HOW TO UNCOVER YOUR PERSONAL INTERIOR DESIGN STYLE
…and bring it to life in your home
Pinpointing your personal home style can be challenging. We’re inundated with a never-ending slew of micro-trends, homewares, and aspirational Pinterest boards, that it can be hard to know what you genuinely want your space to look like so that it best represents you, and what pieces need to be purchased to build your dream space.
Leading Australian interior stylist and Luxo Living Ambassador Nicole Rosenberg shares with us her top three tips for helping clients uncover their personal interior style to make their home feel uniquely theirs. She also shares tips for blending two different home styles together when you and your partner or housemate’s aesthetics don’t see eye-to-eye.
Nicole Rosenberg’s Top Three Tips to Find Your Home Style
1.) It’s all about colour!
One of the first questions I always ask my clients is ‘what colours do you love?’ Then we try and incorporate these into almost every element of the design and soft furnishings.
Try to work out which colour palettes you are comfortable working with and push yourself to the limit with them. Go beyond just painting your walls with your chosen colour scheme, and paint cupboards, furniture pieces or even the ceiling the same colour as your walls. It is a fantastic to inject personality into your space and is probably the most affordable way of creating an impact in your home if you are on a budget.
2.)Choosing a common theme to run through the house is important.
We hear the terms “traditional” “modern” “Hamptons style” “mid-century” and “eclectic” thrown around a lot because they really do matter. Whatever your preferred style is, decide which one you really love and weave the theme throughout the home to make it feel cohesive and balanced. This is not to say you can’t take from a few different styles as long as the home still feels that it has a common thread – whether it be a certain colour, pattern or type of fabric and have it be a common feature throughout the home. For example, we often work on projects that have a very traditional front and a modern, renovated back, but our choice of furniture and design still feels coordinated from front to back.
3.) They say ’There is no heart without art’ – and I couldn’t agree more!
Art is such a vital part of making a house a home, so helping our clients find their own personal art style is an added piece of the ‘home style’ puzzle. We always encorage our clients to choose a range of mediums including canvas art, photography art and sculptural art which creates interest and sparks conversation.
Nicole Rosenberg’s Top Three Tips for Blending Your Home Style
Now that you’ve found your own personal style, you’re ready to create your ultimate dream home. However, it’s likely that you have to share your home with someone…and this someone can have a very different style to your own. Whether you have a partner who is colourblind, or live with a housemate who has a completely different aesthetic, it can be frustrating to share a space with someone who doesn’t want your home to look like the slice of heaven you envision.
Nicole says it’s hard to navigate, but not impossible. Here are her tips for merging two styles:
1.) Compromise on the big things:
Try to find a compromise with the larger decor items (such as sofas and chairs) and focus more on function – perhaps these need to be a little more neutral/standard and then let your design personality come out in other ways such as design objects and small art pieces.
A great standard sofa that is sure to please everyone one the Colton 3-Seater Fabric Sofa ($839)
2.) Focus of creativity!
Instead of approaching this project like a dreaded task, change your perspective. Focus on the creative freedom you have to combine decorative preferences and challenge yourselves to come up with your own personal collaborative style! Maybe one of you loves a neutral, Scandinavian style and another loves a funky, Palm Beach look? Add something like the Cambria Fluted Glass Door Buffet Cabinet ($429) which is neutral, but has the fluted, retro detail to please both aesthetics.
3) Agree on just one colour.
If you can at least agree on ONE colour it is a great base to start from and to work with throughout the home – if you are painting, you can always use different shades of the same colour in different spaces to create a whole different effect. For example, a deep moody green or a lighter sage can be alternated throughout different rooms to match different styles and please all parties.
Nicole Rosenberg owns Liberty Interiors, a vibrant and accomplished Melbourne-based interior decorating studio that specialises, but isn’t limited to, designing beautiful spaces for kids.
Lover of all thing’s art, crafts and style, Nicole found the inspiration to start her business after having her own children, decorating their bedrooms and then the rooms of friends and family. Encouraged by how much she loved creating these beautiful spaces and how much her friends loved her work, she knew there was a niche service in the works.
Nicole is truly passionate about producing calm and happy yet fun spaces for everyone, kids included that reflects a person’s individuality and desires.
