HOME STYLE
Let Your Home Tell Your Story
The colours you love, the textures you choose, the memories you keep… Your choices create your home's personality.
When we walk into a home, we learn a great deal about its owner before we have even met them. A shawl left on the sofa, books lying on their side on a shelf, a painting on the wall or flowers renewed on the table every day… These come not from a decorating catalogue but from a life that has been lived.
A good home is built not with the most expensive things, but with choices that resemble its owner. In this issue we interpret a single living room with eight different personalities. The same walls, the same window, the same seating layout… Only the colours, textures and small details change. The result is eight different homes and eight different stories.
Our aim is not to place you in a style; it is to help you recognise your own style and bring it into your home.
Begin with colour
Colour is what changes the mood of a room fastest. Start not with trends but with the colours that feel good to you. Look at your wardrobe, a painting you love or a view you keep turning back to; your colours are very often already there.
When distributing the colours you have found around the room, a simple ratio makes things easier:
– About 60% of the room in the main colour: walls, a large rug, curtains.
– About 30% in a supporting colour: the sofa, an armchair, large pieces of furniture.
– About 10% in an accent colour: cushions, vases, a painting, a shawl.
If a bold colour makes you hesitate, try it first in the 10% area. A cushion or a vase will show you whether you really love that colour before you paint the wall.
When choosing a wall colour, look at the sample on different walls of the room, in morning and evening light. The same colour looks cooler in north light and warmer under an evening lamp.
Find your style: the same living room, eight personalities
The eight interpretations below show the same living room. Look for the one closest to you; but you don't have to choose just one. Most of our homes are a meeting of two styles.
1. Romantic and Floral
Who is it for? Those who love memories, flowers and soft textures; who welcome their guests with care and a cup of tea.
Colours: powder pink, dusty rose, cream, pale sage green.
Materials: floral linen, velvet, porcelain, soft brass details.
Signature piece: a floral bergère or an armchair upholstered in fabric.
Watch out: pattern on every surface tires the eye. Balance one large pattern, one small pattern and one plain fabric.
November touch: a dusty-rose velvet cushion and dried hydrangeas in a vase.
2. Colourful and Artistic
Who is it for? Those who are curious and creative, who love visiting exhibitions and keeping pieces at home that start conversations.
Colours: saffron yellow, petrol blue, coral and emerald green on a calm base.
Materials: velvet, coloured glass, handmade ceramics, hand-woven kilims.
Signature piece: a large painting that sets the colours of the room.
Watch out: rather than choosing colours one by one, take them from your painting. When you repeat three colours from the painting in the cushions, vases and kilim, the room looks deliberate, not cluttered.
November touch: an amber glass vase and a saffron-yellow shawl left on the sofa.
3. Natural and Warm
Who is it for? Those who love calm, nature and materials that feel good to the touch.
Colours: sand beige, olive green, earth tones, chestnut.
Materials: solid wood, linen, wool, jute, rattan, natural stone.
Signature piece: a solid wood coffee table with visible grain.
Watch out: a room entirely in one tone can look dull over time. A dark wooden frame, an olive-green cushion or a black lamp base adds depth to the room.
November touch: a chunky knitted wool blanket and olive branches in a large vase.
4. Modern and Glamorous
Who is it for? Those who are self-assured, love parties and elegant evenings and look for the elegance of a hotel lobby at home.
Colours: ivory, black, burgundy, antique gold.
Materials: marble, lacquered surfaces, polished brass, velvet, mirror.
Signature piece: a marble coffee table or a sculptural chandelier.
Watch out: when every surface shines, the room looks cold. Balance glossy surfaces with matt velvet, a wool rug or linen curtains.
November touch: burgundy velvet cushions and flameless candles of different heights on the coffee table.
5. Bohemian
Who is it for? Those who love travelling, collecting, layering and handmade things; whose homes are full of plants, kilims and souvenirs of journeys.
Colours: earthy red, mustard, cream, olive and dark green, indigo.
Materials: hand-woven kilims, macramé, rattan, cotton and linen, handmade ceramics, plenty of plants.
Signature piece: a low, comfortable sofa covered with layered kilims and patterned cushions.
Watch out: even with many layers, it shouldn't look chaotic: limit the colours to two or three families, and let one pattern lead while the others support it.
November touch: a thick kilim, a wool blanket, a large pouf on the floor and a big evergreen plant in the corner.
6. Masculine
Who is it for? Those who love clean lines, the weight of leather and dark wood, calm and strong spaces; who want a living room where everyone at home, especially the men, feels most at ease, a room where people sit down and stay.
Colours: midnight blue, anthracite, dark brown, dark green, copper.
Materials: leather, dark walnut, dark steel and metal, wool, velvet, copper and aged brass.
Signature piece: a worn cognac leather armchair or a dark wooden bookcase covering the wall.
Watch out: if everything is dark, the room feels heavy. A light-coloured rug, a cream lampshade and a few light-toned objects balance the light.
November touch: a thick wool blanket, old bound books on the shelf and a copper lamp beside the leather armchair.
7. Avant-garde
Who is it for? Those who love being bold, art and unusual forms; who want their home to spark curiosity like a gallery.
Colours: white, black, grey and a single strong accent colour (cobalt blue).
Materials: concrete, glass, matt metal, stone, sculptural forms.
Signature piece: an armchair of unusual shape that stands like a sculpture, or a coffee table that is a work of art.
Watch out: if every piece demands attention, the room becomes an exhibition and the living space is lost. Choose only one or two bold pieces; keep the rest simple and calm.
November touch: a single dried branch in a sculptural vase and a single stone or concrete object on the coffee table.
8. Opulent
Who is it for? Those who love grandeur, sparkle and grand entertaining; who want everyone entering their home to feel as if they have stepped into a palace.
Colours: gold, ivory, champagne, royal blue, emerald green.
Materials: gilded carved wood, marble, crystal, silk, brocade, velvet and satin.
Signature piece: a crystal chandelier and a gilded, carved, button-tufted sofa.
Watch out: this style relies on abundance and display; but if every surface is gold, the room feels heavy. Choose one or two main statement pieces and calm the rest with cream and ivory.
November touch: tasselled silk curtain tie-backs, velvet cushions and crystal candlesticks on the coffee table.
Eight styles at a glance
– Romantic and Floral: soft, powder-toned, full of memories.
– Colourful and Artistic: bold colours, a large painting, pieces that start conversations.
– Natural and Warm: wood, linen, jute; a calm you never tire of touching.
– Modern and Glamorous: ivory, black, burgundy and gold; the elegance of a hotel lobby.
– Bohemian: kilims, plants and souvenirs of journeys; layered and handmade.
– Masculine: leather, dark wood, metal; simple, strong and comfortable.
– Avant-garde: sculptural forms, a single bold colour; the feel of a gallery.
– Opulent: gold, crystal and silk; palatial abundance.
Ask yourself to find your style
– What was the hotel or café where you felt most at ease like?
– Which colours are there most of in your wardrobe?
– When you buy something, do you look first at its colour, its texture or its story?
– Which is your favourite object at home, and why?
– What would you like your guests to feel as they leave your home?
If most of your answers point in the same direction, you have found your style.
Combine textures
Even a room in a single colour looks alive with the right textures. Velvet reflects light softly; linen gives ease; wood adds warmth; glass and metal bring sparkle to the room.
Use at least three different textures in a room: a soft fabric, a natural material and a shiny surface. For example, a linen sofa, a wooden coffee table and a brass lamp base complement one another.
If you are combining two styles, choose one as the main style. Let about 70% of the home carry your main style and 30% your second. That way your home looks personal rather than mixed. A marble coffee table added to a natural, warm living room, or a single modern lamp in a romantic room, are lovely examples of this balance.
Add personal touches
What truly makes a home yours are the pieces found in no other home: a family photograph, a ceramic brought back from a journey, your child's first drawing, a plate from your mother.
Displaying these pieces together is more effective than scattering them around the house:
– Wall arrangement: lay the frames out on the floor and try the layout there first. Leave equal spacing between the frames; the centre of the whole arrangement should be at eye level.
– Shelf composition: stand some of the books upright and lay some flat. Use objects of three different heights together; leave part of the shelf empty.
– Frames: frames in the same colour or the same material bring different photographs together as a whole.
We look separately at the meaning of objects and their place in the home in this issue's Zarif Energy section.
Refresh with small changes
Changing a room's mood doesn't require new furniture. Four small touches are often enough:
– Cushions: add colour and texture with the season by changing the covers. Velvet and wool in November, linen in summer.
– Lampshade: replacing a white lampshade with a linen or pleated one completely changes the evening light.
– Painting: when the place of a single painting on the wall, or the painting itself, changes, the room looks rearranged.
– Rug: the rug sets the colour base of the room. A warmer-toned rug quickly softens a cool living room.
The tablecloth and napkins in this issue's Zarif Atelier section could be the first small touch you add to your home with your own hands.
HOME STYLE NOTE
Your home is never set up once and finished; it changes with you. A new book, a souvenir of a journey, a cushion that changes with the season… Each one adds another piece of you to your home. Rather than following a decorating rule, make choices that let you say "this place is like me" every time you come home.
In future issues we will go on interpreting the same living room with new personalities.