Home Decorating Styles

You've just built your new home or are considering a kitchen or bath remodel, and it's time to start thinking about decorating. Choosing a home decorating style can create a coherent theme for your room and your home, in general. Rather than simply choosing a countertop, floor covering, or cabinet, you can look at how these different choices are interrelated and design a truly stunning home décor. Look at some of these more popular home decorating styles to get ideas of what you might do with your new home, kitchen, or bathroom.

Southwest Décor
Southwest décor is defined mostly by a room's furnishings—its furniture, throw pillows, sculptures, pottery, and other smaller decorating items. Yet, for the best-looking décor, you should start planning your room long before the finishing touches. For a kitchen styled in southwest décor, hand-crafted pottery and cabinet hardware dominated by earth tones isn't going to look as sharp above a cold linoleum floor. Stone tile floors and/or countertops are going to set the foundation for your decorating scheme. Hardwood floors using wood indigenous to the southwest and ceramic tile that resembles the clay earth is also an authentic choice. Your choices for different installations aren't going to be seriously limited by the southwest décor, but you need to start planning for your decorating style long before you go shopping for dishes, bath towels, or coffee tables.

Tropical Décor
While tropical décor is about giving your room a tropical atmosphere, it's also about a lot more than palm trees. If you live in Minnesota, you can't put a fake palm tree in the corner of your living room and call it tropical décor. Exotic hardwood floors are a great idea if you can afford it, but other exotic flooring such as cork flooring can also work within a more reasonable budget. Tropical ceiling fans are among the best ideas within tropical décor. They are energy-efficient, invoke the tropical atmosphere, and generate more air circulation than traditional ceiling fans. Saltwater aquariums, especially customized home aquariums, can also be a part of this decorating style. Just remember to decorate your home with the aquarium, not like an aquarium. Subtle, authentic decorating accents are the way to make a room stunning with tropical décor.

Asian Décor
Asian décoris a great example of how you can make a room look luxurious without spending a fortune. Instead of hardwood, you can install bamboo flooring, which is harder than hardwood, more exotic, and cheaper. Horizontal, vertical, or woven style bamboo flooring will each create a slightly different effect to match your preference and your room's dimensions. Contemporary lighting is also part of Asian décor and will enhance the design of your furnishings and space. Paintings and sculptures are indicative of Asian décor, but that doesn't necessarily mean quintessentially Asian subject matter. Abstract painting that match the color scheme would be perfect or consider original paintings by young, unknown artists.