As a homeowner, it’s difficult enough trying to pin down your own style of interior. If you prefer darker, more earth-toned colors, you usually gravitate towards something traditional or classical.
If you want more vibrancy and playfulness, then variations of the ‘beach house’, eclectic and shabby-chic styles feel perfect.
Perhaps you want something that’s smart and leaning toward contemporary interpretations of the postmodern styles. Then, you go for industrial, modern, simplistic or Scandinavian design. It’s actually easy to mix these up into a big mess that makes your home look very sporadic.
When you just keep putting things where you think they should go, making it up as you go can quickly escalate into uneasiness.
Discontinued interior design is actually quite common these days as interior decor has become more affordable.
Thus, you see many homes with a mish-mash of styles. That’s both good and bad, as you do get to be as creative as you’d like but, again, nothing really fits.
Instead, you can meet this whirlwind in the middle by creating each room distinct from the next. Here’s how:
The Bedroom: Where Luxury has a Natural Place
Starting off with the bedroom, you should look at this space mainly in terms of luxury and comfort. The sole essence of the bedroom is to give you a place where you feel totally at ease.
Where you can expect the finest of fabrics and materials. Since the days of kings and queens, emperors and aristocratic families, the bedroom has been the jewel of the house.
It’s where the finer things in life can and should be enjoyed without an ounce of guilt or regret. Starting off, consider the bedsheets, duvet and pillow.
Rather than a synthetic fiber blend such as nylon and polyester, go with something like 100% Egyptian Cotton. You may also want to go with sheets made from Cashmere woven in Italy or England.
Perhaps you want something that is superbly soft and supple. Shelling out a little bit more may then seem reasonable.
If this is the case, go with pure silk. The softest of all silks will come from Western Europe where families have been perfecting the technique for generations.
However, for the two best sources, look for something high caliber from both France and Italy. Family businesses that go back hundreds of years still exist here and you should consider them your first stop.
Satin is another good choice but not as soft and luxurious as silk. Satin does have more rigidity so it will last longer.
Bed sheets made out of either will have you rolling around at night. Not because of insomnia but because how good they feel on your bare skin.
For the duvet and pillow, you should consider something tougher but still rather pleasant, such as pure 100% wool. This is just the top layer, as you should have both stuffed with duck feathers for ample softness and molding around your body.
The Lounge: Where Atmosphere is as Important as Ambiance
Continuing with the lounge. A lounge is not the same as a living room. For one, the living room is usually not at the front of a home.
It’s more to the side or to the rear. It’s a room where most guests in your home won’t go or have the pleasure of being invited to.
The living room is where many people gather to talk and perhaps enjoy a snack. The lounge is purely for leisure, with comforts such as coffee tables and armchairs.
And it’s all about the atmosphere. It’s all well and good to have a chaise lounge chair to lay back and read a book on.
But what about how the room feels? What if you wanted one room to be cooler, and another to be warmer? In a lounge room, for instance, you can wear slim clothes while in the privacy of your own company.
Therefore, you may want to increase the temperature so you don’t get goosebumps. For this, you should consider a mini split installation because it allows you to change the temperature to your liking instantly. It works much like a air conditioning unit.
However, ultimately, it can be set to whatever temperature you like and turned on and off whenever you like. All of this can be done by hand or if you are using a modern variant, from your smartphone.
Traditional HVAC units will turn on and off on timers and they will only have one speed. The contrast is that you have much more control over the atmosphere in a room with a splitter.
If you lounge looks splendidly appointed, what good is the ambiance if the room is too hot or too cold?
The Dining Room: Showing Off Creative Design
The dining area doesn’t have to be an extension of the kitchen. It’s quite normal that the two share the same decor as open plan living has merged the two closer and stronger than ever before. However, these are two separate concepts.
The kitchen is where you cook the meals and the dining area is where you enjoy them. Can you transfer some of your creativity from the larger room to the smaller? Sure you can, but is this something you really want or are you following a trend?
Fashion is recycled, a style lasts forever. Take this opportunity of being creative with your dining area to exemplify your ability to combine different designs and materials.
The dining table can be made from a single sheet of glass in an oval shape. This is something that can only be done with the purest of glass, where impurities have been refined out and therefore leading to a strong see-through product.
The glass will be heat-treated, meaning it is tempered. Tempered glass is very tough and can withstand quite severe blunt force trauma. It won’t crack or chip very easily at all.
And, as long as you take good care of it will remain smooth. It’s also very scratch resistant which is another bonus.
Cheaper glass tables might look fine in the shade but when the sunlight hits the surface, the scratches and scuff marks show.
Sofas: The Vibe is Always Important
Are leather sofas really necessary for a modern home? Sofas made from leather on the lower end of the quality scale will have two dire strait traits about them. In autumn and winter, they will always be too cold and very uncomfortable to sit on at times.
During the spring and summer, they will stick to your body due to perspiration. They end up being too cold and too hot throughout the year, never really being comfortable.
After all, the living room is a place of comfort that most family members keep gravitating towards. So, leather might not be the way, as leather sofas lend more formality to the interior.
Many modern designs for homes look like they would fit better in a commercial office building.
Instead, a fabric sofa in a bright or neutral color would make the room feel more homely. Consider replacing your leather sofa with one made out of pure cotton and using foam padding.
And don’t just stick with a bold or block color scheme, be creative with various designs. Consider getting patterns of animals, chequered ribbons and banners, various leaves, trees and plants etc. Fabric sofas are usually going to create a more easy going vibe in a living room.
You feel safer throwing yourself on them without the fear of damaging the surface like you would with leather. Fabric is much easier to clean and maintain also, so this contributes to a more laid back feel in your living room.
If you have small kids that are in that rough and tumble stage, leather sofas are not something you should get.
Pinning down just one style for your home interior is not easy these days. You have so many options that the things you like will be in different interior styles, so creating an even flow is inherently difficult.
Instead, you could focus on giving each room its own distinctive style and feeling. The dining area is where you can celebrate meals together with family, but still have a table fit for entertaining guests with.
A single sheet high purification tempered glass table is superb for that, especially in the oval shape. On the other hand, temperature adds to your comfort when you’re in your lounge, so something that would allow you your own setting for that is considerably useful.
