How to Combine Different Decorating Styles

This topic was suggested by a reader who wrote:

Dear Julie,

I am trying to blend a old world wine country style and an arts and crafts kind of style in my kitchen and dining room.  My home was decorated in the more Mediterranean look and I inherited the arts and crafts items from a friend.  I have tried to incorporate the two but it looks choppy.  Any ideas? Thanks for any help.

Sincerely,
Shelley

Sounds baffling at first, doesn't it. But not really.

First, you need balance. To avoid one piece in the room sticking out like a sore thumb, you need a balance between the two styles. A weighting close to 50/50 is probably best, but you could also skew it up to 80/20. You just don't want one lonely piece by itself. So mix and match your pieces and furniture.

Second, you need some unifying element. Color is the easiest. You could have a neutral throughout the room and then one or two accent colors. Use these colors with all pieces - on both chairs of mixed styles. Or put a red throw pillow on the Mediterranean chair and red runner or picture frame on the arts and crafts table. Now, the red becomes a unifier bridging the gap between the other two styles.

In this case, if you don't use too ornate Mediterranean pieces but rather a bit rustic with wood and iron, you should be able to blend them. I wouldn't throw in a third style, though, like a modern glass table, for example.

At some time or another in life, we need to blend styles, just remember to balance them and find a unifying element. Might be appropriate to dealing with different types of people too, eh?

Comments

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Brilliant point of view, Julie! Didn't know you could mix country with Mediterranean. I guess it just takes a little creativity to make things work.