Choose interior design themes that suit your style

Painting the walls with light colours allows you to play around with fabric with less limitation than if you painted them dark colours. PHOTO by onekingslane

The interior of your house matters a lot and makes a fashion statement to whoever comes in. However, it is not just about putting a couple of materials together.

The colours and how they blend matters a lot. That said, choosing a theme when decorating your house helps to ease the task and one of the things to put into consideration are fabrics. They speak volumes and determine the general outlook of your house.

Vintage
Fabric never loses taste and for this theme, usually, animal prints such as zebra and leopard are used.

However, Edmund Ssesanga, an interior designer with Furniture Fittings, says the environment you are working with matters a lot – the fabric should contrast with the background to bring out the intended beauty. For example, if the walls are dark, use light fabrics with few dark spots and if the walls are bright, use dark fabric. More to that, if the environment is dusty, going for off-white colours such as light cream, and light brown would make more sense.

Contemporary/ modern traditional
In this style, one has a purpose of decorating a room in a certain way, say black and white because it is friendly for everyone, sharp colours where you are going to entertain small children, among others.

Colours such as purple, coupled with sharp pink, lime green coupled with black will fit the bill.

To achieve an eye-catching look, Ssesanga advises that one incorporates mirrors in the design. That said, he says this style will majorly work in places such as lounges as it is not really used in homes.

In as far as the environment is concerned, while one colour may seem monotonous in other themes, in contemporary, an all-white theme can work, though it is ideal in off-shore or beach houses.

Chic
Reds, pinks, floral patterns, patterns with pictures are the ideal in this girly look. Depending on the furniture around, say if you paint the walls pink, then the centre rugs could have lime green, a checkered corner sitting place. That causes great contrast and is appealing to the eye.

Barn or farm house
This theme may have a resemblance with vintage, but is mainly comprised of neutral colours in whites, taupe and greys. Adrian Wangwe, an interior designer with Moonic, says: “While this theme is traditional, it mainly features monochrome colours.”

Designing tips
Adrian Wangwe, an interior designer, reminds home owners to desist from excessive matching as it destroys the whole look owing to monotony. “It gets boring as there is nothing peculiar for the eye to look out for,” he says.

That said, Wangwe says you may want to remember that the best way to do themed decoration is by starting at the door, “If you are going for a rustic or vintage look, having a door made out of rustic material sets the trend that the rest of the house and more so fabric follows.”

He also adds that painting the walls with light colours allows you to play around with fabric with less limitation than if you painted them dark colours. “It also helps you to avoid colour clashing while making the room look bigger.”

“You also have to consider your furniture while decorating. “Smaller chairs speak of modern tradition style while the larger furniture speak of vintage,” Wangwe advises.

He adds that scale your decorations such as paintings to the size of your walls. “It looks tardy when you have a small wall hanging sitting on a large wall. If you must use small wall hangings, then cluster them to fill the wall.”