So That Your Style Is: Romantic
What it is: As its name suggests, romantic style has a certain softness and fanciful allure that’s as difficult to resist as a surprise box of candy. It harks back to the Victorian age, a time of courtliness and old-fashioned decorum, although it’s easy and fresh faced instead of musty and fusty.
Why it works: Let’s count the ways. Romantic interiors are heartfelt, private and also the merest smidge decadent. They emanate warmth and sweetness that is genuine, and they framework life via an idealist’s lens. Is it any wonder that those who fall for this particular design fall challenging?
You’ll love it if … Your garden brims with moss-tinged statues and sweetheart roses. Pillows that are eyelet dot your bed. Your yearly Valentine’s Day parties are legendary among your friends. You enjoy candlelit dinners for two — or 20. You really believe in happily ever after.
My Romantic Home
Style Secret: blossoms
Roses are red, violets are blue — you know the rest. Flowers, with their romantic connotations, are as tightly intertwined with this design as trailing ivy climbing a trellis. The secret to updating the floral appearance? Stick with things that fall in the same color family, like a grid of framed iris prints and a heap of wisteria-patterned throw cushions. Or choose just one standout floral component and let it dominate: an overscale fabric, a vibrant wallpaper, a posh flowered rug.
Subtle sweetness: rather than smothering your space with fussy floral prints, place it abloom with a simple vase or pitcher of actual blossoms. Pluck flowers that feel soft and old-fashioned, like peonies, hollyhocks, lilacs and, of course, roses.
RSVP Design Services
Design Secret: Smoky Mirrors
True romantics are not any longer in touch with reality than they must be. Use mirrors with a distressed or antiqued finish to bounce light in a gentle manner and to add a slightly mysterious border to your manifestation. You can either buy bona fide antique mirrors or care for the backing with a compound mixture to give the illusion of age.
Subtle sweetness: Enhance a mirror’s tarnished charm with a couple of reflective accents which disperse the sparkle round a room. Layer in a pair of mercury glass lamps or top a console with a silver tray which holds a grouping of crystal vases.
Kasey Buick
Design Secret: moderate Weathering
Furnishings, surfaces and accents with a bit of patina hint at days gone by. They evoke the nostalgia of the past with understated elegance. Blend gently sanded or cracked metals and woods with fabrics that suggest a sheen of age, and sprinkle in a few well-chosen antique accents.
Subtle sweetness: The crucial word is “gentle.” Pieces which are too heavily distressed look more appropriate for a style like industrial. Although romantic insides share a bond with all the shabby chic look that was popular a few years ago, they’ll seem fresher if you restrict the shabby and stress the posh.
Elizabeth Dinkel
Style Secret: Soft, Flattering Colors
Anyone who’s ever owned a Color Me Beautiful book knows to pick out clothing and makeup in hues that set their natural skin tone. So why should insides be different? Paint your walls with colors that flatter you, and you will look as though you have a dewy, romantic glow. The right hues will be different based upon your coloring, but pinks and roses of each colour, subdued coral and apricot, light terra-cotta, and rich plums and violets are almost universally becoming.
Subtle sweetness: Barely-there blush-pink walls, cut with deeper pinks and neutrals, prevent this bedroom from feeling cloying. Keep color schemes monochromatic to make the romantic look as complicated as you possibly can.
Design Secret: Soft Lighting
Nothing snuffs out the flame of romance such as harsh fluorescent overheads or megawatt track lighting. Cast a glow with fixtures that disperse and diffuse light, like wall-mounted sconces or elegant chandeliers. Crystal pendants include a little diamondlike sparkle, but there’s nothing wrong with simpler profiles and not as extravagant materials.
Subtle sweetness: Pick lower-wattage bulbs to your romantic glow. You can even buy the kind that’s tinted pink, which gives a warm ambiance and imbues skin with an attractively flushed appearance.
DOXA Home
Style Secret: Candles
There’s a reason so many love songs and poems cite candlelight: It promotes a sultry, bewitching mood and sets a romantic spectacle. Candles include an authentic dimension to layered light that no bulb can duplicate. Arrange them in graphic groupings: a few sculptural candlesticks in staggered heights, a row of votives across the mantel.
Subtle sweetness: Stick with candles which are all one neutral color, like plain white or cream, for its most tailored effect. And if you choose a odor, keep it subtle — nothing hits an off notice just like an overpowering aroma.
Karen Schaefer Louw
Style Secret: Feminine Furnishings
Romantic furnishings possess a dreamy, delicate sensibility and graceful, fluid lines. They draw their influence from the elaborate pieces that characterized the Victorian age, small in scale and highly decorative.
Subtle sweetness: Balance a selection of dainty bits with cleaner ones for a more updated take on the romantic appearance. And don’t go overboard on the decorative vases — a softly curving slipper chair or a straightforward white-painted iron mattress convey the appearance just as effectively as an elaborate dresser or heavily carved four-poster.
Chris Kauffman
Style Secret: Coziness
Romance is about nestling in and snuggling up. Extend that texture to your rooms with cushy, enveloping furniture, warm and creamy colours and space structures that invite tête-à-têtes.
Subtle sweetness: The dimensions, more than the trappings, give this kitchen its cozy feel. The pendant lamps over the island pull the already low ceiling visually and create an intimate mood. The crowning touch? Simple floral curtains, which give a note of dainty softness.
More:
5 Ingredients of a Romantic Bedroom