How to Decorate - Simple Decorating Tips and Advice

If decorating your home seems overwhelming to you, there are a few simple and easy to follow tips that will make the big difference. It is simple to decorate color, furnishing, nick-knacks or fabrics.

The first thing that you have to do is to start with the architectural style or the natural surrounding of your home.

Cottages usually look great if decorated in a more casual country décor with floral, checks, linen, cotton and cherry colors.

If you have a Victorian home, you have to decorate it in a more formal atmosphere with lots of lace, antiques, flower wallpaper and pastel colors.

If your home is on the Cape, it will look great with nautical themes, and colors found in the seaside. Wooden homes, will have a lot of wood, plants, and natural materials and fabrics that will bring the outdoor inside and are painted with more earthy colors.

City lofts will look great decorated with more modern materials like glass and chrome and perhaps the black and white theme.

You should only not fight against the architectural design of your home. Follow the design of your home and the surroundings and you will create a natural, well balanced and inviting atmosphere.

If you do not know from where to begin the color scheme of your home, then get an inspiration from a rug, a pillow, a painting, a towel, a tapestry or anything that is of a favorite to you and has color in it.

If you like the way colors look together in an object, then you will like how they will look like in your home. Choose from three to five colors to spread through your room.

Make sure in each room to be each of the colors that you have chosen. This will make your home look more comfortable, harmonious and with a balanced appearance.

After you have chosen the colors make sure to construct the wall and trim the paint. If the trim is dark, make the walls light -and otherwise.

I personally prefer the walls to be darker than the trim unless the trim is a dark, natural and high quality wood.

If the trim is outdated low quality wood, it will best if you paint it. This will give the home a fresh, new and updated look. Make sure to use a high quality gloss or semi-gloss paint and to clean your trim a breeze.

The next step is to keep the big ticket items like couches, love seats and recliners neutral and to accessorize with color.

Do not consider that all furniture will be shoved against the wall. Make groups of furniture into sitting areas, conversation areas, or reading areas.

If the room is larger you can create two groups in one room. A classic seating arrangement is two rooms in front of a window and an end table.

The chairs should be 18" away from the window, for the draperies to hang easily and to be able to walk behind the windows for easy opening and closing them.

In stead of putting the sofa against a wall put it in the center of the room or at an angle if the room is odd shaped.

You can bring sofas, coffee tables and chairs close to each other and to create an intimate area that will be easier for conversation and to invite them to spread out the furniture. Put a chair or two separate from the main group for reading and intimate conversation.

There are some rules when you accessorize with nick-knacks or collections. You always have to use odd numbers.

Place a large item alone and three piece on the coffee table, five pieces on the shelf and so on. The proportions should be even and the heights different.

You can put a tall, medium and a short objects together. You can arrange books, wooden boxes and tin boxes to create height with objects.

The next thing is to keep collections together and never to spread them out in your home. If you have for example a collection of brass candle holders, you can put them together.

If you have a small art collection, hang it from the wall. It will be great if like-kind materials or colors are put together.

Metal is good arranged with other metal, glass with glass, ceramic with ceramic and so on. Blue looks good with blue, yellow with yellow and so on especially in glassware.

Look around your house and put together all the metal things. Do not do this with every surface but a few collections or colors together will create a focus point and will draw the eye to the room.

Follow the architectural style of your home, contrast walls and trim colors, create groups of furniture, keep big ticket items neutral and accessorize with color.

You can decorate with nick-knacks in odd numbers; keep collections, like-kind and colors together. You can add color and texture with decorative pillows, runners, rugs, and curtains.