Styling is a key component to making a room feel lived in but also curated. It’s a tender balancing act between keeping things personal, whilst also elevating the space. There is absolutely no formula to styling and even though I like to think of it as quite instinctive, we have a number of guidelines we like to dance around with when styling a space.

This week, we are specifically looking at styling a console and how they can be a work of art as much as the pieces that sit on top of them.

CREATE A COLLECTION

I have often been known to celebrate the art of collections. As soon as you start to bring a multitude of pieces together, what might seem like small decorative objects immediately start to look powerful and intentional.

Using a console as a space to display a group of similar vases, a set of candle sticks or in this case, a cluster of wooden mushrooms, is a brilliant way to create interest and achieve a level of design-led styling. My team are forever pottering around our studio and warehouse gathering groups of things that can come together to create a stronger look.

PLAY WITH SHAPES

There are many ways to ensure all your disparate elements in a space are talking to each other. An obvious one is tone or colour. Arranging similar shapes is also another tool for beautiful styling.

Here a central verdigris sculpture is flanked by stone orbs and rounded wooden planters. There is a chatter happening, a composition that’s pleasing to the eye by the gathering of these rounded forms. They all have an organic quality that ties in nicely with the artwork above. Although the artwork displays slightly straighter lines and a few more angles, the rounded shapes beneath are linked to this piece by their tones and rawness.

BE BOLD

There are many visual themes one can take when styling and a fail safe is to create bold and graphic moments such as these wooden sculptures. It’s so simple, three pieces placed perfectly on this antique occasional table. The important trick here is the different heights that create intrigue and a dynamic look. When taking a bold and simple route, be sure that there is a twist that captures the eye.

BE PLAYFUL

Alternatively to graphic styling we love humorous visual quest in a room. Consoles often hold a functional purpose like a home for a light so we always make sure our lamps are interesting and fun. This industrial lamp shaped like a piece of hardware is topped with a happy embroidered lampshade. A sculpture like this man walking his hound is a real talking point. They all sit on a Porta Romana console that takes the form of a bleached tree branch. We’re never sure what brings these happy bits and pieces together, but they are all so joyful it just works!

The same is said for our Charlotte Street Hotel Drawing Room where watering cans take on sculptural forms that remind us never to be too serious, even in a space as special as our very own Bloomsbury-inspired salon.

The key to styling your space is to have lots of fun and don’t be afraid to move things around – what works one day might not the next!

Styling is an art, but it’s also a past time. Especially at home it is something we can turn to time and time again.