When it comes to choosing a specific home decor style for your living space, it’s important to become familiar with a variety of options before making your final decision. You do not want to rush into a style that you may not be happy with six months down the road, and there may be plenty of styles out there that you’ve never even heard of. Take the time to do some research.
Don’t Feel Like an Outsider in Your Own Home
Sure, there are a plenty of quizzes online that claim to help you determine which style is right for you, but it’s hard to fall in love with something so personal when you feel like you picked your style off of a fast-food menu.
Hiring a professional interior designer could also result in you feeling like an outsider in your own home. Your specific home decor style should say something about your aspirations and your accomplishments. Your furniture should serve as interesting conversation pieces when you have friends and family members over, and that’s hard to do when you weren’t involved in the conversation to begin with.
If you aren’t involved in choosing your decor, you could end up feeling like you’re living in a hotel, and while that may be nice at first, it’ll get old fast! If you want to feel comfortable with your home decor style choices, take matters into your own hands.
Separate the Favorites from the Functional
We all gather a collection of mismatched furniture, clothing, and trinkets over the years, and sometimes we keep furniture because of functionality, rather than appearance or sentimental value. We keep old clothes in the backs of our closets because we hope that we’ll one day fit into them again, or because we know we can’t wear our favorite shirts every day of the week. Even though we may not like some articles of clothing as much as others, we still need to wear something, right? Start to make distinctions between your favorites and what you just keep around for functionality.
Find the Common Denominators
To begin choosing the right home decor style, spend a few moments walking around your house and taking notes on which styles, colors, and textures you really like, compared to which ones are just okay.
Once everything is written out, it’s time to find your common denominators. Is there a certain type of fabric that you are drawn to more than others? Maybe a specific color you use a lot, or a specific shade of wood you’d like to see more of? Once you are able to separate what you love from what you keep around for functional purposes, you can start to get an idea of what can be replaced, and what stylistic direction you’d like to go in.
Use Magazines as Templates
By looking at pictures of professionally designed homes, you can get a better idea of furniture placement, layering techniques, and color pairings—you know, the whole nine yards. However, instead of completely copying what you see and handing over all creativity to the publishers, you can use the pictures as a template and add your own favorite pieces and personal touches.
For more home decor style advice and inspirations, keep visiting Currently Crushing!
