Did you ever consider what would happen if you turned your home inside out? Would your neighbors recognize your interior design and style or would they question the huge contrast? My husband and I shop the real estate market all the time. The consistency between the exterior design of a home and its interior plan never struck me as significant until we did a walk-through on a house that looked like it was having an identity crisis.
The cottage style home had a front porch with white rockers, vintage windows and white washed paint accented by light blue shutters. The homeowners had redone the inside. The walls were paneled with dark wood that matched the doors, molding and floors. The curtains were country-looking and ruffled like something you’d see from the 80’s. And the furniture was covered in tapestry-like cloth and brown leather.
Just like a cottage doesn’t lend itself to being decorated with dark wood and heavy furniture, a log cabin wouldn’t cut it with French Provencal décor. Although a unique style is encouraged, a conflicted exterior and interior design of a home is quite the opposite of what most people are decorating towards. If you’re like the majority of homeowners, you want your home to represent your personality while creating a consistent and balanced appearance from outside to indoors and from room to room.
So, how do you create a flow from outdoors to inside?
- House Style and Décor
Be sure to buy a home or choose a plan when house hunting, remodeling or redecorating in which the exterior’s style supports the vision you have for the interior decor. For example, you may love the exterior of a two-story clapboard home in a small town’s historic neighborhood. However, if you’re a minimalist who decorates with ultra-modern furniture and limits your color scheme to black and white, this may not be the house for you.
- Paint and Its Color
Choose colors inside and out that are complementary but not “matchy matchy” since that’s out of style. Coordinating colors are designer smart and visually appealing. Earth tones on your porch and trim will invite earth tones indoors. This isn’t to say you can’t add splashes of color. You just don’t want natural shades outside while bright hues dominate indoors.
- Details, Details, Details
Consider flooring, crown molding, built-ins, the height of the ceilings and the wall texture throughout a home that make it what it is. Look to see if that harmonizes with the outside trim, windows, decks and add-ons. If you want tile floors in your living area with great throw rugs everywhere, a home with a wrap-around porch is most likely not your best pick. However, tile would be the perfect flooring for a Spanish-style stucco house.
Images from http://www.trendir.com
A friend of mine from college got me into rugs years ago. Aside from adding coziness to a hard wood home, an area rug can add color and character to a room without having to paint.
Juliette Samuel