Many people have no problem selecting the major pieces of furniture for their home, however they are at a loss when it comes to home accessories.
Home accessories are required to make a home feel cozy and welcoming.
Accessories show off your personality and make your home more interesting
Here are a few interior designer secrets for how to decorate a home using accessories.
photo courtesy of Wicker Paradise flickr.com/photos/wicker-furniture/10502605166/Declutter
You could have the most beautiful room in the world, but if it is full of clutter nobody would know its beauty.
Clutter makes a relaxing room feel stressful, so get rid of as much clutter as possible before accessorizing.
Designers know that there must be a home for everything - especially the everyday items like your cell phone, watch, purse, and mail.
Quality
A designer decorating secret is to skip the cheap mass produced accessories for your home that most major retailers sell.
Instead, select accessories that are one of a kind.
Even better, select accessories that tell a story - something your father made, something you picked up from your last vacation, architectural salvage, hand blown glass, an interesting looking tree branch, or a vintage or antique item.
Feel free to refinish items to make them special and unique to your specific taste.
Size
Smaller accessories feel less important, so designers opt for larger accessories when possible.
A designer secret is to put smaller accessories on a stack of books or another platform to elevate their importance.
Accessories that seem a tiny bit too large often work best.
Collections
If you collect figurines, carved masks, clocks, interesting rocks, sea shells, dolls, etc, group the collections together as one unit.
Do not spread the collection around the room or around your home.
You can put them together in a cabinet, on one piece of furniture, or grouped together on a decorative tray #ad.
Groups
A designer secret for grouping accessories is to put them clustered together in odd numbers, such as 3, 5, or 7.
Many professional designers have found the optimum accessory aesthetic is 3 accessories grouped together with one accessory being tall, another short, and another in the middle.
Texture
Another designer secret is to use a mix of different textures to create visual interest.
A grouping of 3 pieces of clear glass vases is not as interesting as a collection of a rough wicker basket, a slightly tattered hardback book, and a clear glass vase with soft flower petals inside.
Clean Slate
When decorating your home, you should start with no accessories in your room at all.
Group all of your existing accessories together in another room and select your best ones to keep and the old and tired ones to give away.
Put one accessory back in your room at a time and determine whether that accessory in that spot adds to the beauty of your room or detracts from the beauty.
Don't Overdo It
Designers know that the more accessories you add, the less important each accessory feels (this is especially true of homes that are flooded with family photos on every possible surface).
Invest in fewer but more special accessories and skip the junk and generic filler items.
Not every horizontal surface has to be decorated with accessories.
Leave room on your coffee table to actually be able to put a book down.
Take your time - your entire house does not need to be decorated within a week of moving in.
A Live Element
All decorating magazines know that the finishing touch for any accessory project is to add a live element.
Add some fresh flowers, a plant, a tree, or a bowl of fruit to give your home a fresh feel that looks professionally decorated.
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