How to Define Your Design Style: Part 1
Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green- Friends, NBC
How many of us have taken a photo to a hair dresser with high expectations only to come home, look in the mirror and realize your hair will never look the same as Rachel Green’s? For those of you that are not aware of the significance of the Rachel Green hair cut in pop culture you can surely still understand that the same haircut on Jennifer Aniston and anyone else will look completely different thanks to many reasons including: face shape, hair texture, access to professional stylists etc. At some point in our lives we all learn the lesson that we can not expect a hairstyle from a photo to be applied to just any person and to achieve the exact same results. In fact simply copying someone else’s signature look can really fall flat and be an obviously poorly executed imitation.
Today’s blog post is more of a food for thought on inspiration versus imitation in the design world. A quote I read a few years ago has really stuck with me. I think it is both relevant to this conversation and I think it sums up what I love about helping people make design decision about their homes. The quote is:
“The essence of interior design will always be about people and how they live. It is about the realities of what makes for an attractive, civilized, meaningful environment, not about fashion or what’s in or what’s out.”
Julia DeDecker Design
I am all for finding inspiration. I use it in my design process in my home and with clients. Pinning posts and dog earring pages in magazines helps us narrow in on our style and our visions for our homes and it can be a great tool in sharing our vision with others. However, we need to make sure we don’t fall for the interior design version of the Rachel Green hairstyle. Instead we need to accept the inspiration is there to guide us and that the end product, will follow its own unique path to its own individual design conclusion. Take a look below at a screenshot of my current design inspirations. See anything you like? find it here.
My Design Inspiration -https://www.pinterest.ca/juliadedeckerinteriors/design-inspo/
If you are completing your own design project. I urge you to be inspired while allowing your creativity and your own preferences and unique qualities shine through. When you are done you should be able to look at your home and see yourself and your family reflected in the design. So how do we go from inspiration photos to creating our own one-of-a-kind designed homes? I recently blogged about my design process (see post here). In step 2 I discuss focusing your design- this is what I call your “design guidelines”. These guidelines focuses each of your design decisions towards the design vision you hope to achieve.
Next week I will share the steps I use to identify a clients personal design guidelines and how completing this step early in the design process can help steer each design choice you make towards the final result you desire.
