Decorative items: How to beautify your home

Chloe Hines Chloe Hines
homify Living room
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The millions of items of room decor can leave you feeling inspired and lost at the same time. The options are beautiful, often affordable and trendy in a moment's notice. Even if you consider your style to be more minimalist and modern, there are plenty of decorative items you can use to make the most of your home and create a personalized atmosphere.

Choosing the right items is only half of the battle, knowing where to correctly place everything and pull everything in a room together is the other half. Another hard aspect of using decor is your ability to consider all of your items—from area rugs and lighting to paintings and accessories.  Let us be your guide in how to properly manage the atmosphere of your home with our great suggestions below!

Choose good places or: General rules for decoration elements

A general rule for decorative items is that they should not amass to more than 10% of everything in your room. For example, if you have more decorative accessories than you do furnishings, then perhaps it's time to rethink your usage. The only time where this could work is if your home is of a more eclectic or rustic style—even then make sure you're creating a common theme within each room.

Smaller objects on side tables and dressers is a perfect way to add a little surprise for guests to see, and make sure to keep larger items near the wall or on the wall (paintings, art, etc;) as not to clog up your space too much. As seen in this example, the homeowner kept this living room more minimalist and neutral in decor and furnishings, but the items on the media table and the coffee table book as well as the lounge area utilizing the corner space all make this room perfect!

This designer has chosen a lot of decorative items for this space yet the correct placement and use of a common colour scheme makes it work so well!

Lights

It's surprising but true that the lighting features in homes are often forgotten about.  Lighting is a key feature of any home and we know that it's easy to move into a new apartment or home and leave the lighting fixtures as they are.  They seem like an expensive headache that are confusing to install.  Think again! There are plenty of affordable lighting options with beautiful designs that can easily transform your space.

This room is a great example because the chandelier is the focal point, yet the smaller lights near the windows and bookshelves highlight the best features of the room!  Want smaller LED lights to highlight certain areas? Consider mobile LED lights that you can easily attach to the underneath parts of shelves that are battery powered to make installation easy!

Paintings

Adding art to your home might seem like a tricky ordeal. Some feel as though they don't know art well enough to pick anything, others feel they will pick something too trendy that will not be considered cool in a month's time.

Don't let these thoughts scare you away though! Art is incredibly subjective and can really bring a room together more than you realize.  Try to imagine the example we've listed here without the series of black and white prints behind the couch—it would feel rather stark, right?  Go crazy when it comes to choosing art, choosing something you've always wanted that you think no one else will have! Look through antique and second-hand stores, or rummage through your family's attic for those extraordinary finds!

Just to show how crazy you can go with art—check it this example!

Area rug

Utilitarian in function and beautiful in design, area rugs should always be a part of your plan, whether it be the living room or bedroom—well, any room for that matter! An area rug can be anything from a central design element to simply a way to make a room feel more cozy.

If your tastes are more minimal—like the example seen here, be a bit more fun with your rug choices. Animal skins and nice graphic choices work well in a space like this that combines a rustic sense of minimalism.  If you're looking more for comfort, go for high-pile rugs with solid neutral colours to let the other decor and accessories in your room stand out!

Here is an example of how a solid, high-pile rug can still pack a lot of punch into any space!

Sculptures

Ah, more art.  It's hard enough to choose the right family portraits or graphic prints, but now you have to think about sculptures?  We have a solution for you!  Consider other necessary items in your room that combine sculptures—like these amazing, hanging light fixtures.

Don't think sculptures for your home has to mean the typical definition of a free-standing sculpture on a side table! Choosing funky lighting fixtures will be your easiest bet to combine lights and sculptures all in one!

How to arrange shelves

For utilitarian purposes, shelves offer more storage and a way to display objects—as mere accessories they can be used to showcase your design skills.

Organize shelves according to specific rooms, and whenever possible try to create a theme within your shelves.  This designer chose to use books and decorative items—the neutral colours of the room work well with the multitude of colours offered by the various books.

Want to try something really fun with your shelves? Try to organize the items and books on your shelves by colour! It'll be a fun, fast and easy project.

How to decorate room corners

Corners will always be those pesky spaces you're left standing in front of staring at.  As space in a home is something most of us value and want more of, it's important to find appropriate ways to deal with them.

This designer decided to extend the fireplace mantle all the way to the corner of the wall—which was a great idea as it now provides more storage for the homeowner and extra space for a table lamp and accent mirror.  If this isn't an option for you, then think about DIY projects where you can easily build corner shelving systems!

Do you feel you've been successful in decorating your home? Tell us how by commenting below!

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