Hi There Friends! Do you have a lot of nice furniture, but your home just doesn’t feel comfortable and homey? Are your bookshelves and coffee tables filled with clutter? Do you wish your home gave you that ‘Ahhh’ feeling when you walk in the door? I’m here to tell you, you can DO it! And the key is to ACCESSORIZE!!
Accessorizing will give your home that ‘finished’ effect. It’s the jewelry to your cute outfit. And it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune or be all fancy. In fact, sometimes simpler is better!
Case in point: Here you can see my slipcovered sofa, and I’ve accessorized it with a few solid throw pillows. And you will notice the silk daisies are a bright color in contrast to the sofa. I put the silks on a placemat to ground it. Simple and easy peazy!
Here is a drawing of me I had done many years ago by a sidewalk artist in Paris. (He made me look much prettier than I am, but I’m not complaining, haha!) But you don’t have to go to Paris to frame a favorite photo or drawing and place it next to some candle holders. Nestle in some silk ivy nearby to soften the grouping, and there you go! Notice the scale of the candles and the portrait are similar but balance each other.
These shelves are in my daughter Jenna’s former room (she’s on her own now but I keep the shelves like they were so it feels like home when she comes to visit.) You can see there are some favorite books on display, (Harry Potter series on the left, Star Wars on the upper right.) I’ve also given prime shelf real estate to the teddy bear (my husband’s favorite as a little boy– it’s almost 60 years old!), and the well loved cloth doll and blanket (my daughter’s Annie and Blankie.) The little red and white doll was hand knitted by Grandma Myers. Sometimes all you need to do is showcase some sentimental items and you can make a display special!
This display is high on our living room, on a ledge the builder put in as a decorative feature. It is a large ledge, so I needed my display to contain large items. These areas can be tricky to accessorize, because scale is important. I bought some large silk plants and a rattan box years ago, and this display has been in place for a LOOOONNNNNGGGGG time!
This buffet is a study in symmetry and balance and repetition– I learned these important elements in Interior Design 101– you can see there are two lamps and two topiaries, and a peacock platter in the middle topping off the display. I did go to HomeGoods to find the topiaries– that place is GREAT for discovering fun items to accessorize your home.
This is our downstairs guest room. I framed scrapbook papers with little sayings and placed them over the bed, and got a little fancy by placing a tray with some flowers and one of my favorite books on the bed. (Have you read Cold Mountain? It was made into a movie with Renee Zellweger and Nicole Kidman. The movie was great and the book is SUCH a good read!) I have to say, everybody who sees this room says they can’t wait to stay over!
Finally, here is a grouping in a shelf in my entertainment center. You can see I love these Reader Digest books– they’re fun to decorate with and you can often find them at Goodwill! Include a silk plant or two of similar style, a photo, and some little boxes, and you’re all set. Here’s what the entertainment center looks like as a whole:
Well that’s it for today! I plan on doing some more posts on accessorizing, specifically about placing and making art for your walls and the magic of using trays. If you enjoyed this post, please take a moment to subscribe. Thank you!
xoxo
Cheri
Thank you Cheri, I loved this!! Everything looks so beautiful. I got a little choked up looking at the shelf in Jenna’s room. Happy choke. 😊