When someone decides to make a house, it’s never a new or a fresh decision. We dream of the kind of house we will have when we grow up or when we get married. Quite like the stereotype of women daydreaming about their marriage (which is true in certain cases); all of us also day-dream about what our house will look like.

We day dream of large homes with many rooms and beautiful decor.

The reality on the ground is something quite different. We live in small houses and have to always decorate on a budget. Shying away from words that describe us, doesn’t help anyone. And the fact is that most of us belong to the bulky middle-class chunk of the Indian population.

Once we own a house, we head straight to google to look for images that we can replicate. Those of us who know about it head to Pinterest. We will look for small home design ideas and find absolutely beautiful images that seem to make living in a small house our new dream.

Now we are looking for budget decorating ideas and who would hire an interior designer for a budget home design, amirite!?

The end result although is never quite what we had in mind. Something is always off and we never know what.

Just like everything else in the world, interior design has categories. There are different styles of design and it is very important to maintain that through out the house. That is not to say that you can have hints of everything else. But the weightage that these receive should not be the same. Look at the pictures below. Which one would you prefer?

They both look good. But there is one definite winner. Ikea has used elements from the same style and they tied the room together with the correct accessories. The over all elements are the same. A solid wall, a couch, a coffee table, two different lighting sources, side-tables, greenery, singular wall adornment (mirror versus blank frame is debatable).

Still one is better than the other right? It’s the combination of the things that matter.

Now, this is not a ‘buy Ikea’ post. This is to demonstrate the difference between what you see in your head versus what actually happens.

The most important thing to keep in mind, to have a picture-perfect home, is to decide on and stick to a particular design style.

Design Styles are indispensable to create a perfect home.

But there are way too many design styles out there, each distinct and yet the same.

Interior designing like all other things has categories and types. Some are based on the ‘time’ or the ‘age’ and some are based on the location of where they are usually found. Country is one design style that has clear evidence of the difference. French country home is very different from a British country home which is vastly different from an American country home!

For the upcoming posts, we will not segregate the different styles based on the so-called categories. But we will make the Indian version of those clear, in addition to the origins

As you go through the posts, you will find elements over-lapping or some might even look exactly the same. The reason is none of these styles was developed in isolation. All the styles of design and the types of furniture are all derived from or inspired by what preceded them. For example, if you google contemporary, modern, scandinavian, minimal and industrial; they all look like the homework that your friend copied from you, where you asked them to change it but it still looks like yours! Here are a few images you see. And this is because the styles are inspired by, derived from, or have merged now, to create something better.

Look at the gallery below, we collected pictures from different sources – some are contemporary, some minimal, some scandinavian, some modern. Bet its tough to say which is which!

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This might have left you understandably confused. That was what we hoped for!! 😉

Design styles matter and they are confusing, that’s why you have CUBSpaces!

Over the course of next few articles, we will walk you through the different styles. There will also be a few guidelines you could follow.

CUBSpaces firmly believes in the power of DIY and in the fact that the ones living in the homes know best. A little help goes a long way. And that’s why we’re here! We’re that un poquito help!

Miloni Mehta
CUBS Editorial Team