Take Rooms From Flat to Fabulous With Interior Styling

You have beautiful furnishings and wonderful accessories, yet the room they are in still doesn’t feel comfortable. Here are eight tips to pull everything together into a fabulous space.

Arrange furniture around the “heart” of the room. Put the coffee table in the middle of the room. Then place the sofa and chairs around two or three sides of it. Begin to build the room off of that grouping. Try angles. If you have extra space, add a sofa-back table, a display case or a tall plant. Finish off with artwork and mirrors. The room will look cozier and larger.

Shop your own home. Walk through your home and see what decorator items you might be able to use in a better way. Can you move a bedroom lamp into the family room or bring a piece of art hiding in a guest room into the living room? It’s amazing how accessories can transform a space when you use them in a different area.

Use area rugs. Area rugs will do for the floor what art does for the walls. They also pull everything together and define “zones.” For a simple change, swap rugs between rooms.

Dress up your sofa back. If the back of the sofa is on view, conceal it with a sofa table. Place a reading lamp on the table and hide the cord with a plant placed on the floor.

Provide accents and ambiance with lighting. To evenly light a room, form a triangle with lamps. If you still have dark areas, consider softly uplighting a floor plant. Accent a piece of art by placing a lamp on a table or console below it. You can create your room’s mood with lighting: The softer the lighting, the softer the mood.

Rearrange artwork. Group artwork on a wall based on color or theme or swap out art between rooms.

Soften and accent a room with plants. Plants will soften the many hard surfaces that make up a room. Try putting a tall plant behind a chair or sofa, especially one angled in a corner. Or use a plant beside the fireplace. If you have a tall piece of furniture like an armoire, place a plant beside it to offset it. Good-quality silk plants are fine, but use live plants on coffee and sofa-back tables where they are seen and appreciated up close.

Add your style signature with accessories. Personal accessories are an opportunity to make a statement about what you love. Place a favorite, memorable item in a key place.

Mary Brown
One Day Design
1671 Leora Lane, Encinitas
760-840-1200
onedaydesign.com