How do you choose a home decorating theme that you know you are going to be able to live with over the next few years? You could go for ultra-modern throughout your whole house, or totally traditional.
You could aim for the cottagey look, or the Italian villa theme, go for the Greek farmhouse or the Spanish hacienda - come to that, you might just want to focus on one style per room and, as I have, choose an ultra-modern look for your kitchen, a cosy comfortable bathroom where you can hide away and feel cosseted, am elegant lounge area and a lived-in family room where the dogs feel comfortable lying on the settee, with a cat draped across the back of a chair.
Even my bedrooms have different themes: I have one spare room which is very feminine and warm, with a sumptuous feel to it.
This room is in shades of red, ivory and matt pearl grey.
It feels expensive just walking in but, in fact, the 'look' cost me not quite $200.
00 in total, including the carpet.
The master bedroom is neat, with less what I call 'frippery'.
This room is based on shades of blue, with the actual focal point being the handmade silk blinds which are a deep royal blue and three of the walls are eggshell blue.
The wall behind my bed is a much deeper blue, in french-navy and the fabrics are french-navy and white, with a deep pile dark blue carpet.
My third bedroom I use as an office, although there is a fold-up bed in there if I need to put somebody up.
This room is purely a functional room and I have deliberately kept this room bright.
It is at the back of the house and doesn't get an awful lot of natural light so, to make up for this, I have decorated this room in sunshine yellow: the walls are a bright canary yellow and the curtains in here are an equally deep shade of yellow but with tiny flowers all over.
The blinds in here are an ivory colour and the carpet on the floor a deep beige.
My hall is only small, quite a narrow hall really and, to keep this light, I have decorated it in Wedgewood blue and white, with classic mouldings and cornices in white.
I have hardwood floors throughout the downstairs, including the hallway, as I find it is easier to keep clean and always looks nice.
That's my little house - I haven't gone for way-out anything because I wouldn't be able to live with it after a few months.
I have taken each room individually and focused on the individual characteristics of each room, then developed an appropriate theme around the feel of each room.
Rather than have my rooms accommodating my decorating themes, I have attempted to address my decorating themes to each room's individuality and develop my theme accordingly.
I seem to have got it right for my home because, whenever I walk into a room, I feel exactly how I intended to feel when I decorated it.
I wanted to feel cosseted in my bathroom and for my kitchen to feel bright, clean and spacious, for my hallway to feel neutral and for my pets to feel comfortable in my family room.
An overall decorating theme, I believe, should be appropriate for your own family's personalities and each theme should be adapted accordingly.