The Best Way To Find Your Interior Style

Does your home reflect you and your personal style?

Sometimes it’s actually really, really hard to work out what exactly yours is.

So here’s what I believe to be the best way to find your interior style…

A little while ago I was asked to help a lady with her living room which she was rather tired of. Well, that’s just the sort of thing I absolutely adore doing because I know I can always make a difference. I am passionate about what I do and I just love seeing the results people get when they have implemented the design advice for their interiors that I have worked on especially for them. And I don’t really mean seeing the room finished, (although having a glimpse of the completed ‘after’ is soooo exciting) I really love how they ‘love it’,

• that feeling of having really achieved something they adore
• something that they are proud of
• something they would never have thought of themselves
• something that is just right for the way they live.

 

That’s the special little piece of the whole process that is very, very rewarding for me.

It’s just that it’s my area of expertise, I’m engulfed in the topic of interiors and colours all day every day, I have my eye on the industry and what’s going on in it. I translate what is new and current out in the big interior design world for the way we actually live in our own, mostly normal, homes. Mine certainly doesn’t look like a cool magazine shot, yet, it is stylishly decorated (in my style) and it’s just ‘me’!

But, I was telling you about this particular lady who arranged for me to see her living room, which she desperately wanted to update. When I saw it, I have to say that what first hit me was that there existed a very wide gap between her own personal style and this extremely plain and uninspiring room. She showed it to me with the enthusiasm of wet weekend.

And I do hate wet weekends!

I knew right there what was wrong and why she was just so completely dissatisfied with it.

You see, she was a busy mum, with a demanding full-time job and she had a certain dress style that was colourful and coordinated with great accessories and vibrant chunky jewellery.  She just had a presence, was well put together and even had an edgy haircut to compliment it all! So when we were in this room, I realised the sheer disparity. It looked like one of those oak furniture brochures that come in the junk mail. It was full of oak and other wood furniture and flooring and the walls were white. Yes, there was a sofa (a neutral colour) and a few other items but that was it.

I’m not saying at all that there is anything wrong with wood or oak, but I am saying that the whole look and feel was bland. And that’s why I was there.

 

No wonder she wasn’t in love with it!

No wonder she felt flat looking at it. I did too!

Fast forwarding through the design process to the end result, what it looks like now is a million miles from that wooden (in every sense of the word) room. It has deep slate grey walls, plush velvet fabrics, jewel coloured accent colours – think emerald and sapphire, striking mustard pops of colour and gorgeous layered lighting AND it is one hundred times more ‘her’!

 

That’s the whole point! Your home needs to be a reflection of you and your lovely original self!

So, the lesson to really take from that is; that if you are not sure what style to go with when you are next decorating, think of the sort of dress style you like, your image – or the way you would like to look if you didn’t have to do the school run in the rain!

If you love natural fibres and quirky prints, then that could be the lead you take when next designing a room. You might try to select cottons, linens and wools instead of man-made fabrics for example.

Or maybe you like elegant shapes and tailored pieces that coordinate well, this would suggest smart interiors with stylish and sophisticated finishes.

 

It’s as simple as that…work out the authentic version of you, translate that into your home and you will love it!

Hope that helps and as ever, get in touch and let me know where you struggle most with interiors.