Change Decorating Style to Match House?

12 years ago

I would definitely put myself in the "cottage style" of the decorating spectrum. I've always been drawn to pictures and furniture that match this style. I love the soft colours, it mixes in old pieces, it's casual and family friendly. I feel that with this style, nobody is afraid to sit on your couch when they enter your house. This worked great for us in our cute little (1000 sqft) cape cod. It was like the structure of the house dictated the style it wanted to be on the inside.

Now we're moving into a 75 year old, 2200 sqft dutch colonial with 10 ft ceilings. I'm drawn to dark wood floors and gray tones for the walls. I picture an elegant dining room with upholstered chairs and a more traditional living room. As much as I love cottage style, I just feel like it would clash with the style of this house. With this house we are definitely leaning towards a more traditional, classic look. The problem is, a lot of the funiture we own is cottage style; lots of antique wood painted white, wrought iron beds, etc. Actually it was the wrought iron bed that brought me here to ask this question. In the new house, I'm picturing an upholstered head board for the master bedroom, but I really don't want to get rid of the wrought iron bed. I remember falling in love with it the second I saw it and spending more money than I had to get it because I just HAD to have it. So I guess what I'm asking is, has anyone ever seen a wrought iron bed incorporated into a more traditional looking master bedroom? I think I just need some reassurance and inspiration to make me realize that we could still make it work.

Has anyone else's style evolved into something completely different depending upon the house you are living in, or have you stayed true to your decorating style no matter what?

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Comments (14)

teacats
12 years ago
Yes -- my style was more cottage and switched to more tradtional -- well -- in my case -- more Brit Col Cottage!

It is wonderful to hear that you have truly listened to your house -- and will work towards making it your own home ...

Post photos here -- and I'm sure we will all help to slightly switch/mix your styles!
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bronwynsmom
12 years ago
I think you can achieve what you want with most of your own things.

All that white painted furniture can be painted in more traditional tones, like deep green or Chinese red or chocolate or black.

You can still use comfortable upholstered things - if you use rumpled slipcovers now, you might like tighter more tailored ones, but keep your relaxed style.

Use heavy linen instead of cotton twill. Replace ticking stripes with more traditional stripes. Use Jacobean or William Morris or simple lattice, leaf, or floral prints in place of gingham checks. Things like that.

That sort of colonial outpost style that you see in Bermuda, and in films like "Out of Africa," can work wonderfully in a more traditional architectural style.
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My previous house was a 1994 tract-type GenericCape. Borrrring. Reasonably cute on the outside, although whoever designed it was drunk when he chose the window and dormer placements because the proportions were off. But I thought it was plain ugly inside, since the rooms were all open to each other without so much as an empty doorframe or soffit between, and even though it was built in 1994 I swear it was built with all the 1980s crap no one else wanted (guess the builder got it all cheap)! I think the only thing that would have really "gone" with the architecture (such as it was) was Pottery Barn! We had no option at the time of moving to a house that matched our style better, we had a limited budget and the selection in the towns where we needed to live for DH's commute was dreadful - since the only one that was in a great location would have required at least $200k in renovations (on a house that was $265k to begin with), we simply took the best-condition one in our price range. I will admit that I just pretty much rammed my stylistic preferences into it, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead, and for the most part it did work okay. Probably because the house was SO much of a dull, soulless, boring blank canvas all by itself. I did tame back some of my more over-the-top urges, like the carved-to-death Savonarola chair that I came THIS close to buying :-) because they would have been too much for the house to carry. When we remodeled the master suite I was able to change out all the moldings which made a HUGE difference in getting the atmosphere a little bit more toward the Arts & Crafts-y look I prefer without trying to make it into a bungalow, although we never got a chance to do the rest of the house as we wanted to. Changing lighting to get rid of the "brasstone" and pressed-glass fixtures helped quite a bit. Replacing the ghastly wall-to-wall with hardwood helped a LOT, as did my color choices. We put enough of ourselves into it that it did suck to have to sell it last year, but now it's in the hands of a family who really like it and have promised to take care of it. To keep your birdies from crashing into the windows, why not hang the sheerest of sheers over the window itself, something like an ultrafine linen (fabrics-store.com has an excellent price on it BTW) or a lovely lace (I love Country Curtains' Point d'Esprit Lace) so you still get plenty of sunlight, as a starter? Those hanging stained glass pieces would also go beautifully with your decor style, and they certainly don't need to fill the whole window to prevent your feathered friends from crashing. Then, put furniture pieces like benches, console tables, low bookcases, sideboards, under/in front of those horizontal windows to draw the eye down and give the whole assemblage more vertical massing. If you can do flanking draperies that just barely kiss the floor and that also bracket that piece of furniture nicely, it will look even nicer. Don't do sill- or apron-length WTs because those will just emphasize the horizontal nature of the windows and you want the eyes to be going up and down; I think blinds with horizontal lines (wood, Roman shades, etc.) do the same thing but some others don't agree with me. Walls of draperies do NOT have to look modern if you use the right fabrics in generous amounts and loads of trimmings! Do you think a jewel-toned velvet or a heavy damask trimmed with bullion fringe and wide silk braid would look modern? No way! Now, to get back to your original question about window grids/grilles. I've never used these, but I did have a site called NewPanes in my sixteen gazillion bookmarks. Because of the connectors I'd still want to hang some sheers over them but I think they might look pretty good without completely gutting your poor pocketbook. Fancier but also pricier is Big Blue Window, which makes custom grilles. BTW, I'll be honest. This last time around, the house I REALLY wanted was a 1972 ranch! It was on a good big lot, had excellent exterior proportions so I could have tarted it up into a cute little cottage with some bungalow flavor, and the interior, although a hideously dated 1970s idea of modern, had a LOT of potential to, again, be tarted up quite prettily. The "Victorian Lite" we ended up in was actually our third choice! Now I do think it's a bit bizarre to take an over-the-top detail-loaded Queen Anne and decorate it in an ultra-contemporary fashion (I cringe whenever I see it, and it's getting all too common) or to cram an Eichler type house with Louis Whatshisface gilded frills-and-furbelows, but something really bland can indeed be amenable to some additions.
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I like your pragmatism Patricia43, and think you hit it right on the head. Like Lynne said too, there are criteria for choosing a home that are more important than the style of the house you love, and usually the house purchased is a compromise. Still, a person who loves Victorian probably wouldn't choose an ultra-modern flat top house filled with stainless steel and clean lines unless it was the only house for sale in the area they had chosen. I don't think a lot of people would even notice that a style of house is Queen Anne and the furniture is French Country. It would take a big contrast for most people. With so many newer houses being a combination of many styles, anything works. That said, I have a neighbor with a house built in the 1980's, hip roof, center front door flanked by two leaded glass bay windows. The house was bought for the size, acreage, and location. She is from El Paso, and remodeled the house to reflect that style. She raised the ceiling without raising the roof to have an open loft, added a wrought iron staircase with Mexican tile on the treds, put Mexican tile throughout the house, had the walls retextured to look like heavy adobe, and painted the walls in shades of ochre. Her furniture is traditional for the most part, leaning toward southwest, but she does have a grand piano in front of one of the bay windows. I found it a bit shocking the first time I saw it finished, simply because style of the inside is so different from the outside, and yet her decor would go with either. I have another friend who also lives in a modern house, raised panel inside, but she is from Florida, and painted every room a bright color, from lime green in the bathroom, yellow and blue in the kitchen, to orange in the living room. She tiled the living room and kitchen using bright colors. Her furniture and accessories are traditional with some antiques. It is a surprise when first seen by newcomers, but it makes it more like home to her and makes her happy. The only reservation I have with both of these houses is that a lot of the changes they have made are permanent, or at least will cost a lot to change, and will affect resale. But neither plan to move any time soon and aren't concerned about resale, and they are happy with their homes. The bottom line is, do what makes you happy since you are the one who has to live with it.
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yayagal
12 years ago
I can see using it fine if you do the above suggestions with the bedding etc. I'm hoping it has clean lines, if it's curly lines it won't work. FYI my husband and I made a six foot upholstered headboard with plywood, lots of foam and a soft chenille fabric. It was very tall and we loved it. I'm now using that in my lake house which is cottage style and it works well so why not try it and see how it works out. Then you can make a decision after it's completed.
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Fun2BHere
12 years ago
Bronwynsmom has given you some terrific ideas to transition your cottage style to a more traditional version. I imagine that your wrought iron bed might work, too, depending on your choices of bed linens, wall color, bedside tables and lamps. However, if you don't love it in your new bedroom, you might consider moving it to a guest room and gifting yourself with a different bed.
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Olychick
12 years ago
Go to Houzz and search for wrought iron bed - you'll find them in every type home and some great inspiration photos of how it can work.

Here is a link that might be useful: [Houzz - wrought iron beds[(https://www.houzz.com/products/wrought-iron-bed-prbr0lbl-pl~l_38142)
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slflaherty
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! It sounds like I may have a lot of painting in my future. I will be sure to post photos once we're all moved in. The house is mid-reno, and a bit of a warzone right now...
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tinam61
12 years ago
Love Bronwynsmoms ideas! I was going to say that I don't think you have to totally "switch", just change things out a bit. You don't want to get too far away from what you really love.

tina
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palimpsest
12 years ago
This house would have been filled with a lot of vernacular furniture when new, anyway, especially the bedrooms. You may want to go a bit more formal in the LR and DR, but I don't think it's quite as big a shift as it would be in moving from somes house styles to others.
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Annie Deighnaugh
12 years ago
My tastes always tend toward the eclectic so I can see using your cottage style furniture in a colonial home. I don't think you have to go strictly colonial, especially in the non public spaces. Cottage and colonial mix very well and you can express your own style in between. And I don't think you have to repaint a lot of stuff...you can go more feminine with light furniture and add the more colonial look in the fabrics and window treatments.
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bronwynsmom
12 years ago
Oh, and let me recommend Minwax "English Chestnut" for your floors. It is the most perfect, beautiful deep brown I've ever used - no red like mahogany, no orangeyness like oak and some pines, no grayness like the provincial ones, no heavy blackishness like the jacobean ones. The color looks great with everything else, too. Give it a look.
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mary_ruth
12 years ago
I made the move from a Traditional house in Virginia to a more relaxed style in Florida. So, now I thought I would redo everything I had in Virginia, we sold a lot of the furniture and now I have just the few pieces I need to accomplish a more relaxed style.

The trade off? The stuff I kept needs refinishing or repurposing or getting something similar but smaller or larger. It will take me a while to reuse my things. If I had it to do over, I would have taken nothing with me, that way I could furnish the downsized house with what really fits here. Harder to take things with you and repurpose than it is to measure and fit what actually goes into the newer home.
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fluffybutt
12 years ago
I've stayed true to my traditional/transitional style of decorating. Our house is a craftsman style tract home but I didn't care for the outside facade to begin with so I just do what I want on the inside. DH liked the look of the house and it had all we needed on the inside, in case one wonders why the heck we even bought it to begin with.
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slflaherty
Original Author
12 years ago
Bronwynsmom, thanks for the suggestion for the floors! We were thinking about Minwax "dark walnut", but I will definitely check out the "english chestnut". I really appreciate your description of how the stain looks in real life.

I'm wondering if anyone has any similar comments regarding "dark walnut"...?
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bronwynsmom
12 years ago
Dark Walnut is very nice, but not as warm as English Chestnut, in my view. Both are deep and timeless. I just think the E.C. is much prettier, without losing gravitas. Let us know what you decide!
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Change Decorating Style to Match House?

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