How to Find Your Decorating Style
How to find your decorating style and create the look and feel you want in your home.
Does this sound familiar? You want to decorate your home. You kind of know what you like but you can’t make anything really come together, rooms don’t flow the way you want them to and everything feels disconnected. You look at a few pictures on Pinterest or magazines or see something in someone else’s home and think “I love that”, go out and a buy random pieces and then wonder why it doesn’t all work? Or, you’re in a rut and want something new but you can’t seem to make any decisions and end up not doing anything? How do you pull it all together if you don’t know what “it” is? It starts here with how to find your decorating style.
Let’s start with a few things:
A. Houses are not decorated in a day. It’s something that is built and should be curated over time, especially when you’re on a budget. It takes some time to figure out what works for you, what type of pieces speak to you, what pieces work best in your home for your family and how each room needs to functions.
It should be about creating a feeling when you walk into your home and when you look around every day.
B. You should decorate for you, not how someone else decorates or just because that’s what you see on Instagram.
C. You don’t have to spend a fortune but you do want to invest a bit on some quality pieces.
D. Ask yourself if you’re willing to invest the time in either searching for just the right pieces at the right price or doing some DIY projects you can handle (i.e. furniture makeovers).
That said, don’t buy stuff just because it’s on sale or take on projects you can’t/won’t do!
E. There are SO many styles of interior design out there. The trick to creating a cohesive home is to stick with 80% one style with maybe a 20% mix of another. Ok, so roughly – you may do 70%, 20%, 10%. For example, you can like French Country but throw in a bit of Rustic Farmhouse or you could like Shabby Chic but introduce a bit of Vintage Farmhouse.
The point is if you don’t focus on one style over all with a few different pieces worked in to a consistent feeling throughout – SQUIRREL! – you’ll end up with a hot mess.
F. Ultimately, this is not about the “label” we are putting on a style. It’s about narrowing down your choices so you know where to focus your time, energy and MONEY.
So where do you start when you want to figure out your decorating style? Grab some paper and a pen!
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First, figure out what already works in your home and what doesn’t.
How do you fix something if you don’t ever really define what needs to be fixed?
Take some time to really look around your space. You can start with one room, maybe the one use use the most or that bothers you the most, and go from there.
Do you like any of the colors? Do you have pieces that you just love or more importantly, pieces that just don’t work at all (you bought it because it was on sale, didn’t you??) Maybe you have hand-me-down furniture that you don’t love as is but can you paint it and give it a new look? Take the time to inventory and really make those decisions about what has to go and what has to stay.
Then ask yourself, how do I need this room(s) to function? Do we need more storage? How do these rooms need to flow together better and function with how we live every day?
Make a list and a plan for keep/upcycle, toss and donate. Maybe you can take some of those pieces that no longer work for you and sell it on FB Marketplace or craigslist and then use the money to buy new stuff that works. 🙂
2. Start gathering pictures of things you love and inspire you.
The obvious thing is to start at Pinterest and set up a board specifically for saving pictures of rooms you love (and can picture yourself living in) For example, I love looking at pictures of rooms with white sofas and white shiplap (Liz Marie Blog). They are beautiful but that’s not something that would make sense in my home. The trick is to understand why you are pinning it. What about that picture really speaks to you?
The nice thing about Pinterest is that if you put “living room”, or any room, in the search bar, boxes will pop up at the top with different styles to choose from so it will help you narrow down your choices.
Try looking at pictures of architecture and art that inspire you with their colors or shapes, too. You should also look at magazines, Instagram (you can save pictures on Instagram to a folder by hitting the little tag icon over on the right), Facebook, even furniture store ads showing completed rooms. You never know where inspiration will happen.
Keep in mind, this does not have to be done overnight. Take your time and find real inspiration.
3. Hit up your closet to hone in on your favorite colors.
So hear me out. The clothes you choose say something about your overall style. This isn’t perfect science but it will help you see the colors and style you like to wear and can help to narrow down the style for your home. Is your style/color scheme earthy and warm tones. sleek and modern or colorful and eclectic?
For example, here is my closet. You can see the majority of my clothes are black, brown and white. There is also a bunch of green and blue with a few brighter colors thrown in for the Spring and Summer months. It’s no wonder that my favorite colors to decorate with are the same.
Master Bedroom Closet Makeover
4. Pull it all together.
With the colors you pick out of your closet in mind, gather all of your pictures you’ve saved. Open to your Pinterest board, pull out your magazines pages etc. and spread them out in front of you. Once you start to go through them you should start to notice similarities in the photos. Grab some paper and write down all of the things they have in common. Are all of the rooms very neutral or are they colorful? Is there a common theme with colors? Write down 3-4 colors that are most prevalent.
What type of furniture are you drawn to most. Do they rooms have painted furniture or wood. Is the furniture ornate or is everything clean lines? Are the rooms sparse or eclectic? Are you drawn to certain patterns? Write it all down.
Are you starting to see some new themes in your personal home style?
Source
So now you know what you want to keep/toss or change in your rooms, you’ve narrowed down pictures of spaces you love and you have an idea about where to start with your colors.
Let’s take a look at the design styles.
In alphabetical order…
Art Deco – 1920’s design style with glamorous and sleek decor and furniture and jewel tones.
Asian Zen – Light and airy, sparse furnishings made of organic materials.
Bohemian – Lots of jewel tones, an eclectic mix of flea market, vintage and antique furnishings with a touch of glam.
Contemporary – Trendy, rooms are sparse and well edited.
Eclectic – A mix of styles, bold color, textures, and patterns, a bit out there with furniture.
French Country – Think antique French, shabby chic, and farmhouse all mixed together.
Hollywood Regency – Vibrant colors, shiny surfaces, glamorous.
Industrial – Slightly steampunk and masculine with a neutral color scheme, dark smoky colors, raw woods and metals.
Mid Century Modern – Danish inspired from the 50’s and 60’s, simple silhouettes, organic shapes, functional pieces.
Modern Country – Exposed beams, layers of industrial pieces, warm and a bit rugged.
Modern Farmhouse – Lots of contrast, warm, comfortable with rustic, country elements and architectural details.
Rustic – Inspiration from nature mixed with farmhouse and industrial – raw wood and stone.
Scandinavian – Slightly minimalist, very neutral, organic shapes.
Shabby Chic – White overstuffed sofa, distressed painted wood, comfortable, lived in and kinda girly.
Traditional – Traditional colors like beige, overstuffed sofa’s, lots of layers.
Transitional – Traditional mixed with a bit of modern elements but warm and relaxed.
Are things a bit more clear now?
Finding your home decorating style may take some time but it will save you time and money in the long run. Plus you’ll be happier when you’re surrounded by things you love and a space that you are happy and comfortable in.
One last thing, no matter what style you define as your own, your home should have pieces of you. Family pictures, heirlooms, or keepsakes that make your home uniquely yours.
Happy decorating!
Col
My problem is, I’ve picked my styles..I love Hollywood glam but I want to mix it with old west. I’ve pretty much accomplished that. My colors are black, black/brown as in woods, gold and off white/ivory for offset. I’m doing a wall in black with diamond tacks, my fireplace back wall is going to be done with stained tobacco sticks mostly in a black/brown stain and gold on some of the sticks. My floors are a darkish wood, furniture is cream colored sofas and dark gray velvet chairs. End tables are wood look but a dark blackish brown in color. I have 2 round ottomans with gold metal legs that will be refinished in a cowhide of brown and white. I also have 2 gold and glass shelving units, 2 sets of white distressed double doors that just sit on each end of the large window. A wall done in wood slats that I painted or stained in brown, gray, black and a natural wood color, (which everyone that walks through the door falls in love with), white fur rugs on the back of each chair and a gray and white 12’ round carpet on one end of the room and a 5’ x 7’ rug on the other end. My room is actually divided by my fireplace which is 3 sided and therefore sits out in the floor dividing the room. My problem is…it’s all just a bit too dark and I want to incorporate another color. I don’t like teal, yellow is out as well as red, blue, orange and green. I’m thinking gold would work but it would have to be a more muted gold because I have shinyish gold in the room already. A dark purple or plum color is my favorite color but I’m afraid to use that for fear it will still be too dark. HELP!
P.S. As I stated above, I am doing old west as well as Hollywood glam and if I did consider the colors I said I would not use, I would have to go with red and muted yellow to keep with the western theme, but I’m trying to avoid that because I really just want hints of things like a stirrup from a saddle, horseshoe, an old rusted gun just simple things like that without color. If you need pics let me know because I know this would be hard to visualize.
Hi Shirley! The best part is you know what you love and it sounds like you’ve spent a lot of time and thought in putting it all together! You know I love cream/black/brown and woods. You mentioned the two accent walls you were doing but not the color of the other walls. Can you make those a lighter color? Also, I love plum! Just use a shade that is a bit lighter? Muted gold and plum would be so pretty!