Devine Decorating Results for Your Interior

How to Choose Your Decorating Style & Use a Design Plan

Posted by Ragan Corliss on January 16, 2010 · 6 Comments 

Choosing your decorating style can be a fun experience but also challenging.  The biggest problems I see people run into is they don’t stick with a style, but instead pursue their interior decorating without a plan and begin painting colors, and purchasing items that often times don’t enhance their décor or go with their style.  Consequently, many of the purchases end up not working and wasting money.  A real key to accomplishing a beautiful home interior that you’re happy with is to first decide what decorating style you want to have, and then create a decorating plan that helps you to stick with that style, (and budget).

Choosing your decorating style:

A good starting point for deciding on the decorating style you want to have for your home is to look at the era of your home.   Is it a mid-century modern, Victorian, Edwardian, Cape Code, Craftsman, etc.?  Also look at other room examples that appeal to you.  What are you drawn to, traditional, modern, contemporary, Tuscan, French country, shabby chic?   What do you have to work with inside the home?  Do you have a certain style of furniture you have to keep*?  What is the style of your favorite hotels?  Take the design style quiz at the bottom of this blog post.  Once you pinpoint the style you want, stick with it.  And before you start making purchases, have a design plan and budget…

 Click to enlarge

The color scheme is an important component of the design plan.

Process of choosing color scheme

My clients chose to add the blue color scheme.

Design Plan Elements:

Elements to include in your design plan typically include the color scheme, furniture pieces and placement, (whether existing or new), floor plan, upholstery fabrics, area rug, window treatment style and fabrics, artwork, accessories, and the budget.  When you look at all of these elements together, and in advance of making purchases, it can help you save money by avoiding wrongful purchases, save you loads of time, and help you pull together a beautiful room that fits your tastes and lifestyle.

Design Plan Elements

“Before” photo

Before. Notice the existing artwork. This was the starting point for choosing the color scheme in the room.

After. The blue accent color was added in the room through the new area rug, accessories, and window treatments.

Has this information been helpful to you?  I’d love to hear your feedback in the comment section!

For more detailed tips on pinpointing your decorating style, please refer to this post.

*Click here for tips on how to mix different sytles of furniture.

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