Decorating your home in a way that feels right is a very personal process that should happen over a period of time. Your decorating style should be a reflection of your lifestyle, tastes and the people in your household as well as take cues from your house itself. For most people, being able to say whether you like something or not is easy but then find it more of a challenge to define what exact style they like. This is often where people I talk with get hung up when trying to figure out how to decorate their home.
Today I’m walking you through some tips for how to choose a design style that feels right for you and your family. Today also kicks off a new series “Style Made Simple” where I’ll be breaking down interior design styles in detail to make choosing the perfect design style for you much easier.
But before we get into all the specifics of many popular design styles let’s look at a few easy things you can do today to help you narrow down the right design style for your home and family.
Look at the Style of your House
What style is your house? Is it a cape cod, a ranch, is it traditional, modern? Next, think about the things that made you fall in love with it in the first place.
Look at what you Already Have
Another clue to figuring out your design style of getting clues about what styles you tend to be atracted to is by taking a look at what you already have. Look at everything from your furniture, lighting, art and other decor. What about those things made you love them?
Check out your closet.
This might sound odd to you but believe me, taking a good look at your closet will tell you a lot about your style. Do you see one or two colors repeated over and over again? What about patterns or textures / fabrics? Do you have a lot of dressy pieces, trendy pieces or are you more classic or simple?
It may come as no surprise to you but my closet is filled with blues, whites, grays and blacks. There are pops of color and pattern but few trendy items as I get older. Most of my closet is more simple and classic, lots of denim and cotton which tells me I’m more casual. Do you see how they tie together?
Who are your favorite celebrities, tv personalities, bloggers or style icons? What magazines do you subscribe to or what blogs or websites do you visit frequently?
I’ve been a Reese Witherspoon fan all the way back to her days in the movie “Man in the Moon” when she was just a kid (I was too!) She has a very lady-like, classic style that I am drawn to. I’m also big fans of Erin and Ben Napier. I love their personalities, their warmth and their design style which leans a little more toward the classic, non-trendy side as well.
When it comes to magazines, I subscribe to several for many reasons but I’ve taken notice that most of them follow a certain style or have a certain look that resonates with me and what I’m usually drawn to. chances are, you’ll notice the same.
Same goes for websites or blogs you visit. While we are often attracted to characteristics of the person behind the site, often times it’s their style that draws us in initially.
Now think about your own favorites? Do you see commonalities between your closet, your celeb favorites, etc?
Search out Inspiration
One of my favorite things to do when looking for inspiration for any project is to spend time looking through magazines, Pinterest or my favorite blogs or shopping sites. I create a dedicated Pinterest board for whatever project I’m starting and pin all that I love to that board. I can later go back and pull out elements that are repeated from colors, to furniture to style and that often gives me a great jumping off point to get started.
This same idea works when you are trying to figure out what your design style is. Start gathering inspiration and as you collect a group of inspiration, start looking through them for common colors, common furniture or other pieces. Are there things that start standing out? Those are the keys to helping determine your style.
Take a couple of online quizzes.
If you have a little spare time, it may be fun to take a couple of online quizzes. There are lots out there to try and they have been designed to help you pinpoint the elements you like and connect that to a particular design style.
While I wouldn’t recommend doing only this to figure out your design style, it can be a helpful way to narrow down the styles to the one or two you most closely connect to.
Research Interior Styles so you Know what they are
From here, the next step is understanding the characteristics that make up some of the most common and popular design styles. In this new series, “Décor Style Made Simple”, I’ll be explaining what defines the most common interior design styles with examples to make this process even better.
The first style I’ll be taking a deep dive into is Coastal Style. Keep an eye out for that and if you have a particular style you’d like to know more about or have questions about, leave a comment below and let me know.
Simple tips for choosing a design style that feels right for you and your family
- Look at the style of your home and take note of what made you love it in the beginning.
- Take a look through your closet
- Identify a few tv personalities or celebrities that you love.
- Gather Inspiration from outside sources like magazines, Pinterest or blogs.
- Take a couple of online style quizzes to narrow down your styles.
- Know the basics of different interior design styles
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