Sometimes there's not much choice about how a home is decorated. It's put together by acquiring hand-me-downs from family members. The color and style of these pieces, especially the larger ones like sofas, drive other decorating decisions. Another piece is picked up at a garage sale, another at the flea market. A furniture store has a sale, and the next thing you know, the living room is decorated -- but it happened without planning.

At some point you determine that you want to make your home reflect who you've become through the years. How do you go about choosing a style you like and are comfortable with?

 

Margot Thom, of Mill Valley, chose cobalt blue cupboards, stainless steel appliance
s and granite countertops to give her kitchen a sleek, modern feel.

Baroque, Bauhaus, Biedermeier. Federal, Georgian, Colonial. How about Modern, Contemporary or Traditional?

To interior decorators each of these words conjures up specific images of how a home should be decorated, and with that in mind, helps them determine which fabrics, such as chenille, silk or velvet, will be used to fulfill each style. But they're a jungle of jargon until you're given the Rosetta Stone to help break the code.

Each of the words represents a decorating style named for the period from which it derived. For example, Baroque is the term applied to the art style of the Counter-Reformation in the 17th century. By that time the world had become more vast and mysterious to mankind than it had seemed in any previous period. Hence, Baroque is a style in which painters, sculptors and architectsexpressed emotion and movement. It's a decorating style that's rich,textural and warm, if not imposing. ``Baroque'' incorporates furniture madeof dark, ornately carved woods; textured, rich tapestries; and heavilywoven fabrics in warm, deep colors like burgundy, forest green and deepblue.

Bauhaus, on the other hand, comes from the Bauhaus School, a design school in Germany founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius. Its objective was to combine art with engineering and craftsmanship, which was considered very modern. By radically breaking with the past, the Bauhaus masters and their students ushered in many of the furniture and architectural styles used today. If you're sitting on a tubular steel chair and the room you're in is drywalled, then you've just experienced the impact the Bauhaus School has had on design.

 

Precious items from Del Rosario's collections,
including vases adorned with miniature cedars, adorn her faux-marble fireplace mantle.

So what does all this have to do with choosing your own decorating style? Your home is a way to express yourself, and finding the style that represents your inner voice is hard to do until you're familiar with what's out there.

Where do you begin? It's easy to say, "I know! I'll hire a decorator!'' A professional decorator is certainly knowledgeable about different styles, knows where to purchase furniture and accessories, is comfortable making choices and can transform your house into a more elegant, comfortable, beautiful home. But to ensure that it will reflect you, a decorator needs a guide to what you like and don't like. And no one defines this but you.

LIST WHAT YOU LIKE

Start with this exercise; it's designed to help clarify your thinking about how you want your home to look. Take a piece of paper and pencil; draw a line down the middle vertically and another horizontally. The paper is now divided into four sections. Write one of these headings at the top of each section: Lifestyle, Creature Comforts, Furniture Pieces, and Colors and Textures.

"Lifestyle'' will help you recognize what's important to you and family about the room's new design; "Creature Comforts'' are what you'd really like to have in the room, such as a large, comfy chair and ottoman. "Furniture Pieces'' is what's necessary in the room for it to function well for your needs, and "Colors and Textures'' are what your dream room would have to make it an expression of yourself.

In each section write as many words as you can think of that express your thoughts and feelings about each topic. Put away the paper for a day or two. Come back to the list and write more words.

LEAF THROUGH MAGAZINES

Now that you're starting to have sense your needs and wishes for the room, it's time to start educating yourself. Begin at bookstores. Buy a half- dozen magazines specializing in home decorating. Many of them are oriented to specific decorating styles and furniture -- for example, ``modern'' versus ``traditional.'' Some cover the broad spectrum of styles and feature different styles from one issue to the next.

Pay particular attention to the details in the pictures. Rest assured that you will not like everything! Sometimes you might not like the entire room but there's one detail, like a specific piece of furniture or the way things are arranged, that captures your attention. Don't neglect to look at the ads, too; they contain as much information about style as the editorial pictures offer. Tear out the pictures you like, and make a little note on the side about that feature. Put these pictures in a folder.

After doing this a few times, you'll start to see a pattern emerge and there will be consistency in the look from one picture to another. As you go through the magazines, you'll discover that you're becoming more informed and familiar with design looks and styles, whether they have names yet or not.

BROWSE, DON 'T BUY

Now you're ready to go to furniture stores, but not to buy anything. Stores are good places to walk browse and to try out different styles. You're under no obligation to buy, and the people who work at the stores are happy to teach you about their merchandise. Ask questions. Each answer probably will lead you to another question. Be a sponge, absorbing the language of the interior design world.

Annual designer showcase houses are the ultimate places to see decorating styles and their implementation in real homes. Most Bay Area counties have a showcase house once a year to benefit local charities. Designers and docents are there to answer your questions.

Sometimes people like different styles for different reasons and in aperfect world would have two or three homes to reflect each of theirpreferences. However, it isn't a perfect world, so instead they indulge their different tastes in one home, creating an eclectic look. There's a wonderful place in the decorating world for people with such an undefinable style as this.

By now you should have enough information about yourself and your decorating taste to begin working with a decorator or choosing a specific look on your own. Take your time, as mistakes can be made, though they're never fatal. And, remember, nothing is etched in stone because as you evolve, so do your taste and your sense of yourself.

 

ELEMENTS OF STYLE Consider practicality. When thinking about your new decorating style, consider how the family lives. If there are children and/or pets, pale colors and fragile fabrics probably won't be very practical. They're not out of the question, but they'll require special attention and changes in behavior -- such as no grape juice for the kids on the white sofa, please!   It's OK to be different. There are no strict rules about using the same style of furniture from one room to another, but some general guidelines should be followed: If you can see from one room to another, wall colors and furniture styles should complement each other to maintain the visual flow. But if a room is in another part of the house and the way it's used is significantly different, using another decorating style will work.   Sweat the small stuff later. Start your design with the large fixed aspects of the room and work your way in. Walls and floors come first, large pieces of furniture next, and smaller pieces and accessories after this.   Don't discount thrift shopping. Flea markets and garage sales are good sources for the right piece to fill a specific need if you're creative and clever. And, if you're lucky, a flea market or garage sale find can be a wonderful antique worthy of a fabulously stunning price on ``Antiques Roadshow'' -- just ask the woman who bought a little hall table at a garage sale for $25 that turned out to be worth $230,000.   Let there be lights. Don't forget the lighting, a crucial design element that will add the finishing touch to your new look.

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