Traditional. Contemporary. Mid-century modern. If you’ve been considering an interior design project, you’ve probably seen these terms sprawled across plenty of inspiration boards and style quizzes. Squeezing yourself into one category or another, though, actually makes it harder to find the look that is truly, authentically, exclusively you – and isn’t that exactly what your home should be? Grabbing inspiration from other home designs can be helpful, but to really hone in on a style that’s completely personal to your family, you and your designer need to dive deeper than color palettes and categories. Here are five questions to ask yourself as you begin to build your unique style:
- What’s working? What’s not? It may seem simple, but this question usually cuts right to the heart of why you decided to hire a designer to begin with. Even the most breathtaking home design is quickly sullied by a lack of functionality, and it’s often the things you don’t like that make the best foundation for figuring out what you want.
- What’s your top priority? Are you looking for a refresh or a total transformation? Once you’ve given some thought to what’s not working for you, think about which of those items are the highest priority. This will help you and your designer define your style as well as the scope and budget of your project.
- Where do you spend time together as a family? Where do you spend time apart? It all comes back to function. Your home is the heart of your family, so you need space for everyone to gather together and spread apart. Understanding exactly how each room functions for your family (whether it follows its originally intended use or not) is key to figuring out how each area of your home must be designed to work for everyone in it.
- How custom do you want your home to be? For some clients, customization is key; for others, budget takes precedent. From furniture to woodwork to art, the options for what you can put in your home’s design are endless — but customization comes with added cost, so determining what you really want to have custom-made before you get started is key.
- What is non-negotiable? It’s okay to tell your designer what you don’t want in your home’s design, too – in fact, it helps us quickly focus our efforts on finding things you love. If you’re not sure what you do want, see if you can define what you don’t: What colors are a no-go? What trends are you not into? What are the things you absolutely won’t get rid of?
When it comes to defining their style, we happily steer our clients away from boxing themselves in. From Industrial to Eclectic, there’s plenty of inspiration to be taken from any one category – but it’s mixing them into your own brand of beautiful that really makes your house home. For more help finding your style, reach out to us!
