How to Style Your Home with Consistency

Last Updated on April 23, 2021

A big goal for me this year is to create a cozy and comfy environment in our home. I want my family to have a safe and peaceful place to land at the end of a hard day. I think it’s a worthy goal. And while I can Pinterest with the best of them, sometimes I struggle to successfully implement the vision I have for my home.

It’s frustrating when your home is lacking ‘flow’ in terms of design and decor. And it’s not always obvious why you’re failing to achieve the consistency you’re looking for. But there’s no more need to struggle because I’ve found that there are some simple steps you can implement in order to learn how to style your home with consistency.

This post contains affiliate links. Read more.

My house is a semi-detached, basic design, cookie cutter type of home. It has no natural character of it’s own so I need to create it all from scratch.

(I’m not trying to put down my house, I’m just stating the facts. I’m incredibly grateful for the home we have the luxury of owning. It’s what we could afford and provides us with all the space we need! I believe firmly in not being house-poor, so I’m planning to bloom where I’m planted and make the very best of it!)

Up til now, all our furniture has been a mis-match of inexpensive college and kijiji finds. It’s stuff we’ve had for years since it’s all perfectly functional and there’s never been a need (or disposable income) to replace it.

Now I’m looking around and I’m ready to start choosing furniture and decor for my home a little more deliberately. I started by splurging on a large colourful area rug for our living room that adds so much life and comfort to the space.

Now I’m on the hunt for the perfect coffee table, with storage, to go with it. I’m like 85% settled on this one, but I have to save up for each new piece, so I’m making sure I’m really in love with it before I purchase!

Sometimes I struggle to visualize the big picture, or I get too eager to start that I don’t take the time to plan out the whole room before I start buying stuff. But I’ve discovered these simple guidelines that I think will really help me achieve the home I want for my family.

 

Decide On Colours

Before you do anything else, you need to be clear about the kind of colours you want to focus on in your home. This will provide you with the jumping off point that your home needs when you’re decorating it from scratch.

I don’t really have colour palette for the whole house, although maybe that’s a lie now that I think about it. Lol. I guess I do gravitate towards more muted tones, although I’m a firm believer in colour trust me! I do, however, try to deliberately pick a colour scheme for each room.

Picking colours doesn’t always come naturally to me though, I often end up painting a room twice! So the best advice I can give is to pull a paint colour from the existing furniture or decor that you intend to keep. Then you’re already on the right track to creating consistency within one room at least!

My next piece of advice is to keep the trim colour the same everywhere in the house. Taking it one step further, I recommend keeping it white. On occasion we’ve purchased pre-painted trim to save time and headache and we knew it would match because we’d kept the rest of the trim in the house white. Painting trim is a huge pain, so do yourself a favour and stick with white, you’re less likely to change your mind later.

 

What’s Your Style?

Next on the list is to decide if you want to stick with a particular theme or style. I’m an ocean-loving girl and I try to find ways to include nautical elements in each room. I’m also kinda boho and love big patterns and colours. The trick is balance. I play it safer with the paint colours so I can add bright pops of patterns in the decor and linens. For inspiration: 

*sigh*

Sometimes sticking with a specific style means it will take longer to hunt down the perfect pieces. Unless your theme is “Ikea” and then you can pick it all up in one trip! Haha! Otherwise you may have to accept that it will take time to achieve the look you’re going for.

 

Weave in Some Common Threads

Materials can add a common thread through the various room designs in your home. Maybe you want to have soft fluffy pink pillows that bring extra cozy to each room. Or perhaps you want to use the same type and shade of wood accents in each room of your home. Doing something like this will lend your home real unity, so definitely consider it.

You could have the same style of curtain in each room even if the fabric patterns are different. You could include pops of metallic in each room or use simple jute area rugs all over. Just find some elements that will connect one room to another.

 

Children’s Furniture

Don’t forget about the kiddo rooms because they’re just as important as the rest of your home in terms of design. Places like Cuckooland’s Kids furniture collection have furniture that’s incredibly stylish and suitable for kids. (Way more fun than the furniture I had a kid!) That’s the kind of thing you should be looking for because it makes it easier for you to keep your child’s bedroom consistent with the designs in the rest of your home.

We just got a cube storage unit similar to this one for my son’s room. It’s perfect because the shelves are deep enough for large picture books and I feel like the piece will grow with him and be suitable for a teenager’s lair too!

 

Add Some Greenery

In the past I’ve shied away from bringing plants into my home because I’m absolutely hopeless at keeping them alive. Seriously I’m the worst gardener in existence.

But I recently acquired and aloe plant from my mom (I asked for it, I think it’s a handy little plant to have around) and besides being one of the harder plants to kill, it added a surprising amount of life to my dining room!

Not wanting to bite off more than I could chew (or water), I purchased 2 little pots of fake plants to add to the dining room and I’m loving the effect! It’s made me realize how important a little greenery is to a room and I’m on a small mission to find ways to add some plant life, fake or otherwise, to every room.

 

Now Mix it up a Little!

Just because you want the designs in your home to be consistent, doesn’t mean you can’t deviate from those core design principles a little in each room. In fact, that’s something that you definitely should do because it will give each room it’s own personality.

I certainly wouldn’t want every room in my house to look identical, because that would be boring. Plus, a house that’s loved and lived in has kid’s art on the fridge, funny family photos on the walls and the significant others’ choice of ugly recliner in the living room. That’s life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

When all is said and done, it’s just about making your rooms feel like they all belong in the same home.

 

What are your tricks for achieving a consistent look in your home?