WEEKLY STUDIO SPOTLIGHT: PERSONAL HOME STYLE

How to understand your interests in music and translate them into your home decor.

DESIGN STYLE: Figuring out your design style isn't always as easy as getting dressed in the morning, but I promise it certainly can be. We work with clients all the time who have amazing taste, know exactly who they are as confident people in the world, have great jobs, understand their personal clothing style, and even know things they like and don't like.... but, they don't have the slightest clue how to translate that into their own home as their design style, and how to bring all of their likes together.

Today, we're going to show you a few tips and tricks that we use as designers to really get a hold on someone's personal design style, and how you can practice this everyday at home when you're designing or out shopping for your little abode.

STEP 1: WHAT'S YOUR MUSIC STYLE

Music taste can say a lot about someone. The notes, the tune, the pace, the vibe, and the artist all attribute something that you gravitate towards. We often lean on 4 main genres/artists in music to help determine our clients design style. You don't have to be directly obsessed with just one of these artists, but we're pretty confident that you gravitate and relate towards one artist more than the others.

We refer to these artists as the "A.B.L.E. DESIGN LIST"

//////////// AKA: ARETHA, BETHOVEN, LENNON, ELVIS

STEP 2: DEFINING EACH ARTIST

How do we take someones favorite music style and turn it into an actionable design palette for a room? Well, each artist is synonymous with something. Check our "SLOANE & STUDIO A.B.L.E. DESIGN LIST" below and have fun exploring and pinning the corresponding mood boards we use.

Are you Glam, Traditional, Eclectic, or Modern?

A > ARETHA: Strong. Colorful. Feminine. Bright. Glam. Full. Retro. Pop. Statement Pieces.

B > BEETHOVEN: Traditional. European. Grand. Elevated. Rich. Versailles. Artistic. Tufted. Gold.

L > LENNON: Tribal. Worldly. Eclectic. Brown Leather. Wood. Traveled. Bohemian. Vintage.

E > ELVIS: Chrome. Black Leather. Fine Lines. Modern. Rich. Hi-Gloss. Metallic. Black & White.

STEP 3: GETTING A VISUAL ON YOUR A.B.L.E DESIGN ARTIST

1/ ARETHA FRANKLIN

Strong. Colorful. Feminine. Bright. Glam. Full. Retro. Pop. Statement.

Aretha Franklin is one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. More than any other performer, she epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged. Her astonishing run of late-'60s hits with Atlantic Records -- "Respect," "I Never Loved a Man," "Chain of Fools," "Baby I Love You," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Think," "The House That Jack Built," and several others -- earned her the title "Lady Soul," which she has worn uncontested ever since. Yet as much of an international institution as she's become, much of her work -- outside of her recordings for Atlantic in the late '60s and early '70s -- is erratic and only fitfully inspired, making discretion a necessity when collecting her records. >Sloane & Studio: Our ultimate glam diva style icon proving to be bold, bright, and chic all over.

2/ BEETHOVEN

Traditional. European. Grand. Elevated. Rich. Versailles. Artistic. Tufted. Gold.

Beethoven is a singularity in the history of art—a phenomenon of dazzling and disconcerting force. He not only left his mark on all subsequent composers but also molded entire institutions. The professional orchestra arose, in large measure, as a vehicle for the incessant performance of Beethoven’s symphonies. The art of conducting emerged in his wake. The modern piano bears the imprint of his demand for a more resonant and flexible instrument. Recording technology evolved with Beethoven in mind: the first commercial 33⅓ r.p.m. LP, in 1931, contained the Fifth Symphony, and the duration of first-generation compact disks was fixed at seventy-five minutes so that the Ninth Symphony could unfurl without interruption. After Beethoven, the concert hall came to be seen not as a venue for diverse, meandering entertainments but as an austere memorial to artistic majesty.

3/ LENNON

Tribal. Worldly. Eclectic. Brown Leather. Wood. Traveled. Bohemian. Vintage.

John Lennon was the most iconic Beatle as the group's committed rock & roller, social conscience, and its slyest verbal wit. He wrote and co-wrote dozens of classics – from "Imagine" to "Come Together" – and delivered many of them with a cutting, humane, and distinct voice that would make him one of the greatest singer/storytellers music has ever produced. Lennon's brutally confessional solo work and his political activism were a huge influence on subsequent generations of singers, songwriters and social reformers. Lennon lived his life through music, constantly striving to break taboos and be publicly honest through Peace campaigns, and worldly travels via his eclectic bohemia.

4/ ELVIS

Chrome. Black Leather. Fine Lines. Modern. Rich. Hi-Gloss. Metallic. Black & White.

Elvis Presley was Rock & Roll’s first real star, not to mention one of the most important cultural forces in history, as a hip-shaking symbol of liberation for the staid America of the 1950's. A white Southerner singing blues laced with country, and country laced with gospel, he brought together American music from both sides of the color line and performed it with a natural sexuality that made him a teen idol and role model for generations of cool rebels. He was repeatedly dismissed as vulgar, incompetent, and a bad influence, but the force of his music and his image was no mere merchandising feat. Presley signaled to mainstream culture that it was time to let go. Four decades after his death, Presley’s image and influence remain undiminished. While certainly other artists preceded him to the alter of rock & roll, he is indisputably The King.

Finding Your Design Style