HOW TO KNOW YOUR DECORATING STYLE
I have a very important question to ask you… here goes… DO YOU KNOW YOUR DECOR STYLE? If you are like most people you sorta know what you like and what you don’t. You can tell me what you think your style is, but you probably can’t tell me with confidence and conviction! I think it’s important to know what styles you love and live with and what styles you aren’t fond of and perhaps are living with in spite of that fact! Let’s work together and try to get a good idea of our own personal decor style! Knowing your decor style will help you create a home you will feel comfortable in and love!
Today is HOME STYLE SATURDAY! Make sure you check out the other talented bloggers at the end of this post.
And have you listened to our new Podcast, DECORATING TIPS AND TRICKS? Episode 2 is HOW TO FIND YOUR DECORATING STYLE! You can listen to it below or on your iphone or androids!
My style is a TRADITIONAL. I love classic furnishings..those that stand the test of time. Beautiful fabrics…symmetry… comfort…a little formality… calm and orderly…understated… refined and welcoming.
Don’t let the name “traditional” fool you. It does not mean staid or dated or too many patterns. That’s NOT traditional. Traditional is comfortable and well appointed and predictable in the best way possible. It is classic and the most welcoming. I bet most of us would classify our decor style as somewhat TRADITIONAL!
The threads that ties my style together are certainly classic and traditional but my style runs deeper than that… as do most of our styles!
My style is also FARMHOUSE. Farmhouse was originally a moniker for a type of house and a geographical area and not so much a style. Lately, farmhouse has BECOME a style!
I am very influenced by the gorgeous farmland that surrounds StoneGable and the style of our modern farmhouse. I lean towards the warmth of hardwood floors, planked walls, utilitarian accents, porches, living close to the earth, large kitchens and rockers on the front porch! Because I put an up-to-date spin on farmhouse style I like to call my style MODERN-FARMHOUSE LIVING.
These two style, TRADITIONAL and MODERN-FARMHOUSE influence my decor style the most!
INDUSTRIAL style often seeps into my farmhouse styling too! I like industrial metals and woods and mechanical details. But a little of this goes a long, long way. And if done right mixes wonderfully with Farmhouse style.
To did a little deeper I also love American furnishing as opposed to French or British or any other national influence. And I love the “coziness” of COTTAGE decor.
So my style is TRADITIONAL MODERN-AMERICAN-FARMHOUSE WITH A LITTLE INDUSTRIAL AND COTTAGE STYLING AROUND THE EDGES! SIGH! That’s a big mouthful… so I define it as AMERICAN FARMHOUSE LIVING!
Here are some tips for learning about YOUR style and how to decorate to get the look you love!
1. YOUR present decor may not be YOUR style!
The styles you love and are drawn to may not be sitting in your house right now! If you are like me, your home is a work in progress! You may be saving for a makeover, living with a piece you spent way too much money for because you can’t afford to get rid of it now, you don’t know how to make A STYLE change or… I could go on and on!
To help you define what you really love and what you don’t, start by creating a couple of pinterest boards and label them WHAT I LOVE and WHAT I’LL PASS! Spend some time each day adding to the boards. ONLY PIN WHAT YOU REALLY REALLY TOTALLY LOVE AND WHAT YOU DROOL OVER on the What I Love board. And only pin THINGS THAT WOULD NOT BE CAUGHT DEAD IN YOUR HOUSE to the other.
Do this for several weeks and see what you have. Find the common thread in each board. Spend time evaluating and write all your observations down. Yes, DO THIS! IT will give you an idea of what you would love to live with… and hence, your style!!!!
One of my very favorite Traditionally Styled homes from HOUSE BEAUTIFUL on my Pinterest board. Swoon!
2. CELEBRATE FURNISHING YOU HAVE THAT YOU LOVE!
Just because your home might not be “perfect” doesn’t mean that you dislike everything! We can all get into that all-or-nothing pit! Focus on what you do have that you love and find joy and inspiration in those pieces! And don’t forget to think “upcycle”! A great coat of paint or a wonderful fabric can transform home decor! Look at your stand-the-test-of-time decor and update it! You will be amazed at the difference!
See how I updated my planter HERE!
3. ACQUAINT YOURSELF WITH DECOR VOCABULARY
Get to know decor styles and what makes them distinct. Here are just a few styles…
- TRADITIONAL – see above. Think refined, familiar and comfortable.
- COUNTRY – traditional time-worn furnishings, warm, flea market, milk paint, ironstone, a feeling of comfort and home, NOT your mother’s or grandmother’s country! Think of small estate living.
- CONTEMPORARY -sleek, clean lines and subdued colors, pop of color added, low to the ground furnishings, few extras. Think urban living.
- FARMHOUSE-inspired by farmland and utility. Functional items, lots of galvanized metal, wood floors, white paneled walls, big kitchens, porches, rocking chairs. Think of StoneGable!
- MODERN- minimal furniture, stark, uncluttered, white with black accents. Think George Jetson!
- COASTAL- influence by the sea, airy rooms with light fabrics, whites and colors of the sea, nautical accents. Think beautiful homes on the ocean.
- COTTAGE- furnishings that show a little wear, botanical prints, wrought iron beds, quilts, cozy feel, fresh white paint on planked walls, open windows. Think sheer curtains wafting on a light breeze!
- INDUSTRIAL- raw unfinished look, lots of metal, exposed pipes and pipes in design, open shelving, unfinished look. Think warehouse.
- ECLECTIC- a mix of styles and periods that work together because of a common element like color. Think mix and match!
Know what elements constitute decor styles…especially the decor you love!
A gorgeous mid century eclectic bedroom from LONNY
4. DON’T FEAR CHANGE
My style, like most of yours, has evolved! Decor goes out of style EVERY YEAR!!! Yes! Some things you bought last year are already “out”! BUT DON’T FEAR CHANGE!!! Some things you are holding on to right now might be the very things that are choking your style.
Let go of furnishings and accents that are tired or very very out of style… IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT. And if you have any “mauve” decor… really? It’s time to get rid of it!!!!! And I only say this because I love you! Or at least upcycle it!
And now on the other hand, don’t get rid of wonderful things you love and are happy to live with if its out of style. If you love it… WHO CARES!!!
Here’s my decor secret… I choose classic big ticket items like sofas and chairs and beds in solid, neutral colors. These pieces will stand the test of time (or at least 10 years). I tend to buy trendy accent pieces that are very inexpensive to fill in my decor. They are easily replaced when I get tired of them.
Right now I’m getting rid of my chevron accent pieces and replacing them with iron orbs and black and white stripes. Don’t fear change… SMARTLY embrace it!
Oh, so gorgeous neutral pieces with trendy accents from BURLAP AND LACE
5. LIVE WITH WHAT YOU LOVE!!!!
The bottom line is… live with what you love no matter what styles and trends dictate! It’s your home and should be YOUR SYLE!!!! Live in it… and love it!
Follow these 5 easy tips to help you KNOW your DECOR STYLE! And it’s always fun to take a decor quiz or two!!! Here are some for you to enjoy…
Designthusiasm | Easy Entertaining for Drop-In Guests
Maison de Pax | Super Simple Valentines Day Table
Savvy Southern Style | My Secret Tool
Shabbyfufu | How to Decorate for Spring with Easy Touches
So Much Better With Age | Painted Pink and Metallic Gold Books
StoneGable | How to Know Your Decor Style
Cedar Hill Farmhouse | Adding Touches of Spring to Your Home
Remember to pin this to your HOME or HOME DECOR Pinterest boards. You can follow me on Pinterest and see all the great things I’m finding to pin daily HERE.
Thanks Yvonne! I think it is important too to live with what you love….I want my home to be warm and to be able to live in it…give me the old….some new…and make it cozy!
Karen, I love your description of a home. I couldn’t have said it better.
I would say my style is traditional with a twist. It suits my house and is comfortable for me.But, there are so many other styles that I like if I had a beach house, or country home, or city condo. Wouldn’t that be fun?!
I am just in love with your site/blog and photos! I am getting ready to move into a smaller place, and looking forward to decorating it the way I would love to.
I had never thought of using faux with real before. I used to take branches from trees that bloom, but I now think I can intersperse them with faux branches.
I am going to be coming back here a lot! So many ideas, and I am so ready for a total change.
Thanks so much!!
Enjoy your new home, Maree
Love your article! Advising us to create Pinterest boards to help define a design preference is brilliant!
Thank you so much for posting this very important topic. It was very inspiring to me and gave me an open mind when selecting decor for my home. Love accent pieces!
Terrific blog topic! I have been befuddled for ages regarding my style – I love a bit of everything! I tend to lean Traditional with a HUGE chunk of whimsy – or crazy as my husband refers to it. I love my larger than life painting of the Queen in my living room – it is on her coronation but has the words “it’s all mine now” written across it in red “lipstick”. A real conversation piece! Thank you!
Your blog is the backbone of where to start decorating. I like your tip about buying big ticket items in neutrals…that makes so much sense!
Loud applaud for this post!
I might add, DO NOT SPEND MONEY YOU DO NOT HAVE IN HAND.
You won’t enjoy what you over spent on or YET owe credit to own.
Things to think about, thanks! By the way I just trove the podcast???
I have the same style as you,Yvonne. I like the idea of your zebra rug with the traditional furniture but I think that’s a little out of my comfort zone and an expensive mistake if I decide I can’t live with it. You are such an inspiration!
Let’s not forget husbands/partners – they need to have a say in what your home “becomes” – a shared style is always a good way to maintain healthy relationships!
Yes, absolutely. My Bobby is not really interested in the decisions… just loves a pretty home.
Great thoughts and ideas. I have been trying to find my decorating style for a while. I guess it would be electic. I try and bring in what I like with what I have along with neutral walls. Your inspiration helps me.
Great idea to build around the classics that will last!
Loved this post and enjoyed taking the style quizzes
Thanks Yvonne. I find it funny as I read the definitions of different styles, I find I go under about 4 or 5 of them and that’s ok. It makes it fun and versatile where I can like a certain style with a bit of another thrown in.
My style is called My Stuff. Lol
Thanks for the eye-opening wonderful post.
Thanks for the eye-opening wonderful post!!
Great information – and freedom in decorating.
What is the best way to search your past blogs? I’ve been searching for the one that had a bird pillow on your sofa. I finally found it but it was pretty fiddley and I thought there might be a search feature on your blog. Am I missing it?
Thanks so much.
Hi Catherine. I sometimes forget where things are on my blog so I go to google and put “stonegable_______________________( fill in the blank with what you are searching for) in the search bar. Hope this helps!
This was so helpful! I giggled when you said get rid of the mauve! I really love your decorating style and I’m proud to say mine is quite similar to yours. I’ve done a lot of up-cycling in my decorating and it is amazing what a coat of paint does or different fabricant do in your home!
You go girl!!!
Another great post Yvonne.
I am always struggling to find “my” style. This helps!
Love this! Will definitely be saving this post! I like to think of my decor style as Rustic French Country Farmhouse! However, I seem to be swaying more towards Modern Farmhouse with my accessories!
I love your kitchen, it’s so fresh and welcoming.
I now know why I love your blog…I love your style. It makes me feel very comfortable.
Thanks for such an informative blog on decoring style. I guess my my style of my country home is farmhouse,with the original pressed tin ceiling and the terrazzo inlayed tile floors. Thanks Yvonne and have a great day.
Thank you so much for the great tips. My problem is I know I like the Farmhouse style, but I can’t afford to switch over all at once. Your suggestions demonstrate ways to gradually incorporate Farmhouse décor into my more traditional home. Your encouragement to mix different styles if they compliment each other is helpful. It doesn’t have to happen overnight! Thank you, too, for the quizzes at the end of your article. They were fun to take!
Very informative post. Thanks,
My style is the same as yours.Sometimes it’s hard to part
with things,but once they’re gone,you don’t seem to miss
them.Also,spray paint is my friend,it gives new life to things
you might not want to get rid of just yet.
Love todays post…great ideas. I too droll over that picture from House Beautiful. It is also one of my favorite pics you have posted that is not your home. Love the idea of hanging a picture on that beautiful paneled wall.
I need to get up to date and explore Pinterest…I think Iam missing something wonderful.
Great tips…. I didn’t realize I’m traditional modern farmhouse cottage too!
Going to try your pintrest board idea right away!
I love many elements of country, cottage and even industrial decorating, but if I could only pick one style to build my dream home and decorate, it would be a Colorado mountain rustic “lodge” looking home. The rustic elements like huge log beams, huge stone fireplaces and the use of stone and logs walls inside and out, just takes my heart to s special place. The oversized couches, chairs and tables and accessories like saddles and large horse framed art fits in so beautifully. I found it interesting that you did not have rustic as one of your decor choices. ~Blessings.~
Rustic is certainly a fabulous decor style!!! Thanks so much for reminding us about this warm and welcoming style!
Another great blog post! And I listened to the podcast for the first time & loved it!
As always, great advice!
My style is transitional – mostly traditional but with touches of contemporary with splashes of cottage. Master bedroom is romantic vintage french cottage – but in neutrals not shabby pink chic or anything. Rest of the house is classic modern traditional with touches of vintage/antiques – all light, bright, clean and not cluttered (much.) I love clean lines most of the time but not HARD contemporary lines, if that makes sense.
Have always loved your style. I dabbled in farmhouse touches but found it wasn’t me – wasn’t dressy enough……and now I am dabbling with a bit of mixed metals, but I think it is too bling-ey for me.
I am most confortable with a dressier natural cottage feel – if it is too distressed or too shiny or too slouchy it isn’t me. I wish I could have a little home of each style I love – but my home has touches of it all I guess.
I am still watching that Pottery Barn table – I tried to use the Friends and Family discount they had the other day but it wasn’t for furniture. Ugh. I was buying it, dang it, haha. PB has always seemed to capture my favorite style more than any other source collectively.
Enjoying your pins and your podcasts immensley.
Your blog is a daily go-to for me, I try never to miss it. Thanks for all your inspiration and gorgeous eye candy photos. When I sip my hot cuppa and read/listen to you I always want to go clean my house and re-arrange things, and then go online to shop your recommended sites. (hee hee!)
Guess my style is traditional with a cottage style thrown in….I think your home is so pretty. I love your kitchen !
Since items like the zebra rug and the tiger print table do not fit into traditional or farmhouse or cottage or industrial, then when you have lots of these “non-conforming” decor items, then I would think your style would be more like eclectic. (When you have all of those styles mixed and also add in extra stuff from even more totally different categories.) ??? I know it’s more art than science, lol! I guess a person could say their decorating style is eclectic with a heavy leaning toward farmhouse. 🙂
Great info, love the podcasts. . Love the idea of making a Pinterest board.
Thank you. You have given me a lot to think about on how to have a more classic traditional look in my living room. I have a beautiful bearl oak cabinet/entertainment center that I love that was my mom and dad’s, and my end tables and coffee table are perfect together but my navy sofas have to go. I want a sofa and two chairs, I am not a fan of a sofa and a love seat.
Thank you! I used to be country but recently moved. I am now eclectic with a touch of country if that makes sense? I still love the warm cozy country feeling, yet now love the less cluttered feeling and bright cheery colors.
I’m 75% traditional, 25% cottage based on the definitions you kindly provided
What a good informative post. I love traditional but now see that there is farmhouse and little cottage thrown in. We want out home to be comfortable and welcoming and I could live in your beautiful home. Hope your weekend is awesome.
I love your style – especially your gorgeous kitchen. So pretty!
Love this article!
You provide not only wonderful tips but direction. What good is a tool without application? I love following you and learning.
We moved in to our custom built home last year. I will say A LOT of the furniture in our previous home did not work in this new house so it never made it past the garage. I’m still learning my style as it has changed over the years. It’s been challenging pulling the trigger on the big ticket items. I still am hesitant on the Lee charcoal upholstered bed as I’m afraid both will trend out. And my previous bed I had for 27 years. Your advice to not spend more than the years you’re willing to live with the item resonate as this will be an expensive purchase.
So I will look at Pinterest with a different eye and purpose.
Thank you!
I’m so complicated. I like abut five styles and live with mostly none of them.
This was a great post….much needed.
My style is Yvonne 🙂
Love your suggestions on finding your style. We decorate with similar ideas! Thank you!
I think you and I are on the same wavelength! Traditional, farmhouse,utilitarian,etc. Like I tell my friends, give me wood, something galvanized, pottery, maybe a little rust and I`m happy.
Hi Lynn, I’m not sure it is still available. It’s called the grantland cabinet and I found mine at Joss and Main. Sorry I can’t help you more!
It was a lot of information on this post so I have to read twice some of the segment. Thank you for the tips how to find my style and for the post change style on the planter.
Thanks for the useful info!
I’m with you as far as my style goes, Yvonne. However, in my little place I can only do so much decorating, or I start looking cluttered.
I recently realized my first decor ‘blunder’… I fell in love with an aqua/white fretwork area rug. However, once I put the rug in my little living area, I realized that the aqua was just too much. It still is okay, but I now wish I had gone with something lighter and more neutral, especially to work with my tan carpet (I’m in a rental). Oh well… thankful it was a gift and, someday, I can replace it (but that will be a while).
A wonderful blog, thank you…..My style is Traditional-cottage-wee touches of farmhouse, especially on back porch (you can take the girl out of a 1700’s CT farmhouse,, but she still loves farmhouse)and because I live in a beautiful coastal town between Charleston and Savannah, I have mostly pale coastal colors, and for me it works! I do have jars of sea glass and shells collected mostly before I moved here, but that with the colors is the most coastal I have…
I am 51 and have never had a style, more of a throw it together and hope my boys don’t break it. Plus I haven’t been able to afford anything. I love all styles and am so confused on how to even get started. This was helpful, but where do I go to get more specific help? I can’t afford a designer and I’ve done the pinterest thing. I just don’t know how to get started. I love your blog and your decorating style because it is the closest to what I love. I also like rustic French country & shabby chic, but just touches not all the way. Just so confused on how to start.
Hi Lia, it is confusing! Especially if you love lots of style like I do and it seems you do too! I’d start with classic big investments like sofas and beds and then start adding styles you love. Hope this helps.
My other comment is awaiting moderation so I took all the style quizzes you had. Here are the results and this is why I’m confused.
Stylescope – Classic
BHG – Country
She Knows – Rustic
Houzz – French Country
My Domaine – Toile
Lonny – Trad with a Twist
I don’t disagree with any of them, in fact I agree with all of them. But how the heck do you start to decorate that? I have the basics with my furniture, all neutral. I just don’t know what to do next. Thanks for listening to me rant!
Thanks for sharing your quiz outcomes!
Being married for 26 years to a man in the military helped me evolve my style over the years. The constant moving every three years and divesting of things and rearranging with every new home made me learn more about decorating. I had lots of different styles and color choices over the years but I have finally arrived at the design style I love: I want to call it cottage-coastal-farmhouse with a bit of traditional! I learned I don;t have to look for the perfect piece, I can take anything with pretty lines I love and paint it!
We have recently put our home for sale and it sold in two days based on my staging talent what I was told by the real estate agent 🙂
Love your blog, your style and that you are not afraid to incorporate your strong religious values and beliefs. You are a delight, I wish you a fast recovery and blessings on grandmahood. 🙂 from one (young) g-ma to another:-)
Thanks Sabrina!
Great blog post