Timely Tips for an Update
We all love to add to the design and décor of our homes to give us a sense of newness and personalization. It’s often hard to digest the best options from what’s available in the market. Do you follow a trend and nix it after time? Is opting for something classic better? I recommend a combination. When you incorporate new scale and colors to classic elements, you achieve a lasting look. Here are my five top, easy and relevant ways to make changes that are both trendy and enduring.
1. Use Glass and Mirrors
Whether you opt for a mirrored console, a wall-hung mirror, a new glass lamp or vases and cloches that are filled with fabulous finds, this is a fresh, clean way to display collectibles, catch the light and make a design statement. Mirrors help “expand” spaces and highlight hallways, corners and so much more. One of the best things about glass accessories is that they fit with any seasonal décor.
2. Add Handmade or Rustic Pieces
Personalize your home with handmade or rustic pieces that have special meaning to you. Perhaps it’s a chair from grandpa or a found antique that you adore. Maybe it’s the ceramic bowl made by your child in school. Combining a contemporary style with older pieces of significance to you makes an individual and interesting statement.
3. Switch Out Fabric
One of the simplest ways to transform a space is to change the fabrics in a compelling way. This does not mean you have to reupholster your sofa. Rather, you can just recover pillows in a dynamic textured fabric or a color that complements a work of art on the wall. Drape a nubby throw over the arm or back of a chair or sofa. Redo only the backs or seats of your dining chairs for a spectacular result. Change the panels on your window treatment. Go from heavy to sheer or from solid to patterned. If you’re handy with a sewing machine, add a deep border to the bottom edge and/or sides of existing panels and bring the fabric into the room again in a footstool or pillow.
4. Try Wall Treatments
Wallpaper is ideal in bold-scale patterns, unusual colors or metallic sheen. A damask wallcovering in a bright color with a large-scale format can be very traditional for a classic space or hip and dramatic when updating a modern one. You don’t need to do all of the walls. If you’re good with a brush and trowel, try a faux effect with colors from your space for a custom treatment.
5. Include Shelving
Add an open étagère in a hallway corner or in place of an end table. The lightness of the construction won’t make the space seem small. You can corral collectibles and still have a surface for a lamp, a favorite book and a mug of hot tea.
Alexandra Jane, Design Assistant
Touch of Tradition Home & Garden
7313 Carroll Road, Suite D
San Diego, CA 92121
619-669-8871
Tot-home.com
Designfromca.blogspot.com
