Identify Your Living Room Style

For a living room you'll enjoy for years, learn what you love and what you don't.

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Photo courtesy of Ann Lowengart

Photo by: Dacian Groza

Dacian Groza

Photo courtesy of Ann Lowengart
By: Susan Kleinman

Do you consider a sleek, modern living room sexy or do you think minimalism looks cold and forbidding? Does an eclectic assemblage of treasures from around the world feel exotic and exciting to you or is it just a jumbled mess? There's no right answer to these questions, but finding the answers (and the styles) that are right for you is one of the most important things you'll do when planning your living room renovation.

Take some time to look around you — at your own home, at your friends' homes, at the rooms design pros put together — and find the style that resonates. Then you can put your own twists on that style to create a living room that reflects your personality and individuality. Here's how.

Look At Your Home

If you're embarking on a renovation, you clearly want to change some things about your current space, but there are probably elements that you do like. What are they? Think about which room in the house is your favorite, and why: Is it the bedroom, because you love its romantic floral wallpaper? Do you love the kitchen you redid last year, because it's sleek and industrial? When you've identified the elements that make you feel most at home, you can incorporate them into your new living room.

Do Some Design Research

Gather an armload of decorating magazines, and rip out any pages that make you linger. Then analyze: What do the pictures you love have in common? Is it a minimalist sensibility? A Victorian vibe? A riot of color? A monochromatic palette?

When you can identify the elements you are drawn to, be sure to make note of what unites them. That consistent element is probably the key to your personal style.

Get Out of the House

"Open your eyes to the details around you," says interior designer Sarah Zames, owner of General Assembly. Not just on the Internet and TV, but in real life. Go to new restaurants. Visit museums you've never been to. Take a tour of a local historical mansion. "All of these places have design elements that you might want to incorporate into your living room redesign," Zames notes.

Do you like the rococo room at your local historical preservation society? You may not want to go quite as over-the-top with the gilding and carving as folks did 200 years ago, but maybe a touch of gold leaf on a lamp would appeal to you. That shiny new eatery downtown may be too sleek to live in day after day, but perhaps the super-cool lighting fixture you noticed while waiting for your appetizers would look great in your house.

Eliminate the Negative

And pay attention to the restaurants you've walked past after peering in the window because you thought it looked uninviting, and the magazine pages you've flipped quickly while thumbing through those magazines because you just hated them. What turns you off again and again? Distressed-finish furniture? Too much ornamentation? "Eliminate the styles you don't like," says Bruce Graf, CR, CAPS, CKBR, owner of Graf Developments, a Dallas-based remodeling firm. "Don't let them clutter your thoughts. You may not know what you like yet, but you certainly know what you don't like."

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