May 16, 2019
DIY Interior Design–What’s Your Style Personality?
Welcome to your brand new home…room after room of empty space, just waiting to be filled! If you’re more than a little intimidated by this task, you’re not alone. Many new homeowners have cobbled together their interior design with hand-me-downs, sale items and one or two signature pieces that they love…even though they don’t go with anything else in their house. How do you define your style, so that you can build on those bits you love and junk the rest? Those pieces you’ve bought because you love them often indicate your direction in interior design. Read on…the team at Ernest Homes can point you in the right direction!
Functional and Practical
The less fuss, the better, as far as you’re concerned. Simplicity is the key here, with a limited palette of mostly neutral shades, clean lines, sturdy, durable fabrics and often a more minimalist viewpoint. You’re likely to vote for leather furniture, or pieces upholstered in dark solid colors that hide marks and stains. Easy care flooring and no-fuss window treatments are common, as are simple, graphic pieces of artwork and a notable lack of knick-knacks. Everything has a place, and usually everything is carefully placed there when not in use. You’re direct, no-nonsense, usually always on time and rarely forget important dates and engagements.
Traditionalist
Look for four-poster or sleigh beds, formal dining rooms with china cabinets, tapestry prints on the sofas, and comfy tufted chairs that would be right at home in a turn-of-the-century men’s dinner club. Neutral walls are made colorful with landscape prints, hunt scene paintings and portraits of way-back relatives (real or imagined) in dark wood frames. Take afternoon tea in the study, complete with a ticking grandfather clock and at least a couple hundred books. You’re conservative, polite to a fault, respectful of others and sometimes a little reserved. You’re also loyal, reliable and always ready to help in any way you can.
Slick and Modern
Glass, steel, white...and did I mention glass and steel? Your décor is full of angles, track lighting, hanging light fixtures, stark modern art and tall, thin sculptures in silver, white or black that don’t always appear to be the same thing to different people. An overall lack of color makes an occasional splash of blue, violet or orange all the more shocking. You’re edgy, cool, fashionable and up on the latest trends, whether they be in technology, literature, art or…interior design. You’re the one at the table everyone goes to for advice.
Retro Is the Way to Go
An aqua metal breadbox and push button blender, Andy Warhol reproductions, shag carpeting, paneling…or maybe even the large, round papasan chair in your living room gives you a clue that your nostalgic streak takes over when you decorate. Bright 70’s colors and patterns, retro appliances, bead curtains…anything goes! Don’t be surprised if pieces from different decades blend (and clash!) beautifully in your home. You’re fun-loving, enthusiastic and relentlessly social. While sometimes a little scattered or forgetful, you always have everyone’s best interests at heart. You’re the friend everyone calls when they’re feeling a little down and need a boost.
Artful and Creative
In your home, color is almost furniture – it’s so striking and exciting! The art on display is provocative, inspiring and the focal point of your home, relegating your serviceable, unexceptional furniture to a far second place. It’s often a mixture of styles and colors that blend, but aren’t part of an actual set. Look for mismatched dining chairs and tableware, lots of plants, throw pillows and vibrant area rugs. Flighty, charming and imaginative, you’re the center of every conversation. You’re fearless, brave, flexible and fluid…sometimes to the point of being a bit zany and outlandish. And your closet…that’s another post entirely!
Do you recognize yourself among these types of do-it-yourself interior designers? Or perhaps you have a household of mixed types? Are you the traditional one, with a creative daughter and a practical son? You may want to allow each person to take the reins and decorate their own room as they please, adding elements of their design type to create a nest of their own where they can feel completely comfortable. Common areas can mix elements here and there – try a practical sofa, a creative area rug, modern coffee tables and retro chairs flanking a traditional bookcase.
And don’t forget – if you try it and don’t like it, you can sell it, donate it or paint it…start over. The best thing about your new home is that it’s yours, and you can change it as often as you like!
