HOW TO FIND YOUR INTERIOR DESIGN STYLE

We know it’s not always easy, and before you go into some extremes, let Temza Design Studio’s experience in working with clients from different backgrounds and cultures help and guide you! So let’s get to it.

Do it like a interior designer pro with our 4 easy steps:

When we start an interior design project at Temza London, the first thing we do is build a strong design concept. It’s best not to look at any products, colours, finishes or anything too specific before you have a clear idea of the overall space. Our interior designers believe if you focus on this, you may end up misleading yourself. It can happen to everyone (and it often does), that you like a certain object, let’s say a gigantic chandelier or a crazy colourful floral wallpaper, but perhaps you don’t actually like it in your own home interior. You were inspired by looking at pieces in London hotel lobbies, but when bringing it to your London home interior where you are most comfortable, you’d might appreciate something less extravagant.

So, after discussing what not to do, here is Temza Design Studio’s advice on what to do: Look at magazines, books, interiors of spaces you visit or Pinterest. Collect things that you like and note what you like about them. You may visit some of Temza Design Studio’s favourite inspiration blogs such as: Dezeen, designboom and Design Milk. Take a look at what is out there with the purpose of finding the type of interiors that are the most appealing to you. (Why not explore also our Pinterest account, where you are guaranteed to find your most suited style).

If you do have another half, family or dog involved in the project, it’s best to invite them into this process early on and look at things together that you might fancy. You can establish a starting point you are all happy with, as once you have the concept you don’t want to be coming back to it.

Once you have a collection of images, it’s time to run a bit of an analysis on them. There are many questions you can be asking, from the more profound “Can I afford this?” “Will this be suitable for my property?” to the more abstract ones, like “I like 5 completely different styles of interiors, which one should I go for?” (The answer to this one will actually be: None of them, just do your own thing!). Look at the pictures and establish what do you like about each of them and if there are certain tendencies you are noticing. If you have 90% industrial style interiors with an autumn colour scheme and 10% all monochrome minimalist interiors that means even though you toyed with the idea, the minimal style just wasn’t for you.

When you look at finished interiors you need to gain an understanding of how they are put together. For example, you might like colourful interiors, but you need to decide where the colour will be coming from. Will it be from the walls and other hard finishes, from pieces of colourful statement furniture, or from plants and accessories? It would be a mistake to paint all your walls canary yellow if you liked 5 interiors with pops of yellow on them, as that will give you a completely different effect than just adding yellows in artwork and accessories. You can explore different interior design styles from our latest post where our interior designers go into more detail of finding your particular style.

You reached a crucial point. An interior design concept is ready and you understand what makes the concept appealing to you. You might think you are ready to hit the shops, but just take some time to double check – is this actually your style? How would you feel waking up in this space every day? How would it feel on a good day? On a bad one? Could you relax there? Would you feel uplifted and motivated? If you are not too sure, it’s worth going back for a little bit more of research and analysis before spending all your savings on something you potentially will get bored of in couple years (if not months).

Now it’s time to hit the shops and start browsing online for products! You won’t find exactly the same things as it is in your concept, but you should be able to find things that are similar enough. The great thing is, with this method it’s easy to keep to a set budget, as you should be confident about e.g. what kind of chair you like while not yet being fixated on a certain product you can’t really afford. You should be fairly comfortable shopping around for suitable products until you find something that fits your style as well as your budget. (This is where the creativity part comes in, you see?)