Have you discovered your home interior style? It’s time to learn more about the different interior design styles and what defines each one.

By now, you should have a good idea of what you love in your space and why, as well as what you don’t love and why. The why is important because, people, we are focusing on feelings here. Specifically keying in on the good feelings you get from the space and doing more of that.

Having thought about this will really help you with the next step (get ready to dive into it today) which is defining your interior design styles  and taking the first step to editing what you have.

I’m also hoping that if you have to consider someone else’s opinions when it comes to decorating your home (I know- not always fun,) that they too are on board and took a bit of time to discover their type of design style. 

I know when we were in the discovery stage I mentioned that I didn’t want you to get hung up with too many interior design guru technical terms because let’s be real here, they can make you feel like you aren’t on the right track if you belong in more than one style category. But we are going to take what we discovered about our personal home decor style and put it into words today. Yep, we are going to define different types of home decor styles. 

Don’t be scared. It will help you in the long run.

Why do you need to define your home decor style?

For a couple really solid reasons, actually.

Defining your home style design will…

• Make all decorating decisions easier. Yes. All of them. Let’s face it, there’s multiple different types of decorating styles. Decisions like what to keep and what to let go of, what bigger design elements or projects you may want to start saving for, and most importantly if you really NEED that pretty pillow that called your name in HomeGoods because it will add to your space appropriately, or if you just appreciate it for its beauty. In other words, it will help you edit your choices and not let you end up with a bunch of things that look good, but don’t make sense together. #leaveitontheshelf
• It will help you understand how to mix the types of interior design styles  represented in your household. It is possible to have different home decor styles present in a home and actually it is really important to do so because it creates a ton of interest and ends up telling the story of everyone who lives there.
• And lastly, it will allow you to know which ideas and inspiration to actually act on because you will have guidelines . Not every awesome idea or look needs to make it into your home decor.

Defining the Top Interior Design Styles

For the sake of keeping it simple we are going to stick with just the main different types of interior design styles because most people fall into the different degrees of these popular interior design styles.

Traditional or Classic

Traditional or classic home decor is full of details.

• Lots of furniture with curves like rolled sofa arms, tufting, and curved legs on tables.
• Floral or organic patterns which mimic those same curves.
• Items are typically placed in pairs like matching table lamps on either side of the sofa.
• The color palette is often muted.
• The classic end of the spectrum typically includes a lot of dark wood tones.

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Modern

In modern home decor you’ll find a lot of clean lines and not a lot of detail.

• Not a lot of texture.
• Asymmetrical layout.
• Limited use of accessories.
• Use of graphic patterns with clean lines.

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Rustic or Industrial/ Urban

Rustic and industrial home decor includes a lot of texture and nods to unfinished or raw materials.

• tons of texture: wood, stone, metal.
• exposed elements like wiring, pipes, brick walls, and beams.
• non-functional re purposed items used as decorative accessories or features.

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Ok. So now you’re probably thinking, “Corey, there are elements to each one of those that I like.” I totally get it. Me too!

Go back to discovering your own interior design style and see if what you loved leans toward one of these different decorating styles. Keep in mind that there are definite variations and degrees of each of these styles.

Focus on the elements that I listed for you under each style and see which of those elements pops up most frequently in what you collected or in your favorite room.

Writing Your Personal Home Decor Style Definition

Start with the overall feeling you want in your room.

• the feeling you want the space to have
• the main decor style (from above) you were drawn to the most
• the runner up decor style from above or your significant other’s winner.

Here’s mine as an example:

Comfortable Modern Traditional

Clean lines are definitely my go to when it comes to choosing the larger (expensive) items for my home, and you know I’m a sucker for geometric patterns, but I definitely don’t want my home to feel stark or cold. Instead I want it to feel comfortable and adding in some elements of traditional decor will bring out that feeling because there will be some details thrown in that I also love.

For example, the sofa in my family room is charcoal grey with square arms (super clean lines.) It sits on a large area rug with a graphic pattern (also clean lines,) but the cabinetry on our build in has some detail on the doors, which adds just a hint of traditional and brings in some comfort.

The next step in the series is learning to mix home decor styles!