How would I decorate a "raw" space?

What are the walls, then?

Well, first get a color palette. Then, you can get things that kind of revolve around that color, or contrast. Then you take those colors, put them on the walls, splash color into the furniture, or curtains, maybe a rug, but first what type of floors do you have? and, what are the walls?

At one point in the 1990’s (I think, could have been the 1980’s) designer Terence COnran did a lot of work using non-typical finishes for interiors. He had a penchant for making spaces look as if the plaster had fallen off, or water had stained the walls, but always in an artistically “right” pattern. I doubt that he is still doing this sort of thing, but some of his older books might show it. If not, you might consider looking up a copy of Terence Conran Small Spaces : Inspiring Ideas and Creative Solutions. If you can’t find that, then look for The Essential House Book, Getting Back to Basics to get some ideas.

If there is no drywall up, you could either paint the wall surface with a solid color, to minimize the differences between support beams and flat surfaces, or you could exaggerate and put in a wall of shallow shelving, painted in contrasting colors, or you could plan to put something up to cover the walls, such as inexpensive floor-to-ceiling curtains or paneling.

One thing I like to do is go to a fabric store and look for fabrics I like that have several colors in the design. I then buy some of the fabric and copy those colors and the proportions and apply them to the room and its furnishings.

@mollypop51797 The floor has a large rug on it now, and the walls have the support beam thing going on; looks sorta like this picture: link

If I knew more about construction, I’d tell you guys.:(

@smartfart11 – You could go with painting everything the same color, to minimize the distractions, but if you have exposed wires or insulation it would be a good idea to cover things up with something that would protect it, such as drywall, paneling, or even ¼-inch plywood.

@Darwin I would love to just drywall it to make it way easier. I’ll probably end up just doing that.

Anything that you would do besides drywall would cost as much as drywall to get it to look decent. There are lots of things that you can do with black paint on ceilings to make ugly things disappear, but that only works if the ceilings are really high. You also want to think in terms of resale. You could staple fabric to the beams and hide everything, but fabric collects dust.

I think you have to drywall it, but you could create a cool effect like some sort of design on the ceiling with hidden lighting (anything from basic white light hidden in a tray ceiling to changing neon like what you find in a pool). If the ceilings are already low like 8 feet it might be a bad idea, but if they are at least 9 feet high then it will work.