Accessories and Your Home: How to Do it like a Pro
If the home is where the heart is, then accessories are the soul. Accessories are usually the finishing touch when designing a home and allow you to complete your space, give it character and add important personal touches. Without these little extras, a house has no soul. Accessories also give you a chance to shop for smaller items, opposed to larger ones, which you can incorporate into your décor scheme immediately without having the hassle of assembly. However, as vital as they are, accessorising is commonly compared to baking in the way that it’s a delicate process and it’s easy to over-ice the cake. Instead of throwing our hands up in frustration, we’ve made a list of our top ticks and tricks so you can start accessorising your home like a pro’.
Carry on reading for our top tips.
Create A Place to Store Accessories
One way to accessorize your home like a professional is to create a place to store items when not in use. You may have more accessories than you think; and the main benefit of creating an accessory cabinet is that you can keep seasonal or outgrown accessories hidden as you tire of them then rotate or reintroduce them as you see fit. Plus, you can move them from one room to another to keep rooms looking good without buying any more accessories. You can also use an accessory cabinet to limit the number of accessories displayed at one time so that rooms don’t look too busy.
Collect Accessories over Time
As addictive as impulse purchases may be, try and resist the urge to buy loads of accessories purely to finish a room. Instead, focus on collecting accessories over time, much like home decorating professionals when they create displays for interior design showcases, and concentrate on objects that speak to you. Most importantly, remember that the accessories you buy should reflect your personality and the life you lead, and not the latest home décor in magazines and TV shows.
Clear Your Space First
When placing your new accessories, the room in question must be completely clear of other decorative elements. Create a blank slate by clearing out items such as lamps, ornaments, artwork, and pillows, as a decor-free space helps you to get rid of distractions and allows you to figure out where you’re going to place accessories. Doing so will let you see the room from a new perspective, and you can take the time to consider if you like the changes or not; you also have the opportunity to rearrange furniture before you start designing the room and turning it into a unique space.
Pick One Statement Piece
One common trend amongst professional interior designers is incorporating more prominent accessories, generally referred to as statement pieces, into a room. Sometimes your design scheme might call for a significant addition, which steals all the limelight, and then you stylise the rest of the room accordingly. An example of a statement piece could be a wall hanging, an oversized vase, a chandelier, or a mirror. If you’ve found an exceptional statement piece and you’re struggling to incorporate it into your home, take a look at this internet guide so you can do it justice and give it space to shine. Although statement pieces can be fun and are handy when you want to make a room special, make sure that it fits in with the room; otherwise, you’ll run the risk of it looking out of place. Also, although interior designers always preach to practice the rule of three, less is more when it comes to statement pieces. Incorporating too many statement pieces will over-power the room and take focus away from other accessories.
Play With Colour
Another way to accessorise your house like a pro’ is by choosing and buying accessories that compliment your room’s colour palette. You could blend them into the overall colour scheme or purchase accent colours to provide contrast. Not to mention, accessories are one of the least expensive ways to introduce colour. Accessories are also a good way of trialling a colour in a room without fully committing, as you can remove or rotate them if you tire of specific colours. Whereas, if you were to paint all the walls in a saturated colour or purchase some brightly-themed canvas prints and end up not liking the result, it could result in a pricey decorating mistake plus costs for removal. Decorative pillows and blankets are some of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to experiment with colour, pattern, and texture when styling the space, so we recommend starting with these.
Group Accessories Together
Instead of having singular accessories in an area, unleash your inner interior designer and experiment with grouping them. The best place to display accessories are on tables or shelves, as these provide the space and height to show a variety of objects such as glass vases, books and picture frames. We recommend grouping similar items together to create continuity—by colour, theme, or both. On the other hand, you could group odd numbers of objects to provide contrast and bundle items of varying heights. Be warned, though, it can be easy to over-group things, which leads to rooms looking disorderly, and it doesn’t allow you to focus on any one item at a time. We recommend following the rule of three to avoid this, or gathering the items and displaying them in one spot to create a tidy grouping. Doing this, can help you keep your collections organised and simplify your current collection.
Utilise the Whole Room
When accessorising your home, try and avoid solely using areas like the mantelpiece, coffee table, and window ledges. Instead, make sure that you utilise the whole space. A popular way of using space is by adding picture frames, canvas prints, and other artistic features to walls, as they make great accessories and help add the finishing touches to a room. You could support local artists and purchase pieces to frame and hang in your home, or if you’d prefer a more personal option, you could get some of your photography blown up as canvas prints. Suppose you live somewhere with limited vertical space. In that case, you could consider organising your photographs in a photobook, which you could then display as an accessory on your mantelpiece or dining room table. Sounds like something that appeals to you? Click on the previous link to browse the selection of personalised products that Photobox offers.
Use Natural Aspects
Another way to accessorise your home is by incorporating natural aspects into your décor, or perhaps items from your travels. Using natural elements can be as easy as gathering fresh flowers and putting them in a vase, arranging hanging baskets, or planting trees. For example, you could accessorise with seaside elements like seashells or have marine animal-themed artwork if you live by the coast. Accessorising greenery and succulents can be both life-changing and fulfilling, as the experience of helping a plant grow into fruition is rewarding. Not to mention, house plants help purify the air and have also proven to improve people’s moods as it’s believed that seeing greenery and nature help us feel relaxed and calm, which improves our mood.
