What to do when two opposite décor styles meet?
I speak a lot about decorating your home in your personal style, but what do you do when your style does not meet your significant other’s style?
One of the loveliest clients last year had very different tastes in style. They hired me to refurbish their new forever home and to design some custom joinery to fit the spaces. One of them likes muted and minimalist Nordic style. The other one likes vibrant and bold South African style. What did we do? Meet half way in Sahara? Not quite.
1. Find out things in common
We started with the common ground and realised that:
- Both my clients liked pink colour in all its shades.
- They also both liked an artwork they already had, which, conveniently, was pink.
- Both liked timber and they liked the sofas they already owned.
- They like entertaining friends and needed a big dining table.
That all was a great starting point for the common areas!
We re-framed the favourite artwork to make it the hero of the room and drew all other colours from it. The sofas stayed, in different layout though.
Design: INSIDESIGN – Photo: Conor Quinn
I designed a big custom cabinetry in the living room to fit all the beautiful artefacts they had. We called it the giraffe cabinet – you’ll understand why when you look at the photos! All books were moved to another big bookcase in the study.
Design: INSIDESIGN – Photo: Conor Quinn
The shelves had a strip of timber added to the front for contrast and to make them appear bulkier, but without the heaviness of a full timber bookcase.
Design: INSIDESIGN – Photo: Conor Quinn
Design: INSIDESIGN – Photo: Conor Quinn
There is a touch of bold colours in the dining chairs, but mostly the room is quite soft and neutral and extremely cosy.
Design: INSIDESIGN – Photo: Conor Quinn
2. Separate the different styles.
In the areas where you don’t need to merge the styles just go bravely different!
In this house it was easy, as there were two bedrooms to decorate. We went all out with the two different styles in the individual bedrooms. No, there’s no flow between them. In fact there’s nothing in common between these two rooms, but you know what – if you love them it’s okay. And we loved them both!
Each room looks like the person who lives there and I’m thrilled with the results of them both.
The Scandi room is grey and white with hints of aqua. It feels very harmonic and calm.
Design: INSIDESIGN – Photo: Conor Quinn
The African room was built around two vibrant African prints, highlighted by a mystic deep indigo wall and bright yellow cushions. The room is full of energy and passion.
Design: INSIDESIGN – Photo: Conor Quinn
I thoroughly enjoyed this project because of its originality and the variety of the two very different aspects to it. (And to tell you the truth: because I was allowed to paint a wall in deep indigo!)
How do the styles in your family match? Do you all like colour?
Design: INSIDESIGN – Photo: Conor Quinn
Drop me a line if you’d need some help with merging your interior styles or to create your own giraffe cabinet!
Bye for now!
Sari