When you’re trying to create a specific style in the home, then one of the tools you’re most likely to rely on is matching items throughout the room to maintain a level of consistency. However, when it comes to your furniture, how much should you match? Should you instead opt to mix and bring a little variety in? As with all things, some balance can help a lot. Here are a few tips to help.
Don’t make everything look the same
If you’re thinking against the prospect of matching everything as close as possible, then it’s likely because you’re worried the room will look bland, even tacky, and that’s not an unjustified fear. Even if you want your furniture to have a relatively similar look, it’s important to have some elements of the room to contrast off of. For instance, you don’t want red seating to go with a red wall. If you have a wood or vinyl floor, then you want furniture that, even if wooden, doesn’t match the same colour tone as that floor.
Mix styles but match elements
On the other hand, you don’t want to mix aesthetics so much that it looks like your home has no identity, but rather looks closer to the page in a furniture catalogue. For that reason, even if you’re choosing contrasting furniture, you might want to make sure that there’s a visual throughline. Furniture of different styles can still use the same wood tone, for instance. Wooden furniture of the same style and design and mix wood finishes so that they’re a little more visually distinct. Finding matching furniture that has just enough different to make it stand out can help you blend the two approaches beautifully.
Dress things up differently
Even if you are using a matching set of furniture, it’s a good idea to offer them the chance to have a little diversity to their looks. For instance, when it comes to matching seats, having them under different lighting and surrounded by objects of different materials can differentiate them enough. You can also use soft home furnishings such as throws to make them a little more visually distinct. There’s nothing wrong with using a matching furniture set, but you don’t want them to look exactly the same.
Keep the colour palette limited
There are plenty of tools on the internet that can help you find a colour palette that you should then stick to. For instance, your room might be all wood tones with flashes of warmth in red or oranges throughout. A more contemporary style might use primarily black and white with flashes of greenery. Even if the styles of furniture are highly different across the room, a simple colour palette can keep it all looking well coordinated. You don’t want to add too many different colours to a space.
As mentioned, most people don’t choose to mix or match, they choose to find some place in the middle to get the best of both worlds. Hopefully, the tips above can help with that.
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