The SHOCKING TRUTH about Styles
Does this ever happen to you? You’re out and about, and you see an item you like, so you pick it up because you think it’s going to work in your home. But when you get it home you discover it doesn't. =0(
You keep buying and returning…and it wears you out…
You waste a lot of time and energy doing this kind of thing. And sometimes you waste money by not taking it back to the store at all! It winds up in a closet.
Let's talk about how to create a style you'll love so you can avoid the endless shopping cycle.
This is a client's "before" picture of her dining room. She loves to collect things and people would give her gifts, but after a while she ran out of places to put these things. So, she ended up with a big, cluttered mess.
Here's another one where they had too many things, too many styles going on in the house. And you don't get a good feeling when you look at something like this. We want it to make sense and include only things that you love in a room.
I don't need to say much about this photo either; same kind of thing, collecting, collecting and it stacks up.
Another mistake I see people make is that they buy a lot of things online, and then you run into issues with returns. You always want to check the return policy before you make a purchase online. It's very easy to make mistakes when you're buying something through a computer. The color may not be right for instance. Or you may not have an actual sample of the fabric. So, it's easy to get something that you think so, one thing and it turns out to be another. and then to get stuck with it, or to pay hefty return charges.
A classic example is being unprepared. This is a picture of one of my student's "kit" that she keeps in the car. She's working on her family room, so she has assembled the following samples that she keeps with her:
fabric samples from her sofa and pillows,
her wall color and her trim color
her flooring
a tape measure
a pen
notebooks
a ruler
She's very smart about how she shops. When she happens to see something she wants to purchase, she can be sure it's going to work.
And the last mistake I see people make, and this is very common, is what I call "decision by committee". So, you get an idea for your room, and you've got a plan made, let's say, and then you start asking your friends and family. Pretty soon you get as many opinions as you have friends and family, and then it becomes confusing.
Stick to your plan, because if you start listening to too many people, you're going to get confused.
Now let's talk about how to make your room feel like you.
You've heard me say this before-- use things that you love in your room and get rid of everything else, all that clutter.
But how do you know the items to put together when it comes to style? Here are some tricks to doing this.
If you think about it, you don't have to follow a certain trend or style name. You can make it up and you can combine styles.
You don't have to follow a certain trend or style name.
Here's an example of things that would work together in a room. How many styles can you see in here?
The chair in this photo has a curvy back, which relates to the curviness of the cocktail table and the round mirror, and the round lamp. The cocktail table has an organic shape, and that relates well to the rug in the background. The sofa has a gold base, which relates to the mirror and the metallic parts of the lamp. The dark frame on the chair relates well with the dark fabric on the sofa. You start to see that these things make sense together. Other items with similar features are the thin legs on the sofa and the thin tapered legs of the chair, and the thin frame around the mirror.
You can imagine looking around this room and feeling that things seem to make sense together because they have similarities.
Words to describe these items are curvy, organic, formal, contemporary, and natural. When you start putting features of a room into words, it will help you to define what you're looking for when you're shopping.
Here's another example. There are a lot of different styles here. You see a chic chandelier, a boho pillow, a gold cocktail table. There's a lot of geometric shapes in all these pieces, so they look well together. The fringe on the pillows goes well with the fringy detail on the chandelier. The neutral slipcover on that chair goes well with the neutral backdrop of the rug. The rug has a fringe, and the rug has a geometric shape, so you can start to see these things all speak to one another in a room. Words here that define this room are geometric, organic, fun, easy, and chic.
The next example, again, is a crazy mix of furnishings, but they work for some reason. So why is that? The blue in the carpet and the blue on the sofa of the settee, you have an organic in a knit texture, which is beautiful. Again, a lot of geometry in this grouping. There's a natural looking stone base on the lamp, you have a sun mirror, you have lots of gold in every piece, or metallic. You can see there's a lot of things that make this pull together and work as a group, even though it's not one set style. So, the words that define that room would be soft, geometric, neutral, curvy, and natural.
Here's one more example. In this case we have a mid-century sofa and chair. The wood on that chair relates well to the wood in the accent chair over on the left. There's a wood grain on the dresser too. And then the lamp itself looks to be glass and has a very rough natural texture, like a tree trunk. The artwork feels rough as well, and the glass on the pendant lighting relates well to the glass of the floor lamp. Everything has a partner here. It all works well together. You might describe this room with terms like mid-century, farmhouse, industrial, and natural. So, lots of things mixed, but they do work.
Again, I can't stress enough, listen to your heart, be true to you and make it fun so that you can make it last. If you'd like to discover your own style, Find Your Style Now with the QUIZ!
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