Top Tips and Tools for Your Home From a Design Style Expert — You!

Our recent look back at some predicted trends for this year that we didn’t give quite the attention they deserved brought our attention to a wildly overlooked trendsetter.

That trendsetter? *Drum roll, please* It’s you. Yes, you.

Somewhere around the intersection of all the pandemic time at home, the increasingly diverse functions our spaces need to serve, and the supply chain issues we all experienced (just to name a few layers), an interesting thing happened. Your style became one of THE styles.

How do we know your style?

Don’t worry. We don’t have some secret algorithm or camera studying your home’s interior design. But we’re willing to bet — despite our love for design trends — that you don’t reinvent (read: reinvest) in a whole new set of furniture and home decor with each season. Right, so far? Welcome to today’s how-to post.

We’ll be exploring how to elevate your home’s design style by elevating your design style in your home.

Why Your Home’s Interior Design Style Is Now The Must-Have Style

Right up front, let’s be clear. It isn’t just clever wordplay to say your style is trending. This is something the “experts” have been honoring, as well.

Not long ago, each year or even each season was bringing some new design style that was all the rage and everything else was “out.” You may have noticed, for instance, that for a while, it seemed like every darn piece of furniture and fabric color was midcentury modern, right?

Next came the outside — and outsized — influences of what was happening in the world and our lives. And trends that emerged in response to those things like: 

• Supply chain issues? Reupholster instead. (We’re a big fan of that one on account of being the largest online furniture upholstery store.)
• Economic jitters got money feeling a bit tight? Vintage instead.
• Need your space to do more physically and emotionally? Think beyond tradition and more about function.
• Stuck at home and even indoors? Bring the outside inside and vice versa with colors, patterns, textures, and more.

And all that was just part of the journey. 

The point is that many, if not most of us, left behind any illusion of finding a single style several years back. Instead, we awoke to find ourselves in spaces with various functions and vibes. And many of the experts looked around and said, “Wait. No, yeah, that’ll work, actually. Let’s do that.”

The Key To Your Home’s New Style Is Celebrating What You Love Now

So — you trendsetter you — what should you do now? Look around. Lean in. Eclectic and multifaceted design is one of the design trends in 2023 (and we expect more of it in 2024, but stay tuned). Now that the dust has settled a bit, supply chains and economies are trending in the right direction, and medical advances have made it possible for us all to be out and about again. 

What have you created in your home? A little bit of this and a little bit of that? What’s working or not? 

Maybe you went maximalist in a reading nook with a calming theme with green walls, a pair of chairs in Alpine green chenille, and curtains in Juniper green patterned damask.  You turned your bedroom into a minimalist monochrome oasis with an upholstered bench, headboard, and slipper chair in eco-friendly sky blue textured velvet.  

And leaned your family room modern farmhouse with a chaise sectional dressed in off-white Crypton denim.  Or you took your office in straight-up Mad Men with a midcentury vibe and a curved wood high-backed chair in soft faux leather in black, a loveseat in antique gold tweed, and a Zoom-ready office chair cider orange contemporary patterned jacquard.

Take a beat to survey your creation. Not with a judgmental eye. Rather, look with an eye for what delights you, aka, best serves whatever you’re hoping to do and feel in that space. Got it? Great. Onward.

Simple Ways To Take the Best Parts of Your Home’s Vibe To New Heights

Next is kind of the fun part. You’ve already invented the wheel, so to speak, with an interior design vibe uniquely your own, so there’s no need to reinvent it. To mix metaphors, think of what’s next as if you just finished your first pass of an amazing buffet and are circling back for seconds.

From a design and decor standpoint, what do you want more or less of? What’s really hitting the spot? And what do you wish you’d never “tasted”?

Here’s where the style you’ve created really starts to shine. Because there’s no need to choose just one. Now you get to simply offer yourself more of what you love and/or give a bit of a refresh to what’s looking a little over-loved at this point.

Let’s say the reading nook is still a cozy spot, but it’s time to mix up some patterns. Try adding a throw or lumbar pillow in small alpine green stripes. Swap out curtains in a Patina green pattern. Do the same for your office with a fresh pop of color on the sofa with throw pillows in dark blue chenille.

Loving the soft and fresh vibe of your bedroom but ready for a bit less monochrome? Try a DIY project and redo your headboard and/or bench in perhaps a creamy vanilla or a blush pink Crypton tweed.  

Family room working like a dream but showing some clear evidence of lots of family time? No problem. Time for some custom slipcovers in, let’s say, fresh natural white washable denim with fresh throw pillow shams and curtains in a Garden blue and green houndstooth pattern. 

Maybe add seasonal flair throughout with some table runners and a mantel runner, too, in a burgundy red leaves pattern performance-grade woven fabric.

What Soup and Your Home’s Elevated New Vibe Have In Common

Before we go, let’s talk about soup (yes, soup). 

Remember the old tale of the traveler who camps near a village and starts making soup? Curious villagers ask what they’re making, and the traveler tells each of them it’s “Stone Soup,” offering some when it’s ready. But lamenting it’s missing an ingredient or two. Eager to taste the soup, the villagers happily bring ingredients until the traveler finally declares it’s ready.

The soup — once just a stone in water — is now quite delicious and chock-full of all the best the village has to offer.

Well, as it turns out, the constant cycle of trends, ample time at home, a myriad of ways our spaces need to serve, supply chain issues we lived through, and all your exceptionally good sense of what “tastes” great stylistically came together to make one hell of a yummy soup that IS your home’s new trendy design style.

All that’s left to do is look around, claim what you love, toss what you don’t, and keep building from there. And we’re here to help you find whatever upholstery fabrics you need along the way to add just the flavor you’re looking for. Now pass a bowl and a spoon. Yum!!!