Your home is a reflection of your interests, tastes, and style. Interior trends in the past have focused on minimalism, with neutral tones as well as simple fabric textile and feel. While this is one style to utilize in a home, it can often feel cold or unwelcoming. We’ve talked about upcoming trends for next year, and how to incorporate these themes into your household. Your home should mirror aesthetics that you enjoy, don’t be afraid to mix textures, colors, and patterns to cater to what interests you. We’ve curated some tips on how to tastefully add flair to a room, without going overboard.
Clean House
Decluttering is important before you decide how you want your room to look. While this idea is not new, studies are showing the health benefits of clearing and consolidating items away in the home. According to the National Association for Professional Organizers, 54% of Americans feel overwhelmed by their cluttered homes. Tidying cluttered spaces can alleviate stress and anxiety, improving mental well being and making sure you can enjoy being at home.
When you are constantly looking at clutter, your brain gets distracted, in turn making it harder to focus. While going through your room, figure out what items are necessary and what can be stored away in suitable storage containers in order to decrease the amount of items left out in the open. With items stowed out of sight, you’ll be able to have a clean slate to start decorating and adding things that are up to date with your current style. If you decide to change up your decor later on, you can go back through your stored items to swap out.
Mismatched Furniture
The first step in finding furniture for a room is ensuring it’s comfortable and functional. When trying to add character to a room though, getting matching sets isn’t ideal. All of the same furniture can be repetitive and dull, which isn’t the intention when decorating your space. If you don’t want to buy new furniture, switch different pieces out between rooms. This will refresh your space without spending any money! It can be a fun challenge seeing how you can style a room with different furniture from another part of your home.
While mixing furniture can be a creative project, it can easily go ary with combining styles that are too different. Find a common denominator between all your furniture, whether it’s a similar color scheme, form, or same time period piece (contemporary, modern, etc). The easiest way to create cohesion with furniture that are different styles is to have the same color pallette. If your room has some sort of coordination with this, then even pieces that may seem out of the ordinary will blend together with the same pigment. A neutral wall hue, mixed with bright pops of furniture color will create a wonderful unity within your space!
Texture
In interior design, texture is an important aspect to consider when creating a space. It’s referred to as the material of an item in the room, and this small detail is what can really make an area pop. It’s critical to create a visually stimulating space by incorporating all different kinds of materials in your room that will help the eye flow gradually throughout. Without contrasting textures, a room can feel flat.Having texture as an element will elevate your space and give more character. Texture provides visual weight, a term described as catching the eye first.
There are many ways to incorporate this component into a room. Think about the textiles already present, are they all the same? If you have all smooth and flat materials, from the carpet to the furniture upholstery, add something with a more rough texture. A wooden table, a furry throw blanket, or a velvet chair will enhance this, and stand out from the rest of the room. Adding an accent wall that has an interesting pattern will also change up the space completely. If you’re having a hard time figuring out what to add texture wise, shop around and see if there’s a piece that speaks to you that you can imagine adding value to your room.
Add Artwork
Art is very personal to each individual, everyone has aesthetics and mediums that they enjoy. Incorporating art into the home is important to showcase your own style, but art also has several other benefits besides looking nice. A study published by the University of Arkansas found that people who viewed art in a museum displayed improved critical thinking skills and increased empathy, as well as enhanced problem solving techniques. Another study from neurobiologist Semir Zeki found that the brain releases dopamine, a chemical that induces happiness, when someone views art. Artwork’s effect on the brain is immense, so transitioning these same positive feelings and benefits into your home could improve wellbeing overall.
There are a variety of ways you can add artwork into your home. Since it is completely subjective on what art is, anything that brings you joy is what should be added onto your walls. While art pieces from your local gallery can be pricey, checking out vintage shops can save you some money, while finding unique paintings or drawings from artists. If you’re really feeling creative, make your own art. Not only does viewing art have substantial benefits on the brain, but producing your own has been linked to psychological resilience, as well as reducing stress and anxiety.
Display a Collection
Have an assortment of items/memorabilia you’ve curated over the years? Create an area on a bookshelf or table that displays it! Depending on what it is, you can utilize the collection as wall art, or tastefully placed around your home. Whether it be souvenirs from past travel experiences, or a collection of trinkets, you should embrace these objects if they make you happy. Displaying a collection is a great way to showcase who you are, and your interests reflected in the pieces.
Regardless of a room size, you can add your own personal flair to make a room more compelling and alluring to the eye. Decorating a room is all based on how you like it, as you’ll be in and around it daily. Surrounding yourself with pieces and designs that make you happy is the most important part, however adding more depth with some of these tips can go a long way in completing a room!
