Mixing and choosing styles

[Mamma1355]

We moved into our first house 6 months ago, a newish build house where the previous owners used a lot of modern black/grey industrial chic touches that they left behind. Not to our taste but the majority of the house is a blank canvas.

We are not planning to renovate it anytime soon but I’m really struggling to figure out how to make our own stamp on it. After buying only home necessities for years and years, I have to conclude that I have I don’t have any particular taste! I love the country living look, especially the textures, but it’s quite expensive to recreate. We got so fed up looking at expensive curtains we felt lukewarm about we’ve just bought plain ones to have something for the winter.

I also like colourful/arty/boho styles I’ve seen in other houses but I don’t know how to recreate them cohesively.

Our house is also currently quite minimalist while we decide what to buy and I’m enjoying it for now because we have small kids who make such a mess and the clutter is its own kind of decor.

For example the kitchen/dining room is modern and quite a dark brown/grey. We want to replace the industrial light over the dining table. I really like Tiffany style ceiling lights - is it going to look silly if we get one? The dining room is so white a colourful light would definitely be a centre piece, a statement light.

I don’t know if we need to commit to one style or another. Since the house is quite bare apart from the modern touches we can get whatever we want and hope it ends up working cohesively. I’m a bit anxious about splashing out on things I find beautiful but end up regretting buying because we’re not sure what look we want each room to have right now and when we figure it out a Tiffany style lamp isn’t going to work with it.

Any advice? I know we could just live with what we have, enjoy the house and take our time, but knowing DH and me, we could live in temporary solutions that we don’t really love for years because we’re both so indecisive about decor.

My advice would be just buy things you really love and don't over think it. You can always move the tiffin light fitting somewhere else in the house if it doesn't work in the kitchen diner. Once they are in, you might think, "these would be so much better if thewalls were painted duck egg blue" or something and it just flows from there. Same with furniture. Just buy things you love and you can swap them round.

Mood boards by room of things you like..Pinterest might be your friend. Or a physical scrap book. Your style should emerge over a period of time.

So take pics of your kitchen, screen shot the tiffiny lamp, add some paint swatches, pictures, rugs, blinds, dining chairs, table and soft furnishings etc and live with the pic and tweek.

One instagrammer I like (Lisa Dawson) has recently moved and she's painting all (most) of the walls the same colour and has the flooring in the ground floor the same. She will then decorate with her stuff and it will become colourful.

Anothers that I follow will have colour drenched walls in different colours for the rooms (from the same tonal range) or have a 'house' colour like Lisa which they use as a back drop.

Follow some instagrammers whose interiors you like.

Mixing lots of styles is difficult unless you have a good eye but can look great.

one type of style / colour palette can look very smart and cohesive.

don’t get sucked in by following the latest insta trends if that’s not really what you like, go with what you love personally.

Use Pinterest as suggested above to save looks / products that you like then research brands / products within your budget.

Don’t rush into it, take your time.

AI is very useful, e.g. chatGPT you can take a pic of your room and add a pic of a ceiling light and say change the light to this and it will create a mock up.

I love design and I’ve helped family and friends plan their rooms, I’m happy to help if you want to PM me.