When it comes to home decorating, knowing your design style is very important. That’s because a well-defined interior design style is KEY to having a cohesive-looking home that also reflects your personality. Knowing your decorating style not only allows you to fill your home with things you love, but also helps to ensure the things in your home look great together. If you’ve been struggling to answer the question, “What’s my interior design style?” there are several steps you can take to find out. Read on for my tips on finding your decorating style.

The Easy Button

If you want an easy, step-by-step method for defining your decorating style, I have a fantastic online course that would be perfect for you. Not only does it include a decorating styles quiz, showing you examples of popular design styles, but it also helps you identify your style and set guidelines so that you can shop for your home with confidence. To learn more about the course, click HERE.learn your home decorating style

Even though I think my Discover Your Decorating Style course is the best and most complete way to find your home decorating style (I’m a little biased, I know), I realize that not everyone may be ready for a comprehensive course. So, read on to learn several quick steps you can take on your own to help you identify and narrow in on your home decorating style.

Step 1 – Research Interior Design Styles

It can be challenging to identify your home decorating style without getting familiar with, and seeing examples of all the different design styles. You may already have an idea of a few styles you gravitate towards, which is a great first step. But sometimes, seeing pictures and examples of different design styles can also help you eliminate the ones you don’t like…which is just as important! 

There are two ways to go about doing your research on home decorating styles, and I recommend you do BOTH!

#1 Learn About the Different Design Styles

Knowledge is everything. You can’t be expected to know your interior design style if you don’t know what the different styles are, right? Here are a few links to get you started:

#2 Take a Home Decorating Style Quiz

Another way to help narrow in on your home decorating style is to take an online quiz. I have a blog post on my 5 favorite decorating quizzes that I tested and found to give the best results. You can check out that post here. 

These quizzes are fun to take, but not always completely accurate. However, they’re a great place to start if you have no clue what your decorating style is, because they can help you narrow in on a few main styles to focus on.

Step 2 – Choose 2-3 Favorite Decorating Styles

Once you’ve done your research, or taken a home decorating style quiz, it’s time to narrow things down a bit. Choose two or three styles that are your favorites. These should be styles that you love, or that you seem to gravitate towards the most. 

If you only found one style you like, you might be able to stop right there. However, I would encourage you to choose one or two other styles to look at more closely in the next step, just to make sure you’ve found “the one.”

On the other hand, if you’re having trouble narrowing it down to just two or three, then you might need to shift your mindset a little bit. After seeing a bunch of beautiful rooms in different styles, you might be thinking you like them all! But, you need to ask yourself whether those styles are ones that you just appreciate the look of, or if those styles truly represent a look you want to have in your own home. Try asking yourself, is this a style you will never get tired of?

Step 3 – Find Examples of your Favorite Design Styles

The next step is to search for example images of your 2-3 favorite interior design styles on Pinterest and Instagram. Being able to see more examples of rooms decorated in the styles you like, can help you further narrow in on your top (or primary) style.

Try to find 5-10 pictures of rooms in each decorating style, and take a close look at the colors, furniture styles, and the decorative features within the room. Which group of pictures are you most drawn to? Which style feels more like you? Which decorating style can you picture in your living room or bedroom?

Step 4 – Select Your Design Style

It’s time to narrow down your 2-3 favorite decorating styles to just ONE style. This is the style you love the most…the one you could see yourself waking up to, or coming home to, every single day. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help you narrow things down:

  • Which style best represents how you want your room to feel?
  • Do you want the space to look more casual or more formal? Which style will give you that look?
  • Does one style have colors that appeal more to you? 
  • Which style represents how you want your home to look for the next 5 years?

find design style

What if you really like more than one style?

It’s actually quite common to like more than one interior design style, and if you’re struggling to choose just one…you’re not alone. One option is to have a primary style and a secondary style. The primary style is the one that appeals to you the most, and should be the main decorating style you use to design your home. The secondary style can then be incorporated into your home in a more subtle way, taking the form of decorative accessories and art, for example.

What if you like two design styles equally well?

If you just can’t choose a single style, and have two design styles that appeal to you equally well, then you probably have a blended style. OR, you might be in a situation where you and your roommate or partner want to combine two different design styles, so that both of your personalities are represented in the space. If that’s the case, I have some tips for you on blending two interior design styles in this post.

Step 5 – Focus on Key Features

Once you know your primary interior design style, what comes next? Just knowing the name of your home decorating style isn’t enough…it’s important to be able to buy furniture and accessories, and choose colors for your room that reflect that style. So, how do you know what to buy to make your design style come to life?

The answer is that you need to identify the key features of your design style, and determine what things drew you to the style in the first place. One way to do this is to look at example pictures of your design style, and look for things that are similar in the images you found. As you look at the images, ask yourself questions like:

  • What are the wall paint colors like?
  • Are there certain colors that keep showing up again and again in your images?
  • What about furniture finishes? Are they similar or different throughout the images?
  • Look at the style of the furniture. Does it have simple, clean lines, or more ornate features?
  • What are the window coverings like?
  • What kind of decorative accessories do you see in the rooms?
  • What do the art and rugs look like?

Take note of these key features that you love about your chosen design style. Those features are the things that you will want to bring to life in your own home. Next, make a list of things that you need to buy or change in your current home to get it to look more like your favorite style images. Then, when you go shopping for your home, refer back to your list of key features, and make sure that every item you purchase fits in with your style. 

Finding your decorating style, and knowing how to implement it in your home, is one of the best ways to ensure you will end up with a home that not only looks great, but also matches your unique personality. After all, you deserve to have a home you love, so it’s worth investing some time in understanding how to bring your style into your home.