When decorating your home, it is best to create a cohesive look rather than a disjointed one. However, that can be a difficult task for most and they aren’t sure where to even begin. There are a few things that you can focus on to help create a flow and decorate your home.
Flooring
Flooring should be consistent. No, that doesn’t mean you can only have one type of floor in your home. However, when you have an open space such as a foyer, family room, and kitchen, it does help to have one type of flooring throughout those spaces. Obviously rooms such as laundry rooms and full bathrooms need to have certain types of floorings, but those are generally separated from the other main areas and aren’t visually open to them.
Design Style
Your home should have one style. Pick a style you like and use it throughout. You don’t want to have a mid-century modern family room with a farmhouse kitchen. It will make the home feel very disjointed and confusing. If you have a few styles you like, incorporate them together in every room. This does pose its own challenge, but it can be done.
Trim
Making sure your trim is the same throughout your home also helps provide a great flow and cohesive look. This includes crown molding, baseboards, and door frames. The trim should be consistent in color and type. Doors throughout the home should be the same as well as the hardware on your doors.
Material
Some people love a certain type(s) of material. For example, metal, reclaimed wood, brass, etc. Picking one material you like and having accents of it in each room is a great idea.
Colors
Your color palette is perhaps the most important element in creating flow in your home. When you are thinking about wall colors you must also think about furniture, carpets, and decor. Do not think of the wall colors exclusively. Often people think that your wall colors have to be the same throughout your whole house. Although you can do that and it certainly helps create flow, it is not necessary. If you don’t want to paint every room the same color you can choose one color that will carry throughout the whole home. It doesn’t have to be the main color in
every room but should make an appearance in every room. It can be in the fabric, furniture, decor, or wall color. Use it in a few places in the room, even different shades of the color will suffice. Adding one flower that color in a room will not be enough.
When picking out paint colors, a rule of thumb is to keep the paint colors to 4-6 different ones. When using different colors, the secret is to use different tones of a color. For example, in the kitchen you may use a light gray on the walls, the dining room a gray-blue, and the family room an off-white. The ultimate test of colors in your home is the thought of if I bring all the colors in my home together in one room, would they all look good together?
