5 Steps to Recreate Your Space Today

Have you ever felt that urge to move all of your furniture so everything feels fresh and new? Sure, rearranging furniture might be a great way to procrastinate (while still feeling productive), but the impulse to move everything around can also signal that your space isn’t serving you as well as it could.

As a multipotentialite, you might use the same space for a wide variety of projects, hobbies, or different types of work, and you need a space that fulfills the needs of each one. Or maybe you’ve recently shifted focus, and you want to create a room that will support your new creative or professional endeavors.

I recently decided to completely recreate my space, a process that involved a combination of rethinking, reorganizing, and redecorating the entire room to be more functional and aesthetically pleasing.

From beginning to end, this process led me from a small space that didn’t particularly foster creativity or productivity to a cozy room that promotes an efficient workflow while also supporting spontaneous creativity. As a bonus, I also ended up with a welcoming home studio space that I am confident will foster artistic growth and collaboration! Here’s what I came up with:

If you’re ready to make some changes to your space—whether it’s a walk-in closet or a penthouse suite—here are five steps to help guide you through the process. Hopefully these ideas will enable you to see your space in a whole new light and create a space that you end up loving!

1. Determine the scope of your project

To avoid unnecessary frustration, overwhelm, or disappointment, be sure to think through some of the basic logistics of your project first. Consider which factors you can’t currently change about the space, like its size and what furniture needs to remain in the room. If you share a room or apartment with someone else, also consider how that individual uses nearby spaces, within the same room or neighboring rooms.

Also think about what budget (if any) you want to dedicate to the project. Depending on your goals for the project, moving things around to create a fresh, organized feel might meet your needs, without any expense beyond your mental and physical effort. Also, keep in mind that the goal is to make your space better for you right now, and what you do with the space today is not all that you can ever do with it!

2. Seek out inspiration based on your goals

Now for one of the fun parts: seeking out sources of inspiration to help you reimagine your space. This can include scrolling through Pinterest, checking out ideas from magazines, or paying attention to elements of rooms you encounter in person that you really like.

In my case, my goals included creating a home studio space that would be cozy and welcoming while also providing me with an improved workflow for audio production. I wanted sufficient space in the middle of the room to do yoga, and that that open area would also serve as a space for mic stands, music stands, or other easily movable equipment to be set up depending on the project. I sorted through my Pinterest pins to see which ones I thought I could potentially replicate in my space. I also looked up pictures of other artists’ home studios for ideas about workflow and how to set up my space in an aesthetically pleasing but efficient way.

3. Map it all out

Some smaller reorganization projects can be done through a process of trial and error, organizing your space in different ways and seeing what will work for you. But if you’ll be moving any furniture or other heavy or delicate objects, it makes the most sense to make a rough map of where you want everything to go. In the case of larger furniture items, like desks, tables, or sofas, measure each of the furniture items and get a sense for how they will fit in their new locations. There are also plenty of great interior design resources to help you make the most of the space that you are working with, so that it can reflect your style as effectively as possible.

4. Make your moves!

Once you have a fairly strong sense of where you want the pieces in your space to go, it’s time to start moving them. As best you can, set aside some time to focus on this project when you won’t need to be using the space for its primary intended purpose(s). This planning helps to prevent introducing unneeded frustration into your work or home life or making the process of recreating your space stressful. If you’ve moved furniture in a room after it has been in its previous position for a while, you know that these efforts can be almost immediately rewarding and provide you with a totally new perspective in relation to your space.

5. Make it your own

At this point, your space will likely already be feeling fresh and new, and you are hopefully happy with how it’s turning out so far! After moving your larger items and rearranging any furniture, you will be ready to put the finishing touches on your space. This can include decorating (or redecorating) the walls, arranging any smaller items within your shelves or on top of tables, and adding any new decor that you have in mind. This process can also be fluid and continue beyond your initial reorganizing process, as you continue to find little items or decor pieces that speak to you or will help you feel more at home in your newly personalized space!

Why should I bother to recreate my space?

If you already have a “decent enough” space to work, relax, or create in, you might feel like going to the effort to reorganize or redecorate isn’t worth it. If you already love the way your space is set up, it effectively meets your needs, and it represents elements of who you are as an individual, chances are that you have already successfully created a great space for yourself. Congrats! But, if your room currently leaves a bit (or a lot) to be desired, there are a few reasons to consider recreating that space so that it can serve you better.

Harness aesthetics to benefit your mental health

Psychological research (and collective personal experience) indicates that interior design can have a real impact on our mental wellbeing. This aspect of interior design can be especially meaningful if you find yourself experiencing a sense of frustration about your current housing and/or workspace situation. Reorganizing and redecorating an area for your own benefit, no matter how large or small, can allow you to regain a sense of ownership over your current space, making it a better setting to foster interior transformation as well.

In making helpful adjustments to your room or workspace, you can create an area that better serves you. But the process of reorganizing can also help to alleviate the possibility for your space to be an added source of stress or frustration. By creating more of a dedicated space for yourself, you will hopefully find it easier to arrive at a calmer mindset and cultivate a greater sense of inner peace. If you’re considering making a transformation to your workspace, the effects of aesthetic considerations can actually have a similar impact on your psychological wellbeing by enabling you to approach your tasks from a more positive place, mentally and physically.

You don’t need to wait for the “perfect” space

It can be easy (and fun) to dream about the aesthetically and functionally perfect space that you hope to inhabit sometime in the future. But if all you’re doing is daydreaming about your potential future space, you’re probably doing a disservice to your current space (and yourself) right now. 

I’ll admit it: when I moved back in with my mom during the pandemic, I spent some time creating a formidable Pinterest board with ideas for my ideal future apartment or townhouse. While this was fun at first, it ultimately didn’t make me feel great about my current space in comparison with the perfectly-styled interiors I was seeing. If you also feel yourself drawn to this type of unattainable perfection, the act of recreating your current space may help you to enter into a more positive relationship with your space—and maybe even with your current life circumstances.

Express appreciation for where you are now

While my space didn’t quite stack up against Pinterest standards, I was incredibly grateful to have a safe and comforting place to live during such an unpredictable global crisis. Reorganizing or redecorating your space can serve as an act of gratitude for the place where you currently live and/or work. While you can certainly keep imagining your perfect future spaces, there is something powerful about cultivating a renewed sense of ownership over the living situation or workspace you have right now. Taking the time to clean, organize, and decorate your current space can be an expression of thankfulness for having a safe and reliable place to stay, even when it might not meet the criteria for your “ideal” space.

Your turn

Do you have a space that you want to recreate in some way, or have you undertaken a similar project in the past? How do you think making changes to that area could impact your daily life? Share your thoughts with the community below!

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