If you prefer classic, elegant, and timeless interior design, here are some interior designer tips and tricks for you to decorate your home in a way that it will not go out of style in the next 10 years or longer.
Most timeless or classic interior design items have been around for decades, however occasionally new items are considered classics. These new classic items were never overly trendy, however they are considered classics because they are high quality background items that seem to complement many interiors.
If you want to decorate your home in a way that will be timeless and not trendy, see the interior designer tips below.
Clean and Tidy
A clean and tidy home is always in fashion.
Don't clutter your home up with too much stuff.
One larger accessory is better than a lot of smaller accessories.
Every horizontal surface does not need to be covered in accessories for your home to be considered well decorated.
Purge your lesser quality items and only keep the good stuff.
Create organizational systems for your home to keep organized and reevaluate your systems every 1 to 6 months to ensure they are working and do some decluttering.
The Right Fit
Make sure everything selected for your home is the right fit.
Furniture needs to not be too small or too big and must be comfortable.
A big house with small furniture will look like you didn't have enough money to fill the space and a small home with big furniture will feel cramped. If you moved from a big house to a smaller house, you might need to sell your oversized furniture and invest in smaller furniture that will fit your space better.
Light fixtures also need to be scaled appropriately for the space so that they provide the correct amount of light. If you are using a decorative fixture, such as a chandelier, it should be sized so that it provides a good amount of light white creating a focal point that is not overwhelming.
There should be a good conversation distance between furniture while leaving an appropriate traffic path.
Don't Follow Trends
Whatever the trend is currently, don't do it because you know that it will soon be out of style.
If everyone has a certain accessory, don't add it because it will look very basic.
If everyone decorates with a certain trendy color, choose a different color that you haven't seen in a while.
Avoid decor and furniture store catalogs that are overly popular because they are trendy and sell overly mass produced items that are typically not timeless.
If the items you use to decorate aren't currently in style, then they can't go out of style making your home look dated.
You can easily tell if something is a trend if it references a geographical location and you do not live in that location, such as Tuscan style when you don't live in Tuscany or French Provincial style when you don't live in France.
If you must have a trend, use the trend on a pillow or other lesser expensive item that you don't mind replacing in a few years.
Think about what you wanted in your dream home over the past 20 years and only put in the dreams that didn't change over the years.
Natural, Not Man Made
For timeless interiors, select natural items instead of man made items.
Use real wood floors instead of laminate or vinyl.
Use real marble, quartzite, or granite countertops instead of solid surfacing or quartz.
Use stone floors instead of ceramic or porcelain tile.
Absolutely avoid any man made surface that attempts to mimic a natural surface because it will look fake.
Make sure to be aware of the maintenance requirements for the material that you are putting in your home.
Simplicity
Don't use overly ornate furniture or fabric with busy patterns if you are going for a timeless interior design style.
When selecting timeless items for your home, opt for things with clean lines (but not plain) that tend to be more classic and timeless.
Use primarily solid colored quality fabrics with a nice texture or subtle pattern.
Always select a fewer quantity of quality items over a larger quantity of lesser quality items.
Simple architectural items allows you to mix in different styles and colors of items as your tastes change throughout the years.
Look to the Past
To really determine what is truly timeless, research photos of what was in fashion for homes 100 years ago.
If those home trends have been in style for the past 100 years, then they should definitely be considered timeless.
Such items include hardwood floors, white bathroom fixtures (toilets, sinks, tubs), and hand woven oriental rugs.
These timeless items should be a starting point for your interior design if you are going for a timeless look, however feel free to add in other classic items.
Collected Special Pieces
Select pieces for your home that are a bit special or one of a kind to get a timeless look.
They can be made with a unique wood or built by a quality craftsman instead of being mass produced in a factory.
Decorate with high quality items that you pick up while traveling to far away places.
If you can't afford enough quality special items to fill your home right now, save up and decorate over time instead of feeling the need to fill your home with lesser quality trendy mass produced decor items that you will end up throwing away in a few years.
Decorating with antiques, either all antiques or just an antique piece here and there, is a great way to get a collected and timeless look that is unique to your home.
Durable
Make sure to purchase furniture and accessories for your home that are durable to withstand years of use.
Your design can be timeless, but won't look its best if your furniture and accessories look tattered.
Do a yearly inspection of your home to see which items might need to be retired or refinished.
Understand the difference between damage and distressing. Damage is when an item is scarred from one event, such as a dog chewing on the leg of a chair one night when it is scared. Distressing is minor abrasion that happens over time, such as the finish getting worn on a desk over decades of use. Most people consider damage bad and distressing as charming and good.
Consistency
The design style of your home and quality of finishes should be consistent throughout your home.
Guests should not be surprised by completely different decor if they go in a different room of your home.
If you like many different styles then your style is an eclectic mix, so have a mix in every room, not one room be one style and another room be another style.
You might even consider being consistent with some of the colors in your home. You can use the same colors from room to room but mix up the predominance of colors. For example, your living room might be white with a predominantly blue accent color and a lesser red accent color, but your dining room could also be white with a predominantly red accent color and a lesser blue accent color.
Architecture
The architecture of your home should not be overlooked when decorating.
Emphasize the best features of your home and make sure the exterior style matches the interior style.
Your home style should be appropriate for your exterior environment. Don't put a beach house decor style in a mountain home or a farmhouse decor style in a city loft.
Add architectural detail that your builder might have skipped to save money, such as molding around your windows or crown molding.
Consider adding additional applied moldings to walls or ceilings, however make sure to apply them as a professional would (not a cheap DIY project with lesser expensive materials) and consider the additional dusting and cleaning that is required with your new moldings.
One-of-a-Kind Art
Instead of decorating your home with mass produced prints of other pieces of art that people have seen over and over again, use one-of-a-kind art instead.
Well known artists' work can get quite expensive, however lesser known artists sell their work for much more affordable prices.
You can even find good quality original art for sale second hand online at websites like Facebook Marketplace or at estate sales in your area.
Pay close attention to your art's frame because it can often indicate the quality of the art piece. Framing a lesser quality piece of art in a quality frame will make the art seem to be a higher quality.
You might buy a lesser quality piece of art because it has a nice frame that can be removed to use on a higher quality piece of art.
Texture
Many timeless rooms have a neutral color scheme, however add interest with texture instead of color.
A neutral room without texture will look very boring and sterile, which is definitely not timeless.
You can add texture with a rough brick fireplace, a soft throw blanket, a smooth gold lamp, a fluffy pillow, silky sheets, a sparkly crystal chandelier, and more.
You might choose to swap in and out different textural items per the season, such as replacing a thinner throw blanket with a cozier thicker throw blanket during the winter months.
Contrast
Make sure to include contrast in your timeless interior design to keep your home from looking boring.
You can use contrasting textures, but also contrasting colors.
The most contrasting of all colors is black and white.
Consider taking a photo of your room and turning it into a black and white photo, or at least imagine doing so.
Which items will look nearly black, which items will look nearly white, and which items will look mid tone gray?
Ideally, your room should have 10-25% nearly black, 50-80% mid tone gray, and 10-25% nearly white for optimum contrast.
Mix Old and New
Don't be afraid to mix old classic items in your home with new classics.
Having a home with a unique mix of classic items from different time periods makes your home interesting instead of looking like a boring museum.
Your home should make you happy, so find your favorite items from different decades and put them together in your own special way.
Having classic items from different decades allows you to easily introduce new classic items to your home and having them complement your existing decor.
Quality Curtains
Many people opt for lesser expensive curtains for their rooms and spend their decor budget in other places.
The quality of your curtains often indicates the quality of your decor, so don't skimp on cheap curtains.
Avoid grommet curtains, rod pocket curtains, and back tab curtains that can look cheap and are not timeless.
Ideally, invest in high quality pinch pleat curtains #ad and hang them properly.
Curtains should be hung towards the ceiling, not just above the window. If you are using ready made curtains, selecting a length that is 1 foot less than your ceiling height is usually a good length.
The width of curtains should be 2-3 times the width of your window. If you have a window that is 70 inches wide and you wish to use ready made curtains, you will likely want to purchase 2 curtain panels that are 100 inches wide each for that window.
Pinch pleat curtains should be hung with drapery pins and rings. Do NOT use rings with clips that look cheap.
Your curtain rod should extend well past the width of your window so that the curtains barely cover any of the window when fully open so you can maximize the light in your room.
Your curtain should be hung so they are about 1/2 inch from the ground. Curtains sometimes stretch over time to touch the ground.
Many designers like to put roman shades or bamboo shades behind curtains for additional color and texture as well as additonal light control.
White Linens
When in doubt, stick with timeless high quality plain white bed sheets and towels.
White items give a fresh and clean feeling.
Linens that are white can usually be washed in hot water to better remove stains and can often be bleached so they stay nice and bright.
To make your white linens extra white, add a bit of liquid bluing #ad to your wash.
If you have guests or family members who like to use cloth towels to remove makeup, consider investing in a few black wash cloths for them so they don't ruin your white towels.
Medium Brown Wood
When selecting wood floors and stained wood furniture pieces for your home, you might wonder what wood tone is most timeless.
Medium brown wood seems to be the most popular wood choice throughout the years.
You must also consider the wood's undertone, which is the color most prevalent within the brown wood.
Some woods have a yellow undertone, red undertone, gray undertone, orange undertone, and other colors.
If trying to find the most timeless wood tone, opt for a medium brown wood with the least amount of undertone possible.
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