Why You Should Define Your Style BEFORE You Start Decorating
Listen, designing your space can be overwhelming, we get it. Choice overload is a real thing. With thousands of options just a few clicks away (hello, work-from-home midday online shopping break!), it is easy to lose your way and end up with a jumbled room without a clear design direction. Especially if you’ve been hanging onto your old thrift store side table from college and trying to make it work with grandma’s antique sideboard and those mismatched storage baskets filled with Legos and CD’s from the 1990’s (it’s okay, we’re all guilty). That’s why our number one tip when tackling a redesign is to define your style before you start. If you know exactly what you’re looking for, it will limit your options and save a ton of time and frustration.
When we start a new design project, one of the first things we do is help our clients define their style (check out our Style Quiz!). If you are clearly Refined Lux, we won’t waste your time shopping for farmhouse lanterns or mid-century coffee tables. If you know you are Colorful Creative, we will steer clear of suggesting natural linens and all-white kitchens. This helps save time, money, and creates a more put-together, pinterest-worthy look.
The same concept applies when doing a redesign on your own. Don’t try to force a minimal steel-base dining table with an ornate brass and crystal chandelier if it doesn’t feel right. While mixing styles is always acceptable, if you focus on your overarching style, it will help narrow down your choices significantly and create a more enjoyable design process.
Take our Style Quiz to find out what your design style is, and take a look below at some common styles that are easy to achieve with today’s online shopping options.
Mid-Century Modern
Perhaps the most prevalent style on the retail market today, mid-century modern encompasses a rejection of the overly-ornate traditional for more functional and restrained yet interesting forms that have become iconic in themselves, like these Saarinen Tulip table and chairs.
Credit: Coddington Design
Colorful Creative
Mixing patterns, colors, textures and metals just WORKS if you want a fun, maximal, original, and artistic look. This style is all about leaving your comfort zone to be daring. Three different wall and ceiling treatments in one room? That’s what we call bold (and Colorful Creative)!
Credit: Miriam Alia Mateo
Classic Modern
This style has countless affordable options today, making it effortless to pull a chic room together. Minimalism paired with abstract art and gorgeous oversized light fixtures attracts us to this Classic Modern room.
Credit: cb2
Refined Lux
Glam brass, gold, and other shiny elements mixed with restrained forms defines Refined Lux. These minimal barstools and pendants scream luxury when paired with a beautiful brushed gold finish.
Credit: Unknown
Modern Rustic
This style encompases luxury, restraint and earthy elements. This isn’t a “pile it all on” sort of look or corny wagon wheel accessories. It is clean and modern with a little rustic touch. Great art, textures and wood.
Credit: Coddington Design / Nantucket