Mixing not matching

Morning thought I might talk about mixing not matching this morning. Matching is easy it’s why everybody is doing it;  mixing is far harder. WHY well because when nothing  matches  its quite a challenge to somehow get a room to feel like it makes perfect sense and that it feels balanced and harmonised when everything in the room is from a different era, or maybe a different material, texture or colour. I love mixing but then I cheat a little bit and mix in pairs. For instance I have two loungy chairs upholstered in the same hue in the TV nook. I have two ostrich tables with two poodles sitting atop each alcove in my studio and my dining chairs are pairs of odd chairs rather than everything being different. The reason for the occasional doubling up is I want all my rooms to feel balanced, harmonious and not crazy, so it’s a good tip. Also you don't want to overdo it on the pairing up trick otherwise the room will feel boring so no matching furniture sets please or bedside tables and lamps as that is a design crime! You never know when one of my task force will be banging on your door issuing you a ticket for such an offence (gosh I wish I had a design task force, my idea of heaven)! The other trick when mixing styles as I say probably a trillion times a day is to reign in the colour palette.  Do that and you can mix far more easily if you only have a few hues fighting for attention rather than every single piece because what it does is cancel it out big time. I stick to 3 maybe 4 dominant hues and it works for me. Big thank you to the Times for putting my blog in the 50 top websites you cannot live without. Thank you guys, very flattered An image below of the mismatched dining chair look, although some of the chairs are the same, for me at least it feels a little too unbalanced but hey its a personal thing. And my dining area where some of the chairs are in pairs. Happy Thursday