Three Steps to Arranging Your Home Decor Items

One of the biggest home decorating challenges is how to arrange your home decor accessories into a cohesive theme that is visually engaging. We have found three general home decor principles that can help you organize and display your new home decor accessories in a way that everyone will love.

Principle 1: Harmony and Contrast

When arranging a space with home decor accessories, one has to keep in mind that the most important thing to avoid is boredom! This has a lot less to do with the objects you choose than how you choose to display them. Remember to keep a balance of harmony (things that feel like they go together, like similar colors or styles) and contrast (things that spice things up by being different). Perhaps you could create harmony by repeating a square shape or the color purple, and then add contrast by sitting a smooth candlestick next to a rough basket. When you look at many of our photo shoots you’ll note this harmony and contrast.

Principle 2: Scale and Shape

Make sure that the home decor items you display naturally fit into their new home. For example, you don’t want a tiny paperweight on a large kitchen table and you want to steer clear of using a huge ceiling high arrangement of flowers on a tiny end table. If you have small home decor accessories you would like to display, but need to give them more prominence, try grouping them together with other similar items. You can also give them height by stacking them with a another home decor accessory.

Principle 3: Layer and Soften

Once you’ve chosen your home decor objects for the space following the design principles above, now it is time to layer and soften. Start with a larger, taller piece slightly off center this will be the defining piece in your arrangement. Now work to the outer edges in layers. Add a taller background layer, a middle sized medium height layer, and your tiniest objects in the front. Keep the eye moving up and down as it purveys the arrangement from left to right for interest.

Above all, keep trying new combinations of items until you find an arrangement that works for you and your home decorating goals. Don't hesitate to use things in unusual ways. Tuck flowers or a live plant into an arrangement that seems too flat. Even home decorating designers will occasionally be surprised by trying things in a new way. And remember, if your arrangement still looks cluttered and lost, chances are you are trying to display too much. Some of our customers store some of their extra home decor accessories by season or occasion and will then pull them out to use at a later date.