How to Make Your Home Look Collected, Not Decorated
There’s something instantly appealing about a home that feels as though it has evolved over time. Nothing is too perfectly matched, there are interesting things to look at, and you get a little glimpse of the people who live there.
The best interiors often don’t feel decorated at all. They feel collected.
That doesn’t mean filling every available surface or surrounding yourself with a lifetime’s worth of clutter. It’s about choosing pieces you genuinely like, mixing things up and resisting the temptation to make everything coordinate perfectly.
Step Away From the Matching Set
One of the quickest ways to give a room more character is to stop worrying about whether everything matches.
Different woods can live happily together. An ornate gold mirror can work above a contemporary console. A traditional lamp can sit beside something wonderfully silly. Old and new, elegant and quirky, polished and rustic — those contrasts are often what make a room interesting.
When everything belongs to exactly the same style, period or colour palette, a room can begin to feel more like a showroom than a home.
Buy Things You Love
It sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to buy something simply because it works with the room.
Try turning that around.
When you find something that makes you smile, intrigues you or makes you think I have absolutely no idea where I'm going to put that, but I love it, pay attention.
Those are often the pieces that eventually give a home its personality.
A slightly eccentric animal ornament, an unusual wall plaque, a beautiful candle holder or a pair of bookends you’ve never seen anywhere else can have far more impact than another perfectly coordinated accessory.
Take a look at our Kitsch collection.
Mix the Ordinary With the Unexpected
Not everything in your home needs to make a statement.
In fact, unusual pieces often work best when they're surrounded by quieter ones.
A simple shelf becomes much more interesting with one unexpected object. A traditional sideboard can take on an entirely different personality with a quirky lamp or decorative piece sitting on top. Even a downstairs loo can become memorable with an unusual mirror or something surprising on the wall.
You don't need an entire room full of talking points.
Sometimes you just need one.
Let Your Home Tell Your Story
Collected homes usually contain things that mean something.
Holiday finds. Gifts. Family pieces. Something picked up at an antiques fair. A picture you’ve owned for twenty years. An object you bought simply because it made you laugh.
They don't necessarily have any obvious connection, but you are the connection.
And that's what prevents an eclectic interior from feeling random.
Rather than asking, “Does this go with my room?”, it can be much more interesting to ask, “Do I want to live with this?”
Create Little Collections
If you have lots of individual objects, grouping them together can make them feel intentional rather than cluttered.
Try arranging a small collection on a sideboard, shelf or console table. Mix heights and shapes — perhaps books with a candle, a small plant, a framed picture and something sculptural.
Leave some breathing room around the arrangement too. Empty space is important; it gives the interesting pieces somewhere to shine.
And don't feel everything has to be symmetrical. A slightly imperfect arrangement often feels much more relaxed.
See our sideboard accessories.
Don't Finish It All at Once
Perhaps the biggest secret to creating a collected home is accepting that it takes time.
You don't have to finish a room.
In fact, we'd argue that the most interesting homes are never really finished at all.
You'll move things around. You'll find something unexpected. You'll inherit something. You'll suddenly decide that the object that's been sitting in your bedroom for five years belongs in the kitchen.
Let it evolve.
Because ultimately, your home doesn't need to look like anyone else's idea of a beautifully designed interior. It just needs to feel unmistakably like yours.
And if there's a slightly ridiculous animal involved somewhere, so much the better.