- Change your accent pillows. A little change in your accent pillows can go a long way in creating a totally different style for your room. Glam it up with sequins and beads, or make it cozy with an antique floral.
- Change your window treatments. This simple change can create a totally different feel in a room. Create a cozy feeling in cold months with a velvet or brocade. Lighten up in the summer with a breezy sheer.
- Mix it up. When you want a change, but don’t have many options for furniture placement, try rethinking your accessories. Take everything out and start fresh. Look in other rooms of your home, your attic, your kitchen. Find objects with a common color or theme and cluster them together in small groupings throughout the room.
- Bring the season inside. From fall leaves and gourds in the autumn to flowering branches in the spring, natural accessories enliven a room.
- Paint a wall. A fresh coat of paint can make a big difference for a relatively small price.
5 quick tips for lighting:
- Look at a room’s function before you think about lighting. Task lighting in work areas improve safety and the functionality of a room.
- Think of lighting in layers. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that one overhead fixture is all you need in a room. Having multiple sources of light in a room will allow you to change the level of light for specific needs. Rooms typical need five to seven sources of illumination to be fully functional and look their best. The layers can include natural light, overhead fixtures, table lamps, floor lamps, task lighting, and candles.
- Keep it in scale. A delicate table deserves a delicate table lamp. Likewise, a table with mass needs to have a lamp with substance.
- The right height. When a table lamp is placed beside seating that will be used for reading the bottom of the shade should be below eye level and above chin level to effectively light the page.
- Create drama with light. Track lights, spot lights or up lights can be use to highlight artwork, architecture or other focal points in a room.
5 quick tips for paint color:
- Take a sample to the paint store. Bring a sample of the flooring or carpet as well as any fabrics that will be used in the room with you to the paint store.
- Don’t pick your paint color standing in the store. After you’ve identified colors that work with your samples, take home the paint sample cards to make sure the color will work with the other furnishings in the room. Some paint manufacturers even have larger samples or whole books of paint samples available for you to take home and decide on a color.
- Paint a sample wall. Many paint retailers now offer sample sizes of their colors for you to try out on a patch of wall before you commit to painting the entire thing.
- Look at your sample at different times of day. Natural light can dramatically change how we perceive a color, so be sure the color works in the bright morning sun as well as the cool afternoon shade.
- Don’t be scared of an intense color before you bring your furniture back in. A bare room in an intense color can be intimidating, but keep in mind that when you bring your furnishings into the room, the overall effect will be different. The tones in your furnishings will reflect on the painted wall and change or soften the effect.
Picture hanging tips:
- Hang pictures so that the middle is at eye level. That’s between 58 and 62 inches from the floor.
- Cluster three to four smaller pictures together instead of spreading them out across the room to create a finished look.
- Pictures in a dining room can be hung lower on the wall since they will be viewed while seated.
- When creating a picture grouping, place the heaviest picture at the bottom.
- Cut out newspaper templates and tape them to the wall to help determine the best placement.
- Vertical artwork creates a more formal setting; horizontal artwork creates a casual and restful setting.
Accessorizing tips:
- Cluster objects to create a related table-top scene.
- Vary the height of the objects you are working with. You can add height by placing some objects on top attractive books laying on the surface.
- Work with odd numbers of objects: 3, 5, or 7. This makes the eye travel over triangular paths, creating visual interest.
- Symmetrical arrangements are more formal in nature; asymmetrical arrangements are more casual.
- Pay attention to scale. Make sure your objects are not too small or too big for the area in which they are being displayed.