What interior style would suit my house? Any help appreciated as I'm finding it very tricky.

[Honey1975]

We moved a few months ago to a slightly bigger home and I want to start putting our own mark on it with some re-decorating.

I'm struggling with where to start in terms of what style to go for overall. I've bought 4 home magazines but none of them are really 'us'. I think we must have quite boring taste!

I do like looking at Pinterest and have saved some ideas but there doesn't seem to be any consistent theme to the things I like.

We have a lovely large hallway with an original wooden floor but I don't know what to do to make the best of the area. I want a console table but can't decide what style i.e. Modern, ikea, shabby chic, vintage. One minute I'm looking in Oak Furnitureland and then I'm thinking about buying one from eBay and having it upcycled!

Can anyone help or offer some advice please as interior design does not come naturally to me or my DH. He thinks we should just paint the whole house white but I'd like to put more of a personal touch on it than that but just don't know where to start.

The house is a 1966 dorma bungalow with some nice features (open fireplace) and lovely wooden floors.

I'm in a similar position. I inherited a 1960s/70s console table and want to change it, but don't know what to buy in exchange.

Console tables are incredibly useful or totally useless, depending on function not form. So work out what you need it to do rather than how you want it to look.
We have this one and it is one of the hardest working pieces of furniture in the house

loaf.com/products/hector-console-table

Mine is G Plan.

My number one piece of advice is don't decide in haste or choose a style for the sake of it. You really need to live in a house for at least a year before re-styling it. I made the mistake of decorating my first house within the first few months - a year or so laterlater I had to start re-doing it all. If you look at plenty of sources for inspiration, you will sooner or later get a 'vision' of how you want your house to look. You're likely to regret it if you make a start before you're really inspired.

Not sure why I typed 'later' twice

Oh wow! Love the sound of your new house. Google mid century modern design and Scandinavian design as well. It's super popular at the moment so you can buy new furniture in this style for reasonable prices. I love to mix old with new. So you could hunt round furniture charity shops for classic 60s 70s sideboard, tables chairs etc . La redoute, cult furniture.com and denetti do lovely stuff. All the supermarkets etc have lovely home wares ranges. Indoor plants give a brilliant finishing touch and homely look. There are some great pots about in home sense! Why not paint it all white and go bold with prints and pots furniture and textiles! Hope that's helpful

Have you tried Living etc magazine, tends to be a bit more modern. Lots of quirky mid century interiors. I imagine a house like that would suit a comfortable colourful look but not too matchy-matchy. For instance the House by John Lewis range, Ikea, habitat, vintage ercol and g-plan.

Instagram is really great for interior inspiration. You can follow hashtags too now so get to see more pics. It's full of normal peoples homes, all doing their thing.
Look at #hygge for an example, and then look at individual accounts that you like the look of.
Real homes magazine used to be quite good...but it's gone a bit more fancy now, and show the real homes worth a gazillion pound, instead of the £100K houses they used to show.

I like the Houzz web site. Look at second hand Ercol furniture too.

Think storage. If you can hide something away, like shoes in a hall, it makes the house neater. How about a chest of drawers in the hall instead of a console table?

Re Mags, you might get on with Home Style and Style at Home if living etc is a bit shiny-shiny. And yes, Real Homes if it's not lost the run of itself!
The library probably has a load of books you can borrow for free (and probably mags too)

Another vote for Houzz. Honestly, you don't need to buy any magazines when all the info is provided free on the Web.
What do you like op? Don't decorate because you think a certain style or colour is fashionable, do it to please yourselves, you've got to live in it. If it needs a freshen up there is nothing wrong with slapping on a coat of paint for the time being. It will be easy to change. I would just live with it a bit and keep looking around. I can never start a room unless I've got a picture in my minds eye of how I want it to look finished. (Wooden floors sound like it could be a cosy scandi meets mid century mix, but that is a totally blind guess obviously!)

PS I bought our console table from the Cotswold Company, they've got some really attractive pieces.

I think it's easier to start with a different room. Start with your main living room, pin down what you love for that, and in particular what sofas, then reflect that to a degree, but not slavishly, in the hall. I bet you have stronger feelings about sofas than you do about console tables. You don't necessarily have to change the sofas now, just have an idea where you want to go with the main living area.

You could paint every room down stairs white or calico then add colour to each room by choosing a colour as a feature by painting one wall or with accessories. That way you get a flow. When you choose a colour to accessorise make sure it compliments the colour you've chosen in the other rooms that'll make it feel more sophisticated.
Look through catalogues online like next to get a feel of different style rooms as they usually set each suit of furniture in a theme. That may help. Pinterest and house beautiful type magazines can be too perfect or over styles.
Also use Rightmove look at similar ages houses to yours and see how people are presenting them to sell. You get some lovely designs and ordinary nice home ideas.

Oops to typos.

Think about what colours do you like and what kind of materials. Do floor, walls and curtains first and then add pieces gradually. Also be realistic about your priorities: do you want something simple to care for ? Could you spend a lot of time on "updating " an old chair? What do you need space for?

Thank you so much for all the suggestions, it's really helpful. I think perhaps I am trying to rush it all too much. I've waited so long to have more space and I just want to make it our own as quick as possible but I realise this may not be the best plan.

I do like the scandi look in terms of accessories, colours. I've had a look at the mid century modern furniture but don't think it's really us. I prefer either really modern i.e. Ikea or more traditional or shabby chic - told you I was confused!!

We already have a shoe cupboard from Ikea in the hallway which is very useful but it's very small for the size of the room and I just think we could make more of a feature of the hall with perhaps a lovely table with a lamp & a mirror. DH thinks I'm mad as I told him I wanted the shoe cabinet and now he's built it I want to move it and have a console table😀

I'm just so indecisive and find it hard to visualise how I want things.

i usually pick something i love , and work the room around it
so for my bedroom i fell in love with the curtains designed everything around that ,
living room ,it was the fireplace
kitchen ,it was the range cooker
etc