Easy ways of adding character to your decor
From simple accents to dramatic add ons, CommonFloor brings you ten ways that you can add oodles of character to your living space.
Rugs
Neutral walls and furnishings allow a bold rug to take center stage. “It is a nice way to add color to a room if you don’t want to commit to a strong color on the furnishings or window treatments,” designer Sandeep Mehta says. “It warms up the room and can define different spaces within a larger room.”
There is nothing better to add style to your floor than area rugs that can quickly and easily give rooms its added charm and character. And, they add warmth to a room. Selecting a rug that blends with your decor is not difficult, with a variety of options in size and colour that are available. Think of your floors as the basic element for your design scheme when decorating your home. The amount of traffic it gets and the size of the room are also important. Light-coloured rugs make a room look larger, and a deeper colour will lend coziness to a room. Select a rug with the best combination of density and fibre. The denser the pile, the better your rug will wear.
Be daring and break out of your decorating comfort zone. Designer Anita Gill believes a good rug can anchor the entire composition of a room. An area rug can either bring something unexpected or add a jolt of color.
Don’t be afraid to use a bold color or rich pattern. Against white walls, floors and chairs, this zebra-inspired rug adds a shock of color and becomes the room’s focal point.
Books as character add ons
Volumes of color
An interesting way to display books of any genre is to group them by color. This is especially impressive when you have a bookcase, a shelving unit or a library wall in your home. Begin by removing the paper dust jackets to reveal the actual book cover, then start sorting the books into general color categories like reds, blues and natural hues. With the dust jackets removed, the real beauty of the book shines through.
Once the books are sorted into color categories, decide how you want to group the colors. Do you want the blues to be mixed, or to be sorted from light blue to dark? When you are ready to replace the books on the shelves, alternate how you stand them on the shelves — some stacked, some standing upright. This brings visual interest not just to the color groupings, but to the books themselves.
Like minds
Grouping books together by category is a great way to display your favourites. Do you love cooking and collect cookbooks? Display stacks of cookbooks on a high shelf above your kitchen work area, on a buffet table in your dining room or next to your stand mixer. You can group them by type — think desserts or salads — or display interesting foreign cookbooks together.
Stack it up
Who says books have to stand up? Sometimes the most interesting way to display books is to stack them on surfaces around your home. On a large coffee table, stack travel books with wonderful photographs or interesting trivia books that encourage guests to pick them up. If your bathroom has a theme, consider stacking some small books that fit the decor on a shelf, like books on shells for an ocean theme. Stacks of books around your house can be changed with the seasons to keep things interesting.
Throws
If you have thought about adding a throw to a room but thought it was too complicated to work with, think again. There are a lot of ways to do it so it doesn’t look sloppy.
Designer Nidhi Sharma recommends:
Placing a cool colored throw on the bed enhances the feeling of relaxation. Using 2 differently colored and textures throws together creates a flamboyant look. Outsized and bold hued throws make the space look dramatic and impressive. Mix and match of various throws can create a youthful character in any setting.
Adding a throw to a living room can give it a completely different look and style. Adding oversized, colourful throws to a mostly white room makes a dramatic statement.
Using lighting effectively
Lighting can set the mood for any occasion. Soft lighting can make you feel mellow, while bright lighting can energize you. When a room is not properly lit, it can put you in a dismal mood. Fortunately, you can transform a dark room into a brighter one without taking require drastic measures; just change your lighting. Dark furniture, upholstery, wall color, and carpeting can contribute to making a room appear gloomy. A well-lit home is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also comfortable for you and your family.
Enhance your exterior
The simple and affordable addition of shutters, window boxes, and planters near the front door makes a friendlier facade and provides cheerful color. Hang the window box at a height where you can care for the plants. Fill it with your favorite blooms, or add candles for a quaint touch.
Outdoor decor
Add whimsical décor touches like new house numbers, refresh the paint on the mailbox or add new door hardware to the front door. Consider the season, and by using flowers, or a wreath they may be just the touch your exterior could use to breathe life back into it. Outdoor lights, including floodlights, globes, tier lights, and lanterns, are easy to install and are the perfect way to add warmth and color to your front yard. For a touch of romance, use candle-lit lanterns to create soft pools of light along a garden path.
Vintage appeal
What to buy vintage: Accent pieces, including side tables or a coffee table. Freshen it up by hanging your flat screen in a vintage console or setting a bedroom dresser in the front hallway. Marry your vintage with modern pieces like a sofa or armchairs.
Interior Designer Zohara Kamal recommends:
Dress Up (or Don’t). Opt for a more casual vintage piece (think shabby-chic). The opposite goes if you’re a couple who usually decorates to the nines. If you’re upholstering a chair, keep the color and pattern consistent with all of your other furniture and your accent pieces. In other words, “rainbow” is not in your vocabulary.
Guard that old furniture you’re considering throwing away, or surf a local flea market for an odd piece you like but can’t really use. Re-purpose it in a way other than for what it was originally intended: Change the hardware on a buffet, paint it, and show it off in your living room.
Create display space
Use open shelving throughout the house to store and display collectibles. In addition to adding storage, the airy shelves can also make a small room feel larger.
Wall decorations
Simple wall decorating ideas that recycle old ladders are creative, quick and easy.
Old metal, plastic and wooden ladders are wonderful objects for making unique furniture pieces, free standing and wall shelves, unusual chandeliers, mini gardens with blooming indoor plants or edible herbs and modern wall decor that create unique home interiors.
Old ladders, that you do not need, create clutter and take valuable storage space. Incorporated into modern wall decor, recycled old ladders add attractive storage space, creating small wall shelves and interesting displays of collectibles or small indoor plants on empty walls. Painted or not, old ladders is a creative way to add color, unique texture and shape to interior decorating or home staging.
Update doorknobs
Reinvent your entry or interior doors with antiqued brass, crystal, porcelain, or colored-glass doorknobs.
Get custom looks for less
Embellish or paint plain, purchased brackets and attach them to shelves in any room for a custom look that won’t drain your wallet.
