How it feels to find your own unique style

We’re gonna get a little emotional today. Not sappy or anything, but just a lil bit sentimental. As I’ve said from the beginning of this blog, I had my hands in interior design for as long as I can remember. At one point, yes, those freehand black and red circles I painted on my wall did seem fashionable. I tried on many styles for size and thought that my taste was the shit. But after all these years of following the trends I thought I needed to, I feel like I am finally falling into finding my own unique style.

and it feels fucking great

I was scrolling through Apartment Therapy the other day and came across this article that talked about the milestone of your first “glown up” apartment. And it really moved something in me and made me realize how far I’ve come in my own interior design journey.

What makes me feel especially sentimental is not that I have finally mastered the art of interior design. Because that’s just honestly not possible. It’s all so subjective, and even those subjective aspects themselves are constantly evolving with the times.

This is not to say that knowing trends is unimportant by any means. It’s so important to just know what’s out there. But when you can take these trends, evaluate them, reform them a little to fit your own taste, and then put it into action, that’s the sweet spot.

When interior design looks a little stale or boring, a good amount of the time, it stems from following an “aesthetic” too closely. Trends are not meant to be prescriptive. There’s not a handbook, at least not one you should take as bible, that tells you “if you do this, this, and this, you will have the perfect modern aesthetic for your home.” Take what moves you and combine it with other things that move you.

That can be really intimidating at first when you just want to figure out how to create “good design.” You don’t want to break the rules. I 100% get that. Shit, that was me sometimes even when I started this blog a little under a year ago. It takes confidence and comfort to get to that level. But if you keep going and learning, you’ll get there.

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once you find that trust within yourself and give yourself permission to break the rules, the design world is yours

Blonde girl standing in from of sofa table and teal couch -- finding your unique style for interior design

The best designers push the envelope. And they can do this because they trust themselves to just feel when something is right, even if the “rules of design” might tell them otherwise.

Now I’m no Kelly Wearstler, and I have a long way to go to get there. But what I can say is I’m finally getting to the point where I don’t feel the need to define my style completely. Sure, it leans midcentury modern, but I give it personality by bringing in things that just feel good to me. It truly is just becoming my own unique style.

Fine tuning this instinct and learning to trust my own eye is a great thing.

I hope that this blog can continue to be a place that can help you craft your own unique style of design as I continue to mold mine.

keep it homey, homies

About me

Hey my name’s Hannah Michelle Lambert, the voice behind homey homies. I’m an LA-based designer, writer, and content strategist. I’m passionate about the intersection of productivity and creativity. I love talking about creative habits, technology, processes, and everything in between that helps me blend the Type A and Type B parts of my brain.