Your home is not just where you live, but it is a place to relax, to entertain, to build memories and even to work (thanks COVID). This focus on our homes means that it’s now more important than ever to create a space that is not only multifunctional and practical but stylish and beautiful too. An area that makes us feel comfortable, but also makes us happy to spend time there.

One of the easiest ways to change the feel of your home is with styling. We’ve put together a list of practical styling advice that you can use when decorating or designing your home.

Finding the right furniture

Furniture is probably the easiest place to start when styling your home. It’s also one of the most important because the type of furniture you choose can dictate how you use the room, and the style of furniture will dictate the style of the room too.

When buying furniture for a space, measure twice and buy once! Furniture that is too big will impact how you use your room and will make it feel small, but furniture that is too small will make the room look unfinished.

Also, consider choosing furniture that is timeless and won’t date. Trends come and go, but good quality furniture that is simple but classic means that you can enjoy it for years to come, only needing to update the décor around your furniture to suit the latest styling trends.

When it comes to furniture, it’s always good to try before you buy so you can make sure you’re comfortable and it fits its purpose. Sit on dining chairs to see if they are the right height, lay on a bed to see if it’s big enough and look inside wardrobes to see if there is enough storage space.

Styling soft furnishings

A great way to change up the style of your home is with soft furnishings like throws, cushions and bedding. Easily changed and updated, use soft furnishings to dress up your room or refresh a tired space.

The trick to styling cushions is to consider pattern, texture, shape and colour, and layering them up to pull the look together. Pick a colour palette and then choose your soft furnishings with those colours in mind, mixing and matching textures and styles as you go.

The same goes for throws and bedding. While these don’t need to match each other, or your cushions, they should at least be complementary and be part of the same colour palette to create a cohesive room.

You can update your soft furnishings to suit the season. Florals are fantastic for spring and summer, while moody colours like plum and emerald green are best suited for Autumn and Winter. Also, think about colour combinations that work well together. We love blush pink and olive green, neutrals and burnt oranges or black and white with a pop of colour.

Choosing artwork for your home

There are lots to consider when choosing artwork for your home. While it can be an investment, you should think with your heart when choosing the right piece. Spend lots of time viewing different artists and note down artwork that grabs your attention. You may find you like abstract art more than realism, or you want a simple illustration rather than a splash of colours.

You should also think about the colour palette of your room when selecting artwork. As a general rule, you shouldn’t reference more than four different colours in your room, so look at paintings with similar colours to your wall colours or soft furnishings or neutral colours that won’t be too harsh in an already colourful space.

Also, think about sizing and placement. Always measure your space before you buy artwork and even consider using paper or masking tape to mirror the size of the piece on your wall. Oversized artworks (1m wide or more) will act as a focal point in your room while smaller artworks can be grouped together for the same effect.

Upgrading your lights

Changing the lighting in your home can give it an instant makeover. Even if your room has downlights, adding feature lighting like a pendant, wall light or floor lamp will provide you with more illumination and act as a feature for the room.

When placing lighting, you should measure your room to ensure it isn’t impeding on your space but will still provide the light you need for the purpose of the room. Pendant lights in a living room should be hung 30-50cm from the ceiling (on a standard 2.4m ceiling) while pendant lights over a dining table should sit 70-80cm above the dining table. If you’re choosing pendant lights over your bedside tables rather than table lamps, make sure they hang 35-50cm above so you get enough light for reading a book, but they don’t get in the way.

Floor lamps and table lamps can be added to your room if you don’t want something permanent. You can change the shade to complement the style of your room and move them around to create cosy reading corners or stylish décor displays.

Adding decorative accessories

We love using home décor accessories to style a room because although they may be small, they have the power to change the look and feel of a room in an instant! Think vases, candles, pot plants, baskets, mirrors and trinkets that can be placed on shelves, coffee tables, side tables and any surface that is bare.

When decorating with accessories, be careful not to overload the space. Group accessories with similar themes and varying heights to create beautiful displays and choose quality over quantity! Group items in odd numbers such as threes or fives so that your arrangement feels authentic and not too staged.

Plants add life to every room, so play around with different types of plants. A large Ficus Fig or Rubber plant in a statement pot will act as a feature, while succulents or a string of pearls will complement a smaller space. If you want more colourful plants, you can’t go wrong with an orchid or two. If you don’t have a green thumb, you can always use faux plants instead – don’t worry, we won’t tell!

Decorating with rugs

Rugs are often thought of as entirely functional, used to hide undesirable flooring or prevent furniture scratches, but you’d be surprised at how much a rug contributes to the style of a room, often tying the entire space together.

When choosing a rug, think about your lifestyle and the area where it will be placed. High traffic areas will need a hard-wearing material like sisal, jute or seagrass, while bedrooms won’t receive so much foot-traffic so tufted or shag rugs are suitable. You should also consider how easy your rug will be to clean, especially if you have children or pets.

When deciding on the best size, it is a general rule that part of your furniture should overlap the rug so that the space flows. Rugs under dining tables should be large enough so the dining chairs don’t come off the rug when being used and a rug in a bedroom should be positioned from the bottom 2/3 of the bed and extended out to the sides and end.

Play around with patterns and colours. If you already have a lot of features in your room, choose a neutral rug that won’t draw the attention away from those pieces. To avoid a clash, pick out a secondary colour in your rug and match it with a piece of furniture or the soft furnishings in the room.

Want to see your home styling come together? Check out our new Digital Mood Board Tool! You’ll be able to mix and match products to create a mock set up of your space while exploring different styles and colour palettes from the retailers at Nunawading Homemaker HQ. It’s free, and you can share your mood board with family, friends or design experts to get their opinions on your styling.

With over 25 stores, you can find everything you need to style your home at Nunawading Homemaker HQ. Shop from the best homewares, tech and furniture brands like Adairs, Bay Leather Republic, JBHiFi and more. If you’re looking to style your home from scratch, give your home a makeover or want to browse our wide range of stores, visit Nunawading Homemaker HQ today!