Home Style
Personal style isn't limited to what you wear and how you look. It's also reflected by how your home looks as well. After all, it wouldn't make much sense to craft a gorgeous personal style, only to come home to a house or apartment that looks like a 1970s movie set, or a disaster flick.
Select quality home furnishings that match your values, and the look and feel you're trying to achieve. Whether your going for a vintage arts and crafts decor, or a more contemporary design, decide on your style before heading to the department or home furnishings store. There's nothing worse than making a large purchase you're initially happy with, only to be disappointed a few months later when the item doesn't fit with your current home decor vision.
If you've just moved into your home or apartment, then you're of course starting from scratch. You have a "clean slate," so to speak, a blank canvas on which to create your perfect home environment. If you're re-decorating an existing living space, then you can choose to make minor adjustments, or make a more drastic change.
In either case, your first task should be to sit down and decide how much you can afford to spend. Then visualize your ideal living environment, take notes, draw floor plans, and figure out what additions you'll need to make (and what items will need to be hauled off to the local thrift store).
Home decorating and design is all about finding that comfortable balance between the various furnishings in the space, so they work together in harmony. We've all walked into homes where this elusive balance has been achieved, and you get the feeling that if you moved one piece of furniture a few feet to the right or left, the entire room would seem completely skewed.
It goes without saying that the larger rooms in the home or apartment should
be furnished with larger items. This sometimes requires an expensive trip to the
furniture store to buy a new armoire, or a high-backed leather sofa. Smaller
rooms are no less challenging to furnish, but at least the less-visible rooms
can usually be filled with items already in your possession.
Rhythm and contrast are two more important considerations when furnishing a
home. Contrast, at least in moderation, adds flavor to a room. It's the dark
painting on a white wall, or the glass coffee table in front of a mission sofa.
Rhythm is achieved by having and overall theme to your living space. Theme unifies everything into a synergistic whole, like well composed and well performed music. And theme means not trying to mix incompatible elements, such as Southwestern and Oriental style furnishings.
Further Reading
You may find the articles below of interest:
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