I was pleased to be featured this week in an article by Dering Hall aboutSubway Tile in the Kitchen and it reminded me of a common dilemma many home owners face…
No matter how stunning, exciting, or luscious we find tile, for most of us, choosing a kitchen tile can be an agonizing experience! When you combine the fear of getting it wrong with the fear of wasting money on something you don’t truly love (or may get tired of), you’ve got a perfect storm leading to….. SAFE CHOICES.
What if I told you that you could find a kitchen tile so perfect that you would smile every time you walk into the room?
To do that, you need to get to know your OWN TASTES in color and texture.
This is your aesthetic – the things that make you feel alive.
The client’s kitchen, above, happens to sport her favorite color of all time – indigo blue, harking back to her exotic travels and roots in the American West. This rich and deep color is reflective of her style – which is Sensual (and also Traditional). Sensual-Traditionalists will layer, mix and match lots of colors and textures that tell a story about where they’ve been.
This client, too (above), also happens to be a Sensualist with a passion for indigo. The difference being that he is a Sensual-Modernist. His expressive tile choice was to wrap the whole wall of the kitchen and use the same color in the dining room wallpaper beyond. Sensual-Modernists like to color-block whole rooms or design features because they never bore of their rich, exotic, dramatic color choices.
Contrast the preceding choices with that of a Practicalist, who may be a busy mom, as this one above, who wants a hint of color in the kitchen – still blue, but now a soft blue grey. We put the blue grey in the cabinets, (though we debated putting it in the tile) because that is what she remembers seeing in homes in New Orleans, where she grew up. Practical-Traditionalists love designs that are timeless and classic.
This Practical-Modernist couple chose instead to put the blue in the tile (less safe), but toned it down so that it is almost a neutral, and feels very clean and bright . Practical-Modernists like to keep things more streamlined and functional.
The truth is, once you take the time to discover the keys to your aesthetic (those things that make you feel alive) , I can’t say that you will never again have to agonize over a décor choice. But you will begin to understand where you’re coming from, and end up making a choice that you will really love. And that is the key to creating your own Soulful Home.
To begin to find out your own design style, get The Soulful Home Design Style Compass by clicking the button below.
Find your Style Direction by getting a copy of my Design Style Compass. Just click the button the button below.
Click the button below to check out the Dering Hall article that inspired this post. You will love the Kitchens you see. Don’t forget inspiration comes from everywhere!
