What is your personal style?? My friend and fellow designer and blogger, Yvonne Blacker, has a blog post that relates style of clothes to styles of decor. You can read more at www.designvignettes.blogspot.com. I am definitely the pencil skirt/Louboutin shoes kind of girl!
When I meet with a client for the first time, a lot of the initial discussion is on the family's lifestyle - casual, formal, total chaos??? It always helps to know if I am looking for a delicate Scalamandre fabric for a chair, or one with the wearability of steel! How do the clients like to entertain - huge family gatherings at a dining room table? Intimate dinner parties for a few close friends? Sundays with the gang over to watch football? All of the above? If your entertaining style is "the more, the merrier" and it involves TV and beer, your grandmother's delicate antiques just won't cut the mustard! A house full of men will definitely not enjoy a flowery decor and "girlie girls" simply won't tolerate Billy the Singing Fish on the wall. Truth be told, no one should tolerate Billy the Singing Fish on the wall! Find out the personality of the family....find a decor style to fit their lifestyle.
That being said...our personalities evolve over the course of our lives. Sometimes our lifestyles also undergo a change. I know that the style of home I loved when I was first on my own, does not reflect the styles I currently love or the decor of my current home. Of course, a design degree, two kids and two completely different marriages will do that to you! Even though we change, there is still a commonality to my style preferences. I tend to be traditional, with a lot of earthy color, but always some sort of surprise thrown into the mix! Always a pop of a bright accent color or pattern or accessory so when someone enters a room, the "Oohhhh" factor comes into play! Kind of like my red high heels that I use to spark neutral outfits!
My daughter, on the other hand, lives for pink! I will call her the "Pink Child" from here on out! Pink suits her! She is a total "girlie-girl". She is fun-loving. She is cuddly and caring. She is "pink"! When given the choice (Mom's choice..) of colors for her childhood room, she chose an adorable shade of pink to go with the Bunny's Tea Party themed wallpaper border .
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| Photo courtesy of my then 9 year old daughter! |
As we changed homes and changed rooms, the Pink Child was then asked how she would like to decorate her new room. Unfortunately, Mom let her pick out her own paint color. She was 13. That should have been my first clue! She chose a neon pink so bright, it was painful. I tried to talk her out of it. I even thought about switching the color without her knowing. This is the child who would notice if my eyeshadow shade changed from beige to taupe. Switching was not an option. We went with her choice. About a week later, she said, "Mom, I hate the color of my bedroom. Can we repaint it?" That was as close to a "Mom, you were right" statement as you will ever get out of a teenager! It was a costly lesson, but one well learned. When Mom says it won't work, she is probably right. When you think that Mom is wrong, refer back to previous sentence!
The Pink Child went on to pick out adorable fabric and accessories for her bedroom.
A fun set of sheets became a duvet cover and shams.
An adorable "girly" lamp shows off her fun side!
Finials in orange and pink beads from Pottery Barn Kids adds the finishing touches to sheer curtains trimmed with colorful ribbons.
The room reflected through her mirror. You won't get a full shot because, this is, after all, a teenager's room - staged to hide the chaos!
The Pink Child is now happily living in an off campus townhouse near her college. Her tropical pink theme has now turned to an edgy hot pink and black. Her roommate is into black and white. A wonderful pairing of room and roommate!
Through the years, our styles have never meshed, but you can co-habitate with different decor styles. You just have to learn how to close the door! After all, its still Mom's house!
I hope as she grows older and her life and living arrangements change, she will never lose the fun "pink" side of her personality! Come to think of it, my teenage bedroom was shocking pink. Maybe we all have a little "pink" in us after all!
"There's a side of my personality that goes completely against the East Coast educated person and wants to be a pin-up girl in garages across America...there's a side that wants to wear the pink angora bikini!" - Mira Sorvino, American Actress
