Finding Your Style
Finding Your Style: How to find the perfect style to compliment your home and personality
By Eloise Foster – Lead Designer, Wilson & Co
So, lockdowns are now over, and entertaining is becoming a staple in our day to day lives once again. Whether friends or family, making memories in your home is a priceless commodity that many of us have dearly missed over the last year.
However, this often leads us into looking to create the perfect environment within our homes to host such events. It’s makeover time!
Finding your own style is no easy feat. There are so many influences on our style in all areas of our lives, its not expected of you to know your style straight away. No artist can paint a masterpiece without prior practice or planning. The same is said for interior design and décor. As an interior designer, it's my job to help guide this process, and then help create a product that radiates the client’s personality and vison.
There is no predefined formula for finding everyone’s style, however there is a process which can help start the ball rolling, so you can tackle planning your next project with more confidence. And confidence is key! Go against the grain, be yourself. I guarantee the finished product will be infinitely better.
Where do we start? The vast array of internet and magazine content we consume often fills many people’s heads with snippets of styles and décor, creating an amalgamation of style choices which are often not cohesive. This leads to a patchwork quilt of décor being created, and the flow and luxury feel suffer. This is the most common problem we find with clients; nailing down their style is key to making a beautiful, 'luxurious feeling' space.
Step #1:
Atmosphere
The main job of planning any space is to determine how the room should feel. This largely depends on the room’s purpose. This is the base notes to your design, the “flour to your cake” if you will. Every time you’ve been to a fancy restaurant, or plush hotel suite, I can guarantee the experience stays with you due to the emotions the space provoked through its atmosphere.
Stand in each room and imagine how you will spend the time in that space. Is it a cosy, warm snug? Is it a space solely for you? Or is it an entertaining space for friends? These all demand a different thought process to acquire the perfect ambience.
Its important to view the space as a blank shell, not how it is currently. Start with individual rooms, taking notes of keywords you think should relate to that space. After you’ve completed that for each room, expand the process to small areas of your home, this will help blend the décor seamlessly into a polished product. If you struggle to visualise the space, often removing the furniture can help make this task much easier.
Step #2:
Base Style
All styles stem from two main sub styles: Traditional or Contemporary. This will vary from region to region, country to country, but the underlying fundamentals are still the same.
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Traditional often airs towards the ornate details, richer textures, elaborate trims and more elaborate architectural details. Think of the wall panelling and crown mouldings of stately homes in the UK, or traditional farmhouses and cottages.
Contemporary focuses more on clean and sleek. However, don’t get confused thinking means only minimalistic. There are a multitude of “sub-styles” encompassed in contemporary styling such as mid-century modern and most Scandinavian living design as well.
It's not unusual for clients to enjoy aspects of both these two styles, and often a blend of traditional and contemporary features can produce the perfect space. However, it's important to know which way you lean primarily, the lead style if you will, as switching to often brings us back to the disjointed feeling and we lose the impact we desire.
Step #3:
Inspiration
When finding your style, inspiration is key. Your imagination can only carry you so far!
As mentioned earlier, we are surrounded by inspiration and spaces trying to evoke some form of response within ourselves. The internet is full of ideas, or “old fashioned” magazines. In the age we live, there is no limit to the inspiration out there. Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube … the possibilities are endless.
Take the notes you made in the first step and find inspiration for the style that fits those key words and conveys the feeling you desire. Remember, this is YOUR space, so focus on what you think fits the criteria and not what the keyboard warriors of social media will think! We all like different things, and what you like is what matters and will make your home tick.
This will start forming the building blocks for your style, so let yourself run free, save pictures, make idea boards. All these will help you, or a designer like myself, to home in on that perfect décor.
However, we do have to be realistic. Many styles look great on Instagram but wouldn’t work in your home. Take note of the property, the architecture and location, as all these will influence whether a style fits or stands out as an eye sore.
Step #4:
Refine
Armed with Pinterest boards, magazine cut outs, colour swatches and keywords, you are now prepared to refine your style.
Organize your inspiration. Look for common features such as colour, furniture styling, wallpaper or ornaments. You will mostly likely find the inspiration you have chosen all share a few commonalities. Anything that doesn’t fit, discard. It may look good as a one off, but its not worth jeopardising the whole feel of a home.
Keep refining, until each piece of inspiration you have speaks to you in some way, shape or form, until you have a clear, defined answer that shows your true personality and style. And there you have it!
Take your time, trust the process, this isn’t easy or quick, that’s why its my job as a designer to help speed up the process by taking out some of the guess work in the early phases. If you are keen to try it on your own, get the ball rolling by taking Houzz’s “What’s your decorating style” quiz. By no means will it give you a definitive but could help you find some inspiration by taking out some of the guess work.