Do you have a curated home? This is a home prized for its uniqueness and its collected look! And this quality is one we all should strive to create in our own homes. Let’s talk about the curated home and decode its secrets so we can create a one-of-a-kind look in our homes.
When I think of a curated home I think of a home that radiates the owner’s own unique style. It shows off collected home furnishings and accents that are carefully chosen and edited to create great beauty!
The word I think of when I think of a curated home is “well-traveled”. You know those people who have the most interesting home because they have the most interesting thing in their homes from places they have traveled.
My new friend, Delores, has a home like that. Draped over the back of her sofa was a wildly colorful throw that was just so unique I had to comment on it. She picked it up and said that it was a scarf she had found in India. She loved the colors so much she draped it over the back of her sofa to enjoy every day. This little story epitomized the curated home.
However, you don’t need to travel to India to find something to add to your home. We can find wonderful and interesting things everywhere!
You probably have the “ingredients” for a curated home just by shopping our house. So let’s chat about how to create a home that is one of a kind!
WHAT IS A CURATED STYLE
To curate a home is to handpick or carefully choose each item in your home. This home shows off items you have purposefully collected over the years to show your individual style and your decorating chops. Many items can have a fun or interesting story.
A curated home is all about things we love displayed in the most disciplined way.
I think it is stuffy and unreasonable to say that a curated home only chooses THE best furnishings and THE best finishes and THE best of everything for a home. I take a much more realistic and gentle approach to curating a more workable home for the home decorator.
So a good working definition of a curated home is…
A curated home is intentionally decorated. It incorporates collected items that are carefully chosen and work together to create a home that looks personal, interesting and cohesive. These items often have a story to tell.
Yvonne @ StoneGable
The buzzwords of a curated home are…
- intentional
- collected
- carefully chosen
- work together
- personal
- cohesive
- story
Keep these words in mind when you are creating your own curated look for your home.
You are mindfully creating spaces with just the right amount of things in them that are special to you!
WHAT IS NOT A CURATED STYLE
Curating a home is not adding lots of stuff to your home. It also does not mean making over a whole room.
A curated home is not busy or cluttered or filled with all sorts of collections and nick-nacks or chotchkies.
That, my friend, is clutter. And a curated home is the opposite of a cluttered home.
MIX OLD AND NEW
If you love vintage or antiques or collections you already have the “stuff” for a curated look. Yay! Because you already have things you have collected. And the way you mix old and new together in a pleasing way is what a curated look is all about!
A curated look thrives on the contrast of old and new.
But vintage lovers and collectors beware! A curated home is not just filled with old things you collect. It is the heavily edited use of vintage things and collections to enhance the beauty of a home. Collected and/or older things are highlighted in a home making sure they work with all the other decor.
What if you love a unique, collected look and don’t cherish time-worn things? Can you also create a curated look?
Absolutely!
Because a curated home is a custom look it is really about the attention you spend choosing things to go into your home. And if you hone your decorating eye you can find unique items that will give you a collected look. But don’t hurry this process. Collect and add things to your home over time. Let everything you choose for a room be beautiful and make you happy! No matter how long it takes!
You might want to read THE IMPORTANT BEAUTY CONTRAST PLAYS IN DECORATING. This will give you are working knowledge of what contrast is and how to use it to create a beautiful home.
MIX STYLES FOR A CURATED LOOK
Our homes are almost never one style. The beauty and distinctness of combining two, three, or even four styles is what creates a lovely home.
When collecting furnishings and accent accessories for your home keep the styles that make up your home in mind.
It might be quirky and fun to hang cowboy hats you have collected on a wall in your home. However, it just might look odd if the main style in your home is Scandinavian. But that wall of hats might look so fabulous and interesting on a wall in a farmhouse style house.
And that one-of-a-kind vase you want to add to a room will probably look great with any style.
Here’s a rule of thumb…
The larger the item that adds personality to your home is, the more it should work with the style of your home. The smaller an item is that adds personality to your home the less it has to work with the style of your home.
If you need help discovering your decorating style you might like to read HOW TO KNOW YOUR DECORATING STYLE.
BE MINDFUL OF NEGATIVE SPACE
Negative space is actually an area in a room that has nothing in it. It is empty.
And negative space plays a very big role in the beauty of a room.
It gives our eyes a break and a place to rest from all the stimuli we see in a room. These negative spaces also help give us a little visual downtime to make sense of everything we are seeing. And that is very, very important.
A curated room chooses and edits items for that room with great care. Making sure there is breathing room or space in a room.
It is so important that a room is not cluttered and there is a balance of decor and negative space.
You might like to post below. They will help you understand and use negative space to create a beautiful home.
See THE OVERDECORATING DILEMMA.
See THE ELEMENT OF DESIGN… SPACE
A CURATED HOME IS ALWAYS EVOLVING
We change and just like us our homes should be changing to reflect who we are, what we love, and our current lifestyle.
As the things we love and collect change, we should evaluate and edit our homes if we wish to incorporate new things.
The key is to keep items we cherish that work with our style. Remember to brutely edit things so they all work together and don’t look like clutter.
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
No matter what kind of home you have, your home should always be comfortable and function well.
No matter how one-of-a-kind or unique or impressively individual or curated you want your home to be function always comes first! Always!
When we are comfortable in our home the things around us give us pleasure. A curated home thinks about function first and then form.
Now that you know what a curated home is start following these easy steps to create a beautifully curated look in your home.
Yvonne, you’ve really taught me how to love my home, how to live with what I can’t or won’t change, how to appreciate the little things! Thank you!
Those little letter orbs! When I first saw them, I had to have them! I searched high and low and finally found them at Hobby Lobby, then had to wait until they went on sale. I immediately came home and filled a cylinder vase with them. I’m going to have to look through my decorative bowls now!
Oh, I’m so thrilled you found them at Hobby Lobby! I’ll see if I can find them and put a link in my post.
I love the letter orbs too! Could you please say what department in the store you found them? I mean were they displayed in the middle or in a certain section?
Thank you for one of the best blogs. I enjoy it so much.
I found them at Pottery Barn. But I don’t see them online anymore. Sorry!
I’m sorry. I got so excited about the orbs I missed in the previous posts they came from Pottery Barn. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find them somewhere. Thanks.
What do you look up at Hobby Lobby in order to find the letter orbs? Love them but can’t find on the website.
Hi Tori, I did not get them at Hobby Lobby. I found them at the Pottery Barn several years ago.
Hi Yvonne,
I enjoy and am so inspired by your posts! Did you make the beige “dotted” pillow above?
No I found it at HomeGoods.
I love your blog and really look forward to reading it everyday – but I have a request, I find it harder and harder to read the font you use, and when you write something on a gray background I really struggle. If this is something I could correct on my end I would, but I haven’t found that to be the case. Is darkening your font something you would be able to do on your end? Thank you
Thank you for you input Eileen. At the beginning of August, I am publishing a new blog design with darker lettering.
Yvonne,
I love your curtains which have thin, horizontal stripes on a white or light background. May I ask where you bought them?
Thank you,
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