3 Tricks to Mix Décor

I have the best job on earth! I get to meet lots of new people, decorate amazing rooms, and see the pure enjoyment of my clients when they see their newly-styled spaces! That’s exactly what happened this week when I created a super hero-themed room for one young guy. I didn’t get to see his reaction live and in-person, but I got a Voxer message from him and a mention in his mom’s Instagram story showing his excitement.

That, my friends, is why I love what I do!

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I get asked all the time how I come up with the designs for the spaces I decorate and how I know what will look good together. My design aesthetic isn’t easily explained, but there are 3 tricks I want to share with you to, hopefully, make the process of mixing décor a little less confusing for you.

1. Select your color palette. Before you start shopping for anything, you need to have a general idea of what colors you want to be in the room. Once you know that, selecting décor will be so much easier. That doesn’t mean that you can’t include a few pops of an accent color outside of your scheme, but as a rule, you’ll have set parameters to work with when selecting your accessories.

2. Decide on a theme. Now, I’m not a big fan of overly-themed rooms…the ones where you go to the store and buy every piece of a certain line of décor: sheets, pillows, rug, stuffed animals, accessories, art, etc. Instead, I like to define what over-all message I want the room to have. This can mean a lot of things—maybe you have a collection you want to showcase; a love of florals, plaid, or polka-dots; or a family tradition of playing board games. You can base the design of a room on anything you want, as long as you love it! When you know the foundation on which you want to build, sourcing the perfect accents will be so much easier and less overwhelming.

3. Consider scale. Whatever colors and patterns you select for your room, you need to decide how much of and the size of each to include. If you choose 3-4 colors to use in the room, you don’t want all of them to have equally “playing time,” instead choose 1 or 2 colors to stand-out and the others to work as more of an accent. I like weave accent colors in throughout the room in the form of pillows, art, and small décor. The trick to working with pattern is much the same. If you have a large pattern on a piece of furniture, window covering, or artwork…you’ll want to balance that out with a smaller-print pattern in a complementary color scheme. You can unify patterns with solid-colored pieces, helping to blend everything in a space.

It takes some practice to be able to put a room together with a mix of styles, colors, and patterns. The biggest tip I can give you to help decorate your space is: There really are no rules! If you enjoy certain colors paired together, or just really love zebra print with polka-dots, then by all means…use them! I want you to LOVE your home, your rooms, your life. That means…finally realizing that you don’t have to be like everyone else. Your house doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s. Mine sure doesn’t…and you know what? I have yet to have anyone come to my home and not comment on it being cozy and welcoming, as well as have something to say about the way it’s decorated. Whether they love it or don’t get it doesn’t matter because it makes me happy and that’s the point!

I hope you’ll think of one or all of these tricks when you’re decorating your next room and that they will help make the process a little less scary and a lot more enjoyable for you!

Creating Real Life(Style) isn’t about living how everyone else is, it’s about loving the life you have and living in a way that makes you happy!