So you know the style you want for your home — a Mediterranean stunner, a farmworthy Florida Cracker or a cozy bungalow wrapped by a cool, deep porch.

But what about the interior?

Determining how to decorate your home can take time. Plenty of people don’t pick a particular style. Rather, they pick furniture that pleases them. And just because they like it doesn’t mean it all matches.

That’s fine, but if you want to give your home’s interior a certain feel, first find out what you like.

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Toby Rogers, an interior designer and owner of Fresh Design LLC in Cape Coral, advises her clients to first peruse several of the many home decorating magazines out there like Decor, House Beautiful and Architectural Digest. And she sends them to related Web sites for the same reason.

“If it’s a new client and it’s kind of a blank canvas, I’ll give them a stack of magazines to go through or Web sites to go to. I have them pull what appeals to them, whether it’s a certain type of chair that appeals to them” or something else, and their choices will indicate particular design styles, Rogers said.

A lot of times, people say they prefer one style, but their choices tell another story.

For example, Rogers said, “I think people like the idea of being contemporary, or they hear a term and they like it,” but the same people who say they prefer contemporary live in a home with a Mediterranean exterior that is filled with heavy, elaborately carved and decorated furniture that also is more reflective of a Mediterranean feel.

Rogers creates interior design plans for new and existing homes, with the ratio about even.

A blank canvas

Of course, it’s one thing to start with a blank canvas — as people building a home do — and go from there.

“It’s easier if they don’t already live there” because homeowners are often more open to change in that case, Rogers said.

Rosemarie Drygala, interior designer with Interiors by Patricia in Cape Coral, deals mainly with new construction. The effort to determine homeowners’ design style can begin very early in the process of building, she said.

“We start with the blank canvas … from the roof color to the exterior paint colors … and then we go inside and start with the hard surfaces, like their tile or their wood floors and carpeted areas, and build up from there,” Drygala said.

Homeowners’ design style can emerge then, with something as basic as tiles.

“If we show them several things, several different tiles or countertops and they’re drifting toward things that are white and shiny and have fine lines, we know they’re not going to be the fluffy side, (they’ll be) more contemporary with fine lines, straight lines and geometric shapes,” Drygala said. “They might not know what (style) they are, but we know.”

Another way to determine your design style, no matter where you are in the process, is to visit some of the many model homes in Southwest Florida, Rogers and Drygala said. What you like in them can tell you a lot.

Existing homes

Owners of existing homes won’t have as blank a canvas as those building a new home, and may think that they must follow the architectural style of the home for the interior design. For example, owners of bungalows may think they must decorate with Mission or Arts & Crafts style furnishings.

That’s not the case, Rogers stressed, though homeowners must consider the scale of the home — the height of its ceilings, for example — and other interior features when deciding on a design style. And depending on how much they want to spend, they can change the interior to a point to match the design style they prefer.

“It depends on how invested they are in making changes … interior changes like floors and molding. It depends on how big of an investment they are willing to go through,” Rogers said.

Faced with rooms full of furniture that you know doesn’t match? Take a step back, declutter as much as possible, and consider which pieces you really like. Set those favorite pieces apart in some way, showcase them, and you can still follow a theme but have pieces that give your home more of an eclectic or transitional feel.

And you can update existing pieces to bring them more in line with your design style, if necessary.

People who have older pieces might try to give them a new life by reupholstering or painting, Drygala said. “You still could keep your existing pieces, (but) you surely could give it a new look with paint, with finishes. They’re using a lot of metallics these days.”

Ultimately, comfort should help homeowners decide what to use, too.

“I think the fact of their comfort helps them fall into their style. They feel comfortable with that look or when they go into the house,” Drygala said.

“It’s a good feeling.”

source :www.news-press.com