Ann Moore-Spencer

When you have a dec­o­rat­ing project on the hori­zon, we con­sis­tent­ly rec­om­mend that you de­vel­op 'In­spi­ra­tion' files with pho­tos, mag­a­zine clip­pings, in­ter­net clip­pings, cat­a­logues, etc of every­thing and any­thing 'de­sign and dec­o­rat­ing' that ap­peals to you. Col­lect ex­am­ples of the colours, ac­ces­sories, fur­ni­ture, win­dow treat­ments, styles, etc . This is an in­valu­able method of dis­cov­er­ing your per­son­al style and aes­thet­ic. But what does your in­spi­ra­tion file tell you about your in­di­vid­ual dec­o­rat­ing aes­thet­ic? A few years ago one of my de­sign tu­tors ex­posed me to a sim­ple test that can al­so as­sist in dis­cov­er­ing and cat­e­goris­ing your dec­o­rat­ing style.

What colours are you drawn to?

1. Soft pas­tels

2. Earth tones

3. Strong vivid colours

4. Neu­trals

5. A lit­tle of each

You are build­ing a new home. What colours will you use in your fam­i­ly room?

1. Light blue

2. Sage green

3. Lip­stick red

4. Beige

5. White

What will your floor­ing choic­es be?

1. Lam­i­nate

2. Sol­id wood

3. Black and white tile

4. Plush car­pet

5. Don't care less, as long as some­one cleans it

When prepar­ing break­fast on a week­end, what do you tend to wear?

1. An apron with make­up and hair done

2. T-Shirts and sweats

3. De­sign­er yo­ga pants

4. Match­ing night­gown and robe

5. What­ev­er you can put your hands on

When pur­chas­ing fur­ni­ture what mat­ters most to you?

1. So­fa with lots of pil­lows

2. Feels com­fort­able, but is trendy

3. Clean lines with funky styling

4. Tex­tured fab­ric

5. Style is not im­por­tant as com­fort, big­ger the bet­ter

What is the at­mos­phere you are look­ing for in your room?

1. A room set­ting from a fur­ni­ture store dis­play

2. Un­der the Tus­can sun

3. Hip ur­ban room like the liv­ing room on the sit­com 'Friends'

4. Liv­ing room like 'Frais­er's'; with­out dad's chair

5. Com­fy re­clin­er di­rect­ly in front of the TV

If you got most­ly ones (1s), you have a tra­di­tion­al/ con­ser­v­a­tive style. Tried and true is best for you. You avoid trendy looks. Your taste is for­mal and re­fined. Your d&ea­cute;cor is calm and pre­dictable. Every­thing is or­der­ly, paired, sym­met­ri­cal and pre­cise­ly placed. Pieces match. You are gen­er­al­ly afraid to make what you per­ceive to be 'mis­takes'. You will have an­tiques or an­tique re­pro­duc­tions. You use jew­el tones such as gold and bur­gundy and oth­er clas­si­cal colour com­bi­na­tions. Tas­selled and fringed bro­cades, vel­vets, silks and satins are favoured. Your win­dows will be well dressed, of­ten in swags, swaged valances and floor length drap­ery. Your so­fas may be skirt­ed and have winged backs or scrolled arms. You love ori­en­tal rugs. You ac­ces­sorise with me­men­tos, pho­tos and framed art fea­tur­ing land­scapes and por­traits.

If you record­ed most­ly twos (2s), tran­si­tion­al is your style. You have a style that is less struc­tured and rigid. Tran­si­tion­al is el­e­gant and en­dur­ing. You will ex­per­i­ment. Your style bor­rows from the tra­di­tion­al and the con­tem­po­rary. Your fur­ni­ture fea­tures sim­ple pro­files com­bin­ing straight and round­ed lines us­ing wood, glass, met­al and up­hol­stered el­e­ments. You use a neu­tral colour palette fea­tur­ing beiges, tau­pes, greys and browns ac­cent­ed by some colour. You love nat­ur­al fab­rics, fab­ric with graph­ic prints and in­ter­est­ing tex­tures. I will ex­pect to see che­nille, ul­tra­suede, leathers, cot­tons and linens. You like a 'dec­o­rat­ed' home that is live­able and touch­able. Ac­ces­sories are larg­er state­ment pieces.

If you scored most­ly threes (3s), you have a con­tem­po­rary style. You like clean lines with touch­es of dra­ma. Less is more, but com­fort mat­ters to you. You are drawn to one state­ment piece rather than a group­ing of small­er pieces. Your style is un­clut­tered and sub­tly so­phis­ti­cat­ed. You use colour de­lib­er­ate­ly, bold­ly and lib­er­al­ly. Your win­dow treat­ments are sim­ple and are used to soft­en the hard lines of the win­dow and of­ten (but not al­ways) plays a sup­port­ing, rather than, a star­ring role. Blinds, shut­ters and shades are quite at home in a con­tem­po­rary styled home. You bal­ance form and func­tion well. You favour smooth and high pol­ished sur­faces and pieces. Fur­ni­ture pieces are sim­ple with ex­posed legs and with­out much ex­tra adorn­ment. Less is more. The em­pha­sis is on the lines. Pil­lows are used to add colour and geo­met­ric con­trast. You like bare smooth floors, com­mer­cial grade car­pet and geo­met­ric pat­terned rugs. You look for sculp­tured ar­chi­tec­tur­al de­tails in your ac­ces­sories.

You are a tra­di­tion­al­ist/ so­phis­ti­cate if you chose most­ly fours (4s). You love clas­sic lines and a room filled with dif­fer­ent tex­tures. You love to blend old with new and a fem­i­nine feel – al­most eclec­tic. You pick and choose from any­thing that draws you. There are no bound­aries. This is not an un­co­or­di­nat­ed mis­match. It is a so­phis­ti­cat­ed, un­pre­dictable and of­ten off­beat com­bi­na­tion of style. Most­ly fives (5s) will put you in the cat­e­go­ry of the dec­o­rat­ing mis­fits. You don't pay at­ten­tion to dec­o­rat­ing de­tails. You are hap­py once you have your big screen TV, favourite com­fort­able chair ... what­ev­er func­tion­al or en­ter­tain­ing el­e­ment that ap­peals to you. No em­pha­sis is paid to how the room looks or func­tions. The room looks okay the way it is.

So I ask – What is your dec­o­rat­ing style?