When decorating a home room by room, it's easy to get carried away stylizing each space differently. While this might be a great interior design style for some, it might feel disjointed and busy to others. If you're interested in learning how to decorate a home by adopting a more cohesive design, keep reading for four tips on how to decorate a home with a cohesive look.
Above, HGTV's Peyton Lambton gives advice on how to tie together your home. Read on for more tips on cultivating that coveted cohesive look.
1. Start with a Neutral Base
2. Choose a Cohesive Color Scheme
3. Choose Complementary Hues
4. Materials Matter, Too
5. Keep Your Flooring Consistent
6. Make Use of Rugs
7. Don't Be Afraid of Repetition
8. Maintain Contrasts Too
The first step of any cohesive design is to choose a paint color that's neutral and bright, like a soft dove gray or off-white, and use it as a base color. This neutral base is the key to a cohesive color scheme. Build on that color with one or two more neutrals that complement each other – warm tones with warm neutrals and cool tones with cool neutrals.
Think about applying these colors to other broad surfaces or large furniture pieces, like the floors, sofas, or bedding. If you use these hues in every room, decorating cohesively will be as simple as adding accents.
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Once you've chosen your neutral base colors, it's time to bring in splashes of your favorite vibrant hue. While you have the freedom to decorate your home with a multitude of other colors later on, it's important to implement one central color in every space to maintain your home's cohesive look and feel.
This accent color can come in many forms – it can be a solid throw pillow, a highlight on some wall art, or a graphic pattern on an area rug. You can decorate with flowers in this accent color or buy an entire sofa in the hue you've chosen – what's important is building this accent strategically off of the neutral base. Make sure you're adding this accent evenly to your space, rather than concentrating it in some areas more than others.
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After you've decided on a main accent color, you can stop there or keep going with more layers of complementary accent colors. Choose colors to pair with the central accent color and decorate with elements in these colors. These colors can be just as bright as your central accent or paler; you can add equal amounts of your complementary colors or a few pops here and there – it's all up to you.
If you're unsure about which accent colors to choose for your space, hues that are opposites on the color wheel always make dynamic pairings.
Unlike your neutral base colors and main accent hue, you can vary the complementary colors by room. The neutrals and central color should be enough to maintain the cohesive look of your home, even if the other accents differ from room to room.
Decorating with a cohesive color scheme is an excellent start, but it's important to consider using matching materials and styles of furniture in your home as well. Stick with consistent wood finishes, coordinating upholstery material, and a general style theme (e.g. traditional, modern, industrial, nautical, or farmhouse) in order to create a cohesive design aesthetic.
If you've chosen furniture pieces with metal accents, make sure the finish of the metals match the tones of your color scheme. Cool metal tones like silver and platinum should be paired with cooler color schemes and warm metal tones like gold, copper, and brass should be paired with warmer color schemes.
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Tip!
If you want to learn how to decorate in farmhouse style, glam style, or coastal style, check out our guides!
A good way to maintain a cohesive design throughout your home is by using the same flooring throughout. Whether you choose laminate floors, tiles, or carpet, sharing the same flooring in each room will help create a flow that joins your entire space together. The same goes for wood stains – try to keep them the same shades for a cohesive color scheme.
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Speaking of flooring, you would do well to use plenty of rugs over your singular flooring. Rugs will allow you to give each room its individual style without altering the linking foundation between each space. There are a wealth of options available ranging through numerous colors, sizes, and materials, all of which help you create the cohesive design style you are after.
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In fact, the best way to establish a cohesive look is through repetition, whether that be through colors, themes, decorative objects, wallpaper, or plants (or vases). Carrying a particular object in varying forms will help to link each room to one another while still allowing you to play with your own creative ideas.
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While repetition is a fantastic way to establish a cohesive design, you don't want it to become boring. You don't want to have the exact same tile in each bathroom or wallpaper in a number of rooms. Opt for backsplashes, wall paneling, and accent tiles in separate designs while maintaining a cohesive color scheme to ensure that link throughout.
Above all, don't stress about getting your cohesive look exactly right. You may fall in love with decorative elements or furniture pieces that break some of the rules set above – that's perfectly fine! Some aberrations in the above cohesive guidelines are okay – what's most important is you decorating your home how you'd like to decorate it.
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