What’s your style?

Karen Haller 01
Karen Haller
What's your style - perfume bottles

How pretty do these perfume bottles look grouped together.

Have you found yourself bringing home beautiful treasures from your travels, flea markets or whilst out in nature, but been left wondering how to display them?

Styling is the art of creating a visual impact with beautiful displays of collectibles. It’s about personalising your space with the objects and those special finds that you love.

If you’ve ever wondered how to display your favourite things, here are 5 tips to get you started.

1. Clear & clean
The best way to start is by clearing out the room, including everything off the walls. That way you can start from a blank canvas. It’s also the ideal opportunity to do a good clean and throw out. That’s probably not the first thing you wanted to hear, but it will be worth it.

Then look at what you have. If you love it, then show it. With essentials that you don’t need to put on display, store it. For the rest, bin it or give to charity.

What's your style - elegant bedroom

Grouping in pairs creates harmony & balance in this elegant bedroom.

2. Make a display of it
How you group your objects will give a different feel to the room. Grouping in even numbers or pairs gives a look of harmony and balance if you are looking to create an elegant style. Grouping in odd numbers will give a more relaxed, informal, quirky look. You’ll be creating what is known as vignettes, small collections of interest.

If space is limited then why not turn your everyday items into a beautiful display.

Group your treasures that are similar in themes, textures or colours. Themes could be collections from your travels or similar objects such as photo frames. When it comes to textures, how it feels to the touch – smooth, matt or rough.

It’s very easy to stray into the realms of clutter. Less is more.

What's your style - Collection of favourite objects

Collection of paintings, drawings and favourite objects.

What's your style - perfume bottles

How pretty do these perfume bottles look grouped together.

What's your style - table vignette

The colours within this lovely table vignette are in keeping with the overall colour tones of the room – warm tones containing black

3. Light & Shade
When it comes to selecting the colours for your room, try to keep the colours within the same tonal group. All colours are either warm (yellow based) or cool (blue based). They then fall into one of four colour groups – clear and bright (no black or grey added), muted with grey or black or bold and intense.

If you want try out a new colour but you’re not sure if you’ll like it, the safest way is to bring it in as an accent colour.

4. Experiment
A great friend and fellow stylist Lisa Madigan is right when she says “Be brave…trust your instincts… don’t be afraid to mix old with new. Don’t take it too seriously, have a bit of fun!”

Remember, this is all about experimenting, if you don’t like it just change it. Even professional stylists experiment until it feels right.

What's your style - bower bird

Lisa Madigan A self confessed ‘bowerbird’, Lisa shows how she incorporates her nature finds into her styling. She finds herself restyling almost each week, “it freshens a space and a new feel can be achieved with minimal fuss and no budget”.

5. Love your home
If you nurture and love your home, it will nurture and love you in return. Take the time. You’ll be amazed where you’ll find your next treasure. It’s not about how much it costs, but that you love it. It may be a shell off the beach, or a find at your local flea market or charity store.

Take a rainy day and try out your new styling skills. I’d love to hear how you went.

So remember, if you style in a way that is an expression of your authentic self, you can’t go wrong!

Happy Styling!!

Lots of Love,
Karen x

Karen specialises in holistic interior design and colour psychology.

Credits
Stage House
Lisa Madigan
Decor8blog
Living etc

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