One thing I hear often when it comes to interior decorating is “I’m afraid it won’t look right,” or “I’m not sure it will flow.” The struggle to make rooms feel connected but also unique & functional is real. Whether you’re moving into a new home or making changes to your existing one, I’m here to give you my top 3 tips on how to create a cohesive home.
TIP #1: Choose a Color Palette
A great starting point is to choose a palette of your ‘happy colors.’ What colors bring you joy? Maybe you love bold brights or moody darks. Come up with a color combination that goes together you can use consistently throughout your home. There’s obviously caveats to this, but you wouldn’t want to paint, say, your whole house light grey and then paint your bedroom purple (which is verbatim what our house looked like when we bought it, lol). I recommend choosing a base paint color that you use throughout the majority of your home, or at least variations of it. Then you can add accent colors within your color palette using less permanent items such as wall art, furniture, or shelf decor.
TIP #2: Determine Your Home Design Style(s)
What design style do you gravitate towards? Are you into modern contemporary? Perhaps farmhouse or bohemian? Or maybe somewhere in between? No need to stick a strict label on it, but figuring out what sort of home style(s) speak to you will help with your decor selections. There are even a number of online quizzes, like this one, that can help you decide. Once you’ve identified what you like, it becomes easier to carry that style over from room to room.
TIP #3: Incorporate Consistent Elements
Each room serves a different function therefore there are some things you’ll want to switch up, like wood tones and textures. After all, we don’t want every room looking the same (boringgg); but there are aspects we want to keep consistent. When it comes to consistency, think flooring, fixtures, & textiles.
+Flooring
Carrying over the same flooring throughout your home is a huge step in making it cohesive. A lot of older homes have different floor styles, going from wood to linoleum to carpet, etc. Understanding that new floors ain’t cheap, there are some lower cost options to explore. Painting (like we did in our side entry/powder room) is great for lesser traffic areas, or installing luxury vinyl plank flooring (like we used in our basement remodel) gives the appearance of wood for a more affordable price tag.
+Fixtures
The smaller details are what can really make or break a home’s flow. When it comes to things such as lights, handles, hinges/doorknobs – even curtain rods – These things should stay fairly consistent. For example, you wouldn’t want to have modern, matte black knobs on all your kitchen cabinets but then walk into your powder room to antique gold fixtures. To tie spaces together, try to keep these items similar.
+Textiles
Using consistent fabrics when it comes to curtains, rugs, upholstered furniture, even pillows or bedding. Textiles are a fun way to play with a space, but you also want to have some ‘base’ items that fit your color palette. As an example, use a sofa that matches your color palette paired with a bolder throw blanket as a fun seasonal switch-up.
I want to stress that as much as interior design is a science… it also isn’t. Even those with a flair for it learn by playing with different elements until they discover what works! The same goes for you when decorating your own home. Have fun with it! Everyone’s style is different, but if you stick to the three rules above while being playful and incorporating your own style + flare, you’ll be on the right path for how to create a cohesive home that perfectly suits you.
FOLLOW ON THE GRAM
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