Here is a guide to interior design styles and concepts.
TRADITIONAL DESIGN
1. Traditional design is a style inspired by the looks of the 1700s and 1800s. Think Victorian-era England or even New England during early America. It’s a style that aims to create a calm, harmonious space by using simple colors and natural materials. Usually, traditionally designed homes incorporate antique decor or classical artworks.
2. The great thing about traditional design is that it’s timeless. There’s hardly another style that has remained popular, and relatively unchanged, for so long. Traditionally designed homes are warm and cozy, which is part of the reason why so many people love them.
3. When it’s done poorly, traditional design can look stale and outdated. Oftentimes when we imagine it, we picture dusty furniture in an elderly person’s house. While that’s not always the case, there are certainly folks who employ this style in that way.
4. If you’re going with a traditional theme, you should stick to a limited color palette. But be careful, you don’t want to go TOO monochrome. If everything in your kitchen or bathroom is tan, it’s going to look a little creepy. So mix it up with some whites and grays, and don’t be afraid to throw in a few subtle colors like plum, pine green, or firebrick red.
RUSTIC DESIGN
1. “Rustic” is kind of a catch-all term for a variety of different styles. It could accurately describe everything from a farmhouse to a ski lodge. But the thing that all rustic design has in common is its organic, handmade feel. Incorporating a lot of bespoke furniture and decor, there’s nothing prefabricated or mass-produced about the way it looks.
2. A rustic look is surprisingly inexpensive to pull together. Of course, you could spend thousands of dollars on handmade furniture if you wanted to, but there are a million great pieces in flea markets and thrift stores everywhere. If you put in the effort, you can have a magazine-worthy home for very little money.
3. Personally, I don’t think that the rustic style is very flexible. It works in rural areas and you can pull it off in some suburbs, but it looks terrible in the city. Something about farm-style decor in a downtown penthouse looks terrible. I’ve seen people try to do it and it never works out.
4. Start looking for natural wooden furniture. Head out to the flea markets and ask around. Those pieces are going to be the basis of your design. You can add an upholstered sofa and a loveseat or two later on, but you have to have a few good pieces of raw wood furniture if you want your place to feel authentically rustic.