November 03, 2016

Decorating Your Home in an Eclectic Style

The Do's and Dont's of Decorating your Home in an Eclectic Style

Decorating your home in an eclectic style can be tricky to pull off. It is a style that is so easy to love. Take the table and chairs in Rachel and Monica’s apartment in Friends, for example. When you use different colours and styles for each chair, it is an eclectic style. We might see other ideas online or in magazines that we just love. But when we try and pull it off, it might end up looking a little like a jumble sale. There are certainly some do's and don’ts which I will share some of them with you today. I hope it helps if you are looking to decorate in this style.

DON'T: Forget to use a Focal Point

The eclectic style is about mixing a few different styles, colours and time periods. When you are pulling it all together, though, it gets that messy look when there isn’t a focal point. The room still needs some kind of focus. So choose one piece and work around it. It might be a piece of traditional furniture, a piece of wall art or some flooring. Just make sure that you make that be the focus and everything else, though different, should complement it.

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DO: Think About the Layout

You might have lots of different ideas of how you want things to look. But without a proper plan or layout in place, it can just look cluttered. So don’t forget about placement and what looks well together. Measure out the room and decide where exactly you want certain pieces to go. You might find that you don’t even have room for a french style chaise longue after all.

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DON’T: Stick with the Style in One Room

When you are inconsistent with your home decor, it just looks confusing and a little messy. So don’t just have an eclectic style in one room and then a super simple monochrome look in the rest of the rooms of the house. It makes the rooms flow better when they all complement each other. So if you are choosing this style, it is a bit of a commitment to carry the look through the home. Otherwise, things just look disjointed.

DON’T: Think Eclectic Means Anything

If you are choosing to decorate in an eclectic style, it isn’t an excuse to go crazy at your local charity shop. It doesn’t mean just using anything and everything. It can be quite a fine line between busy and messy to layered and together. So for each room, you might want to decide how many of the contrasting styles or periods you want to focus on.

DO: Use Symmetry

If you can find balance in the room, then you are onto a winner. So in your layout, think of pieces that are similar and that can create symmetry. It has been said that things with similar lines are perfect for design harmony. So think of the overall look, even if the pieces are from different time periods or styles.

All pictures have been taken from the different homes I have lived in through the years.