Discovering your personal style is one of the most powerful steps you can take when designing your home. It helps you make styling choices with confidence, avoids costly mistakes, and brings a sense of calm and cohesion to your space. Most importantly, your style should reflect who you are and not what's trending or what others expect.

Your personal style isn’t something to “get right”, it evolves just like you do. Here’s how to uncover and express it in your home.

1. Start With a Feeling

Think about how you want your home or a specific space to feel.
Do you want your living area to feel calm and minimal? Warm and inviting? Playful and creative?

Rather than focusing on looks, start with the vibe. Reframe any negative feelings you have about a space and instead, ask yourself:

What do I want this room to mean for our family?
What energy do I want to feel here—comfort, connection, focus, ease?

Try this: Write down 3-5 words for each room: e.g., “calm, light, safe” for a bedroom, or “creative, fun, colourful” for a kids’ play area.

2. Shop Your Own Home

Before you buy anything new, take a walk through your home as you might already have what you need.
Pull out things from storage, repurpose pieces you love, and see what you can move around.

Your wardrobe is also a great source of inspiration. Notice which colours and fabrics you’re drawn to. Chances are, your home style overlaps with your fashion choices.

Tip: Find your favourite room and ask yourself what you love about it? Is it the textures, layout, or feelings it brings? Use that as a styling clue.

3. Identify What Doesn’t Work

If you're unsure where to begin, identifying what doesn’t work can be just as powerful as knowing what you love. Reflect on things you’ve already tried in your home that didn’t quite feel right. Maybe you experimented with minimalism but found it too bare, or tried bold colours that didn’t feel calming. This kind of self-awareness is valuable and can help you avoid repeating styling missteps.

Try this: Walk through each room and make a quick list of elements that feel “off”. Maybe it’s the colour palette, furniture scale, lighting, or layout. Use this insight to help guide you to make more intentional changes.

4. Collect Inspiration Without Overthinking

Start gathering images that make you smile. Whether it’s on Pinterest, Instagram, or from a magazine, just save what feels right and don’t overthink it.

Don’t worry if your saved images don’t look like a single “style.” You’re not trying to fit into a box, you’re building your own unique blend of what you love.

Try this: Choose your top 5–10 inspiration images and jot down a few words about what you love:

“Natural light and linen curtains”
“The warm wood tones”
“Feels peaceful and cozy”

This will help you identify patterns like colours, textures, or layouts that truly resonate.

5. Use Nature as a Style Guide

Spend some time in nature and notice what you're naturally drawn to. What truly lights you up. Are you most inspired by coastal scenes or forest trails? Then dig a little deeper: is it the soft coastal blues, sandy neutrals, leafy greens, or the earthy browns of soil that speak to you?

Nature is the ultimate mood board. Drawing from it helps you create a home that feels grounded, timeless, and calming. Look for ways to incorporate natural elements like timber, stone, greenery, and linen into your space. These organic touches not only connect your home to the outdoors but they also help bring a sense of peace and harmony inside.

6. Add Personal Touches (Not Perfection)

The most beautifully styled homes are the ones with heart.

Showcase things that matter to your family—framed children’s art, a cozy quilt from grandma, family photos, travel keepsakes. These details tell your story, and they make a house feel like home.

Idea: Choose one item per room that’s deeply personal, and style around it. A drawing, a photo, a book—even a favourite mug!

7. Make It Functional for Your Life

Style is only successful if it supports your day-to-day life.

Ask yourself:

Do you need wipeable fabrics for kids and pets?
Is your kitchen set up to flow well during busy mornings?
Could your work-from-home space be more inspiring and ergonomic?

Create zones—even in small spaces—for different needs.
Try this:

A reading nook with a soft beanbag, lamp, and diffuser
An art cart on wheels for the kids
A calm-down corner with a cozy chair and books

Even tiny touches of function can improve how your home works and feels.

8. Mix and Match with Confidence

Blending different styles in your home creates a space that feels thoughtfully curated and uniquely yours. You’re absolutely allowed to love more than one style—combining them is what makes your home personal and full of character! The key is to repeat tones, textures, or materials to create a sense of cohesion. Timber furnishings are especially great for this. Don’t shy away from mixing light and dark woods, or pairing a rustic timber piece with more modern or coastal elements. Mixing timber tones adds warmth, contrast, and visual interest—helping your space feel intentional, not overly coordinated.

8. Let It Evolve Over Time

You don’t need to overhaul everything overnight.

Start small. Swap out a cushion, restyle a shelf, or make one corner feel more like you. As time passes, your home will gently shape itself around your lifestyle and taste. Remember, you’re allowed to change your mind. That’s not inconsistency, it’s growth.

Final Thoughts…

Finding your personal style isn’t about chasing perfection, it’s about crafting a space that feels right for you and your family. Start with feeling, use what you have, blend inspiration with meaning and let it evolve.

8 Simple Steps to Curate Your Own Personal Style