There was a time when furnishing a room often meant choosing a collection and buying the matching coffee table, sideboard, TV unit and side tables to go with it.
Everything matched. Everything coordinated. And everything looked very... matching.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying pieces from the same collection, particularly when you find a style you love. But some of the most beautiful interiors are the ones that look as though they’ve come together gradually, rather than arriving in one delivery.
The trick is knowing how to mix things up without making your room feel mismatched.
Start with Something You Love
Rather than thinking about everything you need for a room at once, start with one piece you genuinely love.
It might be a beautiful sideboard, an oversized coffee table or an occasional chair that immediately catches your eye. Let that become your starting point, then choose other pieces that complement it rather than trying to find exact matches.
You’re looking for things that feel like they belong in the same home — they don't necessarily need to be from the same furniture range.
Mix Your Wood Tones
Yes, you really can have more than one shade of wood in the same room.
In fact, mixing different woods can make an interior feel much warmer and more interesting. A pale oak dining table can happily sit alongside a darker wooden cabinet, for example.
The easiest way to make it work is to look for a common thread. Perhaps the pieces both have a rustic finish, similar proportions or the same relaxed feel.
You don't need the colours to match perfectly. You just don't want them to feel as though they're competing with one another.
Don't Repeat Every Finish
If you have a black metal coffee table, you don't need black metal side tables, a black console and a black shelving unit too.
Instead, repeat finishes in smaller ways.
A black lamp or picture frame elsewhere in the room can be enough to make that coffee table feel intentional. Brass handles on a cabinet might be picked up again through a lamp or decorative accessory.
Those little repetitions quietly pull everything together without making the room feel overly coordinated.
Let One Piece Be Different
Sometimes the thing that doesn't quite match is exactly what the room needs.
An unusual chair beside a traditional console, a contemporary lamp on a rustic sideboard or an ornate mirror above a simple cabinet can stop a space from feeling too predictable.
If everything has the same shape, colour, material and style, there's nowhere for your eye to land.
Give one or two pieces permission to be different.
Think About Shape as Well as Colour
It’s easy to concentrate on colours and finishes when choosing furniture, but shape can make just as much difference.
If your sofa, sideboard and coffee table are all quite square and structured, introduce something softer. A round side table, curved chair or sculptural lamp can break up all those straight lines.
Likewise, if your room already has lots of curves, something more architectural can add a little contrast.
It’s often this mix of shapes that makes a room feel interesting without you being quite able to put your finger on why.
Leave Room for Things You Haven't Found Yet
Perhaps the biggest advantage of not buying everything as a matching set is that your home has room to change.
You might spot the perfect little table six months from now. Find a beautiful chair when you weren't actually looking for one. Or move something from another room and realise it works far better somewhere else.
A home doesn't have to be completely “finished”.
In fact, the rooms with the most personality are often the ones that have been added to over time.
The Secret Is Coordination, Not Matching
A well-designed room still needs things to relate to one another. The difference is that those connections don't have to be obvious.
Repeat a colour here. Pick up a material there. Mix old with new, light with dark and simple with decorative.
Choose pieces because you love them and because they work together — not simply because they have the same collection name.
Your home will feel more personal, more relaxed and far less like you've bought the display straight from a showroom.
Ready to mix things up?
Browse our collection of furniture, lighting and home accessories and find something that deserves a place in your home.