Living Room Decorating & Home Decor Styles

The design or decorating style that you choose for your Living Room or Great Room should define the style that the public areas of your home follow throughout your home decor. This doesn't mean that each room has to be a carbon copy of each other, however, the design of each room should be similar if you want to create flow - which you do!

There are many different decorating styles and home decor styles, some of the most popular are listed below:

• Traditional Home Decor - In this decorating style typically one or two furniture styles are limited to a room. It can be Queen Anne, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Early American, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, Chippendale and the list goes on. The upholstery, accents and window treatments are common to the type that would have been used at the time the furniture was produced. Traditional tends to be more formal, but certain furniture styles can be casual - such as Early American.

This room falls into the New Traditional, because it pulls from past styles, without
feeling that it has to follow all of the rules.

• New Traditional Home Decor - One of the most popular decorating style, although sometimes by accident. People with a New Traditional Style typically have furniture they have bought over the years, or furniture they have been given from their family. The mixture of furniture, some traditional pieces, are combined and updated with new decorating details, such as chenille throws, entertainment centers, beaded pillows and current window treatments instead of traditional draperies. One of the most commonly photographed decorating styles in current decorating magazines.
• Shabby Elegance Home Decor - So chic and so comfortable. This decorating style was unknown a decade or so ago! It is now very popular and has made chipped paint and old china acceptable again.

This is a perfect example of Shabby Elegance. Very warm, comforting with pale colors.

• Eclectic Home Decor- This is a very popular decorating style and can vary from mildly eclectic to over the top eclectic. Many people have a mildly eclectic home because they are slowly accumulated furniture from miscellaneous sources over the years. Mildly eclectic can simply be a mixture of furniture styles - combining Queen Anne and Hepplewhite - and can be very similar to the New Traditional Decorating Style.
• Country - French Home Decor - A very popular decorating style because of its bright colors and sense of whimsy. The colors of a Matisse artwork, blended with wood finishes from paint to fruitwood and cherry make this style very popular.
• Country - Italian Home Decor - Picture the Old World, with its aging plaster walls, sun-bleached colors and simple furnishings and you have a typical Italian Country look.
• Country - English Cottage Home Decor - In this decorating style, the rooms are generally semi-casual with slipcovers in cotton chintz, floral patterned fabric, mixture of furniture and stacks of books, etc. It is a relaxed and comfortable style to live in.
• Paris Apartment Home Decor - Elegant, but fun, this style is a recreation of the turn of the century (1900's) chic style of decorating in Paris. Paris was very influenced at this time with artists, and was a very intellectual and contemporary place to be.

This style would fall into the Paris Apartment Style. It is very dramatic with rich colors.

• Modern - Contemporary Home Decor- Still influenced by modern Italian design, the Contemporary Modern home has objects that are not only functional but are also a piece of artwork. Typically has straight clean lines.
• Modern - Memphis Home Decor- Very bold bright colors and furniture is styled in a almost comic book stylized form. Very interesting decorating style.
• British Colonel Home Decor - This is a fairly new decorating style which is influenced by Earnest Hemingway and his many adventures. This style has lots of rich woods, natural materials and a fairly neutral color scheme. The look is relaxed and sophisticated at the same time.
• Asian Home Decor- East influences from China are very low horizontal lines and shapes. The style is somewhat minimal and unadorned.
• Tropical Home Decor- Splashy strong colors and motifs of palm trees with a resort look. Very casual and fun.
• Beachside Home Decor - Casual furniture, seating with slipcovers and bare floors all mark the look of the Beachside decorating style. Color schemes are usually in pale washed out shades of blue, peach, yellow or pink.

The Beachside style is usually light and cooling visually. There aren't an excess of accessories and
the color scheme is kept light.

• Arts & Crafts Home Decor - This is a decorating style which can also include the similar styles of Mission and Prairie. The furniture is generally dark oak and is void of decoration. The lines are very rectilinear and deep colors of brown, orange, gold and green are common. A comfortable, masculine look.
• Art Deco Home Decor - This style is clean lined like Contemporary, yet the lines are curved and flowing. Art Deco is also a style of art and was extremely popular in the early 1900's.
• Rustic Home Decor - This style can include Southwest and also Log Construction. It is a relaxed, laid back look that typically has lots of wood and warm rich colors.
• Victorian Home Decor - A very fussy decorating style with dark wood tones and a mixture of many different colors, all fairly dark. This look has many accessories and ornate detailing.
• Minimalist Home Decor - A type of Contemporary design style which doesn't really accessorize or add architectural detailing to the interiors. A very clean sophisticated look, however not nearly as relaxed and cozy as most other decorating styles.

• 1950's Home Decor - Colors of pink, turquoise and black. Lines are smooth and typically unadorned. Patterns are stylized stars and geometrics. Vinyl upholstery and oversized lamps rule!
• 1970's Home Decor - Believe it or not, the 1970's colors of avocado and harvest gold are a decorating style. Include door beads, bean bag chairs and bright geometric prints and you have an authentic 70's room.