Creating Your Nest: Part Three

I feel very blessed when people compliment my house or my style. It makes me feel good, because it's something I am very passionate about! However, I can't take all of the credit. I am only who I am because of who He created me to be. He knew before I was even born, that decorating would be something He would gift me with, and so it is for His glory that I do what I do. I am so grateful for this gift and I will use it in whatever way I can to serve Him and others!

When I came up with the idea to do this series, Creating Your Nest, it was because I wanted to help others with decorating and styling their homes. I just didn't know that it would be this hard to write about it. You see, when I create and decorate, I don't really think about the logistics, I just do it. Then if I like how it looks, I leave it, and if I don't like how it looks, I rearrange and move stuff around until I do.

I was never taught how to style a home or took any courses on designing and decorating, so most of what I am writing for you is not from an expert and my vocabulary may not be correct. Some might say that I have no idea what I am talking about, and maybe they are right, but my goal is not to be right or better than anyone. It's simply to give you some tips and share some of my ideas and styles.

I also want to add that, a lot of what I am sharing with you, could be consider personal preference. I know a lot of people who have different styles than I do, and their homes are just as beautiful. We just have different tastes. That doesn't make one or the other better, it just shows our individuality and tells our story.

After taking some time to go through every room and observe how things are set up and decorated, here is what I came up with. *Note: This post is more of an informative post with different tips and tricks. I simply came up with a list of different style trends that I often follow.

You can still have a colorful room without having too much color. I like to add color using pillows, rugs, and curtains. Sometimes, furniture as well! You want your pieces to compliment each other, not clash. I would say to try and pick four or five colors/shades and stick to that when purchasing items for a room. Most of my rooms consist of black, white, creme or biege, some shade of gray, and specific color (green, blue, yellow). I wouldn't do a green and red or blue and orange, ya get what I am saying?

Patterns are fun and can really add to the feel of a room, but you want to be careful to not have too may different ones. You want to have a good mixture of solids and patterns. I would say, two to three patterns in a room are good as long as they are not right next to each other. For example, in my front room, I have a simple oval pattern on my curtains, a floral pattern on the throw rug, and a coral pattern on the throw pillows for my couch. These sound like they might clash, but they don't. Why?, because they are one of the five colors I have chosen for the room and the patterns are not right next to each other. No putting stripes and polka dots together people! 

Unlike patterns, having a variety of different textures is a good thing. I love adding a lot of different textures to each room to help complete the look and make it unique. I really love the weathered wood look. I guess you can call it rustic. I also love rawt iron and burlap. You can mix and match all kinds of textures/materials as long as they are one of the colors you chose for the room. A few different examples would be, metals, woods, iron, stainless steal, fabrics, and glass. Don't be afraid to mix new with old either!

My last style tip is about creating balance. You don't want to have too much of anything. Remember, you want your home to tell your story and I'm sure there are many different things that make your story unique. You don't want to have too many pillows on your bed that you can't even lay down. Neither do you don't want to have too many plants in your house, so that people feel like they are in the jungle when they come over. On the other hand, when styling certain areas, such as shelves, you don't want to have too little, making it look incomplete. Once you start to play around with stuff, and rearrange things, you will begin to learn if there is too much or too little.

Most importantly, don't be afraid to try something. Even the best of the best make mistakes. It's fun to experiment, that's how you learn! You have to start somewhere! Many Blessings!

Simply Yours,