Follow Your Instinct - Styling a Home with Meaning
There’s no strict formula for how to style a timeless home. When I’m styling a space, I don’t start with a mood board. I start with a piece I love. Something I’ve found and can’t stop thinking about - a vintage jug with the perfect shape, a painting I couldn’t walk away from, a handmade bowl with just the right depth of glaze and history in its surface. The kind of thing you carry around the market with you because you don’t dare put it down in case it's not there when you return.
Sometimes it’s something new to me, sometimes it’s something I’ve inherited - a piece tied to memory or meaning (like this antique sideboard unit that we inherited from my in-laws). Either way, it becomes the anchor. The starting point for the room around it.
Mood boards can be useful - especially once you’ve found that piece - to sense-check a palette or shape the overall direction. But starting with a mood board alone can feel overwhelming. Especially when you’re working with antiques.
Antiques are rarely replicable. You might see a piece online and design your whole scheme around it - only to realise that you can’t ever find that exact tone of wood or that precise patina again. Trying to recreate someone else’s image can leave the space feeling disconnected or forced.
Instead, begin with something you love. Something you already have or something you’ve just found and can’t stop thinking about. Use that piece to guide the rest. Not by copying a look you’ve seen online, but by choosing things that complement it - things that make sense around it. That way, the space starts to feel considered and personal, rather than styled to follow a trend.
Once I’ve found that anchor piece, I look at the shape, colour, and texture - and use it to guide the rest. I repeat tones across materials like wood, linen, stone and ceramic, so the space feels layered and intentional. I mix heights and textures to keep the room from feeling flat.
There’s usually something black to ground the look. Some greenery such as a potted plant or flowers for movement, texture and to make the space feel lived in. Books for structure. A tray for framing. And always scent - again something that makes you feel at home and that you love, to create a relaxing atmosphere.
There’s nearly always a candle or diffuser nearby. Often it’s a new dawn - our signature scent - which adds a fresh and calming fragrance to any space. A match pot nearby makes it feel easy, habitual, like part of the flow of the day.
Homes with character aren’t styled in a weekend. They come together gradually - through the things you love, the pieces you’ve collected, and the ones that already mean something to you.
Styling Notes to Try:
• Don’t start with a plan - start with something you can’t stop thinking about
• Use a mood board to guide decisions after you’ve found your anchor piece
• Balance tones, textures and heights
• Let materials repeat and echo across the space
• Add life - greenery and scent bring softness and movement
Fiona
x
I'd love to know - do your start with a plan when styling, or a piece you love and follow your instinct. Do you have a piece that you will never part with?
Alban Rae Home pieces mentioned or shown:
- Home Fragrance collection a new dawn diffuser & candle
- Matchstick Holder
- Small antique Victorian Stoneware Pot