Styling a house

[Hoolahoophop]

We are moving! Yay. I never really did any decorating in my current house, just lived in it as it was, with very young children there didn't seem much point in making it nice for them to trash.

In my old house I had quite a soft but minimalist look. The house was old, and tiny. So light painted walls, cream carpets and furniture with a big feature fireplace and some red highlights. Solid light oak furniture. Mostly because it suited the house.

In the next house I want to decorate. I look on Rightmove and love all those modern chic styles with empty rooms and empty worktops. BUT. I know we are an untidy family. There are always toys out, always books on tables, always mugs lying around. The kitchen worktops will always have piles of papers and hairbrushes. We will always look a bit messy. But to counter that I want a house where everyone feels at home, where the kids friends can turn up and help themselves to drinks, where there are aways snacks available, a cake cooking, and enough dinner to set an extra place at the table etc. We will have quite a large garden and are an outdoorsy family, walking, tree climbing, watersports, our house is perfectly placed for walking into town and country alike. Friends pop round for a kick about, play with the paddle boards, or a jamming session with the instruments.

I am looking for ideas on how to style our home so it looks put together and grown up, but can also take our mess. Welcoming, fun, colorful, homely.

Is there a style I can search for on the Pinterest boards for ideas? We are literally starting from scratch.

Thanks

@KnickerFolder thank you, I shall look for those terms.

Trouble with WM adage.

We all think the kids art is beautiful and their Lego and puzzles useful! The stone, stick, Conker and feather collections...I will readily admit are not necessary! The majority of my craft projects are downright ugly and holiday trinkets both useless and ugly. We can remember the trips by the photos, which can be tidied away much more easily and do not require dusting.

I love fabric, colour and pattern, and I'm obsessed with Vanessa Arbuthnott designs. I think many of them could work with your laid back, lived-in home while adding some style. Even if you're not that keen on them, it's worth looking at her website and Pinterest pages for ideas. https://www.vanessaarbuthnott.co.uk/inspirational-photography/

Then you “believe” them to be beautiful 😂 It’s not about what anyone else thinks!

Conkers, stones, feathers could be beautiful eg give the DC a lovely wooden bowl to keep the conkers or stones in. Or they are useful from an educational point of view. Just give them a pretty box or an album for feathers to store them in out of sight 😂 Frame or hang (pegs on string or trouser hangers) artwork on a gallery wall. Don’t buy any more trinkets you think are ugly 😂

@KnickerFolder I'm out of luck on the holiday trinkets, they are the DHs first love. I'm trying to figure out how to turn an old travelling trunk into a display case for them. So he gets to keep them, and neither of us have to dust them!

@Shetlands some beautiful things on there thank you. Lots of inspiration that is right up my street. Lots of color and pattern.

Surely if you lead a certain life and are a certain character you will naturally chose things that fit into that. If that’s naturally the sort of person you are.

Anything else will obviously look forced

Just go with you natural flow. Chose what you like and not what others or you think you should like.

I have a house where DC’s friends love to hang our. However it’s almost always tidy. (Teen DC) Storage is key. And put everything aaay once used

I agree to an extent.

But as we are starting from scratch it would be good to have a bit of a vision of where we are going as we choose. Where to start, with carpets, curtains, wall coverings or sofa's? If we just choose what we like as we see it we could have a terrible clash - very us but also quite migraine inducing.

So we are trying to get lots of images of styles we like so that we can choose within the vision.

Re holiday trinkets & fridge magnets.
DD has a collection. Her partner is not keen. The magnets are on a magnetic board (Ikea?). Since they moved house, the board has been on the wall of her office, so not spoiling any aesthetic in the rest of the house. Ikea sell deep display frames for non magnetic trinkets.

It won’t be though
Chose as you like will naturally work together
It will naturally be the true you
Far more exciting and personal than what others or books suggest.

Heres something to try
This is what I ask my clients to do for me before I design them anything ( I’m an architect )

Mood boards!
Honestly you can’t even start to appreciate what you really like or others in your family do without a good old mood board

Cut out, take pictures of, get samples of stuff you like. Whether that’s a piece of wool, fabric, photo of a tree, a flower or a chair. Or the sun setting or Whatever that brings you joy.
Stick them all on a mood board.
Thats you!
Once you have that….off you go ! Start creating.

@FreedomandPeace right, I'm on it. Mood board here I come. But I blame you if my house ends up looking like a dogs dinner.....pretty much what my personal style looks like. 😅Might have to let everyone have a room. As I suspect our mood boards would all be different!

I think I was trying for what I understood to be a mood board, but looking for what to search for online to get pictures of rooms i liked. So a mood board of rooms rather than a mood board of....everything.

Its exciting, I am really looking forward to creating our own family space. In our old house we didn't bother, and lived (for many, many years) with the the decor of the people before us (their choice of carpets, curtains, or curtains donated by family when we moved in that we never got round to changing) then overlayed with our life clutter. Potentially we are messy because we don't like what is underneath so its better to have our stuff on display even if it is to most eyes just clutter.

I do hope you enjoy the process. It sounds like you will.

As an aside
If the rooms are all quite different because your family members are different isn’t that a wonderful thing

Im into organic, darkness, womb like. My favourite home would be living within the shell of an extinct dinosaur. My dh, also an architect, would live in a glass box in the sky. We are complete opposites and our house, now you’ve mentioned it, reflects that. I think that’s exciting.

How about 'light academia cottagecore'? It's a cottagey/country, very comfortable and lived-in look with a whimsical tone.

@FreedomandPeace we are thinking about building a substantial extension to the house as well. I might beg to pick your brains on how to choose an architect for us.

Sounds like you want an 'English Eclectic' look. Instagram is good for inspiration.

Happy to offer suggestions
But you’ll need that mood board 🙂

Homework set! Thanks.

I'm going to say a couple of random things.

Firstly, if you want a lived in eclectic style then use some of what you already have from your current house and buy anything extra second hand / vintage / antique if possible.

Secondly, colllections look best if they are organised. When we bought our house DS had the smallest room and as a small child he started blu-taking loads of things to the walls. It looked like a dogs dinner, there was stuff on all 4 walls and most of it was squint. When I decorated his room I used cork tiles to completely cover one wall, it was an external wall so has made the room warmer (bonus!). He is now only allowed to pin things on that wall and so it has become a gallery wall, and the others are plain. There's actually now more stuff on the walls than before but it looks like a planned statement and so looks much better.

Thirdly, take your time decorating and thinking a lot about how you use rooms. And remember storage can be a beautiful vintage sideboard, not just ugly boxes from IKEA.