What’s your Design Style? 

Here are a few to choose from, but there are plenty more!

Traditional styles are rich in scale, texture and visual weight.  Furniture has rounded corners, but clean edges.  Patterns are aplenty: toile, damask, floral and stripe.  Dark cherry tones as well as mahogany on cabinetry and floors. Think brocades and tapestries and Persian rugs, oil paintings and porcelain.  Southern Living is in the mailbox because this is the most common Washington DC design. Go to Ethan Allen for a double shot of Traditional. 

Country styles are casual.  Furniture is slip-covered or soft and loose in cotton canvas.  Patterns are light, with stripes and petite florals.  Wood is grained and natural or painted.  Think quilts and jelly jars and braided rugs.  Read about it in Better Homes and Gardens and buy the style at Pottery Barn.

Contemporary is clean and restrained.  Straight lines dominate and not much is left to whimsy.  Fabrics are tight, in bold colors as well as neutrals.  Texture is emphasised over pattern. Think modern art and statuary, graphic boldness and light woods.   Contemporary is selling, so everyone seems to be offering it.  See it on TV, and read about it in Metropolitan Home. Crate and Barrel makes it accessible to middle America.

There are more styles…which are you?