Article Directory :: Home & Family Articles

Decorating For Real Life Living

By Autumn Lockwood

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 15Jul2011 Word count: 2834 Viewed: 99 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

The best decorating ideas and themes won't work if you don't take into account your family and how it functions at home. If you have young children, the naturally occurring wear and tear on furnishings must be taken into account. For example, chenille fabrics are a better choice than silks for obvious reasons. Also, darker colors, or at least medium tones, would be better choices than lighter ones as they are more "family friendly" than, say, white.

Floor coverings also must be considered. You may love the look and texture of a sisal rug, but it is hard on the knees of little ones that are crawling around. If choosing carpeting, spend the extra money if you can on carpeting with built-in stain resistance - you will be grateful when those little feet or paws track in dirt or have "accidents."

Of course, if you are an empty nester or single, go ahead and surround yourself with luxurious fabrics and marble floors if that's to your liking. The key is to always consider your style and preferences in combination with how and who will be living in the house, too.

Making Decorating Decisions

There is really no right or wrong way to decorate, with the exception of a few guidelines to help you create a cohesive and balanced home decor. The options available for decorating can be intimidating because there are so many, both online and off.

Utilizing books and magazines to look at and tear out pictures of rooms that speak to you can go a long way in helping you to determine what your desires and style are. You do not have to "copy" a room exactly - take cues from pictured that attract you and if you can duplicate an aspect or two or three that you love about it, go for it.

Create a Harmonious Room

For a room's scheme to be harmonious there should be some sort of unifying theme that runs throughout it that helps to blend it all together. When you have that, you have harmony. Perhaps the unifying theme in your family room is "family" - the use of fun family picture frames will be an important aspect in the room, amongst other details, the larger details like comfy furnishings.

Scale plays a large role in the harmony of a room. You wouldn't want to use low seating in room with soaring ceilings, nor would a large bulky armoire look good in a room with standard height ceilings. Selecting fabrics is crucial, too. Chenille may be a great option for the couch, but would probably look out of place on an antique Louis XVI chair.

Color is also important and can be a critical factor of a room's design. You should aim to have one or two common threads of color in a room; patterns can be used as long as they can be connected somehow to the big picture. Think about putting together an outfit and use the same "rules" when selecting colors and patterns for your room.

Incorporating Artwork and Accessories

Just as when selecting what jewelry you will accessorize your outfit with, a few carefully chosen accessories can turn a plain room into an extraordinary room and it's the best way to incorporate your personality into a room. You can grace the walls with serious artwork in simple black picture frames if you are more traditional, utilize more fun and funky accessories and picture frames - how about lavish decorative picture frames - if your style is more fun and free-spirited.

Your artwork and accessories don't have to be from the same time period; often it is much more interesting to mix new and old accessories - fine objects with found objects, new purchases with some hand-me-downs.

Occasionally, simply rearranging furnishings or artwork and accessories can give your room a brand new feel and look. "Shop" for accessories and artwork - even furnishings - in your own home; simply moving one or two or more items from one room to another may be all it takes to update your room. You may be surprised by the number of new treasures you find that you had forgotten about, or just weren't noticed in another room.

So, when you want to successfully decorate for real life living, follow some of the tips in this article. It is certain that you will be happy with the outcome!

EasyPublish™ this article - publishers click here

More articles by Autumn Lockwood

Free Report!
Ten Essential Secrets Of Article Marketing ... Grab Your Free
Copy Now:

Need Content?
Regular Top Quality Content for your Blog, Ezine or Website ...
Delivered Direct,
For Free!
Click For Details