Interior Design and Personal Style

Beauty, function, and personality: in our view, they’re three of the very best reasons to work with a professional interior designer. Experienced interior designers who are trained in the art of creating rooms that are special understand the importance of unique-to-you spaces – and how to achieve them.

Here are six tips and tricks from the interior design team at Morgante Wilson Architects to ensure your home showcases your personal style:

Ask yourself what makes you happy

For these homeowners, gathering with friends and family around the dinner table is a highlight of the day. And if the gathering lasts long into the night, with much merriment, laughter, and good conversation, the end result is a feeling of contentment they cherish with profound gratitude. So, it’s no wonder much thought went into choosing dining chairs that are so incredibly comfortable, family and friends hesitate to leave the table. Sure, there were plenty of attractive chairs we could have selected. But understanding how important it was to our clients to make memories over good food, we pushed to find a chair style that would help them achieve that goal.

Celebrate your art

Whether paintings, sketches, textiles, or three-dimensional works of art, if you love them, showcase them! If it moves you, intrigues you, or causes you to pause for a moment of appreciation, highlight it. In this case, we hung a trio of textural pieces on a wood-clad wall to create a gallery-like scene. Subtle downlighting draws attention to them; a built-in bench opposite offers an invitation to contemplate their beauty.

Do something unexpected

Why furnish a space the usual way if you have the option to do something a little different? This room could have just as easily been furnished with a pair of sofas opposite each other. Instead, we elected to suspend identical upholstered daybeds from chains to evoke the nostalgia of swinging on a porch. Imagine taking a nap here, or catching your teens sharing confidences as they gently sway back and forth. Both experiences would somehow be made more memorable than if we’d gone the traditional route and placed two couches here instead.

Design around your hobbies

We created a variation on the basement man cave for an avid bike rider who enjoys relaxing with friends in this deeply personalized space. Originally a garage, we transformed it into a one-of-a-kind bike lounge that even caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal!

Accentuate your location

One of the easiest ways to personalize your home is to let its location dictate your design choices. If you’re lucky enough to live on a beach, let the sand, seas, and skies star and choose furnishings that allow them to shine. If your home is in the mountains, fill it with fabrics and finishes that echo its woodsy surroundings. Taking inspiration from your home’s natural setting is a surefire means of making it your own.

Be bold with color

If you have the courage, adding a pop of well-placed color is a proven method of making a design statement unlike any other. Here, we lacquered cabinetry in a deep marine blue to wake up an otherwise mostly-neutral space. Relegating the saturated color to just one wall creates an instant focal point that’s memorable without being overwhelming.

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Morgante Wilson Architects provides architectural and interior design services in Chicago, Deerfield, Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Kenilworth, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Northfield, Ravinia, Wilmette, and Winnetka – along with Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.