The Ultimate Home Style Guide
How to Choose an Interior Decorating Theme for Your House
Not sure where to start? Flip through the pages of this book to help identify a look that you can love living with.
One of the first things to do before decorating your home is to discover your decorating style. The Ultimate Home Style Guide is a great resource to help you determine your own interior decorating fashion by breaking the choices into periods and styles, complete with pictures and advice to help you choose everything from color to floor coverings and accessories.
The History of Style
Non-professional interior decorators won't be intimidated by the instruction in this book, but will finish it feeling much better informed about the variety of styles to choose from. Feeling unsure whether an Art Déco or English Country style is more your taste? Get a quick read on the history of each style, examine the pictures and tips on how to pull it off and you'll know whether this is something you can live with before you've spent a penny or exerted a muscle in reshaping your space.
Accessories and Budgets
There are 14 different style types explained in the historical chapter which provide instructions on how to recreate the look in your own home, and how to do it within a predetermined budget. Floor coverings, lighting and accessory suggestions are also made, all of which can help determine whether or not a particular look is not only appealing, but suitable for your unique lifestyle.
A Home's Personality
Remember when choosing a decorating theme that the individual personalities of the people who live in the home should shine. That is what gives a home character, and that character should reflect the residents. Also remember that, while you may love the look of an all-white room, it may not work well with a pack of dogs, a brand new baby or even an inspired painter. Find a style you love and can live with. A great way to start that process is by looking at pictures, periods, and geographic style options, all of which you'll find in this book.
How to Spot What you Like
When looking through an interior decorating book for style ideas, keep notes of what you find appealing, and don't overlook the more broad options. Find out if you lean more towards beige than blue, for example. The calm neutral of a beige room may be appealing to you even if the modern style in a photograph is not. Be your own personal interior detective through this process, questioning what you like, and don't like, in each photograph. The historical background of different eras may hold an appeal you wouldn't expect as well. It can be a way to connect to your own ancestry, or simply to settle on a style when no other method speaks to you.
The Big Picture
The individual aspects of home style, such as choosing furniture, artwork and home accessories, will be a much easier task once you've settled on the big picture of an interior decorating theme. The Ultimate Home Style Guide can serve as inspiration toward that goal. This 224-page book, published in 1999 by Ward Lock Ltd. and written by Katherine Sorrell, ISBN 978-0706377316, can be purchased in hardcover for $9.95.
