Holy smokes, people! Your styling questions have been hurtling in thick and fast. We’ve answered the most-asked questions from our social shout out below…

how many pillows should i use on my king size bed?

Oooh, we love pillow talk! Pillows and cushions are where you can bring in some personality to your bedding through pattern and print. There’s no hard and fast rule as to how many pillows you should use on your king bed but anywhere between 6 and 10 is ideal. #moreismore

One of the easiest pillow/cushion combos to go with is 4 standard pillows at the back and 3 decorative cushions in front. You can boost this basic combo by simply adding a pair of euros to the mix for some height. This is a great look to go for when you’re after that luxurious boutique hotel feel (who doesn’t love that?).

what are your best tips for choosing art?

Art can make or break a room. No exaggeration. So, it’s important to get it right! When it comes to choosing art, colour is king. Colour plays a massive role when styling a space and when it comes to choosing art, colour is the best place to start. We say this because colour is the fundamental element you need to get right when choosing art. If you get the colours wrong, the rest doesn’t really matter.

Check out 'The Art of Choosing Art' for more tips to get you started.

When we’re choosing art for our homes, before jumping in to purchase our favourite pieces we always add the artworks to our furniture plan for the room to check that they tie in nicely with everything else we’ve chosen. Artwork needs to form part of your furniture plan early on – it can’t be an afterthought.

what’s the best way to separate two sitting areas in an open plan room?

When we’re styling a space, we divide it into ‘zones’. It sounds like you’ve got two sitting zones in your space… and perhaps some other zones as well (kitchen? dining?).

We love designing large, open rooms, but know that we need to create zones within those rooms to make them function well. It’s no good having one huge room with furniture thrown down randomly; you’ve got to be able to walk in and know right away where the lounge room starts or, for example, where the dining area is.

Rugs are going to be your best friends! They’re one of the most effective ways to create a zone in a large space because they tie individual pieces of furniture together in that one area. Ideally, each rug should be large enough to sit under the front legs of your couches and occasional chairs in that sitting area to physically group the furniture together and create a ‘room within a room’.

what’s the right size rug for my LOUNGE room?

Your rug is the glue that pulls a room together. It connects individual pieces of furniture together and makes them all ‘hold hands’. This is particularly important with an open plan design where you need to create zones in the absence of walls. Where does the dining room end and the lounge room begin? A well-placed rug will often show you.

And when it comes to choosing the right rug, size matters. Go too small and you've lost your glue, and your room will feel bitsy. Too big? To be honest, this hardly ever happens so don’t worry about it. In general, bigger is better when it comes to rugs, but we need to be realistic. In a world of unicorns and fairies, you might be able to find an affordable rug that is large enough to fit under ALL your furniture. We never have, and, actually, that’s not our preference anyway. We prefer seeing some floor sticking out around a zone rather than just having wall-to-wall rug.

In lounge rooms, we look for rugs big enough to sit under the legs of the couch and any occasional chairs – 30 cm of rug under the leg is ideal but we’d settle for less. If your rug doesn’t reach under the legs of your couch, that's okay. As long as the colour matches your vision board, you can still make it work.

Tip: Big rugs can be expensive! We think it’s totally fine to overlap two rugs instead. They don’t even have to match. We’ve done this before when our budget doesn’t stretch to an oversized rug.

i have so many styles that i like, how do i combine them?

A common challenge when styling your home is not being able to articulate what your style is… or, as in your case, loving lots of different styles. Identifying the architectural style of your house should help you refine your style. You can dress a house up and give it a makeover, but its core personality isn’t going to change without a pretty significant renovation. If you style up your humble little bungalow as if it’s an Art Deco queen, you might find that a bit challenging. Whereas if you go with a style that complements the bones of your home, it’s going to feel much more natural to style and to live in. That said, there are always exceptions to the rule! There are some styles, such as Hamptons, which are more transferable and work well with other exterior styles. We've seen Federation Bungalows styled fabulously with Hamptons interiors

In your case, creating a really clear vision before you start styling will be essential. The beauty of a vision board is that it will force you to focus and narrow your vision down until you’re telling one story – a story you really love. Once your vision is clear, pop that vision board somewhere visible and refer to it frequently. You could even save it as your phone background if you really want to keep it front and centre.

how do i style a couch?

Cushions are one of our ABSOLUTE favourite items to style with because there are endless choices when it comes to size, pattern, colour and texture, so the options for a lounge room are also endless. They’re also lightweight and easy to move around as often as you like.

How many cushions you use really depends on the look you’re going for. Some couches come with their own set of cushions. These are usually covered in the same fabric as the couch, so they aren’t what you’d call decorative. So you’ll probably want to add that splash of interest that you get from cushions with pattern, colour and texture.

Here are some very basic cushion rules you can safely follow:

Small couch - Style with 3 cushions: 2 behind, 1 front and centre.

Medium couch - Style with 4 cushions: 2 at each end. Easy!

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Large L-shaped couch - You can up the ante here. 6 cushions is a good number: 3 at one end and 3 in the corner (you don’t need any cushions on the chaise)

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When you get more confident, you can keep playing with your cushion configuration until it just looks and feels right. Remember, you can always send a friend a pic if you need a second opinion. Don’t forget to pop some cushions on your occasional chairs, too.

We love styling with feather cushions because you can push them into shape and give them a good old karate chop. Cushions look more expensive when they show some movement and are super soft. And you can’t beat the way they feel when you sink back into them.

fake flowers or real flowers?

Both! Plants are an absolute must-have when you’re styling any room because they add colour, freshness and that feeling that ‘THIS IS HOME’.

Faux plants look so real these days that it’s almost impossible to spot the difference, and they’re perfect when you’re selling a property and don’t have time to be watering the plants. If you’re using glass vases for those fakies, take your faux game next level by adding water to the vase. You can also mix real and fake stems in the same vase to keep people guessing!

what are the best window coverings for a small window above the bed?

It sounds like a blind of some kind could work well, rather than curtains that would get in the way of the bed, perhaps like this one in Lana’s bedroom…

There are lots of options to choose from like this honeycomb style, Venetians (they’ve come a long way from the rusty metal ones your Nana had!) or something more like a Roman fabric blind. If you like your Sunday sleep-ins you might want to consider ‘blockout’ material. If so, talk to an expert to make sure you get the right product for your needs.

what’s the best sofa colour (other than white)?

White couches CAN work for family life (we all have them!) but if white’s not your jam that’s totally fine too.

The best colour for you is the one that your vision board dictates. Heck, it might be pink, or teal or grey - there’s really no ‘correct’ answer, we’ve used them all and they can all look fabulous! BUT, and this is a big but, we highly recommend that you don’t even think about setting foot inside a furniture store without first pulling together a vision board. Your vision board should be a summary of 5-8 of your favourite images that summarise what you want your finished room to look like. If it’s a lounge room, there’ll be a sofa somewhere in those pics which guides the colour AND style that you should be shopping for to suit your room.

HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR WHITE SOFAS CLEAN?

Bonnie chose white couches for her house (which is home to 4 boys, a husband and 4 dogs) and one of the questions she gets asked most often is, ‘How do you keep your white couches clean?’

We’re not going to lie and say white couches are easy. They do require a bit more upkeep – they aren’t ‘set and forget’ pieces of furniture the way a dark grey couch might be – but the AMAZING impact a white couch can have in the right room is worth it. Bon’s big secret (actually it’s not really a secret, she tells everyone) is washable covers. And because dirt is more noticeable on a white couch, she’ll often grab a baby wipe and spot clean day to day. Doing this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but given the chance, there’s no way Bonnie would swap them for another colour.

Seriously, if your vision board is crying out for a white lounge, then we truly believe you need to embrace it because you’re going to love the feeling it gives you in the space. All your styling mojo could fly out the door if you ignore your vision board and choose a dark couch purely to be practical.

HOw do i choose bedding so that all rooms work together but still have their own identity?

We’re always asked if the style of a kid’s bedroom needs to match the rest of the house… and this goes for other bedrooms in the house too. The short answer is no, they don’t need to match, but, they should have some connection to the vision board for your overall home.

For example, if your home has an overall coastal theme, then the bedding colours, artwork and furniture should all reflect this style but don’t need to match each other. One room might have gorgeous white linen bedding, another a Hamptons/Nautical striped cover… you get the gist.

In kids’ rooms, you can still add fun and inject loads of personality with the overall style in mind. For a coastal theme you might want to hang some fun surf images on the walls or go for a palm print wallpaper or a surfboard in the corner.

which little styling pieces should I choose & where should I put them?

The details you add to a room should be inspired by your vision board. If your vision board is giving out coastal vibes, then natural details like coral, driftwood and shells, or other decorative items that nod to a coastal style, will help bring that feeling to life in your home. This doesn’t mean every piece you use has to link back to your vision board, but there should definitely be items that point in the same direction as your vision board and make sense in the home.

A sideboard is a great place to practise styling with your decorative pieces, have a go at home with our simple guide.

PRETTY PLEASE HELP ME STYLE MY LOUNGE ROOM!

The lounge room is the Mount Everest of styling, not only because it’s often the biggest, but also because there are so many elements to coordinate and things to consider. This is what makes it the most challenging space in the house. Think about it: you’ve got couches, chairs, coffee tables, side tables, cushions, rugs, homewares and, of course, the family TV (not our fave thing to style with). Add on the fact that a lounge room can also have multiple entry points, and suddenly you have yet another thing to think about when it comes time to position your furniture. If it all sounds too hard, don’t be scared off!

The good news is that we’ve made it as easy as possible for you with our 10-step process, which we teach in our online course, Three Birds Styling School - along with everything else you need to know to style your home beautifully.

Our next intake starts soon and the waitlist is open now. Our waitlisters are the first to know when the course opens for enrolment and receive our very best discount code. Don’t miss out on our final course for 2021, join the waitlist now!

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