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Today, I would like to share with you some tips and tricks used by interior designers to decorate home with style!

A few suggestions are really very simple and usable right away in your home!

– SCALE AND PROPORTIONS

It is paramount that furniture and accessories are correctly scaled to the size of the room and in proportion to each other.

Furniture or elements that are too large will give a feeling of an overstuffed and confusing environment.

Conversely, too small will be lost, giving the feeling that something is missing.

So to furnish and decorate in style, it is really essential to measure the space and buy items with the correct size for that specific place and in relation to the rest!

(credits: artheco.it; Bronxes Studio)

– BALANCE AND SYMMETRY

Our eyes really like symmetry: it is something that subconsciously calms us!

Decorating your home in style using symmetry is undoubtedly a great thing to do…

BUT, as always, without overdoing it, because then it can get boring!

Perfect symmetry, if repeated over and over again, loses its appeal then, making the environment flat.

The key word is always BALANCE, so don’t be afraid to use asymmetry you only need to balance it visually!

Now let me explain:

If, for example, you decide to put a picture above the couch but not centered, you can balance on the other side with a beautiful floor or wall lamp.

Balancing visual weights will maintain a balance even without perfect symmetry!

The important thing is not to decorate only one side of the wall or place all the furniture in one area of the room without balancing it with something: otherwise, it will look like something is wrong.

(credits: neptune.com; Knoll)

– ATTENTION TO THE USE OF COLORS

The right or wrong use of color will make a big difference in decorating your home in style.

Color has deep psychological significance and is a fantastic ally for our homes.

You can use it on walls, furniture, and decorations, such as pictures, pillows, and vases…

Unless you want a total white or total black or total grey home, you certainly use some colors: in fact, neutrals are colors because they will have a definite undertone (actually, unless you use pure colors white, black, and gray, do too).

You can have a monochromatic home, that is, using the same color everywhere, changing the saturation and intensity: this creates rhythm and does not make everything flat.

You can also use color just in small touches, so in a room, which tends to be neutral, add a few colorful elements here and there (a pillow, an ottoman, an armchair… for example!).

Then, again, you can use different shades of this color to give that sophisticated and stylish touch.

Of course, you can also use more than one color by creating a well-thought-out color palette that allows you to have a balanced and harmonious environment.

If you are afraid to use color, proceed in small steps, with small elements first!

(credits: mooielight.com; Sean Litchfield)

– ALWAYS MAKE COMPOSITIONS IN ODD GROUPS

When making your decorations on a coffee table, a console table, the shelves, or a bookcase, always make compositions with an odd number of elements.

If you put only two elements next to each other, there will be a bit of a feeling of something incomplete; something put there somewhat randomly.

One is an odd number, so, especially on the dining or coffee table putting only one object, perhaps a vase with flowers, may be an option; the only caution will be that it be proportionate to the surface on which it is placed.

The fact remains that three is always the perfect number, although nothing prohibits making five-element compositions as well.

Small clarification, if you put books on top of each other and place an object on there, the whole thing will be considered as one element of the composition!

When making these groups, to make them attractive and sophisticated, always remember to play with different sizes, materials, colors, and finishes.

The elements should create a triangle or diagonal, as always, to give rhythm and dynamism.

Also for compositions, pay attention to the things mentioned in the previous point, namely, the proportions between the elements that make up the composition itself and this in relation to the place where it is placed!

(credits: boho-farmhouse-decor-home-tour-2020; Scout & Nimble)

– THROW PILLOWS

Throw pillows are a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to decorate your home in style.

It will also allow you to change the face of your environments whenever you want!

In fact, once you have bought different-sized and shaped interiors, you can purchase different slip-coverings that you can replace at every change of season, for example, or whenever you see fit.

The slipcovers do not take up too much space and, as just seen, allow you to renovate your home with ease.

I recommend considering throw pillows as any decorative object and so, also with them, as mentioned in the previous point, make compositions in groups of three, or at any rate, always in odd numbers on the couch or bed.

Therefore, even with throw pillows, it is good to use different sizes, colors, patterns, and textures in the composition to give some rhythm and dynamism.

Be careful how you mix patterns, keep in mind the colors, but also the scale of the designs so that each piece blends well with the other (I talk in detail about how to mix patterns here).

Avoid, unless you are in an armchair, leaving a pillow alone, it would seem to be put there a bit haphazardly!

A well-designed composition will immediately give a sophisticated and elegant effect.

(credits: Enorm d’Acheteromme; lifeoncedarlane.com)

Little Tips:

– to get pretty filled pillows, get interiors a little bigger than the covers.

– if you like to give a magazine look to your pillows, get interiors that you can shape well (not too dense, to be honest), and then once it’s pretty filled, you can karate chop it with your hand in the middle!

It is very trendy, but, actually, it gives that feeling of something more studied.

(credits: Etsy.com)

– WALL DECORATIONS

Decorating walls with style is not as easy as it looks, and mistake is really just around the corner!

On the wall, you can put mirrors, pictures, or photographs; you can put one or two pieces or a whole gallery, and, in all cases, the first thing, the most important, is to hang at the right height!

Mirror or pictures, or, better, the center of them, should be hung at eye level, being around 145 and 170 cm from the floor; it will depend on your height, of course!

If you hang the picture or mirror too high, it looks like its own thing, separate from everything else.

In the case of a composition, this measure should be taken for the center of it.

The distance between the various elements on the gallery wall is also significant, which must always be the same and is around 5 cm, both in height and sideways.

If the paintings are too close together, it will create confusion, while if they are too separate, they will look like stand-alone pieces and will not form a cohesive and harmonious composition.

(credits: etsy.com; posterstore.it)

Small cautions:

Regarding mirrors, as seen on other occasions, you can also dare to use huge mirrors, perhaps resting on the floor; they will double the light and give an incredible touch of elegance and style.

For paintings, on the other hand, I recommend avoiding buying elements mass-produced because they will not bring originality.

Of course, I understand that one cannot always afford an auteur painting, but if you look well, you might find a large number of emerging artists who have really cool and distinctive works.

Another way to have original paintings is to create them yourself: if not painting, you can use fabrics, for example… don’t limit your creativity.

The important thing, however, is to look for elements that represent you and tell who you are so that you can decorate in style, your style, your home!

(credits: Sarah Richardson Design; hepsiburada.com – Voovart)

I hope this article was helpful and you love it; in case, let me know in the comments!

Feel free to share it with anyone you think might be interested, I will be honored, and it will help me get my name out there.

If you feel that your home, or some environment of it, does not reflect you enough, do not wait any longer and book your advice: just contact me!

To Give character to the home is not always easy!

When you furnish your home, you often go to a furniture store and buy more or less all the furniture in the same style, and paint the walls only white, so you can be sure that everything is absolutely harmonious!

Is it wrong?

Absolutely not, God forbid!

There will be nothing that “disturbs” neither those who live in the house nor those who come as guests.

I’ve noticed, however, that this is not an aware choice most of the time, but rather let’s say, a NOT chosen: the easiest decision to avoid making mistakes!

And that’s a pity.

Because you’ll be bored very soon!

The house, in fact, will not fully reflect your personality!

Did you’ve done it too?

If so, let’s see how you can change things, giving character to your home, but, above all, making sure that it really represents yourself!

Obviously, you can’t put many things, maybe of different colors, in a completely random way, it will be like a fist in one eye and so really visible and, somehow, annoying.

So what can you do to create unique environments that truly reflect you?

– MIX OF STYLES

One of the first ways is the mix of styles, you must be careful and do it in a thoughtful and studied way, but it can really give fabulous results.

I mentioned it in my last English video two weeks ago, you can find it here!

Your personality undoubtedly has many facets that cannot be told in a single style, isn’t it?

– WISE USE OF COLORS

Another way to give character to your home is the wise use of colors: colors, indeed, have such strong and impacting psychological meanings.

Knowing how to use them in the right doses and in the right environments can help to create suggestive and captivating atmospheres!

I have talked about color psychology in a video that you can find here.

Personally, I don’t recommend the use of a thousand different colors, although in different rooms.

If you really want to do it, then you should use colors a little desaturated to avoid overloading.

And, above all, you have to seek a common thread that unites these environments with such different shades, so, in this case, maintaining the same style of furniture can be better (we already have a lot of colors!)

– INSERT SOMETHING HANDMADE

Then you could consider inserting something handmade, something made by you, from recycled, taken up, modified… more personal than this what can there be?

I understand that it’s not always easy because it takes imagination and, above all, manual skills!

For the manual work, if you don’t have it, you can easily find a good craftsman to give you a hand.

As for fantasy, you can take a look at books, magazines, furniture stores, and antique markets!

Don’t underestimate antique markets: there are many trinkets, but it happens to find many interesting things!!!

All these things are inexhaustible sources of ideas.

Attention, however, the risk is that you like everything and therefore to make a potpourri anything but harmonious!

That’s why relying on a home professional could be the best thing to do: he will listen to you, understand you and then direct you to the best choices to furnish your home in a way that reflects you 100%.

Where you will ALWAYS feel at ease and those who come to visit you will love your home even if they have tastes totally different from yours, this because it will talk about you!!!

So if you are preparing to furnish your home or if, just because of wrong choices (or not choices) you want to change something in your home do not hesitate to contact me !!!!

My job is fantastic, allowing me to relate to people with very different characters and tastes…

It is fascinating to listen to them, ask and investigate to really understand what do their taste are, so that I can help them create their dream home…

That one where it is nice to come back after a day of work, and where you are excited to share moments with friends and family.

FIRST OF ALL, I HAVE TO UNDERSTAND…

And I have to be very careful because people often start with an idea and then go on to express sometimes diametrically opposed tastes.

To really understand, I ask a lot of questions!

Not only, but I also show a lot of pictures of different styles to try to catch the moment when that twinkle in the eye arises that lets me know that that is exactly the genre they like.

It’s not always easy: sometimes you get those who are a little eclectic who come to me, but they still do it their own way!

In fact, I happened to find a foreign client who bought a really superb property who told me that he would like to furnish it with a mix of rustic and modern…

But then he shipped three containers of furniture and items of every possible and imaginable style!!!

Why am I telling you this?

It could be that you are also an original person who likes different genres because one style alone is not enough to “tell” your wonderful, multifaceted personality!

How can different styles be mixed together to create unique and special environments?

Balance is the key word! It is okay to dare, but you also have to find the correct balance between things!

How is this done?

You have to find one common thread among the various styles and environments in the house.

USE COLOR

One of the easiest leitmotifs to use is color; different furnishings, united by color or different shades of the same color, will happily coexist in the same room.

Little “accent” touches can be given by textiles such as pillows, always without overdoing it, especially if there are more than two styles!

An example in these photos taken from a magazine:

CHOOSE ONE MAIN STYLE AND COMBINE IT WITH ANOTHER

Another way is to choose a main style and combine a few different items witch give character without weighing it down.

For example, suppose you have a preference for modern, but perhaps you inherited a beautiful antique table… you can easily combine it with modern chairs as in these examples:

(credit Pinterest)

You don’t have to give up travel or family memories: all it takes is a little attention to make sense of the combinations!

If you are putting up a house or plan to change the look of your current abode and you’d like to put different styles together but are afraid of making some stylistic “mess”, don’t hesitate to contact me.