the house until you bring it in. Audra: Right. Jen: So be patience. Some people say we have to move in. I have to get rid of the white walls. Just wait, worst case, you move the furniture in and cover it. Audra: And I love what Jen last tip is always just to enjoy. It’s just stuff. So that kind of just brings all you back down to life, right? Jen: Yeah, it’s just stuff. Audra: All right. Thank you so much Jen. Good to have you back. And if you want to get more insider tips from Jennifer, you can check out her blog at betterTV.com. It’s a lot of fun, I promise. I've been there.