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How To Find Your Style
by Kathleen M. Peters, www.KatieDidDesign.com
There is a basic, but fundamental question that always comes up when I'm designing an item for someone or giving them some decorating tips. Very often, the answer is, "I really don't know." What is the question? It's, "What style(s) of decorating do you like?" Do YOU know the answer to that question? If you don't, this article is for you.
It really is important that you understand your style before you set about decorating your home. Why? It's kind of like reading the recipe the whole way through before you start to cook it. Or writing your grocery list down organizing items by categories. You can cook a recipe by reading only one line at a time, and you can grocery shop one item at a time, but you'll have a much easier time accomplishing your goal if you have a clear picture of the end result! It's the same with decorating. You can search for your decor one thing at a time by looking everywhere and considering everything, but it will be much easier (and enjoyable) if you have a clear idea of what you are and are not looking for!
I'm going to lead you step-by-step through the process of 'Finding Your Style.' It's not a quick, five-minute process, and will take some visiting of bookstores, magazine racks, and libraries. But it's an enjoyable process that is worth the time!
Step One - Browsing and Discovery
The first thing to do is to browse magazines and books to find photos of decorated rooms that appeal to you. I recommend using mostly magazines because they're less expensive to buy and browse at home, and also because you'll find a greater variety of decorating styles. Books tend to focus on one or two styles only. Check your library to see what they have available in both decorating books and back issues of magazines. Look for those with plenty of pictures! Keep sticky notes available to mark rooms you like. Some of the best decorating magazines and books can be found in the bookstore at KatieDid Design. Feel free to browse through and write down titles to check for in the library.
Now it's time to start the fun part! Start browsing the photos. Don't look for anything specific -- forget the colors you want to use, the furniture you have, and what you've used in the past. You want to look at each room with a brand-new perspective, and see it for the first time. Don't pay attention to the individual items in the room; instead, imagine yourself sitting down to read a favorite book, or cuddling down on a snowy winter night. If the thought of living in that room brings a smile to your face, mark it. Go through as many magazines and books as you can and do this... the more you find you like, the easier later steps will be.
Step Two - Identifying Common Themes
The next step helps you identify what it is - exactly - about each room that you like. Go back to the first rooms that you like and go through them again. This time, try to find common themes or techniques that the rooms share. These are aspects of the room to compare:
- Colors - Do they use soft and light colors, dark and regal tones, bright colors, muted shades, lots of white, etc...
- Fabrics - Do they use florals, checks, solids, plaids, antique-looking brocades, etc... and are the fabrics mostly light and airy, or heavy and rich? How much fabric is used?
- Walls - What have they done to the walls? Are they just painted, or are there lots of moldings? Are they papered or bordered? Walls are important - they are the background and frame of the room.
- Wood - Is the wood that's shown in the rooms mostly natural and comfortable looking, or highly polished and sophisticated? Is it painted in clean, crisp colors, or faded and cracked to look antique?
- Furniture - Does the furniture use large, comfortable lines and plenty of pillows, traditional high back chairs with small prim pillows, or sleek straight lines with no pillows at all?
- Arrangement - How are the rooms arranged? Is the furniture pulled away from the wall and brought together in a cozy grouping, or is it spaced out? Is everything arranged symmetrically at right angles, or is the seating at soft angles and tables mismatched around the room?
- Knick Knacks - Are there lots of them, or just a few? Are they antiques, or sleek brass and glass? Are they grouped in collections, or mixed with books and plants around the room?
- Lighting - Where is the light coming from? Is it mostly from lots of windows? Are the lights centered overhead? ...recessed around the edges of the ceiling? ...coming from lamps down at eye level and on tables?
As you go back over the rooms you've marked, and pay attention to these things, you'll begin to see similarities emerging. You'll also begin to recognize names such as 'Traditional', 'Victorian', 'Colonial', etc. and begin to have names for what you like. And don't be surprised if you like a mix! It's called eclectic when you love to mix styles. I love to mix casual Victorian, and formal Traditional. It might sound like a strange mix to some, but it's perfect for me! And you'll find what's perfect for you!
Maybe you'll discover that you really love lamps on tables, rather than overhead lights. Maybe you'll find that you love light-weight fabrics. Perhaps you'll realize that pulling the furniture away from the wall makes all the difference in the world. And maybe you'll better understand why you love to collect what you do!
Step Three - Applying Your Discoveries
The final step is to start applying what you've learned about yourself to your decorating. This is a process that will evolve more as you practice it. Some parts of it may be more difficult than others to actually apply. And it may take some imagination to translate what you love into something within your budget or room size. But it can be done! And it will be rewarding. Now that you've discovered what you really like, you CANNOT ignore it! Maybe you found that, although you love navy blue and thought you wanted to do your bedroom with it, every room you marked is decorated in soft light colors. Trust me, if you really would like a room done in navy blue, you would have found plenty of dark rooms that you liked. To try to do it in navy anyway, would be a waste of time, because you'll never get it to where you're happy with it.
Let's go over the aspects of decorating that I listed above, and see how we can apply them:
- Colors - Let's look at the problem above. You wanted to use navy blue... maybe you've already bought a navy sofa or drapes. What you need to do is choose one or two soft colors and use the navy as an ACCENT. Use these soft colors all over the place, and only add more navy if you need to balance a side of the room. If your entire sofa is navy, just change the throw pillows to a light color and drape a soft throw over the back. Put the lighter colors on the walls, and in another chair or an addition to your draperies. If you use enough of it in more prominent places, the navy will become an accent in the background, and you will achieve the look of light-colored rooms that you will be most comfortable with.
- Fabrics - A common problem here might be that the type or amount of fabric that you like is beyond your budget. What if you discovered that you really like tons of fabric at the windows and on the bed, and the patterns you like are $30/yard Waverly prints? An affordable solution would be to find one or two inexpensive solids somewhere else that would coordinate. Perhaps you could show off the Waverly prints in a valance, tiebacks, Flanged Shams, the bottom two-thirds of a duvet cover and covered buttons for it (needing perhaps only 5 yards total) Then use inexpensive twin sheets (often a bargain) for extra-full curtain panels, double ruffled bedskirts, ruffled shams, flowing table skirts, lots of throw pillows, and the top one-third and underside of your duvet cover. You would achieve the look of lots of fabric that you love at a fraction of the cost that the Waverly designers spent. And the look would be very similar since you used the Waverly in prominent places! Get the idea?
- Walls - As I said before, walls are important - they are the background and frame of the room. Pay close attention to the colors that you like on the walls. Paint is cheap, and anyone can do it. When it comes to moldings, pay attention to whether you like them lighter, darker, or natural wood. Sometimes this is a difficult area to duplicate affordably, since designers sometimes spend hundreds of dollars on fancy moldings all over the place. This is a more challenging problem to conquer and will take more imagination. Look at where the molding is, and how fancy it is. Perhaps a simpler molding in the same places will be possible. Maybe a scroll border will give the same effect that fancy moldings give. Sometimes simple 1/2" by 4" boards from a hardware store, painted white and spaced 8" apart on the lower half of the wall will achieve the same look. Whatever you do, make sure that your moldings fit the size room, and type of house that you have.
- Wood - There isn't much you can do to change what you already have here, unless you love painted wood. This discovery will be of use to you mostly when you are about to get new furniture. If you do love painted wood, then don't be afraid to paint what you have! There are tons of do-it-yourself guidebooks on painting furniture!
- Furniture - Here again, is a discovery that will help you most when you are about to buy furniture. But there is always the possibility of adding more pillows, or taking away some of what's there already.
- Arrangement - Here is the totally affordable part... because it only takes time to move what you've got! You can make a huge difference here by applying what you've discovered. It may take several tries, but don't be afraid to try something totally new! So many people consider it too "weird" to put their furniture anywhere but against the walls... but how many designers EVER do it? Don't they know what they're doing? Don't be afraid to try it, you'll be overjoyed when you discover that your rooms finally look like a professional came in!
- Knick Knacks - You will probably find here, that you've already got a lot of what you like. Knick Knacks are usually impulse buys, and therefore are a reflection of what we really like. When we buy figurines and other knick knacks, we're not usually trying to figure out if it will fit; we're going on the fact that we love them, and that preference will show in the rooms that we've marked. On the other hand, if we like clean lines and empty spaces, then we probably haven't bought many knick knacks because the 'cluttered' displays and tables where they're sold just don't attract us to begin with.
- Lighting - This is often a revelation to people... we just don't often think about it. Either we don't buy lights because we moved into a house with a light in the center of every room; or we move into a home where there aren't any lights, so we go buy some! Don't forget you have a choice here. You don't HAVE to use or keep the ceiling the way it is! You can always take down or leave off that overhead light and illuminate your rooms with the soft glow of accent lamps. You can always sell those lamps you were forced to buy and put up track lighting or recessed lighting along your ceilings. Be brave!
No matter what, enjoy, appreciate, and don't forget the discoveries that you've made. They are a reflection of who you truly are. And if you remember these preferences as you decorate, you will have a much easier time creating the look you want. Have fun!
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This article Copyright 1999-2004 - Kathleen Peters, KatieDid Design. Reproduced with permission.
Kathleen Peters - 'Katie' - is a custom window treatment and bedding designer, and owner of KatieDid Design, her online shop. She is also the editor-in-chief of Decor, Decorating, and Design, a free bi-monthly ezine filled with articles, tips, and guidelines to help with your home decorating.
http://www.KatieDidDesign.com
http://www.DecorDecoratingAndDesign.com
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