Interior Design Styles

How to Find Your Interior Design Style in 5 Steps

Author: vonsassy | Last Updated: September 17, 2025

Are You Staring at Blank Walls and Wondering How to Make Your Space “You”?

Moving into a new home, apartment, or dorm with a blank canvas can be both exciting and overwhelming. Where to begin? If you’ve ever felt unsure about your decorating style, you’re not alone. Most of us aren’t handed an instruction manual on how to bring our unique vibe into our spaces.

We’ve been there. Setting up a home and decorating from scratch can be more than a little daunting, especially if it’s your first time doing it. Perhaps you’ve never really felt that you had a particular decorating ‘style’, and you might be unsure how to discover what yours is.

But don’t worry; we’ve got you covered! In this beginner article, we’re sharing our unique five-step approach to help you discover your personal interior style so you can make any space feel like home. You’ll even be able to use these steps to help friends define their own styles. Let’s dive in!

Five Steps to Discover Your Unique Interior Style

Narrow down your style categories: Start big, then narrow down
Find personality style clues: Your personality is the best guide!
Consider lifestyle clues: What suits your daily life?
Add in cultural influences: What aspects of your heritage or travels inspire you?
Combine all your clues: Turn them into a vision that’s authentically “you.”

Can Quizzes Help?

Yes, interior design style quizzes are fast and fun, but there are some catches. Most standard quizzes can be a quick intro to your style preferences, but they don’t always capture the full picture. Here’s why:

Limited Style Choices: Some quizzes cover just five styles, while others go much broader.
Style “Types” May Not Represent You: Your style might be a mix that doesn’t fit neatly into one box.
Varied Results: Take a few quizzes, and you might get different styles each time.
Image Limitations: Sometimes it’s the color palette you dislike, not the actual style.
No Learning Process: Style discovery takes exploration and thought, not a single click!

Sound like too many limitations? We think learning to find your own style is more rewarding and accurate. By following our five-step method, you can reveal your style authentically—no quiz required.

Style is Personal, Discovery is a Journey

Style is subjective, and discovering yours is a journey. Our five-step method will help you ask the right questions to reveal the core of your design personality.

Think of it as learning to see a room through a designer’s eyes—a skill that’s valuable and empowering, and will make you the style expert at your next house party!

Style is Subjective, and Discovery is a Process

Before diving into the specifics of the five steps, let’s take a moment to reflect on what “style” truly means. Style is inherently subjective—each person has a unique perspective on what makes a space beautiful, functional, or inspiring. What you consider the perfect representation of a style may differ greatly from someone else’s interpretation. Even what we label as “good style” can vary widely from person to person.

Ultimately, only you can define your own interior design style. Embracing this personal journey will help you create spaces that truly reflect who you are.

Here’s How to Discover Your Style Step-by-Step

1. Start Broad: Define Your Style Categories

Start by identifying broad categories like Modern, Eclectic, and Traditional. Ask yourself, “Do I love the clean, sleek lines of modern design, or am I drawn to the timeless elegance of traditional styles?”

When defining your style, it’s best to start big picture and then work down to the details. Begin with broad concepts—like architecture and overall vibe—before moving on to furniture and decor.

With so many style categories, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially since some styles go by multiple names depending on region (e.g., Hollywood Glam vs. Hollywood Regency, or nautical vs. coastal).

To simplify, we recommend starting with the main categories that most designers use: modern, contemporary, eclectic, and traditional. Once you understand these foundations, finding your personal style becomes much easier. And don’t worry—we’ve curated resources on Design Baddie to guide you every step of the way!

Finding Your Style: Modern or Traditional?

Here are some clues to help determine your style preference:

If you love embellishment and decorative details, you might lean toward traditional.
If you prefer clean lines and minimalist elements, modern might be more your style.

Fun fact: In the U.S., people tend to be about evenly split between these two opposing style poles, with a slight preference for modern.

Adapting to Your Home’s Architecture

While it’s important to find your own style, taking cues from your home’s existing architecture can enhance cohesion:

If your home has historical detailing (like crown molding or paneling), traditional furniture can deepen the classic feel, creating a warm, romantic vibe.
If your space is more of a blank canvas—think white walls and minimal details—it’s naturally modern, making it an ideal backdrop for clean-lined or even eclectic furnishings.

Mixing Modern and Traditional

For an eclectic look, blend elements: Add traditional furniture to a modern space for contrast, or modern pieces in a traditionally inspired home to avoid a “stuffy” feel. This mix brings the best of both worlds, offering personality and balance.

Finally, if you decide to keep adding modern pieces in a modern shell, you’ll create a fully contemporary look—perfect if that’s the aesthetic you want to commit to!

Great. Now that you know if you are a modernist, a traditionalist or an eclectic rule-breaker, and you’ve paid homage to the architecture, we can move on to the next point.

2. Personality Clues: Style That Matches You

Your personality can be a powerful style indicator. Extroverted maximalists may go bold with patterns and colors, while introverted minimalists might feel more comfortable with serene neutrals and simple decor.

If the latter sounds like you, you might prefer a calming environment to a busy one. To follow this direction to find a scheme that works for you, you can narrow down from the primary aesthetic to focus on decisions like whether you prefer warm or cool tones, lighter or darker values, and go from there.

On the other hand, if you wear a lot of pattern, and are not afraid of color, you’ll likely be more fearless in your choice of fabrics and wall colors as well. This is the domain of the extrovert.

If your personality is more outgoing and carefree, then it’s possible that you would veer away from interiors that are too dated or stuffy. For you a great choice might be bold contemporary or cool eclectic. There are many Bohemian style lovers in the extraverted category.

Let’s review what we’ve learned so far. In step one we identified where we fall on the modern-traditional spectrum. In step two we looked at how our personality and fashion choices affect our feelings about color in our home.

In our third step we are going to factor in the vibe we are going after. This will make the difference between a formal, more buttoned-up interior and one that is casual and homey.

3. Lifestyle Clues: Think About Practicality

Consider how you live. Do you entertain a lot, or is home your quiet retreat? Choose styles that fit your lifestyle. For instance, traditional styles may involve more upkeep, while modern interiors tend to be easier to maintain.

Here you can think about the kind of activities that are important to you and how you are likely to spend your time in the space. This will help you prioritize the important features.

Is your home your safe haven, where you want to retreat from the world, work on your private hobbies or set up the ultimate battle station for gaming? How much do you plan to entertain? Do you cook at home?

If you are very outgoing or love to entertain, you might want your home to make more of a statement and set it up for having people over; whereas if you are an introvert, you may crave order and serenity and cozy nooks that help you get away from distractions.

You might wonder how this all factors into style?

The facts are that some interior design “styles” require a lot more upkeep than others. Traditional styles, in particular, are more expensive to build and they tend to collect more dust (think of the architectural moldings and chandeliers). In addition, many of the decorative items common to traditional interiors are “precious” and breakable. Not always a great match for pets and kids.

In contrast, modern, contemporary and transitional homes are easier to keep clean, because by nature they contain less clutter. Modern performance fabrics and textiles add another level of convenience to the mix. These interiors are often designed with pets, kids and wine spills in mind. Make sure to factor it all in.

Environmental Style Factors

Yet another important factor to consider in choosing a style is your environment. Where do you live? What’s the regional style in your area, and how does the local culture or natural landscape inspire you?

Homes by the beach, for example, often have a relaxed, open vibe that reflects the indoor/outdoor lifestyle typical of warmer climates. Meanwhile, chalets and A-frames in colder areas bring a cozy, inviting feel with their emphasis on warmth and comfort.

Think about your climate and personal lifestyle needs—what kind of atmosphere suits your temperament and daily life? Keep asking yourself: How can I make my home a place where I feel truly at ease?

Some people put the aesthetics of their home first, while some people value comfort. Still, lifestyle and environmental factors are crucial to consider when creating a space that is suitable for the way that you really live.

The roots of this room appear to be Japanese, Spanish and Danish.

4. Cultural Clues: Incorporate Your Roots and Inspirations

For step four, explore your cultural roots—a journey through your personal heritage or places that have left a lasting impression on you. Adding elements from your background or favorite destinations can bring depth and unique character to your decor. This reflective approach to assessing a room was instrumental in shaping our 8×2 Style Theory (link here), a framework developed to help uncover personal style with precision and flexibility.

Start by reflecting on your own history. Think back to fond childhood memories and what you loved about the home you grew up in. Certain features or cherished items from your past may still resonate with you, and could be worth including in your own space.

Consider bringing in meaningful pieces, like family photos or a treasured heirloom, which can add warmth and history to your decor. These items don’t just beautify—they tell your story and make your space feel more personal.

If your childhood home doesn’t inspire you, look to travel experiences for ideas. Details from places you’ve visited can provide fresh inspiration and introduce a global perspective. Pull out old vacation photos and see if any colors, patterns, or motifs catch your eye.

Throughout this journey, remember: if a style speaks to you, embrace it—whether it’s from your heritage or your travels. Your home should be a true reflection of your style and story.

5. Pull It All Together

Your fifth and final step is to compile the previous four steps and take all of the data you’ve collected about yourself and use it to inform your own unique style. To do this I would recommend arranging all of your inspiration in one place. Look through your inspirational resources and see what common denominators or style factors you can find. These resources can be anything from magazine cut outs to curated style boards on your favorite image app.

Take all your discoveries and create a vision board. Don’t forget sources like Pinterest boards, or somethings as simple as a physical board, or a style notebook. The key is to look for common themes in colors, materials, and overall vibe. This will reveal your unique style tapestry and give you a roadmap for designing your space.

Flat lay of question mark paper crafts on a notebook, symbolizing questions and ideas.

Maybe the inspirational images you selected have certain similarities, such as color, furniture style or overall vibe. Perhaps you are seeing a lot of saturated blues, traditional furniture or abstract artwork. Try to discover the little threads that make up the evolving “tapestry” of your style and tell your unique story.

By noticing what commonalities the different images share, you are getting a view into your style preferences.

To Quiz or Not to Quiz?

Having mentioned that we were going to teach you bypass the standard quiz to help you find your own interior design style, it’s still worth mentioning that style quizzes can be fun. Feel free to try some of these popular style quizzes, but cross-reference with your own insights. Here are some solid quizzes to try: