Hamilton interior designer Matt South often draws on a person’s clothing style to determine how to decorate their home.
But it’s not a foolproof system, the Turton/Oliver designer says and personal taste often plays a prominent part along with current trends and budgets.
South, who works predominantly on commercial projects as well as dabbling in residential, said the most common mistake home owners made when tackling the task of redecorating was focusing on the new while forgetting to incorporate their existing pieces.
“They are reinventing their look but a lot of the time if they are doing it themselves they are not taking into account what they already have, their current furniture, what they’ve always had.”
The end result could be “very mismatched”, he said.
South said it was easy to fall into the trend trap while redecorating and it could be difficult to find a balance between on-trend and longevity.
“When you’re looking at trends you just have to take little bits of that and work it back into your home in a way that is going to compliment what is already there.”
The key was to use colour and shape in a thoughtful manner, he said. While some people could afford to replace or recover a trend-orientated sofa every few years, it was not within every home owner’s budget.
“We find that we have to compete with extreme ends of the market. We see trends a long time before most consumers do – we see it in our supplies, subtly and by the time it gets to mainstream market it has been played up to its contemporary, on-trend look.”
“What we try to do, we are influenced by the trend not so much trying to copy the trend.”
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