Find Your Balance in an Eclectic Look
Can you pull off design harmony with pieces of different eras and styles? You can with our 9 top tips!
Laura Gaskill
30 December 2015
Houzz Contributor. I cover decorating ideas, Houzz tours & the monthly home maintenance checklist. My favorite pieces to write center around the emotional aspects of home and savoring life's simple pleasures. Decluttering course + discount for Houzzers: https://www.lauragaskill.com/welcome-houzzers
Houzz Contributor. I cover decorating ideas, Houzz tours & the monthly home maintenance... More
An eclectic look (one merging many different decorating styles) can have an amazing energy about it that one-note rooms simply cannot match. But creating balance can be a major challenge. How do you pull off mixing traditional antiques, modern pieces and finds from your travels in a way that feels curated and interesting, rather than chaotic and cluttered? Here are nine tips to help you hit just the right note.
1. Be purposeful with colour
A considered colour palette is a tool that can create a sense of direction in an eclectic home, allowing you to curate your home’s look. You can have a lot or a little colour – the key is to have a plan; otherwise you run the risk of ending up with a mishmash of eccentric pieces that do not harmonise.
In the space shown here, pink, purple and blue are repeated in the artwork, pillows, throw and even the spine of a book and the small potted plant on the coffee table, creating an energetic yet collected colour palette.
A considered colour palette is a tool that can create a sense of direction in an eclectic home, allowing you to curate your home’s look. You can have a lot or a little colour – the key is to have a plan; otherwise you run the risk of ending up with a mishmash of eccentric pieces that do not harmonise.
In the space shown here, pink, purple and blue are repeated in the artwork, pillows, throw and even the spine of a book and the small potted plant on the coffee table, creating an energetic yet collected colour palette.
2. Group items to make a collection
If you have three of something, you have a collection – for higher impact, put those items together rather than randomly spreading them on different surfaces. There are the obvious collections such as vases, but you can also think creatively and group other kinds of items together to give them more presence and purpose. Try grouping items by colour, shape or theme; this works for art as well as objects.
A guide to table vignettes
If you have three of something, you have a collection – for higher impact, put those items together rather than randomly spreading them on different surfaces. There are the obvious collections such as vases, but you can also think creatively and group other kinds of items together to give them more presence and purpose. Try grouping items by colour, shape or theme; this works for art as well as objects.
A guide to table vignettes
3. Balance decor styles
If your eclectic pieces don’t seem to be playing nicely together, take a quick head count and see how many items of each style you have in the room. When there is only one piece in a certain style, it can stick out more than if it had a little company. In the room shown here, for instance, the great big chinoiserie panel on the wall is subtly echoed by the lacquered side table with bamboo legs, helping the larger piece feel more at home.
Helping a lone item fit in can be as simple as adding one or two small accessories, like a candlestick or vase, in the same style. It’s important to do this in each room, so your entire space has a balanced eclectic feel – having totally different styles in each room will give you design whiplash!
If your eclectic pieces don’t seem to be playing nicely together, take a quick head count and see how many items of each style you have in the room. When there is only one piece in a certain style, it can stick out more than if it had a little company. In the room shown here, for instance, the great big chinoiserie panel on the wall is subtly echoed by the lacquered side table with bamboo legs, helping the larger piece feel more at home.
Helping a lone item fit in can be as simple as adding one or two small accessories, like a candlestick or vase, in the same style. It’s important to do this in each room, so your entire space has a balanced eclectic feel – having totally different styles in each room will give you design whiplash!
4. Build a bridge between styles
Another great way to bring divergent styles together is with a single piece that acts as a bridge between the two. The antique armchair shown here was painted electric blue and re-covered in a fresh striped fabric, but you could just as easily go the other way, pairing a modern piece with a traditional fabric and colours.
Another great way to bring divergent styles together is with a single piece that acts as a bridge between the two. The antique armchair shown here was painted electric blue and re-covered in a fresh striped fabric, but you could just as easily go the other way, pairing a modern piece with a traditional fabric and colours.
5. Use high contrast
Juxtaposing two pieces that are really different usually works better than pairing pieces that are only sort of different. In this kitchen a classic kilim rug and antique cabinet are set off by a slick swoop of ultramodern Panton chairs. Try using a gold-framed baroque mirror over a clean-lined console, a farmhouse table with Eames chairs or a carved wood daybed with a Lucite coffee table.
Love the Eames Eiffel chair
Juxtaposing two pieces that are really different usually works better than pairing pieces that are only sort of different. In this kitchen a classic kilim rug and antique cabinet are set off by a slick swoop of ultramodern Panton chairs. Try using a gold-framed baroque mirror over a clean-lined console, a farmhouse table with Eames chairs or a carved wood daybed with a Lucite coffee table.
Love the Eames Eiffel chair
6. Balance textures
Too many chipped, aged and rough textures in one room can make your space feel more like a secondhand market than the fresh, inspired room you were going for. Match worn and aged pieces with crisp, slick and shiny surfaces to strike the right balance.
Too many chipped, aged and rough textures in one room can make your space feel more like a secondhand market than the fresh, inspired room you were going for. Match worn and aged pieces with crisp, slick and shiny surfaces to strike the right balance.
7. Move your furniture
The spirit of eclectic style is about more than the pieces you choose – it’s about how you use them. Try using a side table or chair as your bedside table, a bedside table as a side table, table as desk, desk as console and so on. There is no rhyme or reason to this; just put some music on and start moving things around to find out what works … you might surprise yourself.
The spirit of eclectic style is about more than the pieces you choose – it’s about how you use them. Try using a side table or chair as your bedside table, a bedside table as a side table, table as desk, desk as console and so on. There is no rhyme or reason to this; just put some music on and start moving things around to find out what works … you might surprise yourself.
9. Relax your space with neutrals and naturals
If your space is still feeling too haphazard, try toning it down with large expanses of neutral colour on the walls, floor and big pieces of furniture. Bringing in natural materials and textures – like sisal or jute rugs, real or faux sheepskin and neutral-hued wool, linen and leather – can also go a long way toward creating harmony in an eclectic home.
Neutral rooms that banish boring
If your space is still feeling too haphazard, try toning it down with large expanses of neutral colour on the walls, floor and big pieces of furniture. Bringing in natural materials and textures – like sisal or jute rugs, real or faux sheepskin and neutral-hued wool, linen and leather – can also go a long way toward creating harmony in an eclectic home.
Neutral rooms that banish boring
9. Edit, edit, edit
Paring down and giving the eye some white space to rest on will help make your home feel calm and a pleasure to be in. If it makes it easier, allow yourself to remove things temporarily – just to see how the space looks and feels without them, before letting go permanently. Roll up a rug, remove a piece of artwork or toss a big white sheet over your most vibrant piece of furniture to get an idea of what the room would look like without it.
TELL US
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in creating an eclectic look? Share your stories in the Comments section.
MORE
So Your Style Is: Eclectic
Mix It Up: Mismatching Dining Chairs Around the World
10 Ways to Mix Historical Features Into Modern Design
Paring down and giving the eye some white space to rest on will help make your home feel calm and a pleasure to be in. If it makes it easier, allow yourself to remove things temporarily – just to see how the space looks and feels without them, before letting go permanently. Roll up a rug, remove a piece of artwork or toss a big white sheet over your most vibrant piece of furniture to get an idea of what the room would look like without it.
TELL US
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in creating an eclectic look? Share your stories in the Comments section.
MORE
So Your Style Is: Eclectic
Mix It Up: Mismatching Dining Chairs Around the World
10 Ways to Mix Historical Features Into Modern Design
Related Stories
Interior Design
The Golden Rules of Proportion: Decor Laws You Need to Know
An interior designer reveals the essential rules for achieving a perfectly balanced interior
Full Story
Most Popular
An Interior Designer's Guide to Arranging Cushions
By Anne Ellard
Get to grips with your ever-growing pile of cushions with these professional tips for choosing and arranging cushions in your home
Full Story
Decorating
The Power of Negative Space in Interior Design
By Janet Dunn
A design element that's not even there can forever change how you view your home
Full Story
Houzz Tours
Queensland Houzz: A Cute Cottage Awash With Colour and Pattern
Bold colour, quirky prints and an abundance of art transformed this 1920s cottage into an inviting and relaxing gem
Full Story
Project Of The Week
Before & After: A Cheap & Cheerful Makeover of a 1980s Caravan
Armed with an AU$1500 budget, a Melbourne couple rolled up their sleeves and transformed a caravan in just three months
Full Story
Most Popular
Ask the Experts: What Goes With Tan Leather?
Embrace this versatile material, colour and texture with inspirational ideas from designers in the know
Full Story
Most Popular
Masonry Magic: 15 Ways to Trick Out Your Exposed Brick Wall
Do you find exposed brick walls cold? Add contemporary warmth and interest with these 15 transformative ideas
Full Story
Projects Born on Houzz
Before & After: From Dump Zone to New 'Welcome Home' Living Area
Home office, yoga zone, dumping ground... this front room was having a serious identity crisis – but look at it now!
Full Story
Picture Perfect
30 Christmas Schemes to Inspire and Delight
Our coffee-break escape offers you five minutes' worth of images to inspire and delight. Jump right in...
Full Story
Most Popular
16 Clever Ways to Create Zones in Open-Plan Spaces
Create distinct areas in large, open rooms with these creative design ideas – no walls or other fixed vertical structures required!
Full Story
My biggest challenge would be to use or not to use color. I tend to ponder a lot even just buying a simple vase or table lamp. Will it go with the decor that I'm having? should I go for neutral? Should I just go with my guts?
So I guess the only neutral that I pick will be on a large part of the house like the walls, tiles, sink, parts that are costly to tweak in the future. And the rest.... colors and more colors :D
I absolutely love the idea of group items to make a collection...I have so many similar items around the house just waiting to be grouped...Genius!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DesperateDesigner?ref=hdr_shop_menu