Photography: Mindi Cooke | Styling: Carlene Duffy | Artwork: Dean Reilly
There are many tips and tricks to understand your home style. From crafting mood boards to visiting your favourite clothing store, there are many places one can find inspiration. However, the easiest might be looking inside your own wardrobe.
This is an old interior designer’s trick. Peek inside your client’s closet to understand if they skew more classic and minimal, romantic or eclectic.
Even recently, the idea was endorsed by the likes of James Treble and Briellyn Turton on Home Beautiful‘s The Edit podcast.
However, we’ve now had another guest willing to provide a – very well informed – rebuttal. Genevieve Smart, Australian fashion designer and co-founder of label Ginger & Smart, claims the wardrobe method isn’t the reliable indicator of home style we wish it was.
Fashion is where you express yourself that day, and your home is where you come to recover from being in the world.
— Genevieve Smart, Fashion Designer
“I think [fashion and interiors have] similarities in that you’re expressing yourself in some way. [My home is] layered, and things are collected over time. I feel the same with my wardrobe. Similarly, with interiors, if you’ve got a red book, that can often frame the room the same way as a red sweater can [frame an outfit] around your waist,” Smart began on The Edit podcast.
“I think there’s a styling element…but I think they do quite different things,” she continued. “Fashion is how you express yourself in the world that day, and your home is where you come to recover from the being in the world. I just think they’re doing different things.”
Listen to Genevieve Smart on The Edit podcast:
Interior designers might argue that, yes, of course there are exceptions to the rule. They also might agree that using the wardrobe method is largely about curation and distillation: Using visual clues to discern what a client cannot themselves verbalise or even decide upon.
“I think people get a little bit overwhelmed, especially because there’s so much information flooded through social media of the expectation of what you’re supposed to look like,” James Treble tells Home Beautiful. It’s in this instance that you can turn to your wardrobe to get a better idea. Here’s how to do it yourself.
Use an outfit to decorate your home: A step-by-step guide
It’s an old interior stylist’s trick — if you’re trying to understand how a person wants to style their home, head to their wardrobe. James recommends this for anyone who isn’t sure where to start. “Sometimes for people who are a bit lost, go to your wardrobe and pull out some outfits that you like,” he says.
The idea is that your personal style will extend to your taste in decor. And in the words of Home Beautiful Editor Elle Lovelock: “If you can put together an outfit, you can decorate a home.” Here’s your fool-proof guide to getting it done.
1. Pull out your favourite clothing items
(Credit: Photographer: Hannah Puechmarin; Stylist: Cheryl Carr)
“[It can be] a skirt or a scarf or that crazy Camilla [outfit], or for the guys, it can be clothing as well, or an object — a car or a fishing rod, whatever. It doesn’t matter, it’s inspiration for what the home means to you,” James says.
Listen to James Treble on The Edit podcast:
While it’s true that you can use any object in your style-finding process, from artworks to birthday cards to flowers, your wardrobe may be the most self-evident tool at your disposal. Why? “We wear what makes us feel confident,” Elle Lovelock explains. “Without even thinking about it, you curate your own look and your own sense of style.” And even if you think you’re on auto-pilot choosing what to wear every day, within your closet is an existing collection of things you really do like. “In my in own wardrobe, I wear a lot of blue and white, and without realising, that’s the palette of my own home,” Elle adds.
So, step one is to go to your closet and pull out the items you return to again and again; pieces that really make your heart sing. This includes clothing as well as accessories (bags, shoes, jewellery etc.).
Then, lay them out so you can see everything together.
2. Identify themes
Looking at these pieces, try and identify common themes among fabrics, textures, time periods, patterns, colours and so on.
“Do you like sharp tailoring, do you like suiting? Do you like something really relaxed items, like linen shirts or denim jeans? Do you like bright colours? Is this something you would like to live in and be surrounded by? If you like statement jewellery, perhaps you’ll see furniture in the same way,” Elle offers.
You can then translate your preferred items into home styles. For example, if your wardrobe is chock-full of crisp and clean basics, you might like a Japandi home. Always reaching for your linen shirt? Perhaps a coastal aesthetic might suit you. Did you pick an antique brooch? You might be at home in a Regency-inspired era. If you like to wear your jeans with a leather biker jacket, you might lean towards Industrial style. If prefer to style them with a button-up shirt and barn jacket, farmhouse or country could be your thing. Is your wardrobe more glam or rustic? Is it refined or relaxed? Try and reach for themes or even keywords (light, airy, warm, rich, luxe etc.) as opposed to literal interpretations.
“It’s the essence of it, instead of [making it] too literal. You’re not creating a theme park. You’re creating something that has the feel of that space or the style that you’re putting together.”
— James Treble, Interior Designer
If you’re looking at your clothes thinking, “this doesn’t seem to reflect my favourite homes styles at all…”, Elle thinks you might be an exception to the rule. “This is the minority, I think, but some people want to live in the opposite of what they wear. So, if you dress in all colour, perhaps the environment you crave is actually more neutral. Or if you’re someone who wears black day-in-day-out, perhaps the environment you want to live in is full of patterns and bold designs,” she shares.
3. Apply it to your home
“Remember that you are dealing with home,” James reminds. “There’s a structural real estate overlay. What does the house look like? What is the architectural style of the house? Where is it located?”
Answering these questions will help you avoid leaning into a look that ultimately isn’t going to work because it clashes with your foundations. You may not be able to nail mid-century modern in an 1880s townhouse, or it will probably look wrong to deck out a beach house in a Gothic style. Part of the fun is marrying elements of your personal style with the home you’re working with.
Fortunately, sometimes tweaks can be made. To use James’ example: If you love coastal Hamptons but your floorplan or architecture is more contemporary or doesn’t match, there are small, non-invasive tweaks you can make (like wainscoting or panelling) that capture the “essence” of your dream style.
“It’s the essence of it instead of [making it] too literal. You’re not creating a theme park. You’re creating something that has the feel of that space or the style that you’re putting together,” James says.
Learn more about creating your personal home style with James Treble on The Edit podcast, available to watch on YouTube or your chosen podcast platform.
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