Have you ever had the urge to incorporate more than one home decor style in your space? Or maybe you’ve moved in with a partner or friend and are considering combining your styles, but you aren’t sure where to begin. We are here to help guide you on combining various home decor styles effortlessly, creating a cohesive and stylish look in every room of your home!
What Makes Your Style Unique?
First and foremost, the key to any design project is to identify your style and what makes it unique. Ask yourself which colours you are drawn to, the materials and fabric textures you use in your space, and take note of the artworks adorning your walls. Look at the type of lighting in your space; is it mostly natural light streaming in or are warm-toned light bulbs used? If you live with a partner or friend, perform the same activity with them. Identify any commonalities and differences between styles. Starting with this activity is key in identifying what you and others like and dislike, and most importantly, want to change up.
Create a Cohesive Space
Creating cohesive spaces is all about having one strong theme, layered with other styles, trends, textures and materials for interest and depth. A main colour palette is most commonly used to achieve this, but emphasising a texture, like an indigenous woven carpet, or material, like wood, works well too.
Having a main focus allows you to build up a style sense more easily, and will automatically lead you to colours, accents and home decor pieces that naturally suit your space. If you need a prompt for this, look back at your identified style or styles and use the commonalities therein to pick your main theme.
Neutral colours are a great start as they provide a blank canvas to build upon. Picking a main style, like maximalism, to run throughout is also a great way to achieve cohesion. Or think outside the box and gain choices for colour palettes, textures and materials from one piece like your favourite artwork, an arrangement of flowers you love, or a sample of fabric you fell in love with while browsing your local material shop!
The choices are endless, choose ones that resonate not only with your style but your unique lifestyle and you won’t be disappointed.
Colour Palettes that Work
You might be overwhelmed with the choices of colours or weary about the combination you’ve put together in your head. Fear not, here is a simple rule of thumb to base your choices on: The Golden Colour Ratio, 60-30-10. This ratio is commonly used when choosing a palette with three to four colours.- 60% Dominant Colour: Colouring the largest areas of the room, this colour sets the overall tone and mood. Think about the colour you want on the walls, the floor or for large pieces of furniture, as this colour dominates the space.
- 30% Secondary Colour: Typically used for upholstery, rugs, or smaller furniture pieces, the secondary colour is either from the same colour family as the dominant colour or compliments it. Secondary colours will naturally emphasise the dominant colour and add interest, depth and variation to your overall style.
- 10% Accent Colour: The final 10% of your colour palette is made up of a colour that adds accents or helps create focal points in the space. They should contrast the dominant and secondary colours to add excitement, vibrancy and interest to the space or your style. Incorporate accent colours with throws, scatter pillows or funky art pieces.
Keeping to the Golden Colour Ratio reigns in the overuse of colours in a space, creating cohesion and flow. However, use the 80-20 Colour Ratio when using two colours. Your dominant colour takes up 80% of the space and is complimented with 20% of your second colour, the accent. Don’t overthink colours that resonate with you and take inspiration from landscapes, look up ‘homeware stores near me’ for their go-to colour combinations, or be inspired by cultures around you!
The Art of Layering
Once the main theme for the room has been identified, creating depth and interest is the easiest part! Layering is used to create combinations of designs in a space that create flow, interest and depth. Play around with the design styles you want to incorporate into your space. Pair farmhouse with coastal, bohemian with mid-century, retro with desert deco, the list goes on! Create combinations of different textures that you can dot around the room, for example, pair a velvet couch with a roughly-textured rug. Or combine contrary wood types to create depth. Buy home decor pieces with different shapes and sizes to create a sense of flow and balance in the space.
These design fundamentals will undoubtedly enhance your space and help you turn your design vision into reality! The team at ZAZAAN fully believe that home is where the heart is. It's for moments of unwinding in solitude, hosting gatherings in celebration of friends and family, and where you can express and fully celebrate your unique lifestyle.
Our furniture store prides itself in expertly selecting and designing collections of uniquely designed home decor pieces suitable for the contemporary homeowner to enjoy. ZAZAAN is truly one of the boldest homeware stores in South Africa and we hope you enjoy our curated collections as much as we have enjoyed creating them!
Browse our online store for colour, texture and design inspiration for your next project, or contact us and let us spruce up your space, making it uniquely yours!