Modern Rustic, French & English Country, Spanish Cottage and other primitive styles.

A friend of mine may have the opportunity to completely decorate an entire house sometime in the next year or so.  And that can be a kind of daunting task.  Especially if you're pretty much starting from scratch trying to build a whole decor and style that reflect who you are while being fun and new and hopefully current.

We started brain storming what her tastes are, and she had a pretty good idea of the sort of things she likes - many of the elements, without necessarily knowing what the over-all style would be.  She referred to it as 'eclectic'.  Which I often hear people say when they are at a bit of a loss for how their various components and styles all fit together.  But we came up with some styles that are definitely her and then we came up with a way for her to incorporate them all into something uniquely perfect. 

And this process is something you can do yourself if you aren't positive what your style should be.

We started out knowing she likes shabby chic (kind of - she likes many of the elements of it but she's not sold on all the white washed stuff and the pastels):

Although lots of cute things here, it isn't quite exactly what she's looking for.  And the shabby thing feels kind of tired sometimes.

Next up we looked at french and english country:

 

There are a lot of things she likes here, though some elements get a little too cluttered and stuffy.  Then we looked at Cottage Style:

Here some of the farm house elements are appreciated.  But it's still a bit of a confluence of styles that really appeals to her.  Next we looked at Modern Country:

The cleaner lines of modern country are a great element here.  We also looked at Rustic:

 

and here, it kind of felt like we were getting someone - a mix of different styles combining elements of things she likes and defining her own goals and style.  What ended up being discovered is that she loved the idea of creating a sort of new genre (though not totally) - and we kind of dubbed it Spanish Cottage.  Since she will be (more than likely) in a stucco home, and she loves aboriginal art and artifacts from Mexico, Central and South America, combining elements of all of these felt like it would be creating a beautiful Spanish Cottage.

Maybe a little like some of these elements: 

I love this idea.  It was fun kind of trying to figure out how to mix styles and elements to come up with something that would work to incorporate all the things she likes.