Blending Styles
When it comes to design, mixing two styles can maintain balance and unity
One individual likes bright, bold colors, the other likes woods and metals. Another likes contemporary, while the other prefers traditional. Just as with a couple, when it comes to design, two styles can actually meet, blend and work harmoniously together. While the result is crowning, getting there can sometimes take effort. As with most everything, when it comes to design, first things first.
“We first discover what is the most important for each of the parties making the decision,” says Dwayne Bergmann, principal of Dwayne Bergmann, LLC, a Fort Myers design firm that has been around for a decade. When two parties have stylistic differences, their priorities are often also different, Bergmann explains, and by establishing priorities for each party, designers can help figure out what is most important to each.
One recent example of how two styles can blend involved a couple, from two different parts of the country, who called on Bergmann for his design expertise. “One had a very contemporary style, as they had moved from a large metropolitan area. The other, being from the South, appreciated a more traditional background,” says Bergmann, who explains that his first step then was to determine what was most important to each individual. He quickly discovered that what contemporary meant to the individual from the metropolitan area was really a cleaner, more open, brighter environment. Bergmann then created a design that combined the two styles. “It was a coming together of more traditional styles for cabinet, door fronts or lighting, while maintaining a minimalist floor plan,” says Bergmann. This was achieved by using a warmer, more traditional color palette rather than a stark white environment, but keeping very straight lines, flat front cabinet doors and streamlined hardware and lighting.