Mastering interior design should be easy, never before has it been so easy to find interior design inspiration. You don’t have to buy a magazine or switch on Changing Rooms you just have to scroll. And scroll. And scroll. Pinterest and Instagram are bursting with images of peoples homes, but they are getting a bit samey, don’t you think? I see four basic designs now;
- the maximal homage to House Of Hackney
- scandi and bright
- retro fun and colourful
- vintage bohemian
I am of course over simplifying but for the purpose of this blog post we are going to go with those 4 basic styles.
Become the master of interior design tailored to your lifestyle.
Before these days of interior inspiration overload how on earth did we all manage to decorate without Instagram? We picked things we liked and designed our homes to suit our needs, I know, heaven forbid!
Okay okay it was not all sunshine and roses in the days of free will. In fact it was rag rolling, stencils and cushions that matched our sofas. Let’s face it, by and large, our homes look better now. We are not yet living design crime free, but that does not mean we should opt for the safety of cookie cutter homes.
So why do I think this is happening? The truth is I am not sure that it is intentional it is so easy to be influenced by images we are seeing ALL THE TIME. When I was writing essays late into the night after just finishing reading the textbooks I had to triple check that they were in fact my own thoughts and not inadvertent plagiarism. I believe you have to be quite a strong minded person with a definite sense of your own style not to be swayed. If you are not careful you will end up with a carbon copy of your favourite Instagram account. Or, worse still a mish mash of dipping your toe into everyone’s account and won’t hang together well and does not suit your lifestyle.
Find inspiration in unlikely places.
If you want to master interior design you have to start looking outside of the box. Stately homes, movies, art galleries and museums. Once you start to look around you will see more and more to inspire you. My green dining room chairs were inspired by Mog a wonderful childrens book by the late Judith Kerr. I was instantly charmed by the green chairs in the book and sinpired to make the look my own. I did that by fully embracing my next tip.
Make sure YOU are in every room.
One sure fire way to avaoid your home looking like everyone elses is to make sure that you are front and centre in every room. An element of yourself should be the most important feature in the room. Your personality influences what you wear, what you read so why not your home? I have made the promotion of creativity my career, it has always been a passion of mine so injecting my own crafts around the home makes sense for me, such as these embroidered chairs. Not everyone is crafty, if that is not you then find a way of expressing your personality. Books, music collections, musical instruments, these are all things that should be on display where possible.
If you are still wondering how you could put your personality into every room you could always turn to your star sign. My friend Kimberly, of Swoonworthy wrote a really fun article about this. To check it out follow the link.
Master interior design by being practical.
How many times have you sat in front of a decorating or design show, seen the reaveal and screamed “but where is there stuff” or “they have four kids and a dog why are the sofas white”. I could list the things I yell at the TV all day, and don’t pretend you don’t do it too. Design trends are all well and good but sometimes they are completely impractical. Think about how you live in your home. How do you use your kitchen? Would you make more use of a formal dining room or a playroom? Do you have enough seating in your lounge? Do you have adequate storage? What time of day do you use this room? The answers to these questions will inform your design and ensure that you create a home for you and your needs.
What do you mean it’s all an instasham?
It is also important to remember that Instagram is a bit of an instasham. The same goes for many magazine shoots. They are perfectly styled images that look great but it is not how they live all the time. Perhaps that plant looks great there but in reality would die left in that room and normally lives elsewhere. Or my personal favourite unsafe styling of things around fires and candles, they look great in the Christmas special of Country Living but in reality that home is a fire risk. A photo shoot home is not always a home. Why not try and guess how many times the kids bedroom looks like it does in the blog post?
There you have it my 4 very simple and actionable tips
