Holistic Design: How to Build A Cohesive Home

If you have your heart set on creating a more cohesive home, embracing holistic design is where it all begins. Because building a cohesive home starts with a holistic mindset—one that considers not just how a space looks, but how it feels and functions, day in and day out. True unity in design is never accidental. It’s thoughtfully layered through your colour palette, the fabrics and silhouettes you bring in, the way your lighting speaks to the mood, and how each piece of furniture supports the flow of everyday life. It’s about intentionality in every detail—woven together to reflect how you live, not just how you want things to look.

Holistic Design: Four Elements That Build Cohesion

1. Colour Palette

When it comes to colour, we always encourage our clients to begin with three core hues. If you're more reserved with colour, this approach keeps things grounded and intentional. If you’re feeling bold, the sky’s the limit—but even then, balance is key. The classic colour wheel is a helpful tool, and we always turn to nature as the ultimate guide—Mother Nature never gets it wrong.

At Plank & Pine, we also consider wood tones and their finishes as part of the overall colour story. In our Easy Breezy Project, our clients wanted a bright, calming space with a coastal sensibility. We landed on three primary colours plus one consistent wood tone: Simply White OC-117  washed the walls, ceilings, trim, and kitchen cabinetry, while Stonington Gray HC-170 added subtle depth to the living room built-ins and interior doors. A bolder coastal blue, Slate Tile by Sherwin Williams, was used to drench the powder room and appeared throughout the home in textiles. 

Because the home is set near the water, referencing the surrounding landscape was an obvious and natural move. The all-white kitchen called for warmth, which we introduced through vertical oak veneer panelling on the range wall—its soft pink undertone reminded us of PEI’s sandy shores, so we embraced it.

We echoed this finish on the island and upper drawer fronts, creating a visual anchor that made the space feel distinct and inviting. Throughout the home, from the ceiling beams to the furniture, we chose wood finishes that felt cohesive—not identical, but complementary.

2. Consistent Materials

If you’re drawn to wall paneling (we’re right there with you), consider carrying that material language into multiple areas of your home to create cohesion. One of the most common mistakes we see is using something like shiplap on a single feature wall—usually around the fireplace—and stopping there.

While it might feel like a moment, it often ends up feeling disconnected and unintentional. That doesn’t mean every wall needs to be wrapped in the same paneling, finish, or direction—please don’t! Instead, think of it as a thread that weaves through your home in subtle, varied ways.

In our Winter River House project, we used vertical pine paneling in the secondary bathroom, painted in a grounding, earthy grey to envelop the space. Then we echoed the look through a 3” wide solid red oak panel backing inside a glass cabinet—adding craftsmanship and warmth.

Finally, we brought in a vertical black panel detail at the back of the mudroom lockers, offering both visual interest and added durability in a high-traffic zone. It’s this thoughtful repetition—with variation—that makes a home feel collected, connected, and designed with purpose.

3. Lighting Characteristics

When we talk about holistic design and cohesion, lighting is one of the biggest opportunities to create it—and one of the easiest places to get it wrong. Yes, consistent finishes matter (brass, matte black, polished nickel, and so on), but the characteristics of your lighting matter just as much.

First things first: if you're stressing about matching your brass finishes perfectly, take a breath. Don’t. There are endless variations out there—satin brass, honey bronze, antique brass, warm gold—and trying to match them all can actually make your space feel flat. A bit of variation adds richness and depth. The same goes for style.

Your light fixtures should speak the same design language, but they don’t need to come from the same family or collection. In fact, choosing the same fixture in different sizes throughout your home can make it feel more like a showroom than a space with soul. Instead, we suggest selecting fixtures that tell a similar story—maybe it’s the shape, finish, or era they’re inspired by—but still have their own unique personality because they are not identical.

We also pay close attention to how fixtures interact, especially in open-concept areas like kitchens and dining spaces. If pendant lights are hung over the island, we’ll opt for a chandelier or a linear pendant in the dining zone to balance things out. Mixing profiles—like linear vs. round, or ceiling-mounted vs. wall-mounted—brings visual interest and helps your home feel layered, intentional, and anything but predictable.

4. Furniture Planning & Selection

Much like lighting, we strongly (emphasis on strongly) advise against purchasing matching furniture sets. We get the appeal—it’s quick, easy, and takes a few decisions off your plate—but the result rarely delivers the layered, lived-in feeling that makes a space feel truly yours.

Matching sets often lean into that “showroom” look, which may seem cohesive at first glance, but actually leaves your home feeling flat and impersonal. Instead, we encourage you to mix old with new. Vintage or custom made pieces not only add character, but they’re often beautifully made—something that’s hard to come by in today’s fast-furniture world.

We also love playing with texture and material when selecting furniture. For example, if you have an upholstered sofa, try pairing it with leather chairs that will patina over time, adding richness and warmth. If you’d rather stick with upholstery, no problem—but skip the identical fabric and opt for something complementary. Think a linen blend with velvet, or a subtle pattern that echoes your palette without repeating it.

One of the biggest mistakes we see is furnishings being treated as an afterthought during new builds, renovations, or home updates. But no matter how beautiful your architectural finishes/features are, if the furniture doesn’t fit the space, allow for natural flow, or reflect your personality, the home won’t feel complete.

This is exactly why we always recommend bringing your interior designer in at the very beginning of a new build or renovation. We deliver the best results when the home is considered as a whole—furniture plans included. When these decisions are made early on, long before fatigue sets in or the budget is depleted, the results are not only more cohesive, but far more thoughtful and functional.

Designing with Purpose Starts with a Conversation

Bringing holistic design to your home starts with intention—layered through every material choice, lighting detail, furniture selection, and stroke of colour. It’s not about creating a space that looks perfect on paper, but one that feels effortless, personal, and deeply lived in.

When each decision is made with the full picture in mind, the result is a home that flows beautifully, tells your story, and supports the way you move through it every day. That’s why we always encourage you to think holistically—and to bring your designer in early. Because cohesion isn’t created by chance. It’s built thoughtfully, from the ground up.

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