Do you want to achieve that beautiful, professional look in your home decor, but can't figure out what's missing? Home styling is the key!

Hi! I'm Annie, the mom behind DIY DECOR MOM and I'm thrilled to be sharing this guest post on Designer Trapped today! As you might guess, I am a mom of three, DIYing our 1980s home into our dream home. I am thrilled to be here today sharing my top tips on how to style a room. Many times people will wonder why their room doesn't look like the ones they see in magazines or online. Today, I am going to break home styling down for you because it is something that I have definitely seen a huge learning curve with. Believe me, I have been there and I have made mistakes! Two short years ago, I was wondering why my rooms never seemed to “take off on Pinterest” even though they had all the components–the right furniture, the right paint colors, the right window treatments. It was because they weren't styled well! So here's the scoop!

HOME STYLING SECRETS THAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW

Step One: Take Inventory

The first step is to take inventory of the room. Note how many colors you have going on, how many accessories are out, and your general layout.

Now ask yourself these questions:

Do you have too many things competing with one another?
Are there too many pieces of furniture that is causing it to be unusable?
What really needs to be out on your counters/ tables etc. and what is there just because it's always been there/ is easy?

Step two: Edit

Editing is the most important step of home styling and most people overlook! It was Coco Chanel who said, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” The woman knew style, and how you style a room is no different than how you style an outfit. Now, I'm going to turn it back over to Tasha for some specific editing tips.

Y'all, Annie is so right about the importance of editing! Just as fashion accessories can have a big impact on an outfit, the items you display on shelves and tables can have a huge impact on the overall style of a room.The problem is, we often pay little attention to the accessories in our rooms. Shelves get filled with random “stuff” and clutter that we don't have a better place to put, but that winds up looking haphazard and cluttered.

To edit properly, I recommend emptying all the shelves and tables in your room. Then begin grouping them in whatever way makes sense to you. I like to group items by size and color.

First, get rid of any items that you either don't like any more, that simply do not fit well in the room, or that you do not LOVE or USE.

Next, if you find that you have several items that look fairly similar to each other, edit out some of those items so that the remaining items can really stand out. It helps to focus on the size and shape of the items you have left. A well-accessorized room has a variety of shapes, sizes and textures. If you have several tall vases, eliminate two of them so that you don't have too many items of a similar shape and size.

After these two steps, evaluate how much you have left. If you still have so many items that your room will feel cluttered, continue removing items following the rules above if you can. If you are left only with items that vary is size, texture and shapes, give priority to those items that you love most.

Alright, back to Annie now to explain how to put everything you are keeping back in your room!

What you will find is that with less stuff out, your room feels bigger and less cluttered. It is easier to decorate now!

Step Three: Layer

Now this is the fun part of home styling, but it can be scary! We are about to get technical (but don't worry it's easy!). We are going to talk about the rules of triangles, thirds, and threes. You may be surprised, but this is basically something all of us already know!

RULE OF TRIANGLES: Look below at the bedside table. There are three components: a pretty stack of books, a short bouquet of flowers, and the lamp. It makes a triangle if you connect all the components.

Even this photo of our bathroom works because your eye goes in a triangle. It starts on the Roman Shades, then it goes down to the left to the picture frame/ air plants on the toilet back/ turkish towel on the sink, and then goes down to the rug on the floor.

RULE OF THIRDS: In our recently-redone playroom (shown below) which was originally our dining room, you can easily see the rule of thirds. The wall is basically broken into three with the built-ins, then the vintage dresser, and the other built-in. Depth-wise the room can be broken into thirds again. At the farthest, you have the vintage dresser, then you have the chairs, and in the foreground the floor pillows and train set.

RULE OF THREES: You can see I obviously love color like Tasha! But if I were to integrate every color that I loved into every room, you would feel like you were looking at Rainbow Brite's house! There are three main colors in each room. In the playroom it is white, navy blue, and melon pink. In our blue bathroom downstairs it is light blue, light pink, and white. And in our family room below (you can see it all made up for Christmas) you see three main colors: Blue, white, and Gold. You might get the impression I like blue or something ;) .

There you have it… my best tips for how to style a room broken down into three main steps: inventory, edit, and layer. And as far as layering… Remember the Rule of Triangles, Rule of Thirds, and Rule of Threes! Home styling doesn't have to be scary and it doesn't have to hard. Just follow these tips and you will be amazed at how beautiful your home can be! Now, I'd love for you to head over to my blog to check out some of these popular posts of mine!

How We Redid 2 Bathrooms for Under 1K

How to Mix Fabric Patters Like a Pro

Fix a Room Without Spending any Money

Before you head out, be sure to grab Tasha's free guide on how to design a room you love! It's full of the best tips for planning the major elements of your space and then you can use my styling tips above for the finishing details :)