Finding Your Own Style

It can often be daunting when you start thinking about your style or what you would like your house to look like, but this is why finding inspiration and your individual style is key.

There is no right or wrong way to find your style and there are certainly no rules when it comes to creating the perfect home for YOU, but, here are some top tips on how to make the process more enjoyable.

This is a perfect place to start in your style journey. 

We often all intrinsically know what colours we like to see, what makes us happy, what makes us feel good in our homes.

Make sure you ask yourself this question. 'What colours do I really like?' You might love blue, but these can be bright and bold or very cold. So it is crucial that you really hone down on what it is you like. 

You can create your own board by either pulling paint swatches out of the book and sticking them on a piece of paper or board, or build a pinterest board with all of the colours that give you joy.

This may be an easier question than what colours you like because people tend to have very strong feelings on patterns. 

Ask yourself whether you like flowers, birds, gingham, busy patterns? 

Look through magazines and tear out the pages that you love. Really notice what patterns you like, what brings you joy and what you might like to see in your home.

You may decide that you don't like any patterns, you just want everything monotone or clean without fuss; but therein lies your style! You have discovered that you actually really just love things to be very minimalist and almost clinical - and that's ok. It is all very individual to you.

When you have got a good idea of whether you like warm or cold colours, busy patterns or very plain ones, you need to get looking.

Look at everything. Look at magazines, look online, look at people's homes. I have always enjoyed looking in historical homes for inspiration. I take snippets from these ideas and try and recreate a pared down version on my home.

You need to build a collection of inspirational colours, patterns and other styles. You can keep it in a binder or on your laptop and once you have a plethora of ideas you will find yourself starting to self-edit.

Once you have created your master-folder of inspiration, now comes the most fun part. Editing!

Sit in your home and start going through your ideas. Think about whether they will work in your home. If you have a grand drawing room, you may feel inspired by a dark colour on the walls or a very detailed wallpaper, but if you have a smaller living room, you will want to pull yourself back. A large and overpowering bookshelf may not suit your Victorian cottage for example. Start getting brutal and with each page of inspiration think, 'would I really love this in my home.' If your answer is 'no', get rid of it.

Having a huge, voluptuous sofa may not fit in a small room. Or, if you like three different styles of sofa, you need to really edit it down. You can have two different styles of sofa, but you need to decide whether they work for you and will bring you joy.

You also really need to consider how you live your life. Is a high-back chair right for you when actually you love watching movies and need something very soft and comfy. Or, if you like to read, ensure you have a good reading chair that is near excellent light to read by.

The most important tip in finding your own style is to relax and enjoy the process. There is no right or wrong way to discover what you truly love in your home. You don't have to be a trained interior designer to make your home truly joyful.

Look to nature, look to books, look to hotels and museums and websites and you can always get lots of ideas that are very dramatic and loud and you find that, in the end, you pull it all back and just have nods here and there to those things that you like.

Don't feel you have any restrictions. It's your home. Love it the way you like it!