Five Accessories to Brighten Your Home

Home accessories come in all shapes, colors and sizes and there's an accessory for every room in your home. Finding creative ways to use pillows, lighting, mirrors, flowers and candles can make all the difference if you are feeling trapped in a dull home.

Consider some of the following ideas for a quick makeover.

A pillow's decorative punch

Decorative pillows can add warmth, texture and dramatic accents to your home interior. Choose bright colors and bold patterns to add life to an otherwise boring couch or lounge chair. Add a colorful floral pattern to your stiff classical furniture to add a dash of the earth's warmth. Bold patterns always look dramatic against plain fabrics and surfaces.

For every two patterned pillows, throw in a plain pillow to break the pattern. Too much pattern can become tiring on the eye.

Light's subtle message

Interior lighting can work pure wonders. Whether you want to create atmosphere or attract attention to a piece of artwork or special piece of furniture, the type of lighting effect you choose will make all the difference.

Consider having two lighting options in your home. First, create a lighting design to suit your own practical needs when in the house alone. For example, when you are cleaning or reading you'll need a large bright central ceiling light. But this isn't appropriate when you have friends over. As a second lighting option create 'entertainment lighting' by choosing subtle small lights that you may hang behind or above furniture or on a side table or in the base of an indoor potted plant.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Mirrors do two things. They create the illusion of extra space and they reflect scenes. The secret to hanging a mirror is to know just that. In a cramped room a strategically placed mirror could offer you the extra space you thought only remodeling would do. Always hand a mirror opposite things you want to see more of: opposite a piece of artwork, or window, or indoor plant.

Fresh flower power

Fresh flowers (or even good artificial ones) in a room can bring inside all the freshness of the outside world and literally transform a room. Match flowers with the colors of you accessories. Or place them on a table in front of a mirror.

The incandescent radiance of candles

Candles, whether lit or unlit, make the great final touch to your home. Use scented candles in the bathroom and votive candles to add that decorative touch to a formal dinner.

Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.stylish-home-accessories.com on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article