Make Your Room "Sing" By Understanding How To Accessorize.
Posted: Wednesday, January 14, 2009
by Sue Krippner
Accessorizing - Personality Plus!
Accessorizing is giving that final personal touch to your home or room. Here you can really fine tune your personal style and your uniquely "you" look.
But, you don't want to just throw those pictures on the wall haphazardly or dump those knick knacks wherever you may find an empty shelf...Yes, there are rules to accessorizing - and important ones at that.
Every accessorized object introduced into your room should serve a purpose. Either contributing to form (complimentary design), function or preferably - both. Otherwise it simply becomes clutter. And that, quite frankly, is a beasty that is hard to tame once it gets into your living space!
We can summarize our basic home accessorizing with 3 elements working together to create your unique look.
BALANCE + GROUPINGS + SCALE
Balance is difficult to explain without pictures but I'll give it my best shot. Consider the visual weight of an object when determining the placement of your accessory. To many "heavy" items grouped together will create a visual leaning effect. Too few? Well, in my experience this is not often the problem - most of us have too much in our homes even though - in design - Less is always better!
Now for the Groupings:
Groupings of 3 and 5 always work better than 2 and 4. Avoid military formations...placing your accessories in an equal line equal space arrangement. Place larger items to the back and your smaller accessorizing lovelies to the front of the shelf.
In reference to Scale - the size of the room determines the size of your accessorizing. Large or overstuffed items in a small room will most certainly create a cramped look and feel. Smaller items in a large "great room" will be swallowed by space and area.
Consider this illustration while accessorizing with balance, grouping and scale considerations:
You have finally gotten those concert tickets you have been longing for. Your favorite vocalist only comes to town once every 5 years so you are "fired up"!
The night of the concert everything is perfect. The kids have a sitter, your spouse is being really sweet to make sure you arrive on time. Everything is going so well.
Lights go up - the instrumentalists appear on stage and warm up. Once again - perfect - you wait at the edge of your seat...
Finally the vocalist arrives...THE ONE you have been waiting for. The music starts, he grabs the mic...his lips move... you CAN'T hear his voice at all...THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD!!!
Tragically the entire evening was a sound nightmare...the accompanying band continued to dominate and drown out the vocals.
This example is a bit extreme but I'm trying to make a strong point:
In Interior Design - Your accessories are placed to compliment - not dominate the room.
Create a space where everything works together to communicate the personal expression you want in your room or home. It's room harmony...every item from floor to furniture to finishing accessories.
You have a style, a voice, a creative side...now let that voice sing with the balance, groupings and scale of home interior accessorizing!
Sue Krippner is a Free Lance Artist, Home Staging and Redesign Professional. She is attracted to "all things beautiful, especially as it relates to interior decorating and design. Visit http://frugalhomedesign.com to see samples of her art and find plenty of professional design, tips hints and secrets to help facilitate your personal interior design goals with money saving frugal flair!
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Your room should be representative of who you are. That is a statement of itself.Amen!
Thanks for reading!
I love accessorizing. And, I stand guilty of always wanting everything to match in contrast of colors. I generally never liked cherry wood furniture in the same room with blond wood, but today furniture manufacturers have miraculously created a way for both concepts to blend together. Kind of liking it. :-)DeborahDeborah,Ohhh the visual image you triggered by mentioning the two woods together created a sort of tingle in my toes...do you have photo's of how you may be using these? I'd love to see them!Sue
hi sue,this was a well written and interesting article. i am trying to add something here and there, but basically keeping my home the same, and it feels like me, and i'm comfortable in it, and there's no beating that feeling, is there?thanks for some great suggestions, and i hope you continue writing,welcome to searchwarp,best regards,sue thomThanks for reading...though you may enjoy your style...don't hesitate to try some new Redesign arrangements...stats show that women like to change the look of their surroundings about once every 6 months...I know why - because it's FUN!Sue
Hi Sue, you really explain yourself well. I love color and contrast. Black is my favorite color, so all my furniture is black and my accessories are all bright colors. I absolutely hate white walls.Anyway, thanks again for sharing these great tips!Teresa,From your comments I would bet on the fact that you are a passionate woman! So, what color are your walls...since I know they are not "absoluely hated white".Thanks for reading...I'm gonna nose around now to find your articles...promises to be interesting!SueHi Sue, Passionate would be a mild description :-)Unfortunately most of the walls in the house I am in now are white because we are renting. But, I lucked out with one wall, it is sage green, which goes great with the living room stuff. But the kitchen is an old musty yellow that is driving me insane! Actually, I have come to terms with it.In my old house, though, you are correct in guessing, not one white wall. It's hard to explain, but I sponged painted with Black as the base and teal, wine, and pale pink for the contrast. The other walls were a gray/lavender mix. My office wall was a ligh teracotta. , my bathroom was taupe with purple and sage compliments. Lots of color.Anway, I do hope you enjoy some of my articles :-) Looking forward to hearing what you think.
Good work, Sue, but you can use pictures! This site will support directly pasted or retrieved from the web. I do think it will add "balance" and snap if your wonderful principles are illustrated!Walter,Thanks for the suggestion. Being a newbie I'm just getting my feet wet as to how this site works...pictures will be included in the future.Sue
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