What's your decorating style?

[zoebartlett]

Do you fall into one style category when it comes to home decorating, or do you have a more eclectic style?

To help determine your style, what websites and/or other resources have you found helpful?

 

[basil]

What style do I like or what style do I actually have?

My "actually have" style is called "stuff I bought from Ikea when I was in school combined with stuff my husband got for free (from Ikea) when he moved into his last apartment". It's truly gorgeous Ikea makes some ok stuff but if you buy the cheapest they have it starts to look really crappy after ~9 years. We're moving in the next few months so all furniture purchasing is on hold til then, but I can't wait to put all this stuff on the curb.

I always like the displays at Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel..as boring as that is. I like things that are more modern and simple, but not ultra-modern. Nothing too country or heavy or classical, but still traditional enough to have some "warmth".

 

[zoebartlett]

haha -- I guess what style do you like? I love all things Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel, too, Basil.

I forgot to mention that pictures of things you like or want would be great!

Here's a collage of sorts of furniture that I have or would like to have. The two tables on the left (top and bottom) are ones we have in our living room (we have a darker finish than what's shown though). The bedroom set on the right is one that I've loved for a while. Coincidentally, it's the exact same one my parents have. We have very similar taste. What style would you call this? Traditional? Transitional? Hopefully the picture won't be too big.

 

[lizzyann]

Hi Zoe!

I consider my home style - Modern Traditional. I like clean lines, but above all no clutter. I like to have the right accessories in a room not just stuff to fill a space. If I do more bold accessories, I keep the wall color neutral. If I decide to do more of a bold wall color I go less bold on the accessories. However, I also want my home to feel well "homey" so that is where the traditional part of me comes in. I keep my home "warm" with lots of family pictures. I am a huge fan of black and white pictures of my son and our family and they make a beautiful statement on the wall in clusters in my family room.

I watch a lot of HGTV and really enjoy Candace Olsen's designs. She did a basement makeover in a charcoal/orange combo that I fell in love with and I used that for inspiration in my basement and it came out awesome! I like to get inspiration first and then find items that are close in nature but not as expensive. Then I start decorating a room. I don't even start decorating a room until I have some inspiration pics and a plan! Otherwise I find it gets dicey looking. If I don't have the cash do do the room right, then I don't even attempt it till I have the funds! One room at a time is my motto....

 

[zoebartlett]

Hi Lizzy! I would LOVE Candace Olson to be my personal decorator! I also love Sarah Richardson (from HGTV's "Sarah's House").

Do you have a Windendon Furniture near you? The closest one to you may be the main store in Winchendon, but I think it's probably a hike. Anyway, I want everything in that store, and that's where all the things I posted above came from. I love it but sometimes I look around and think that it's ho hum...a little boring. I just can't seem to break away and go more modern though.

 

[Italiahaircolor]

My home is very industrial chic. Think a bit of Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. It's very comfortable, lived in and warm. I mix textiles, like leather and cotton without fear. I have very few things that "match" as in a purchases set. I love salvaged architecture and repurposed vintage pieces--like carpenters benches, furniture cart, printers cabinets.

 

[aliciagirl]

My home is very industrial chic. Think a bit of Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. It's very comfortable, lived in and warm. I mix textiles, like leather and cotton without fear. I have very few things that "match" as in a purchases set. I love salvaged architecture and repurposed vintage pieces--like carpenters benches, furniture cart, printers cabinets.

Italia! I would love your home! We are just getting kind of established, but this is our style as well. A lot of modern rugs and sofas mixed with antique trunks and vintage patterned wing-back chairs.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

My style is all over the place. I have a strange combination of being a clean freak (or as much as a clean freak as possible with 2 furry dogs) and really wanting my house to looked lived in. Our hardwoods are original to the house, which is older than our nation, and probably need to be redone, but I love how worn they look. They're clean--I clean them constantly--but they I love that old, worn look.

I love Pottery Barn, West Elm, Crate and Barrell, and Restoration Hardware as well, but I mix those pieces with antiques. In fact, I often find inspiration in catalogs and then hunt for antiques that look like those pieces.

I'm also a huge fan of color. Probably too much. Instead of having a neutral sofa with red accents, I'd rather just have a red sofa. Neutral is nowhere in my vocabulary.

So really I think my style sort of comes off as unrefined...which seems strangely fitting for me.

 

[mayachel]

On the one hand, I'd put my style in between transitional contemporary and world traveled eclectic. DH is much more modern contemporary in preference and so we try to meet in the middle. Some places it works, and others it doesn't. We jokingly say we can always default to whether a piece can fall in to a subcategory of steampunk to merge our ideas.

Our biggest recent accomplishment in decorating is the new couch we've picked out. I'll post picks once it arrives.

 

[elrohwen]

I think my style would be considered "transitional" - at least that's what I'm told the Pottery Barn/Crate and Barrel style is

My style is also casual. I like things to look nice and neat, but I'm more likely to be drawn to casual type furniture (slipcovers, seagrass, etc) than formal. I can appreciate more formal and elegant rooms, but I'm always drawn to casual in my own home.

When we get a house I want to be a bit more eclectic. I like my general style, but adding something fun and unexpected to each room is my goal. Part of this might be to add a more formal or elegant piece to dress up my casual style.

Oh, and I like white kitchens! I've become a die-hard white kitchen fan.

eta: I've also discovered a love of white accessories. My mom framed a picture of the bunnies and I put it on the end table, but never loved it. One day I got a white frame for it and all of a sudden it looked great. I tend to have darker wood furniture and I finally realized I needed more contrast in my accessories - white is such a clean and bright accent.

 

[princesss]

I'm very eclectic - think estate sales + tidbits picked up on my travels with an attempt at Anthroplogie-like furniture. I tend to accumulate slowly (especially now that I have the basics - things to sit on, something to sleep on, a few crummy bookshelves, etc) and only buy things I really love. I can't wait until I have more space to display my treasures - some of them are still just hanging out, waiting for a home. So traveler/estate eclectic is the best description I can come up with. But really - what else would you call an apartment with estate sale/CL couch and chairs, World Market dining table and chairs (not the same style, either), Buddha heads, skulls, Indian puppets, rugs and pillows from Dubai and Home Goods, a duvet from West Elm, and crappy bookshelves from Wal-Mart and Target? (Maybe traveler/student chic?)

 

[partgypsy]

Wabi Sabi, helped by the large percentage of hand me down, found, repurposed pieces we use in our house. I would like our decor to be more purposeful, my husband prefers the happy accident (things brought home from the side of the road).

 

[partgypsy]

I actually need to figure out what my style is. We are finally getting around to remodeling our main bath. I wanted to go for a minimalist, spa feeling, but as we are keeping the original configuration, pedestal tub and fixtures, and of course old house moulding I need to bridge both feelings. So I want it serene but be honest that it is located in a bungalow.
I also would like to have a "green" remodel but for example prefer stone countertops over some of the greener options I was looking at. The ideal would be of course to recycle old pieces into new, but that is a lot of leg work (we will look at a couple places this weekend).

At the least I was trying to choose the light fixtures at least and the ones I bookmarked were, classic, modern/contemporary, nautical and in between (transitional?) so I think I must be confused . I don't even think I know what those terms even mean anymore.

Here's a style question. If pretty much all the fixtures are in chrome, can I have vanity sconces in a different color (warm metal versus cool metal). I'm going to say yes because mixing metal colors in jewelry is ok, right? One idea we are thinking of is getting outdoor nautical lights for the vanity lights, such as in bronze or brass.

 

[Italiahaircolor]

I actually need to figure out what my style is. We are finally getting around to remodeling our main bath. I wanted to go for a minimalist, spa feeling, but as we are keeping the original configuration, pedestal tub and fixtures, and of course old house moulding I need to bridge both feelings. So I want it serene but be honest that it is located in a bungalow.
I also would like to have a "green" remodel but for example prefer stone countertops over some of the greener options I was looking at. The ideal would be of course to recycle old pieces into new, but that is a lot of leg work (we will look at a couple places this weekend).

At the least I was trying to choose the light fixtures at least and the ones I bookmarked were, classic, modern/contemporary, nautical and in between (transitional?) so I think I must be confused . I don't even think I know what those terms even mean anymore.

Here's a style question. If pretty much all the fixtures are in chrome, can I have vanity sconces in a different color (warm metal versus cool metal). I'm going to say yes because mixing metal colors in jewelry is ok, right? One idea we are thinking of is getting outdoor nautical lights for the vanity lights, such as in bronze or brass.

Yes, you can totally mix metal. My house, for instance, is primarily oil rubbed bronze, but I've brought in some brushed nickels as well. In my family room, I have a lot of metal (handles and what not) in an bronze, but I also have a console table with a zinc top. Brown, silver...I think it looks nice!

 

[zoebartlett]

This is the couch we have and I think this is the same color. Rather than go with a couch and a love seat combo, we decided to get 2 full size couches. I'm so glad we did. The second couch doesn't take up much more space and it gives us more room for seating people comfortably.

Feel free to post pics of what you have/love if you feel comfortable!

 

[zoebartlett]

I actually tend to stick with matching sets of furniture because I don't trust myself to put a look together on my own. I want to branch out though.

NEL -- I have wanted a red sofa for years but my husband couldn't go through with it. Some day though. I wish there was a C&B, Restoration Hardware, and/or a West Elm near us. The closest C&B and WE to us are in Burlington and the closest RH is in Chestnut Hill or maybe Peabody. Actually, maybe it's a good thing they're not closer. Saves us money!

 

[Selkie]

Definitely traditional, leaning right now towards Craftsman and Mission style furniture, mainly because our house is a 1920's Spanish style California bungalow with a lot of original features (we even still have a built-in ice chest). It also happens to fit our taste. We can't afford the "real" stuff, like Stickley, but we get as close as we can. I also love the "cottage-style" look, with lots of white and blue, weathered wood, and airy rooms, and want something like that in our "forever" house.

 

[zoebartlett]

What colors do you like to decorate with? What do you stay away from?

My favorite colors to decorate with (whether it's seating, accessories, or art work) are shades of red, green, and off-white. I also love blue and orange but I haven't ventured there yet.

The colors I'm not drawn toward are purple and yellow. I always like rooms that incorporate these colors in different blogs I check out, but I haven't found anything in these colors that I want for my own house.

I have always loved the look of dark hardwood floors but I also prefer darker furniture to lighter shades. The two wouldn't be a good combination, so I have a feeling that if we ever have hardwood, we'll go with a lighter shade.

 

[Pandora II]

When I am decorating a house I am guided by the property and I spend a lot of time doing research and getting ideas and samples before starting. I have a degree in Textile design so interiors are my kind of thing! I loathe matchy matchy especially furniture that all comes from the same period and looks like a page out of a repro-furniture company brochure. I do think houses are for living in and you should be able to put the kids 'masterpieces' up alongside the $2k vase and not feel guilty for squishing the cushions when you sit down!

My current house is Regency pastiche so I spent months researching Regency styles, visiting houses from that date and then put a modern twist on it. I used ice-cream shades on the walls - Farrow & Ball paint (always), modern chandeliers with crystal bars rather than traditional drops and painted furniture.

I also try to design a few personal touches - our house is on the river Thames and my husband gave me an engraving by a famous marine artist that showed the Thames in 1902 from a viewpoint that must be within 30 yards of our house. It has old barges and docks and warehouses and you can still see all the landmarks if you stand outside today. I had it professionally scanned, turned it blue and cleaned it up on the computer and then had it digitally printed onto ceramic tiles for a whole wall of our bathroom.

Our previous house was a much more modern type of property. I used a mildly Japanese style there - bamboo floors throughout, bright red tiles in the kitchen against black granite countertops and pale wood cupboards. The red tiles were also custom-made to match my Le Creuset saucepans!

My parents furniture is mainly inherited so I learnt to buy quality and pieces that will look just as good in 100 years give or take the odd scratch or chip rather than things that will look tatty and need replacing in 5 years.

 

[Haven]

Our style is really eclectic. Our furniture has clean, modern lines (a lot of Crate & Barrel), and our artwork and embellishments are a funky mix of things we've collected while traveling, different textiles, and whimsical pieces that we find beautiful and inspiring.

For example, we have this awesome, huge square ottoman in the middle of our living. It's covered in a patchwork of different textiles in vibrant colors, so it's a really cozy, funky piece. We have a hand painted side table in the same room, and really modern display furniture from C&B. It doesn't sound like it fits, but it does. We also have a series of framed concert posters from shows I've seen over the years, a peppering of framed black and white photos with interesting images, and lots of books. Oh, and framed artwork of trees. I like rocks, too, so we've collected rocks while traveling and use them in these great wooden trays that I fill with candles and rocks.

My favorite piece is our Big Sur dining table from C&B, and the matching china cabinet. Rawr. It's so big and spare and beautiful.

I'm also big on chairs and bench seating. I love cozy, mushy, comfy chairs and bench seats with cushion tops.

I love green, so we have a lot of green accents in our house. Our everyday glassware is green. I collect handmade ceramics, so the open shelves of our china cabinet show off my gorgeous handmade bowls, and platters, and we have built-ins that showcase my handmade mugs perfectly.

A couple people have said it looks like artists live here when they've first seen the house. I like it when they say that.

I pay a lot of attention to lighting, as well. I think it's really important, and it can change the feel of a room.

 

[partgypsy]

Thanks Italia!

 

[mayachel]

I also try to design a few personal touches - our house is on the river Thames and my husband gave me an engraving by a famous marine artist that showed the Thames in 1902 from a viewpoint that must be within 30 yards of our house. It has old barges and docks and warehouses and you can still see all the landmarks if you stand outside today. I had it professionally scanned, turned it blue and cleaned it up on the computer and then had it digitally printed onto ceramic tiles for a whole wall of our bathroom.

Pandora-I aspire to your craftyness! Do you have a photo of this you are willing to share?

 

[pennquaker09]

Traditional, but not stuffy and rigid. I can do touches of modern and contemporary with accessories, but I don't do modern furniture and I never will. And I abhor leather sofas. I have to have upholstery. Love antiques.

I'm really loving all of the gray right now.