Home Style Basics
A friendly guide to home style and character
A plain-language starting point for reading a home's character, covering the features that signal its style, how eras and materials build on each other, and where to begin looking.
The collection
Home Style Basics
Starting points for reading a home's character: how styles are recognized, what gives a room its personality, and how to build a home that feels like yours.
Home Style Basics
Common mistakes when mixing styles in one home
Mixed-style homes feel unsettled for a few repeatable reasons: overloading one era, ignoring scale, copying showroom looks and fighting the architecture. Learn how to spot and fix each one.
Home Style Basics
How to build a home that feels like yours over time
A home feels personal when its choices build up deliberately: a steady pace, a short list of priorities, slowly gathered objects and regular reviews of what still works.
Home Style Basics
How to tell which style a house belongs to
Work out a house's style by reading its roofline, windows, entrance, materials and interior details together, and allow for the later changes that blur most older homes.
Home Style Basics
What gives a room its personality
Personality in a room comes from proportion, honest materials and a few objects with history. Learn how ceiling height, surfaces and carefully chosen pieces give a space its own character.
Home Style Basics
What to know before changing the style of an older house
Before restyling an older house, learn what is original, which local rules may apply, what the building's own logic suggests and how to sequence decisions from structure to finish.