How to Create a Cohesively Designed Home
Last week I shared an instagram post talking about the “red thread” in a home- thoughtfully tying rooms in the home together with specific colors, materials or style. I figured I’d go a bit more in depth in a blog post since it’s such an important part of designing a home.
This concept isn’t new to me, but the “red thread” reference is something I read about in Frida Ramstedt’s “The Interior Design Handbook”. It’s a Swedish term.
Creating a cohesive look (or having something that ties the rooms together) throughout the home is something I think many of us do naturally, but if it’s not done intentionally or thoughtfully it can cause a home to look disjointed, not flow gracefully and just feel “off”. Also, knowing what you want in your home makes it so much easier to design, decorate and shop for things!
The idea is that we should decorate our home as a whole, not individual parts or rooms. Always keep the entirety of the home in mind when decorating and designing each space.
Some things that can tie rooms together:
materials
color scheme
style
theme
In our home, even though we are renovating room by room over time, they still work together cohesively because we took the time to determine our style, the materials we like, the mood we want and what we want the base of our home to be. Each room begins with a neutral color palette as a background, natural woods and materials, modern furniture and fixtures and vintage touches.
Here’s how to do this in your own home:
1. Envision your ideal home.
Get an idea of what your ideal home would look like. Is it modern? A mix of styles? What colors dominate? What sort of textures and materials does it have? What is the mood it creates?
You can even browse Pinterest and pin home images that grab your attention. What similarities do those spaces have in common?
2. Create a mood board
Once you have your ideal home in mind, create a mood board. Mood boards go such a long way- it’s so worth it to take the time to make one! Include a couple home images that resonate with you, materials, light fixtures, finishes, colors and upholstery. Keep your mood board handy so you can refer back to it each time you design/decorate a space in your home.
3. Determine your “red thread”, (but don’t make it painfully obvious!)
Here’s the important part! When you go to decorate your space, think creatively in terms of tying rooms together in order to avoid a museum-like or staged home. For instance, if it’s a color scheme tying your home together, maybe in one room the pillows have that color and in the next it’s a piece of artwork that includes that color, and in another a rug has bits of that color in it. This way things tie together in a way that just feels good and right, and it’s not necessarily obvious.
If it’s vintage touches that tie rooms together, maybe it’s a vintage piece of furniture in one room, a vintage mirror in the next, and some old books in another. (Not saying you can’t have more than one vintage piece in a room, of course!)
If it’s a style you’re tying together, for instance “modern”, you can choose to have maybe all furniture be modern style, or all lighting from room to room.
4. Start from scratch or peel back.
This works whether you are designing a room from scratch or your home is already put together. It’s much easier if you’re starting from the very beginning, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done to an already decorated home.
If your home is already decorated, take that mood board and figure out what’s working and what’s not. What falls within the categories you have as far as colors, materials and styles? What needs to go?
If you’re starting from scratch, make sure you reference your mood board when making purchases, deciding on materials and finishes.
5. Take this as a guideline, not a rulebook.
It’s alway important to have fun with decor, so if it’s not fun it’s not worth it! This is meant to make things easier but of course just because you don’t have any blue throughout the home doesn’t mean you can’t add it to a bedroom for example (which is exactly what we did in Anchor’s room!). If the base of each room is the same, you will be able to get away with adding other elements here and there.
This actually makes shopping and designing so much easier when you know what you want and just as importantly, DON’T want. You will be less likely to have purchase regret. Keep your mood board in your phone for easy access when out shopping.
