Accessories make room come to life

What exactly are accessories and do you really need them to complete the look of your home?

Accessories is a term designers use to refer to paintings, sculpture, pottery, decorative vases, and boxes, as well as statues and carvings. Without a doubt, all of these play a major role in the decoration of a space.

As a designer, the selection and placement of accessories in a room is often the most enjoyable aspect of decorating; maybe because they’re truly the most personal part of interior design because they help to give rooms their personality and express the individual tastes of my clients.

Accessories are as essential to a room as flowers are to a garden and scenery to an empty stage. How utterly devoid of color and interest a home would be without them. Truly, it’s the “little decorative touches” that are needed to make even a completed and fully designed home come to life.

In a word, never underestimate the value and importance of accessories to your home’s décor. Whether you’re a minimalist, eclectic, classic or bohemian, what makes your home uniquely your own are the things you have in it. There’s no way your design can be complete without at least even a superficial nod to acquiring some pieces of “decorative trim.”

There are very few rules on the use of accessories, and a rigid plan or arrangement isn’t really necessary since neither the style nor the design of the furniture and accessories needs to match. But thought should be given as to whether they’re to be equally formal or informal.

As is often the case in life and art, less in most instances is more! Try not to go overboard in acquiring and displaying too many accessories as that could work to your disadvantage. Interestingly, accessories can be both functional and decorative and, even sometimes, a little bit of both.

Functional accessories usually serve a specific purpose or need — such as clocks, mirrors, pillows, vases, lamps and sofa pillows — and should ideally work with the color palette of the room. An elegant vase, for example, can be functional as well as decorative, as it’s inherently an attractive art object while at the same time used to hold flowers.

Decorative accessories are ones you can choose for their beauty alone, such as plants and flowers, paintings, photographs and sculpture – all of which enrich us and our homes. It’s been said a home without decorative objects would be like a world without sound. True enough.

It’s a good idea to take accessories into account in your design budget from the beginning, while still making sure to first take care of core selections such as painting, lighting fixtures and flooring and seeing to it they’re completed and installed. It’s probably wise to start in small increments, maybe with a colorful lamp, then add a pillow or vase.

Then, when you’re ready, move on to larger areas. The final accessories like family photos and mementos are the ones that actually transform a space into your own and make it come alive.

It’s generally a good idea to create a grouping with similar objects and colors, with smaller objects close together so as to make a more significant design statement. Placing various pieces on decorative stands will only help to add to the impact accessories will make in your home. Additionally, try your best to incorporate pieces from different eras if possible.

The right accessories will bring interest to your home, especially when they’re elements from different periods that can co-exist in the overall scheme, supporting each other while bringing balance and interest to your design. My longtime clients have certainly heard me talk about my love for juxtaposition of the old and the new, whether with furniture and/or accessories, and how they can, without fail, enhance and enrich each other and their surroundings.

Nothing makes me happier, or piques my interest more, then when I get the chance to mix and enrich a certain look or period with items from another time. For example, place an exotic, carved Indian chest in a very contemporary space and you have a room well on its way to grabbing and holding your attention. It’s then that each piece seems to somehow merge past and present to guarantee a perfect finishing touch similar to all elements coming together in a finely crafted play or symphony.

Homeowners would do well to understand this concept and embrace it when approaching the design of their home, for the results will be all the more glorious and interesting.

Trees, whether real or lifelike (and try to go for tall and full ones, at that) along with any kind of attractive floral arrangements, will go a long way in “warming up” and enhancing your home. The containers used to hold them can be of the same period as your basic look, or even of a different style, if chosen with care and forethought.

Accessories should not be treated as an afterthought. They truly can make or break the look and feel of your home because, on so many levels, they’re what make a house a home. Indeed they may be the very soul of a room, and their careful selection and arrangement can transform a furnished room into a finished room with a personality all its own.

So don’t buy accessories just for the sake of buying them, but buy things that mean something to you. Buy pieces that will last and bring you pleasure to look at and own, and that you ultimately can pass on to your children; even if they’re inexpensive they’ll have meaning and worth to them if only because they were once in your home and a part of their lives.

Stephen Leon is a licensed interior designer and president of Soleil Design (www.soleildezine.com); he has been designing and manufacturing custom furniture and cabinetry for more than 25 years. He is past president of the Central California/Nevada Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers and is a certified professional in green residential design. Questions can be sent to soleildesign@cox.net.