Home What is the general decor theme in your house?

[jewelz617]

I tend to be really scatterbrained about decorating.

 

[sugarpie honeybun]

Ironically, my hubby and I were discussing this very topic tonight. Our decor is very Pottery Barn-ish. Lots of Earth-tones, espresso colored wood, etc. It's nice but it's getting somewhat boring and I'd love a change. I really love mid-century modern design and would love to refurnish/redecorate our place along those lines.

 

[gardengloves]

Date: 4/14/2010 10:05:21 PM
Author: sugarpie honeybun
Ironically, my hubby and I were discussing this very topic tonight. Our decor is very Pottery Barn-ish. Lots of Earth-tones, espresso colored wood, etc. It''s nice but is getting somewhat boring to me and I''d love a change. I really love mid-century modern design and would love to refurnish/redecorate our place along those lines.

I also go for those earth tone pottery barn/crate and barrel clean line staples, but am also drawn to mid century modern pieces and antiques. Taste change as you go through life, I used to love shabby chic, now I love mid century modern and contemporary pieces. There was a great design magazine Domino that went out of business that perfectly blended that really great mix of modern, retro and vintage. I don''t know if there is a name for it, but it sure was terrific, and there is nothing like it to take its place. I just like a place to be comfortable, relaxed and easy, but have clean design, and a classic element.

 

[April20]

I''m into clean lines, neutral "foundation" pieces and pops of color in unexpected placed- mantles, ceilings etc. Not really sure what you''d call my "style".

On a side note, I have a friend with a mid-century modern house inside and out. While it''s never been my favorite style, hers is so well done it really, really, really makes me want one.

 

[Haven]

Date: 4/14/2010 10:05:21 PM
Author: sugarpie honeybun
Ironically, my hubby and I were discussing this very topic tonight. Our decor is very Pottery Barn-ish. Lots of Earth-tones, espresso colored wood, etc. It's nice but it's getting somewhat boring and I'd love a change. I really love mid-century modern design and would love to refurnish/redecorate our place along those lines.

This is funny--we *have* a mid century modern ranch, but we won't decorate it to suit its build because we don't love all those bold colors!

Our house is a mix of modern farmhouse decor (a lot of natural woods and charming farmhouse touches) and minimalist.

I like to call it minimalist farmhouse.

(Think: Country Living meets Martha Stewart Living. I actually subscribe to both.

)

I love the cozy farmhouse details like a big old farmhouse dining table and quilts thrown over side tables, but I don't like a lot of fussy stuff lying about, so everything has clean lines and it's pretty sparse.

And then there's our guest bathroom. It's French country, but I couldn't help it. It's painted this fabulous bold yellow color, and I found the cutest black metal dress stand to put in there, it just came to be.

ETA: We buy everything at Crate & Barrel, so I wonder if that's a style?

 

[gardengloves]

Haven,

We have a Crate and Barrel outlet near us. Folks send back mildly damaged stuff and they sell it at GREATLY reduced prices. Half the stuff in my house comes from this outlet, we fix it up, do minor repairs. I love Crate and Barrel. Going there is a crap shoot, we never know what they will have, once a week they reduce the prices. The deal is- you have to pick it up within seven days- we rent a truck and haul it home. They also have great kitchen wear, garden stuff, bath and linens and of course the great accessories.

 

[decodelighted]

Warm Casual Eclectic Cottage with touches of Pop/Mid Century Modern

 

[CDNinNYC]

Our apartment has been described as having an art deco style but to be honest, I had to look up what that meant when it came to home decor.

 

[jewelz617]

Date: 4/14/2010 10:31:21 PM
Author: Haven

Date: 4/14/2010 10:05:21 PM

Author: sugarpie honeybun

Ironically, my hubby and I were discussing this very topic tonight. Our decor is very Pottery Barn-ish. Lots of Earth-tones, espresso colored wood, etc. It''s nice but it''s getting somewhat boring and I''d love a change. I really love mid-century modern design and would love to refurnish/redecorate our place along those lines.

This is funny--we *have* a mid century modern ranch, but we won''t decorate it to suit its build because we don''t love all those bold colors!


Our house is a mix of modern farmhouse decor (a lot of natural woods and charming farmhouse touches) and minimalist.


I like to call it minimalist farmhouse.

(Think: Country Living meets Martha Stewart Living. I actually subscribe to both.

)


I love the cozy farmhouse details like a big old farmhouse dining table and quilts thrown over side tables, but I don''t like a lot of fussy stuff lying about, so everything has clean lines and it''s pretty sparse.


And then there''s our guest bathroom. It''s French country, but I couldn''t help it. It''s painted this fabulous bold yellow color, and I found the cutest black metal dress stand to put in there, it just came to be.


ETA: We buy everything at Crate & Barrel, so I wonder if that''s a style?

I think I lean towards the "French Country" theme myself. I''m attracted to textures, colors like yellow and blue, pink and black. I''m thinking about a really lovely set of (this may be totally incorrect) Toile de Jouy drapes for the living room.

I was browsing some retailers online tonight and asked my husband what he wanted in the house. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and said "Just go easy on the pink, please." He knows me too well...

 

[packrat]

Um..country I guess? I don''t think we really have a style. We''re hodge podge.

 

[iheartscience]

I love clean lines and mid century modern the most of all. Most of my pieces are modern or mid century modern, but because I live in an old house (1920), totally mid century modern stuff wouldn''t really look quite right. (Plus they''re too low to the ground for my fireplace and built ins.) So my couch is more classic, but still has clean lines. Basically I hate curves on any furniture, especially couches!

And I''m kind of the opposite of sugarpie and gardengloves-I actually don''t like earth tones, so all of my rugs, paint colors and even my couch are brighter. I''m the same way with my clothing-I don''t wear brown-only black!

 

[Haven]

Date: 4/14/2010 10:40:03 PM
Author: gardengloves
Haven,
We have a Crate and Barrel outlet near us. Folks send back mildly damaged stuff and they sell it at GREATLY reduced prices. Half the stuff in my house comes from this outlet, we fix it up, do minor repairs. I love Crate and Barrel. Going there is a crap shoot, we never know what they will have, once a week they reduce the prices. The deal is- you have to pick it up within seven days- we rent a truck and haul it home. They also have great kitchen wear, garden stuff, bath and linens and of course the great accessories.

Oh, dear. It''s probably a good thing that we don''t have that here.

I''ll put it this way: We negotiated to get the dining room table and bench with our house when we bought it two summers ago. It''s a Crate & Barrel Big Sur table and bench (with matching chairs) and I had to have it, it looks so perfect in the place. (And then we bought the Big Sur buffet and hutch, and a ton of other large pieces from C & B. They made a lot of deliveries to our place that first year.)

At our closing we learned that the man who sold us our house is a designer for C & B. At that moment DH turned to me and said "That''s why you loved that house! Because the guy works for Crate & Barrel! I TOLD you that it''s not about what''s in the house, it''s about the actual house! You HAVE TO LOOK PAST THE DECORATIONS!"

The guy and his wife were also potters. I love C & B and I collect hand potted mugs. It was destiny, what can I say?

 

[PumpkinPie]

umm..temporary and frugal? I''m a terrible decorator and we are planning to buy a larger house within 1-1.5 years so what''s the point?

 

[FrekeChild]

Muted French Country with lots of antiques and a strong hint of southwestern.

Thats the house we live in (decorated by my mom). Our taste is more Cool-toned Modern.

 

[Hera]

Transitional Spanish:
I own a Spanish style home that was built in 1988 so I plan on having a more modern interpretation of Spanish.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Interesting thread! We have been talking about this recently and we''re struggling to have a cohesive theme. Our house is late Victorian / early Edwardian, built by a railway company at the end of the 19th century. Originally it had four rooms and a kitchen but it''s been extended over the years. We''ve decorated the newer parts in a very neutral way- off white walls and plain light carpet or wood floor but our furniture is a hodge podge of inherited stuff and antique shop finds.

The old part of the house has high ceilings, cornices, picture rails etc so we''ve gone with period colours from Farrow and Ball and plain wooden floors with wax finish. It''s all quite plain.

However, I would love to make more of the fact it''s an old railway station and that it''s on the coast. I''d love to bring in these themes without making it twee or museum-like. We have a few photos of the station in its heyday and a few seaside ornaments, but I want to do more along these lines. Just not sure how.
I am about to decorate the dining room and I''m torn between rich dark colours that would be authentic to the period (dining room is in the oldest part of the house) and going for more of a beach house feel. Any suggestions? All the rooms open off hallways, so they can be different without clashing (I think...) Any thoughts would be welcome, because I''m struggling with this.

Jen

 

[sugarpie honeybun]

Date: 4/15/2010 4:14:38 AM
Author: Mrs Mitchell
Interesting thread! We have been talking about this recently and we''re struggling to have a cohesive theme. Our house is late Victorian / early Edwardian, built by a railway company at the end of the 19th century. Originally it had four rooms and a kitchen but it''s been extended over the years. We''ve decorated the newer parts in a very neutral way- off white walls and plain light carpet or wood floor but our furniture is a hodge podge of inherited stuff and antique shop finds.

The old part of the house has high ceilings, cornices, picture rails etc so we''ve gone with period colours from Farrow and Ball and plain wooden floors with wax finish. It''s all quite plain.

However, I would love to make more of the fact it''s an old railway station and that it''s on the coast. I''d love to bring in these themes without making it twee or museum-like. We have a few photos of the station in its heyday and a few seaside ornaments, but I want to do more along these lines. Just not sure how.
I am about to decorate the dining room and I''m torn between rich dark colours that would be authentic to the period (dining room is in the oldest part of the house) and going for more of a beach house feel. Any suggestions? All the rooms open off hallways, so they can be different without clashing (I think...) Any thoughts would be welcome, because I''m struggling with this.

Jen

Your house sounds absolutely lovely and interesting!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Ninja

We have a lot of black and red accents, mostly modern, a few decorative swords here and there.

 

[steph72276]

Kind of a mix between Pottery Barn/Beach cottage type feel. All of our main pieces are neutrals, but accessories are mostly slate blues for that beachy feel.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Date: 4/14/2010 10:05:21 PM
Author: sugarpie honeybun
Ironically, my hubby and I were discussing this very topic tonight. Our decor is very Pottery Barn-ish. Lots of Earth-tones, espresso colored wood, etc. It''s nice but it''s getting somewhat boring and I''d love a change. I really love mid-century modern design and would love to refurnish/redecorate our place along those lines.

This. We have a decent mix of antiques and "Pottery Barn" style stuff.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I would like to say that the decor in my house is ecclectic, but the more accurate term would be "mismatched". I love color, but need to learn how to use it sparingly. Right now our sofa is bright red, our living room walls are green and the shades on the window are yellow. Our kitchen table is modern, but our guest bedroom furniture is more country. And neither is really "my" style. Our bedroom furniture is from Pottery Barn, but doesn''t really match (I bought the bed and dresser separately). My house is a hot mess.

Since we are buying a house and moving soon, I''m going to spend the next month cleaning out everything I possibly can and getting rid of the furniture I dislike. I''m interested to see what style emerges when I start to piece together the house.

 

[Shoopy]

Am I allowed to vent for a second

We have ZERO style and it''s frustrating. I actually told FI this past weekend that the lack of style in our home makes me feel depressed.

We have all kinds of issues going on:

-When we first moved in to our place, we painted our room a very light blue. I loved it. Then my mom gave us the generous gift of a brand new bedset. We hadn''t purchased any furniture yet. For a long time I couldn''t understand why she would buy us furniture after everything she had already done. Anyway, while we were very grateful the problem with what she purchased was that she had her master room in mind. Her room has a queen size bed, large bureau with a huge mirror, armoire, 2 night tables, a treadmill, a chair she uses for massages, 2 walk-in closets, a decorative table, and a bathroom with plenty of room for more stuff. Our master room is about 1/4th the size of hers but she gave us pretty much the same set minus the armoire

. We have no room to walk around and its gold which does not look good with the original blue paint. But we don''t want to get rid of anything because a) it was a gift and b) it''s a really nice set.

-We had painted the living room and dining room a goldish/tanish color. We loved it at the time. Now I hate it. The light bounces off of it really funny and IDK...it''s just a depressing color.

-We purchased a sleeper sofa because my family visits all the time. It''s huge and our living room is really small. Because of it, the two end tables that I have are stored in the closet outside and the coffee table is pushed against a wall

-We purchased an armoire desk from IKEA. When we saw it in the store, it looked a lot smaller than it really is and we read the dimensions incorrectly. It now goes from our floor to our ceiling

and it takes the spot of where my Christmas tree usually goes

.

-We have no art and the light fixtures are old.

I like open space and bright colors but everything feels small, cramped, and just blah

. The only room in the house that I love is DD''s room. It has the right sized furniture so the floor space is open and it''s painted a pretty purple with white trimming.

Now with our tax refunds, we''re going to invest some money in fixing things up a bit. We won''t be buying new furniture because our stuff is in excellent shape but we are getting rid of a few things and re-painting. Sorry lol. I know that was really long

 

[jewelz617]

Fiery, I feel the same way! The beach house we live in now came furnished, so not much room for design there. We rented this as a temporary home when we moved from the south to Massachusetts. Prior to our move, we lived in a tiny "starter" apartment when we were first married and starting a family. My husband basically turned it into a shrine to watching ESPN and I was too exhausted with a new baby to care.

So now we''ve got this beautiful apartment (which is really more of a house) and I realize we are starting out with no decorations, no art, no cute light fixtures, practically no furniture... it''s overwhelming and depressing!

Not to mention expensive, but I refuse to live in a space that looks like a frat house/army barracks like we have for the past 3 years. If I don''t just pick a theme now and get some substantial pieces and a new bedding set, I know we are going to get back into the old "Sure, let''s just tack up that University of Virginia banner" mentality.

 

[lilyfoot]

I don''t know what the feel is .. traditional-contemporary?

Lots of earth tones, most of our artwork has leaves/flowers, dark furniture ..

 

[elrohwen]

I think it's fairly Pottery Barn-esque. Dark colored wood, leather sofas, no super bright colors. Unfortunately we couldn't afford anything from PB or Crate & Barrel right out of college, but I think we got pretty close by buying cheap pieces. And my mom got us a PB rug for our living room as a house warming gift!

My favorite art work is maps. I have no idea why but I just adore maps. SIL bought us a really nice nautical map of Nantucket that's in our dining room (I don't think she even knew how much I loved maps, because she got this for DH when we hadn't even been dating a year and didn't live together). I also have some maps of Napa and Sonoma. Once we own a house I'm sure I'll get more.

 

[stephbolt]

Mismatched combined households ikea craigslist extravaganza?

Seriously, I hate most of our decor. We''ve been living together for a year but have purchased one rug, and one new tv stand during that time. We know what kinds of stuff we like, but we''ve been constrained by (1) saving money for the wedding and (2) knowing we are planning on purchasing a new home in 2011. It seems silly to put time into finding stuff that fits well into the space we have now (which is a tiny rowhome) but may not work in our next home. I can''t wait to get to that point though!

 

[PumpkinPie]

Date: 4/15/2010 10:35:26 AM
Author: stephb0lt
Mismatched combined households ikea craigslist extravaganza?


Seriously, I hate most of our decor. We''ve been living together for a year but have purchased one rug, and one new tv stand during that time. We know what kinds of stuff we like, but we''ve been constrained by (1) saving money for the wedding and (2) knowing we are planning on purchasing a new home in 2011. It seems silly to put time into finding stuff that fits well into the space we have now (which is a tiny rowhome) but may not work in our next home. I can''t wait to get to that point though!

exactly! it drives me nuts too because I don''t like most of our stuff either, but what would be the point in buying new furniture if I''m not sure it will fit in the house we end up in next year?

 

[Haven]

Date: 4/15/2010 4:14:38 AM
Author: Mrs Mitchell
Interesting thread! We have been talking about this recently and we''re struggling to have a cohesive theme. Our house is late Victorian / early Edwardian, built by a railway company at the end of the 19th century. Originally it had four rooms and a kitchen but it''s been extended over the years. We''ve decorated the newer parts in a very neutral way- off white walls and plain light carpet or wood floor but our furniture is a hodge podge of inherited stuff and antique shop finds.

The old part of the house has high ceilings, cornices, picture rails etc so we''ve gone with period colours from Farrow and Ball and plain wooden floors with wax finish. It''s all quite plain.

However, I would love to make more of the fact it''s an old railway station and that it''s on the coast. I''d love to bring in these themes without making it twee or museum-like. We have a few photos of the station in its heyday and a few seaside ornaments, but I want to do more along these lines. Just not sure how.

I am about to decorate the dining room and I''m torn between rich dark colours that would be authentic to the period (dining room is in the oldest part of the house) and going for more of a beach house feel. Any suggestions? All the rooms open off hallways, so they can be different without clashing (I think...) Any thoughts would be welcome, because I''m struggling with this.

Jen

Oh, DO bring out the railway station theme, Jen! Your house sounds lovely.

I would stack up on picture books of old railway stations from the library for inspiration, if I were you. I bet you could find some wonderful images to have copied and framed for your walls, if you''d really like.

When we were house hunting I fell in love with a beautiful home that was originally a one room schoolhouse. It was amazing. They had a gorgeous front mat that read "Schoolhouse" and a smattering of photo books of one room schoolhouses lying around. It was really special.

 

[radiantquest]

I dont know what it is called. It is old Italy or old France. Most of our paintings are this theme, we have the arched door and walkways and even our shower curtain is a mural of old shops in France.

 

[RaiKai]

Our apartment itself is rather modern-looking, but the decorating is definitely more Middle Eastern. "Middle East Inspired"? A base of more neutral colours (beige, grey, black, white) with rich colours and textures via certain signature pieces added in.

DH has collected artworks and rugs from the Middle East (as well as Egypt and so on) over the years he has traveled there and they are throughout the apartment along with sheesha pipes, incense holders, rich coloured tassled throw pillows, and so on. I "inherited" it all when we moved in together. I love it...I remember the first time I ever went to his place when we started dating being amazed by how "exotic" his military housing looked inside.

We don't have the wall space or room to display it all (we both lived in larger houses previously...now we are in a little rental apartment!) and neither of us likes a lot of clutter (no to the knick-knacks!) so it is not as much as it could be! Most of it is stored in boxes and the like right now. It will be nice when we have a larger space again to display it better.

The 47" LCD still throws the theme off a little bit though...ha!