September 9, 2010

Discover Your Decorating Style

Have you ever wondered what your decorating style is? Defining your style will help you when making decorating choices for your home. It's important to be honest and settle on a decorating style that still works at the end of a busy week. Do the footwork, study the possibilities and then let the right one strike your fancy. Soon you will discover the decorating style that has been fighting to get out!

Your style should be a reflection of what makes you feel good, what matches your tastes and preferences in other areas of your life. The last thing you bought for your home is a fantastic indicator of what your style is, especially if it is design departure for you. Hotels have clear design styles, so use them to help you find your own style. Think about the type of hotel your choose. Do you enjoy a quiet bed and breakfast or an ultra modern high rise or the more traditional styled hotel?

Do you like vintage things? Are you drawn to old clothes, movies and furniture? If so, generic, contemporary decor will probably not be a comfortable fit for you. Are you more of a modern soul? You might want to go full 21st century, with a streamlined look. Do a little soul-searching on what you really like to be surrounded by. You might surprise yourself.

One way to define your decorating style is by going through stacks of home-design magazines. Tear out pictures of any rooms you like. When you have 50 interiors, go back through them. A look will emerge. You can also try looking around your home, for the three things it would break your heart to part with. 

Here are just a few of the decorating style possibilities. if you're still not sure what your decorating style is try this  online quiz.

Country decorating is about creating a feeling and an ambiance that evokes our past. It is a nostalgia for simpler times and simpler lives. Country style decorating helps us imagine a time when we lived closer to nature and life had a natural order to it. All aspects of country decorating derive from the simple cottages on the shores of Massachusetts to the stark log cabins of the West. At that time homes were simply decorated with items that were used for everyday chores. Spinning wheels, butter churns, quilting racks were all used for practical reasons. Today they are the decorative accents we search out in antique malls and flea markets.

Shabby Chic is no particular style, but rather balances elegant things with old and worn, shiny silver accessories with painted wooden tables, soft throw rugs with rough old lace. Shabby Chic fans love previously owned and well loved items. They haunt flea markets, auctions, antique malls and estate sales. They are searching for treasures that show benign neglect, the wear and tear of time, and items that have been well used and handed down through generations.

Modern style decorating is sleek and geometric. The surfaces are hard and utilitarian. No curves or bulky styles are in sight with modern style decorating. In contemporary style furniture, the focus on unusual shapes is an important characteristic. Although most of the lines in a contemporary home are angular and geometric, there is almost always an interesting piece of curved furniture to catch your eye.

Simple Urban decor is a combination of vintage and contemporary with natural fabrics, medium to dark toned woods, rich neutral colors and decor accents of iron and glass. And, the result is an uncluttered and spacious look. Antique pieces with clean lines (no Victorian here) and flea market finds are integrated into the decor as a counterpoint to the sleek urban style. Unique accent pieces, vintage or new, take the spotlight in this decorating style.

No comments:

Post a Comment