I love too many styles!

Help, what do I do if I love too many styles?

This is a reader question I got that I think is a common problem. If you love a bunch of different styles then what do you do? Do you try to incorporate all of them?Choose just one? How many? How to you put them all together?

Well, the answer is a complicated one. I don’t think there is a one size fits all solution to this one. I would once again turn to pinterest, and start a board called ‘my style’. Pin rooms that you love.

As you are pinning, begin to think of your skill level and confidence with decorating. Are you super confident or unsure? If you are uncomfortable making decorating decisions, and feel less sure of yourself, I recommend choosing just one style to begin with. If you are quite confident, then mixing styles will be much easier for you. The reality is the more styles you are mixing, the more skill required to pull of the look. I’m not saying it can’t be done, I’ll just saying, mixing several styles is difficult to pull off.

Another tip is to just start with one room. Then when you feel that room is working, you can move onto the next room. It can be stressful working on several rooms at the same time.

Let’s take a look at what my living room in the old house looked like. It had yellow walls, dark rich colors, and the upholstery was all red. Wow that seems like a long time ago. (And you thought I was allergic to color, right?)

I wanted to switch to a more rustic farmhouse feel here. But the problem is the two styles (in my opinion) are not compatible. I didn’t want to paint the walls just yet, and I really didn’t want to put in the effort or the money to change everything out. I was stuck.

Then I decided I would just bite the bullet and at least buy some linen (a lot) and slipcover everything.

Here is an old photo of our house with the new linen slipcovers. The walls are still yellow. Here I have the old and new styles mixed. The new style is the linen slipcovers and grainsacks you see on the furniture. The old style you can see in the dark colors of the wool rug, the yellow walls, and the dark furniture. Do these two looks work well together? I really don’t think so, but this is what it looked like during the transition.  This is what I am saying, be very careful about mixing style. It can be done, but not all styles are compatible.

Here is what it looked like when we moved into the new house, and I didn’t have the yellow, red and deep colors to deal with any more.

Now what if you really, really, really want more than one style in a room, I highly recommend starting with just a few. Once you feel like you got that down, then you can add more later. Just keep in mind not all styles play well together.  The rough linen is more rustic farmhouse and I’ve paired it with formal French furniture. I think it works.  Below I have a formal French settee and painting paired with Italian nesting tables, lamp and candle sconce. Italian goes very well with French style.

I like juxtaposing something formal with something casual.

Now how do you know if the two styles will work together? Have you seen them mixed any where on Instagram, Pinterest, in a magazine or on a blog? If you’ve seen them mixed, then that’s a good sign that they will work together in your home.

Try adding a new style to the room and see if you think it works. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t. Just try it.

Now for my VERY BEST ADVICE on making different styles work together.

Unite them with color. That means use items of the same color palette or hue. If the colors work, then probably the different styles will as well.

One of the BEST ways to make different styles work together is to just unify the styles with a common color theme. Here I have used a khaki and cream color.

I am really getting into Italian touches, so I’m adding them to what I have. See the tray below is a Florentine tray and it works partially because the colors go with the neutrals I already have. The pink and gold in the tray are soft muted colors.

In my study bookcases I have a lot of things that don’t really ‘go’ together. But the thing that unites them is color. The gray of the antique cake mold goes with the black in the books and the silhouette.

The takeaways

1. Go with the look that works for you.
2. The more styles you combine in a room the trickier it is and the more difficult to pull off the look.
3. Experiment to find the right balance for a room.
4. Do one room at a time.
5. Unify different styles with the same color

My painting workshop is this Saturday, so if you want to sign up, time is running out!

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CEDAR HILL FARMHOUSE - updated country French style

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