Do You Know Your Design Personality & How To Work It?

Do you need a carefully detailed plan, follow the latest trends, avoid anything you haven’t seen done before or mix up a little of everything to create your home interiors? Keep reading to uncover your interior design personality so you can play to your strengths and avoid common pitfalls when decorating a home.

Creating a home interior is a like making a big pot of soup; mixing ideas, objects, furnishings, finishes, colors and materials which (hopefully) results in a delightful meal. Like cooking, to achieve the results you desire with home decorating, it is important to know what you are working with, this starts with taking realistic view of oneself.

As an interior designer one of the first things we do is access a person’s design personality in order to help us work with them. Over the years we’ve found people tend to fall in four categories. The most valuable part of knowing one’s design personality is avoiding the common pitfalls which could fast track your home decor from great to terrible.

This person plans and makes well researched purchases. They buy well the first time and take care of what they own. The investor likes structure, good bones and classics. They gravitate to traditional architecture, furnishings and color schemes.

Pitfalls:

• keeps things (furnishings or outdated design ideas) too long
• stick with the same color palette even when the colors look dated
• are afraid of change
• too matchy-matchy
• rooms can be come stagnant or boring

These people love juxtaposition and items which invite conversation. They are fearless with color and their home has a sense of whimsy. A trendsetter can find design inspiration anywhere.

Pitfalls:

• rooms may lack a focus or continuity and can feel uncomfortable or comic-book like
• rooms are never finished
• may follow trends too quickly without restraint
• rooms can have too much eye candy
• avoids input from others

A rule follower has to see a design idea or concept before they like or try it. They prefer to buy brands they know and can effectively fill their rooms with hand-me-downs. They choose a style and stick with it.

Pitfalls:

• fearful of trying anything new
• avoids purchases by waiting for the “right thing”
• makes up design rules to validate choices
• wants their room to look exactly like one they’ve seen elsewhere
• will solicit the advice of anyone (painter, mailman, child) on their interior
• can be ruled by false ideas of what they should do

The home of a design slut can be absolutely fabulous, or totally horrific. They can create traditional or trendy homes or a stunning combination of the two. Their interior never looks the same, week to week or year to year.

Pitfalls:

• anything on sale and cute gets added to the interior
• has no design plan
• home decorating is a habitual activity rather than a completed project
• falsely uses the word “need” or “I love it” to justify purchases
• repeats themes or pieces too often
• can have be indecisive

Whatever your tendency it is good to know where you can slip up or where to check oneself before making a big design decision.