7 Ways to Nail your Personal Design Style
Personality Driven Design, a new trend in 2023 according to Veranda Magazine’s 12/22 issue, has never been a trend for me. It has always been THE GOAL! Rather than copying the latest trends or focusing on a higher style category, Personality Driven Home Interiors is all about infusing your unique personality, energy, and history into your living space. To unpack this idea, consider what a personality is: A “personality” is not just how you come across to others. What people see and hear when they encounter you is only a piece of who you are. People experience these things as part of a larger energy that you exude which comes from within. Thus, learning or knowing how you relate to yourself inwardly is a large part of determining the type of aesthetic you need around you. I like to use the word "vibe". We want to capture the vibration of you and your experiences, in a “sanctuary” for you to dwell in. This can become an exciting and fulfilling process of self-discovery!
Kate Hudson’s personality is so well reflected
From her dress to her glorious bath in bare feet
We each have multiple facets, interests, and characteristics. Thus, my theory is there should be an eclectic version of ourselves expressed in our spaces. I’m not referring to eclectic decor style, I’m talking about “eclectic you” either standing alone or being incorporated within a higher design style category such as modern, traditional, or transitional. YOUR modern decor will not look like your neighbor’s, for example. YOUR traditional home will not look like your Mom’s. Because you have different stories. Knowing and expressing yourself freely in your surroundings will give you a decor style that is unique from anyone else’s even though it may lean toward a particular decor genre of your preference.
My Son said recently of our current home in McKinney, Texas (purchased 2 years ago),
“... though every home has been vastly different, they have all looked and felt uniquely like US, as if they have all been one and the same.”
A PRICELESS STATEMENT!
Here are my tips to get you started on this very freeing process that will help you and your designer know how to create a vibe unlike anyone else’s. Worried about resale? So just incorporate neutrals on hard surfaces or things hard-to-replace, and do whatever you wish on everything else. OK? Here we go:
- Color Psychology: Instead of “color preferences”, consider how colors can help you find your voice. Colors have psychological effects that can be unique to each of our personal needs. Color Psychology is an excellent resource for finding colors that not only please your eye but speak to who and where you are in life and connect with you emotionally or spiritually. Start with some overarching colors you think you like and follow links of similar hues within the article to see if you connect inwardly with what they represent.
- Favorite Hang-Outs: Make a list of favorite places you frequent: travel destinations, restaurants and cafe’s, etc. You don’t need to make a memory there. You just love it for what it is. Do they have any common threads? These locations may speak to your heart in a way that you would want them represented in your decor style. Why are they your favorites? What do you like about the vibe they have and what feelings do they incur? Are these places warm and cozy and quiet with lights dim? Or are they full of life and color with lively music playing? Are they expansive and full of natural light? If you love Coastal vacations, you’ll likely enjoy Sherwin Williams Sea Salt, Ocean Breeze scents, and seashells in your decor. If you feel at home in Western Europe, you may like French or Italian decor and antiques. If you like staying in quaint colonial bed and breakfasts, you may like a warm cottage style in your decor.
- Musical Preferences: Many people love different genre’s of music and may go through phases of liking different bands or songs. But what do you never tire of listening to? What music do you keep going back to? What type of ambience do you feel or envision when listening? Can you see colors or feel patterns or textures in the music? If your favorite band is Coldplay, you might like a modern vibe with some industrial accents and cool colors. If you frequent the classical radio station that plays Mozart and Bach, your modern decor might be more sophisticated and cerebral. The Beatles might equal vintage decor. I can’t wait to elaborate on this topic more thoroughly in a newer blog post that I will link here in the future. In the meantime, check out Emotions Evoked by Music.
- Wardrobe: How do you dress and where do you shop? If you tend to wear medium or neutral toned solids with classic cuts and minimal jewelry and accessories. Your furnishings and home accessories may have clean lines and muted colors. Perhaps you combine your solids with a “ta da” piece of jewelry. Then maybe you would lean toward some neutral and stable furnishings with a statement piece of art. If you love shopping consignment and vintage to find those unique pieces that nobody else has, then you might be open to thinking out of the box and creating a more novel or eclectic decor scheme.
- Favorite Things: Look around your home and spot the things you most love having; your “must-keeps”. Is it because they have a special meaning in your life or perhaps some pieces are attached to people you have loved or a season you relished? Or perhaps it is just the color, shape, or texture that draws you? Not the inherited pieces that you feel “guilty” about replacing and think you “need” to have visible. Those can go into the closet until that beloved person comes for a visit and you whip it out temporarily. I’m also not talking about the pieces your friends think are cool. It comes down to you, what you love, what you have uniquely experienced, valued, and need around you to support you on your journey through life while holding dear the sentimental pieces of your past.
- What people say about you: If your friends and family see you as “larger than life”, you might opt for Maximalist Decor. If you are efficient, neat and tidy, and like simplicity in your surroundings, you might lean toward Minimalist Decor. Within those parentheses there is a broad spectrum to be tailored. Hold some interviews and get feedback on how others see you and make notes.
- Your Enneagram Number: Take an Enneagram Test to better identify your inner needs and outer expressions that can be translated effectively in your space. I can’t wait to write a blog that correlates enneagram number’s and decor styles, and will link it here! In the meantime, check this out: What Your Enneagram Type Says about your Home Decor Style
Overall, personality driven interior design is about marrying your inner and outer worlds to create a design style that feels like living in your own skin. Doing the above activities will help you effectively communicate everything your Interior Designer could possibly want to know in order to tailor his/her work to your liking. Sign up for a unique process with LGI to get started! With a personality driven design, your home will be completely different and unique compared to anyone else's. Your invitation to others will not only usher them into your home, but bare a looking glass into your soul!