If there is one thing I’ve learned over the last 13 years designing homes it’s that every single person has their own unique sense of style. It always amazes me the depth of design we find when we look at the options through the unique lens and viewpoint of the client! Whether it’s their clothes, the type of purse they carry, their hair, hobbies, or home, a person’s personality shines through. Which is also one of the joys of design. When a client gets too in their head or overwhelmed about designing their space, they might lose their sense of personal style (or not even know they have one to begin with) and we’re able to help bring that unique style to the surface and into the sunlight.
Everyone has a design style, and if you’re ready to discover yours, then dive into this quick guide I’ve put together. With these tips you will be on the right track to discovering what your interior design style is so you can start the design process with confidence!
Let’s Learn More About You!
The first step is taking a step back from yourself. Look around your home, your closet, your crafting corner, your garage, and your backyard. What do you tend to surround yourself with? Ask yourself the following questions to dig deep into what you value most:
- If you had an extra $1000 what would you do with it?
- When you want to relax, where do you go?
- If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
- When you’re overwhelmed, what’s one thing that always helps?
- Do you love entertaining or do you use your house as a refuge from the outside world?
- Who are the 5 people you try to make happy every day (you can include yourself here 😊)?
Now that you have a bit of a foundation, let’s translate that into a Décor Personality! My quiz helps narrow down your likes, wants, and habits into one of eight Décor Personalities. It’s a great place to start, but can feel like a pretty tight box, so stick around, there’s a little more work to do after you take the quiz.
But Wait, There’s More!
Alright, so you’ve looked around your home and you’ve taken my quiz. You know your décor personality and what you value, but how do we translate that into the rooms of your house? There’s a few more steps.
Let’s start with Google and Pinterest. Hop on a search engine like Google or head over to Pinterest and type into the search bar your décor personality as well as some of the following words to start finding examples of rooms that make you happy dance!
Inspiration Everywhere
Inspiration can be found everywhere. There are sooo many nooks and crannies of life to explore and connect to certain things that speak to you on a personal level.
A visit to the beach and being captivated by the colors of the horizon or the various colors in a scoop of sand can lead to a color palette inspo. Or maybe you have a family heirloom and want the rest of the house to match. Have a favorite animal or just love nature in general? We can use it to create an entire room! From TV shows and movies and their characters, to a favorite artist, book, food, vacation spot, person, or even song, inspiration can be found anywhere!
Cues From Your Wardrobe:
What you wear might define your personality more than you think. For example, you might appreciate a casual yet sophisticated vibe if: you tend to wear comfortable, sporty outfits or jeans that you dress up with jewelry, accessories or heels. Or you might lean more of a glam direction if you love to accessorize, wear lots of bold prints, and enjoy mixing and matching to create visually stunning outfits.
Cues From Your Airbnb, Hotel, or Restaurant
A slightly more unusual place to find inspiration is another home, hotel, or restaurant you’ve recently been to. Take cues from a recent Airbnb or hotel stay. What were you drawn to? Was there a color scheme that just made the whole trip better? Was there a theme?
Cues From Your Favorite Season
What about your favorite season? You can even take a cue from the changing world around you. Warm color palettes for autumn vs cool palettes for spring. Or warm, cozy rooms vs. open airy ones. The way a season makes you feel can be a great starting point for deciding how you want your home to make you feel.
Cues From Your Zodiac or Enneagram
If personality types and zodiac signs are your thing, you can definitely pull from those to curate your style. Sherwin-Williams has a fantastic guide for zodiac signs, and you can easily take a quick enneagram quiz and then look up your number + room on Pinterest for immediate inspo.
Cues From Your Name
Every name has a meaning, even an aesthetic. When someone says their name is Melanie, some vision of who that person is and what they’re like pops into your head. Head over to Pinterest or Google and type in Your Name + Aesthetic and see what comes up! This is a great way to curate a mood board for your space. Note: It doesn’t work for every name, but it’s worth a try!
Once you have an idea of what your interior design style is, you can easily start collecting photos, color palettes, fabric swatches and more to create a design vision for your home. Browse furniture stores, Ikea, Anthropology, Amazon, and more to get an idea of what’s out there. Create a Pinterest board titled Dream Home and save inspo pics there so you’re ready for your very first meeting with an interior designer who can help turn your interior design style into a home you absolutely love!
