Defining your design style can feel overwhelming.

I mean there are so many design styles out there like Modern, Mid-Century, Bohemian, Glam, Traditional, Farmhouse, Industrial, Contemporary, and Scandinavian just to name a few.

The first part of defining your style is knowing what each style is so that you can spot it when you see it.

Here’s a run down of some design styles I mentioned above (I included pictures so that you can also see what each style is):

Bohemian

This design style is all about texture and natural elements and patterns Think tassles, yarns, rattan wood, and believe it or not, lots of color.

Mid-Century

This design style is all about sleek lines, geometric shapes with a minimalist look. What I mean about the sleek lines is the furniture pieces like beds, sofas, coffee table, dressers all have thin wood pegs or legs.

Hollywood Regency/Glam

Everything you need to know about this look you can find in its name: Hollywood Regency. Think regal, glamorous, opulence and to reflect that you'll see lots of shiny metals, mirrors, velvets, furs, and marble. All of these elements make a space feel elegant. It's a very bold and over the top look.

Farmhouse

You'll see lots of distressed wood usually grey in color, black metals, mason jars and light bulbs with this style.

The black metals are similar to the industrial look that I'll talk about next, but what sets this look apart is that it has a comfy feel to it (it's softer). The comfort is tied in with natural textures like cotton, leather and linen. These rooms are usually light in color with white or beige walls.

Industrial

Think of a factory. With this style you'll notice lots of exposed brick like a brick wall, concrete, black metals and light bulbs. This look can have a cold feel to it because of all of the "hard" looking materials I just mentioned.

Modern

Another design style that feels really cold. It has a lot of clean lines with a minimalist and crisp look. The common textures you'll find in this style are marble, glass, steel and even concrete.

Traditional

This design look always reminds me of back in the day like real back in the day, 18th and 19th centuries back in the day.

Lots of European influences like velvet curtains/valances, ornate bulky furniture, antiques so lots of brass and gold accents. Lots of dark and warm colors are common in this design style so lots of navy blues, burgundy, black, gold, and browns. Think King Louis or wingback chairs and ornate features like over the top crown molding.

Contemporary

This style is similar to Modern, but with a softer feel to it. You’ll notice the furniture is rounder and not as sleek as modern furniture.

Eclectic

This style incorporates all of the styles into one and that's why it's eclectic.

It's like throwing all of the design styles into a blender and well you know the rest... The key to not letting this style look like a hot mess is to sprinkle it in softly into the room.

So how do you define your design style?

You can take the millions of design quizzes out there on the internet and some might get your design style right and some may not or you could simply follow these steps:

Brain Dump

Visuals are your friend.

So turn to Pinterest and Instagram and start saving images of rooms that speak to you. Don't overthink this at all.

You like the emerald green couch in a pic? Save it. You like the coziness of a bohemian living room? Save it. You like that black coffee table because something about it makes you feel good? Save it.

Basically save all the pictures of rooms that catch your eye. We're brain dumping here so nothing should make sense right now. We're just hoarding pictures that you like nothing else.

Organize

Now that you have a ton of images, we're going to narrow things down into two groups:

Images That Are 100% On Point
These are the images that TRULY speak to you.
These are the images that you don't have to dissect in other words as soon as you see it, you love EVERYTHING about it.
In other words, you'd move right in without changing not a damn thing.
Images That You Are At Least 50% On Point
These are pictures of rooms where you spot one or two things that you love about the space, but everything else not so much.
The rooms where you're like I really love the coffee table in this room, but everything else I'm not feeling or it's the gold mirror you love or the rattan chair or the distressed dining table or black chair.
Start taking notes of the items that you love about these rooms. Is it the material of the item, shape, color, metal, etc that you like? What is it about the item that caught your eye?
Chances are, these items are included in the group of images of that you 100% love. You’ve now identified a pattern. In other words items that tie into one or a few of the the design styles.
That is your design style!

If you're like most people you've noticed that you like aspects of a combination of a few design styles and that's okay.

Many of these design styles overlap one another so it makes sense.

For example, you'll see some Industrial aspects in the Farmhouse style, some Modern elements in Mid-Century style, Traditional in the Hollywood Regency style and so on and so on.

You might be thinking that all of this overlapping doesn't help you, but it does because it helps you to find the design style(s) that you like so that you can put a name to it/them.

That way when you're out shopping, you know what to look at because you know what you love. You're no longer distracted.

Better yet, you now know what stores to shop at since some of them have a certain design style they emulate. For example, World Market encompasses a Bohemian and Midcentury design style and West Elm incorporates a Midcentury and Modern style.

My design style is bohemian midcentury glam and that's because I love textures, woods, gold, patterns and sleek furniture.

This helps me tremendously when I'm shopping for items in my home. When I'm in a store, I'm always asking myself if the item I'm eyeing ties into my design style or am I just looking at it because its what I see splattered all over Pinterest or the gram. It allows me to stay focused.

Now that you’ve figured out your design style…decorating your space should be a piece of cake, but…

if you’re still struggling trying to piece your space together into something that you love,

hit me up here for some help.

How To Define Your Design Style?