Sophisticated And Fun: Good Design Can Be Both
I used to worry a lot about what my home needed to look like when I finally "grew up". I felt like an adult's home had to be sophisticated. To me, this meant that everything that to be perfectly coordinated. It had to be chosen from the right stores. It had to be mature in color and style. In essence, I felt that having a "grown up" house meant that I had to be boring.
As someone who has always favored bold colors and eclectic styles, I was mortified by the idea that getting older meant becoming boring. However, I was equally as mortified by the idea that I might become one of those old women who was still sleeping on a futon and sitting on mismatched chairs even though I was well into my later years of life.
As I've actually gotten older, I've learned that you don't have to sacrifice the fun of "younger" design styles in order to have a sophisticated home. It is possible to have an adult space that feels "grown up" and is appropriate for entertaining other adults without having to settle into a boring manufactured style. You just have to learn how to bring fun elements into a sophisticated design.
As someone who has always favored bold colors and eclectic styles, I was mortified by the idea that getting older meant becoming boring. However, I was equally as mortified by the idea that I might become one of those old women who was still sleeping on a futon and sitting on mismatched chairs even though I was well into my later years of life.
As I've actually gotten older, I've learned that you don't have to sacrifice the fun of "younger" design styles in order to have a sophisticated home. It is possible to have an adult space that feels "grown up" and is appropriate for entertaining other adults without having to settle into a boring manufactured style. You just have to learn how to bring fun elements into a sophisticated design.
Let's start with the big picture. This is a room that I consider to be very sophisticated but also totally fun. It's sophisticated because it has solid, grown-up furnishings which ground the room. It also has a color theme which makes it feel really "put together". And yet, there are so many fun elements here like the single red wall and those awesome images that we see. I think this combination of smart design choices with fun elements is what being grown up is really about for me.
I think one key to learning how to pull off a fun but sohpisticated style is to learn to choose fun furnishings and accent pieces that aren't immature. I love grown-up designs that are solid in color but unique in shape or texture. I also love pairing them against a boldly colored wall.
For me, the trick is mostly in learning how to choose a fun piece for every small aspect of the home. I don't need to have an outrageously fun home. I need little pieces like these lamps which are fun in design and shape and color. These things are unexpected and happily surprising which is nice in a sophisticated space.
One type of fun piece that I really love is a piece of art for the walls. Here we have a basicaly sophisticated dining area. It's got matching chairs, formal statuettes and a grown-up plant to care for. However, that poster on the wall makes the space more fun. It's these little things that help create this style of design.
If you're choosing a fun piece that's also really big then you do need to think about the level of sophistication within that piece. A cheesy poster can work fine in a sophisticated room because it's small. A huge chandelier isn't going to work as well if it's gaudy even if it's the only bold element in the room. In this case, you need to find a balance of a fun yet sohpisticated style within the single element.
I do, however, think that you can create entire rooms that represent the sophisticated but fun style. A wine cellar is a perfect place for this. What's more sophisticated than a wine cellar?! I love the idea of the little bar within the wine cellar like we see here. I think this could be expanded to be more fun with some really bold wine glasses and unusual wines.
If you're really lucky, the space that you're working in will lend itself naturally to this style. Here, we have a totally sophisticated room with matching furniture in mostly neutral colors. However, the strange curvatures of the walls make this a fun space.
There are basically two approaches to this look. One is to go with a mostly sophistcated style that has some fun elements. I love this sophisticated kitchen that has a really fun cooker hood over the stove. (Although I think a surprisingly bold piece of art would be good here, too.)
The other option is to create a mostly fun space with sophisticated elements to ground it and make it more grown up. Here we have a really fun kitchen area that has a style all its own but the organization of the room screams sophistication. With either approach, you get the elements of both boldness and maturity that you need in a grown up home.