Blending Styles For Creative Home Design, One Vignette At A Time
11 May 2021
It happens. You marry someone with opposite taste in decor, and find yourself trying to mingle your opposing styles. Or while you had always loved clean, modern home decor, you recently find yourself drawn to pieces with more history and character. Perhaps you find yourself gifted with a relative’s antique armoire that, while beautiful, seems to clash with your contemporary rugs and decor.
However it comes to be, count yourself lucky if your home contains a variety of pieces that have come to you at different times in your life, even if they don’t “match” — it means you have that many more chances to create a home that tells a story and feels unique.
After all, the homes that feel the most alive and authentic are the ones that feature an eclectic array of old and new, traditional and modern home decor, lovingly collected over time and expertly styled to feel like a cohesive whole.
But how do you get there?
It helps to think of creative home design as a series of vignettes, or moments. Just take them one at a time, style with love, and soon you will find your home feels like a true reflection of you.
First, a few pointers (remember, there are no rules, only gentle guidelines!)
Contrast is your friend : Rather than fretting that your pieces won’t “match,” celebrate their differences. Just look at how the strong contemporary stripe in this vibrant hide rug achieves a modern home decor vibe even with such a striking and traditional Chinese antique from Emperor’s Attic at the heart of the creative home design scheme. The pops of pink go an extra step, and it all seems to just work, don’t you think? This is contrast at its best, achieving an ace creative home design.
Words to live by : Balance and Symmetry: If this vignette were a boat, would you be worried that it would tip to one side? A couple of “light” objects on one side can balance a “heavy” object on the other — play with things until the scene feels steady. This rule applies to any scene, traditional or modern home decor, and everything in between.
Style with your heart : Nature is known to bring about a sense of well-being. A plant, or — for those of us who can’t keep them alive — art that depicts nature, or even an arrangement of real touch silk flowers can achieve those same positive vibes and are go-to accessories of modern home decor. Similarly, when you are choosing any piece you bring into your creative home design, select the items that are going to make you smile, even though they may not at the time seem to match your other decor pieces initially. As you see here, a sense of cohesion does not rely on matching pieces — rather, it’s about leveraging your floors, walls, and accessories to play off of a focal point, such as this gorgeous Emperor’s Attic sideboard.
Still not ready to fly solo? Read on for how we achieved another winning look that combines a range of styles, colours, and materials. Even a Chinese antique can fit within a modern home decor scheme.
This stunning hand carved antique Chinese cabinet is the focal point piece of furniture around which we built our modern home decor vignette. Full of character and life, we let it set the tone.
To ground this antique cabinet, we placed one of our gorgeous laser etched hide rugs in soothing off white tones – the subtle tones of this hide rug with its intricate laser etching perfectly complement the carvings of the cabinet, holding its own by completing the space with its unique design, whilst adding texture and warmth to the modern home decor scheme
An original mixed media artwork “Summer Birdcage” by Deborah Mckellar of Talking Textiles above the cabinet completes this pocket of space perfectly – the floral and fauna imagery of the artwork again echoes the carving and etching on the cabinet and rug beautifully, tying this creative home design scheme together with a common thread
A beautiful Mother of Pearl inlay decorative box styled centrally to the cabinet adds an interesting chic touch to the scheme whilst offering a stylish storage option and finally…
A fabulous chair and a cluster of baskets on either side of the cabinet give this vignette depth, functionality and a sense of symmetry!
Taken piece by piece, it may sound like a lot of design aspects to contend with, but the overall effect is a calm soothing pocket of space that ticks all the boxes for creative home design.
What do you think? Do you feel like a budding master of creative home design, ready to mix and match styles and create your own stunning vignettes? Remember we are always on hand to help you complete and create beautiful pockets of space in your home.
If you are considering revamping a space or creating a fresh new vignette in your home today, drop by The Cinnamon Room and we will be delighted to lend you an expert eye and help you make the right choices to create a home that truly reflects all the different styles you adore but may not be quite certain about combining ! Traditional, eclectic, and modern home decor – we’ve seen it all and will be happy to help make it work for you!
We look forward to seeing you soon!
