What type of look do you want? Cozy and comfortable? Sleek and sophisticated? Formal and museum-like? The descriptions are endless. I always ask clients for adjectives to describe how they would like their home to look and feel. These adjectives are helpful in determining their personal style. Stop for a moment and consider: what is your design style? If you don’t know, here’s a way to find out. Look through magazines and pull photos of rooms that you like. That doesn’t mean you have to love everything in each photo, but rather that you like the overall look and feel of the room. Once you have your photos, analyze them to determine what those photos have in common? Do they all have a clean, sophisticated look? Do they have a relaxed, lived-in look? What about the prevalence of pattern and the color palette? You can learn much through this exercise, and perhaps with a few changes here and there you can be on your way to having the look that moves you.
After reviewing the pictures of rooms a client had gathered, I asked her if she liked the color yellow because all the rooms in the photos had yellow walls. She said that she loved yellow even though she didn’t think to tell me so when I had previously asked her, during our initial interview, what her favorite colors were. I made sure I incorporated yellow in the design. That is an excellent example of personal style driving choices, but also of the tremendous importance of color. – Alexander Interiors, McLean, VA
