Make it yours: finding your personal style interior workshop with USM [ad]

[AD – this is a paid partnership with USM. All images of USM furniture courtesy of USM, images of the interiors workshop: Cate St Hill]

On Tuesday evening, I had the pleasure of hosting an interiors workshop for 20 like-minded creatives and interior enthusiasts in the inspiring setting of the USM showroom in London’s Clerkenwell.

Titled ‘Make it yours’, the focus of the evening was on personal style – connecting back to USM’s ethos of function and versatility, allowing the user to customise a modular storage system to suit their tastes and needs.

It was a lovely, relaxed and uplifting evening, where we really dug deep into the psychology of the home and how to create a space that better reflects your own unique style. Because I believe a home should be your own personal sanctuary, a carefully curated space where you can be yourself and feel calm and connected with your surroundings.

A home should tell a story about your lifestyle, tastes and everything that means the most to you. Personal style is about getting to know your home better but it’s also about getting to know yourself on a deeper level, so that your interior can work hard for you and evolve with your changing needs or moods.

During the three hour workshop we looked closely at personality traits and designing for introverts and extroverts; the basics of colour psychology and some theories on seasonal personalities; and the ten interior styles that can be used as inspiration to form your own aesthetic. Once everyone had defined their personality type and what they wanted from a space, how they reacted to colour and which interior style they identified with, they were able to put everything they learnt into practice and create a beautiful mood board to take away with them at the end of the evening. The bubbles flowed a plenty (the last spritz’s of the season!) and guests left with a special goodie bag filled with Swiss treats.

I’m hoping to do more interior workshops in the near future, but in the meantime here’s a few takeaways from the evening if you too would like to hone in on your personal style and make it yours!

1. Personal style takes time to evolve
As frustrating as it is, it takes time to hone a style that’s completely unique and yours alone. It doesn’t always come immediately and it’s not something that can necessarily be taught. Some people have a strong personal style that just seems to come naturally, for others it will be a bit harder to come by.

And that’s OK. It’s a process of trial and error; you just have to embrace all those ups and downs. I think you sometimes need to go on that journey and make design mistakes in order to really know what it is you want from a space. You may also need to live in a home for a period of time before getting straight to work – to understand all the little nuances of the space, from how the light changes throughout the day to how you move around the room.

2. Step away from the screen and focus on you
You can look on Pinterest or Instagram for inspiration of perfectly finished interiors, but it helps to step away from the screen and focus intently and solely on you.

As the name suggests, personal style comes down to your personality; everything that makes you, you. If you design for your personality type, I believe that space will better help you thrive and feel more at home.

3. Embrace a slower approach
Instead of rushing into design decisions, it sometimes pays to take a slower, more mindful approach to decorating. It’s important to really think about how you’re going to be using each space, who’s going to be using it and how you want your home to feel. If you design for you, your interior is much more likely to endure and stand the test of time, way past fleeting fashions that could come and go.

4. Take note of trends but don’t be a slave to them
It’s good to be aware of trends or particular movements, but I think it’s important not to take them too literally. You don’t want to turn your home into a cliche or it to look like something you’ve copied directly from a magazine. Your home should have its own unique character that you can’t find anywhere else.

That’s why I particularly connect with USM – they have never followed trends; while other brands may launch new products each season, USM has been refining the same system since the Sixties.

So look at trends and keep up to date with what’s going on in the design world, but always think about how it marries up with your own style. Would you have it in your home if it wasn’t for it being on trend?

5. Define your personal values
It helps to define your personal style – either with a set of words or something visual and creative like a vision or mood board. This can act as your design standard, something you can keep referring to as you build up an interior scheme and decorate your home.

For the workshop, I had a set of worksheets to help guests define their personal values – they could circle and pick from a range of adjectives to best describe their personality. I used a similar technique when I was building up my brand and style – I have a list of words and I use them to check in with myself for any new project, so everything ties together with a common thread.

It’s easy to get distracted by what someone else is doing or something you’ve seen on Instagram, or even a new design you’ve seen while out shopping, but keep coming back to the key elements of your style and it will prevent the design concept from getting too confused further down the line.

6. Focus on how you want your home to feel, as much as how it looks
Aesthetics count for a lot but first appearances aren’t everything – you’ll be better rewarded in the long-term if you concentrate on how you want your home to feel to be in as well as, if not more than, how it looks.

Your personal style and all the finishing touches will help convey a feeling, whether a space is warm and cosy, relaxed and easy-going, or playful and uplifting. Carefully consider the colours you’re drawn to and what mood they give, and think about the ambience you can create with little details, tactile materials and certain focal points.

Most of all, design for you and use your home to express yourself. When it comes to your interior, there should be no rules, whether you’re a maximalist or minimalist, functionalist or bohemian. Just make it yours!