I take the "don't care about consistency" approach here. If I happen to be able to find the same thing again then that's fine, but if not that's fine too. So I have an armchair which doesn't match the futon, two desks of totally different styles, four bookshelves of varying flavours and so on. I care more about the function than the external appearance, I guess.
Well, I don't care much about things *matching* but if I've found a thing that does whatever it is that it is supposed to do in a way that I find useful then I want more like it, maybe in different colours. Like, say, shoes - I don't much care what my day-to-day shoes *look like* but I care that they are comfy. I *know* that these ones are comfy but when they wear out I will have to try on dozens of styles and guess which will be most comfy (and likely end up buying and discarding as useless at least one pair); if I could just buy the same style then I wouldn't have that hassle.
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I take the "don't care about consistency" approach here. If I happen to be able to find the same thing again then that's fine, but if not that's fine too. So I have an armchair which doesn't match the futon, two desks of totally different styles, four bookshelves of varying flavours and so on. I care more about the function than the external appearance, I guess.
OTOH the company who make the modular shelving I have in my bedroom have been using the same system since the 70s, so I expect that if I ever need to buy more of that it will all interoperate.
But when I’m buying a present for someone else, I’d like it to fit in with what they’ve already got.