Decorating Challenge # 4 - 

Interior Design Technique Decorating with Home Accessories  

Decorating with home accessories is the interior design technique that brings passion and personality to your rooms.  Your personality and passions are the most important decorating ingredient that will bring focus to your rooms. Decorating accessories are the things that make you feel good, add comfort and convenience and give your style to your home. 

While style, color and texture are necessary and only subtle hints of your personality - The accessories in your home are what reveal your true self and decorating style. 

Home decorating accessories are the toss pillows on the sofa or bed…. The colander on the counter filled with fresh fruit…. A wall covered with your children’s art cleverly framed….. A basket or interesting box by the recliner to store the remote and other little treasures (pens, reading glasses....) that clutter the table.

Accessories in this room are an interesting blend of objects that tells about the owner's personality and own decorating style.  Photo from Country Living.

Home decorating accessories are what makes your home yours.  Your style, what you like and things that make you comfortable and feel good.

Accessories are the things you collect and pick up along the way.  Take your collections out of the closet or drawer.  Use decorating techniques like displaying your collections on shelves, in trays, or hang on the wall.  Even put a collection snap shots in a big pretty bowl on the coffee table. 

If you are not sure what your decorating accessories could be, dig out some old boxes of things you've saved.  An old baseball glove, trading cards, a bunch of old advertising ball point pens, a christening dress, funky shoes..... Anything can be considered an accessory.  

When you are thinking of decorating with accessories, push your creative self.  Think how to use items in unusual ways or in places unexpected. 

If you find yourself a little reluctant, others will find your treasures interesting.  The fact that you like them and have saved them is all the more reason to display them and enjoy them now.  These are now the accessories that give your rooms style, your decorating style.

Even though you want to be creative, be effective.  A deer head looming over the kitchen sink could be a little scary.  However, it could be great in the newly decorated dinning room that now has a pool table and kegerator.

You want your accessories to be effective. Consider the size, color, style and the overall effect each object  gives your room. 

Decorating tip and interior design size technique:  Accessories too large will dominate.  Those too small will disappear.  Small accessories grouped together can have the impact of a single large accessory.  If you are in a new house with high ceilings, think in a large scale.  If you are used to shopping for small things, go bigger.  The small things in a big space can look real nicky nacky. 

Example: A sculpture too large for a room will dominate the room and make the space feel smaller.  At the same time, several small botanical prints that require a close look to appreciate will be lost spread out on a large expanse of wall.  Or two small roosters on your kitchen island will not have the same impact as one really large rooster.

Decorating tip and interior design color technique:  Choose accessories with your room's color scheme in mind.  Contrasting colors stand out, same colors will disappear.

Decorating tip and interior design texture technique:  Accessories are providing texture visually as well as tactilely.  A room is usually more interesting with a variety of textures in the decorative accessories.  

Decorating tip and interior design style technique:  You can "make" your room with accessories.  You can mix decorating styles.  Your accessories can pull all the other odd elements together into your style. Elle Decor,  Domino and Metropolitan Home always have wonderful rooms with very eclectic styles.  You truly see the personalities of the residents in the decorating styles.

Example:  You want a country style decor and have a contemporary dresser that you just can't replace right now.  Interior design technique and decorating tip:  Take a crocheted table cloth fold it and drape it over the dresser.  Add your country candle sticks, and biscuit box, voila.  You've got country style!   

Interior Design Technique and Decorating Tip:  Grouping similar accessories together can have a big decorating impact.  Put a collection of miniature somethings on a large tray and set on your coffee table.  Arrange a variety of photographs together and hang on one wall.  Group several plates together on one shelf and layer a pitcher or cup and sauce in front of the plates.

Decorating Room Solutions with Wall Art from ArtGazebo

Study the rooms in the photographs of the decorating magazine pictures you love.  How are the objects arranged on the coffee table? What are the shapes and sizes?  How many items are there? Is there an arrangement of pictures on the wall or just one large accent picture?  

Look closely at the pictures and find your own decorating tips where to hang your accent picture or tapestry wall hanging.  Are collections grouped together or spread out all over the room?  

Interior Design Technique and Decorating Tip:  To keep your rooms interesting and you interested, move accessories around in your rooms.  Group them differently when you change them.  Move decorative items from one room to another.  Maybe change things seasonally.  If you tire of some of your decorative objects, put them away for awhile and rotate them.

Find lots of wonderful online places to shop for decorative accessories here, area rugs here and wall decor here.

Home Decorating Accessory Projects you can make here. 

Great Decorating How To and Project Books at BHG

(Check out the wonderful rooms on their site too)!

Other decorating challenges, decorating with style articles and workshops:

Do them in order, do them as you like.  Be inspired and enjoy.

Decorating Challenge # 1 - Discovering Your Decorating Style.

Decorating Challenge # 2 - Interior Design Technique Decorating with Color.

Decorating Challenge # 3 - Interior Design Technique Decorating with Texture

Decorating Challenge # 4 - Interior Design Technique Decorating with Accessories.

I cannot believe the savings on decorating books at  

Alibris 

I just bought two books, Caribbean Style with hundreds of pictures of all the wonderful colors in their textiles, painted exteriors and texture of all the handcrafts added to their eclectic decorating style.  Check out other books by Suzanne Slesin.  She has Greek decorating style, Lofts, French style, English style decorating.......  The other book I bought is Simple Handmade Garden Furniture.  I need more time for all the projects I want to do. 

Just put decorating, decorating with color, home decor, decorating style... in their search box.