Interior Decorating Items

When you decorate your home you use color, texture and pattern to create visual interest. You use shape, line, form, scale and mass to create movement. You use light to create mood, highlights and shadows. The items you choose to decorate your home each have a purpose, to add to the beauty and comfort of your surroundings. When you decorate, you design an interior landscape that is entirely your own.

Identification

Understanding how particular items work in interior design will increase your chances of success in redecorating projects. Understanding the difference between architectural elements and decorating items is key. Windows are an architectural element, but window treatments can be changed. The treatments, then, are a decorating item. Built-in cabinets and closets, though not integral to structure, are architectural in nature. Freestanding bookcases and display cabinets can be moved around, painted or stained another color, or even altered in size. These, then, are decorative items. Walls and ceilings are architectural elements as they remain fixed in place. But the color and texture of walls and ceilings can be easily transformed. Paint is a decorating item. A wall is not.

Features

Decorating items are those that enhance the architecture of your home, add visual interest and comfort, and can be easily changed out. Upholstered furniture and cabinetry contribute mass and scale to your scheme. The fabrics and finishes you choose add color and texture. These items have lines and shape. Repeating these in lamps, tables and accessories create flow within the room. Your fabrics have patterns. Repeating those patterns in artwork or furniture arrangement, like repeating line and form, bring movement to the design.

Types

A decorating item can be anything from a large sectional couch to a small music box. It can be an antique rocking chair handed down from Grandma or a brand new dining table. It can be a clock, a vase or an area rug. Within this broad classification are two distinct kinds of items: common and personal. A common item would be the sectional couch. The antique rocker would be a personal item. Family photographs are personal items often seen arranged on a wall in a pleasing pattern. The pattern, then, becomes a common decorating item. That pattern may reflect the pattern on a throw pillow or in the area rug.

Significance

Whether you're starting fresh or building on an existing scheme, the decorating items need to create a cohesive flow within the space. If you're starting with a style, French country for example, your color palette is white and blue. Your furniture is colloquial, or mismatched, and may be whitewashed. Your fabrics are cotton and linen, your accessories ceramic and wood. All of your decorating items should be representative of the French country style.

Effects

When you choose a specific style, it's very like having a map to follow. Styles have certain characteristics that guide you in your selection of decorating items. If you have a more adventurous bend, you may decide to take an eclectic approach. If you make use of patterns and repetition, choose your decorating items to achieve visual interest through color and texture, and movement through mass, scale, line and form, and light it all skillfully, your design will be a success.