Do you ever look through the beautiful rooms on Pinterest and Instagram and wonder how they manage to look so dreamy and effortless?
In reality, pulling together the perfect room isn't so easy. Especially when you're trying to piece together bits of furniture with different tones and colours. How do you style all your pieces in a room so the space looks cohesive?
In an effort to find an answer, we spoke to interior designer Meryl Hare. She's the founder the founder of award-winning interior design firm Hare & Klein. And now also the Creative Director of HK Edit - a concept store in Sydney's Woolloomooloo.
We asked Meryl for her advice on mixing furniture pieces and which three interior pieces are worth splurging on.
What would you say are the biggest trends or most popular aesthetics in interior design in 2020?
We generally don’t follow trends, however, there is a resurgence of highly figured marble used as features, brass is back, curves in both architecture and furniture are prevalent, as are strong colour features, concrete, light timber and mid-century influences.
What furniture pieces are you loving right now?
For some time now we have been making sustainable choices and the effect of Covid 19 has made us very conscious of sourcing local furniture where possible. Supply of furniture from overseas is in short supply or has very long lead times. We have made it a policy at HK Edit to use local artisans for our own furniture ranges. The quality of their work is of a very high standard and we have been inspired to design for our climate and to our own aesthetic.
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What’s the secret to mixing and matching furniture pieces, so a room is cohesive?
There are no hard and fast rules about mixing and matching – in fact it’s best to leave ‘matching’ out of the equation! Our way of making a room cohesive is to start with beautiful well- proportioned basics and to add layers of colour and texture in the additional furniture, rugs, artwork and accessories.
What’s your approach to having multiple wood pieces in a room? Do the wood colours all need to match?
We don’t try and match wood in furniture pieces, but we do take care that they work together, either contrasting or toning.
When curating a home, which three pieces would you splurge on? And which three pieces would you save on?
We would splurge on well-made, comfortable, sofas, and expect them to last for many years; a beautiful hand-knotted rug in silk, wool and hemp from our collections with Designer Rugs; and art.
Save on trend-based items that you won’t keep forever; supplement a ‘splurge’ artwork with less expensive prints; use handmade baskets for storage.
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What are your decor must-haves? The finishing touches a room should absolutely have?
Artwork, beautiful scatter cushions and interesting accessories.
Do you have any advice on the simplest ways to elevate the look of your space?
Buy an uplifting painting or a handmade throw.
