Meet your match: Shannon Vos’s guide to finding your look (and sticking with it)

From moodboards to moving furniture, Shannon outlines the way to define your style, stick to it and create a space you love

Design is a hard beast to tame. Something that looks great to me may seem like a mess to you, right? So how do you design to your tastes, to your family’s needs and for the broad acceptance of those around you? Do you go all-in, totally committing to a style, or do you show some restraint? I’d love to say the former, but let’s be honest: the answer is probably “a little bit of both”. Let’s look at finding a balance – and your groove – in an endless abundance of styles, achieving something that’s both presentable and that keeps the lid on Pandora’s box as you explore every cushion, throw and coffee table book under the sun.

who am I?

I’m going to put my hand up and tell the world: I’m a closet boho fan. Maybe it’s from my days of wandering across the globe pretty much penniless and throwing myself into different cultures, but I just love texture, colour and pattern – and drinking craft beer while listening to Fleetwood Mac as embers from a wood fire dance into an inky black sky. That said, my home isn’t straight out of a Coachella tragic’s Instagram account. I live with my wife (who definitely isn’t boho) and two boys who are hell-bent on destroying everything in sight. So for me, it’s a balance of materials and elements that can handle a toddler’s tantrums – elements that I love (let’s be honest, that I can live with), and pieces that my wife can live with (let’s be honest, ones that she loves). The hardest part is getting to that point and defining what it is that resonates with you, and how to translate that into your home.

the first step

You’ll have to take some time on this one. Preparation is key, and visualisation is paramount. Whether you do it digitally or go old school with a pair of scissors in your hand, create a moodboard (or concept board) that represents places, spaces or things you love. Try to identify a running theme – maybe it’s open spaces, rattan, vintage prints or a type of timber or finish – and let that be the basis for creating your space. Draw on that theme as a reference; don’t use it the same way everywhere, or all your rooms will be too similar.

Back in our The Block days, for example, Simon and I decided from the get-go that pairing natural finishes (timber and stone) with grey tones, plenty of light and pops of colour would form the framework of every space we built and furnished. We wanted our spaces to feel casual and warm but also fresh and organic, and we didn’t want to overfurnish the rooms. Scandi fitted that brief perfectly. And although we didn’t know it at the time, we were creating a look that was bang on trend and ripe for a winning bidder (thank you, whoever you are).

If you’re not starting from scratch, walk around your home and note everything you love. Unlike those in a perfectly curated magazine photo shoot, our homes are generally full of things we’ve collected along the way and, again, you should be able to detect a running theme. If you do clash with your partner in the style department (I speak from experience), it may just take that little bit longer. Back at the Glasshouse on The Block, I loved a bit of retro and a bit of boho, whereas Simon was more of an Arts-and-Crafts/rustic type of guy. But we both had an appreciation for Scandinavian design and the way light worked with the natural surfaces, so that’s the common-ground road we travelled. Obviously, it will be a bit different in your home, as we were only at the Glasshouse for a couple of months, but all in all, it’s the same principle. Instead of digging in your heels, make the effort to find those commonalities with your partner and seek out looks and pieces you both can love.

make a plan

Once you choose a direction, it’s time to plan out the rest of your home. I don’t mean that you have to know everything you want to do to a tee, but you should have a general strategy for each space: what you want from it, how it should function and what it should look like before the kids destroy it every day.

For me, function takes precedence over form – and it should for most people. In our home, the primary goal of each space is for it to function well and be easy to clean. After that, we try to make it as presentable as a rampaging toddler allows. We tend to keep things quite minimal, with flashes of my boho tendencies popping out and nuances of the good wife’s island-kitsch vibe surfacing. Fortunately, they actually sit together quite well. I’m sure the extent of our styling and even our tastes will develop once the kids grow up a little, but for now, we need a robust home tough enough to handle the odd slathering of half-eaten banana and functional enough to hide the mess.

Back at The Block, however, Simon and I opted for a more visually enticing aesthetic – to tug on potential buyers’ heartstrings. We played with light and architecture to bring structural value into the space. We left the styling ‘slightly undercooked’ because that allowed other elements, such as the concrete floors and the origami-like ceilings, to be the heroes of the space. If I were to live in that space the way we left it, I would introduce a lot more storage and tweak a few functional issues.

You’ll want a hero piece or two in each room – allow those to dictate the design or the styling of the rest of the space. Your heroes should always refer back in some way to your chosen style, and they should sit prominently as images on your moodboard.

”Buy once, spend up and buy right”, I tend to say, and always put the Australian designers and manufacturers before the cheaper copies. Sometimes, of course, we do have budget restrictions, so think carefully about your choices. At home, we mix our big-spend hero items, such as the floors, pendants and chairs, with less expensive options, including the IKEA cabinetry in the lounge room and a white laminate table in our dining space. Your budget will determine your final choices. And remember: be patient with your decisions. It may take you five years to save for that must-have sofa, so compromise with a more economical option until then.

I find that clients who stick strictly to one aesthetic can become bored with that look after some time, so don’t be afraid to play with different styles a little, too. Just make sure the styles can relate to each other with their shape, material, texture or colour. Keep heading in the general direction that your moodboard leads you towards, but feel free to stray from the path every now and then.

know when to ‘no’

There are mountains of gorgeous pieces out there – millions upon millions of artworks, sofas and pendant lights that you could easily fall in love with and that would all look amazing in your home. But it’s important to revisit your brief, stick to your guns and just say no. Pick a few surfaces to repeat through your home. Pick a few colours and fabrics to do the same. Let your home tell a story of colour, texture, line and shape, creating each room to relate to the others.

I suggest shopping with a folder of your already-made choices, samples and swatches. For the show in Melbourne, we found that the best way forward was to develop a plan early in the week, then Simon would manage the build back at The Block, and I would do my best in and out of Melbourne’s finest to stick to our agreed-upon plan. Yes, sometimes I’d colour outside the lines a bit, but overall, we stuck to that one planned aesthetic.

The same should apply to online shoppers (though it does tend to get a touch tougher). Have your timbers, metals, shapes and fabrics in front of you, and decide what goes with them and what doesn’t. Again, a digital moodboard can come in handy (Photoshop for the veterans and Word for the novices). Import your choices and images to see how they look together.

Once you’ve selected everything you want and are ready for the big install, be prepared to return a few things to the store (keep those receipts). Just take things slowly and let your eye be the judge. During installs, I chop and change, play with pieces and change my mind a thousand times until I’m happy with the final look. The big items tend to be fine. But styling is more delicate. You can’t do it digitally; it needs a hands-on approach. When you have a look you think you love, step back, take a picture and send it to a couple of friends – then watch the oohs and aahs come streaming in. Good luck!