Designer Home Accessories

The look of your home can say as much about your personal style as the clothes you put on your body. While furniture provides a glimpse of personality, it’s how you accessorize your home that truly brings “you” into the picture.

Interior designers often start from the floor and begin layering a room. The first layer, or the foundation, consists of large pieces of furniture, and rugs to anchor small vignettes within a larger space. These can be conversation areas or creative display spaces, but they’re not complete without wall decor, a layer of lighting, and finishing accessories. The fact is, every layer of interior design includes accessories. The look of larger pieces of furniture can change drastically with the right carpet or rug to anchor the room. It can either maintain a neutral palette with colors and patterns similar to that of the furniture, or it can add an entirely new dimension of color and motion with the use of highly contrasting colors and patterns. Lighting accessories can be installed pieces or lamps. Track lighting or recessed lights have a dramatically different effect on a room’s feel than a blown-glass torchiere or a Tiffany lamp.

Of course, the largest statement you can make in your home is with the smallest items, the finishing accessories. An entire collection of Hummel figurines may be perfect for a collector, while a minimalist may want a few simple, colorful pieces to highlight a space that would otherwise be devoid of the emotion that accessories can impart. Accessories can be found on the walls, on shelving, or on tabletop groupings, but designers typically agree that groupings of any sort should be similar in style or color. Designers also agree that a room should be designed with no more than five colors, and that one of those colors should be used sparingly to create cohesion and motion among the accessories. If a room’s primary color palette is muted greens and earth-tones, for example, a rich burgundy of a similar saturation would be perfect for draperies, as the main color in a piece of wall art, couch pillows, a throw on a chair, and a grouping of candles on a coffee table.

Even if your style is very simple, some well-chosen and well-placed home accessories can create the amount of motion, texture, and excitement that is perfect for your home.