Alternating between various design eras and periods may give your home a fresh and exciting appearance. But you need to be careful not to overcomplicate things and make things even more complex than they really are! Instead, settle on a middle ground where differences are minimized, and harmony is achieved. Here are some expert tips for combining different interior design styles in a tasteful manner.
Useful Tips for Combining Different Interior Design Styles
It’s a big step, but moving in with your significant other is a really exciting adventure. Taking this “huge” next step in your relationship means you’re committing to spending the rest of your life together. You’ll have to take care of things at home in addition to adjusting to all the exciting new opportunities that lie ahead. It may be time-consuming and costly to decorate and furnish your house to suit your tastes. You’ll have to immediately face the difficulty of merging your two design styles if you’re moving furnishings from your previous area into the new one. Here are a few suggestions to help you and your significant other find common ground in your interior design choices and build a home that you will like spending time in together.
1. Use the 80/20 rule
The rule of thumb is to have eighty percent of the room be in keeping with one style and twenty percent in contrast. Attempting a ratio closer to 60/40 or 50/50 will confuse the observer’s visual system. Because of this, you should aim for an 80/20 ratio. However, you still want your room to be livable and pleasant, and the novelty of eclectic design may stimulate experimentation in location as well as a choice of elements. Always keep the room’s flow in mind while placing bigger items, and make sure nothing stands out too much (or too little).
2. Be consistent
This one might be obvious, but continuity is crucial when developing an eclectic aesthetic. If the rest of the house is ultra-modern and one room is decorated in an eclectic style, the overall effect is not artistic but chaotic. Simply said, you want to create a cozy home and also maintain an eclectic aesthetic throughout the house, even if not every area has the same degree of diversity.
3. Be careful when mixing colors
It’s true that you can make almost any form or style seem well together, but color is the ultimate unifier. And you need to pay very close attention to color when combining different interior design styles. Make a piece of art or a vase in complementary colors the main point of a room that has a colorful sofa or chair. Keep the remainder of the colors muted to provide emphasis on the focal point. Just by adding some bold hues, you may give otherwise classic furniture a totally fresh and contemporary vibe. A splash of color can update almost everything in an instant.
It’s possible to create a visually appealing result by blending many colors together. Bright pink or turquoise goes well with mint, while ruby red pairs well with blue, grey, or khaki, a vivid poppy orange contrasts well with cold, dusty greens, blues, and corals, and bright yellow looks great with navy, grey, black, or maroon. You can really play around with colors.
4. Make sure to keep the space functional as well
Sharing a home will put your patience to the test. This is the time for you and your partner to get to know each other’s routines and behaviors in an informal setting. You need to decide the purpose of each room. If you are building your house from scratch, experts recommend determining the purpose of each space early on. Do you want to utilize the bedroom as a social hub or a tranquil retreat? The answer to this question may guide you in making more inconsequential choices, like whether or not to keep a television in the bedroom.
If you’re self-employed, where do you see yourself spending most of your time working from home? Do you intend to work at the dinner table or need a separate workstation in the house? What kind of furniture you’ll need and what kind of arrangement would work best for your way of life may be determined by thinking through how you want to utilize the various rooms in your house.
5. Get rid of the clutter.
The term “eclectic” often conjures up images of a room filled with random objects: a plethora of throw cushions, bookshelves piled high with dust, etc. It’s a place where ideas may flourish without much in the way of structure. However, being eclectic does not entail filling one’s home with random objects. Put yourself in a bird’s eye view and evaluate whether or not your environment encourages innovation and creativity or whether it makes you feel like you’re hoarding. An easy solution for this is renting a self-storage unit for your extra pieces to avoid home clutter.
6. Pick a focal point
If you have a lot of items that don’t match your house, people may get confused and lose focus. And we all know how important it is to keep the flow. Locate the one spectacular item you’ll be proud to display. Make it the focal center of the room and place furniture and decorations around it to direct people’s eyes.
7. Look for common motifs among styles
The truth is that many seemingly different aesthetics can work together seamlessly. For example, the straight, clean lines of the Arts and Crafts movement pair well with the curvature and fluidity of Asian design. Around a modern couch, ornate, gilt Louis XIV armchairs make a pleasant contrast. You can make a few exceptions, for example, when you’re decorating your kid’s bedroom. If they like their old piece of furniture that doesn’t go with the new room, then sure, you can keep it.
You may also begin your various design scheme with a single theme that really speaks to you, such as an artist’s loft, a futuristic steampunk space, a Parisian salon, or a global traveler’s den. With it as a foundation, you can easily design and combine a wide variety of elements to create a room that you like and that reflects your personality. With a little bit of help and a little bit of creativity, combining different interior design styles is going to be a piece of cake.