How to Put Humor in Your Decor

Sometimes we take our home decor too seriously, being overly careful to color-coordinate, match patterns, and achieve perfect symmetry. Perhaps the most memorable elements in decor occur when you break out of the box in one of the following ways.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Artificial Frogs
• Miniatures Chair Or Appliance
• Plastic Spiders
• Family Photographs
• Cat Figurines
• Decorative Bird Cages
• Fabrics
• Gargoyles
• Glass Tabletops
• Large Cast-stone Garden Urns
• Photo Frames
• Pictures
• Rabbit Figurines
• Sculptures
• Raw Carrots With Stems And Leaves
• Feathers
• Oversize Stuffed Animals
• artificial insects (bee, butterfly, etc.)

1. Adopt an upbeat color scheme. This could be primary or patriotic colors or a surprisingly bold mix, such as vivid orange, periwinkle blue and chartreuse.
2. Have fun with fabric, perhaps going retro to the exuberant prints and colors of the '30s, '50s or '70s. If you collect something, such as elephant figurines, for example, you might select a fabric with a subtle elephant motif for curtains or an ottoman's upholstery.
3. Put flair in tabletop arrangements. An imported decorative birdcage might contain either a cat figurine and a few real feathers sprinkled around (no bird!) or a rabbit figurine with nibbled raw carrots.
4. Use a piece out of context. Dine off a picnic table in the breakfast room or put a glass-topped cement garden urn to work as a chair-side table.
5. Remember that even fine, antique period pieces and their reproductions don't have to be stuffy. A Queen Anne armchair loosens up with polka-dot or faux-zebra upholstery.
6. Employ interesting sculpture or art, such as folk art carvings or paintings - perhaps something you picked up on a vacation. Art can make a great icebreaker on a coffee table or in an entryway.
7. Give folks a jolt by tinkering with scale. Miniature chairs or appliances or giant stuffed animals or oversize fabric prints make a playful statement.
8. Rotate humorous accessories frequently to maintain a fresh effect, from years-old family photos (that hair! those clothes!) and fanciful toss pillows for beds and sofas (many have humorous sayings) to a pensive gargoyle perching atop an armoire.
9. Be a tease with potted plants. Put a life-size artificial frog, insect or spider in plant foliage or on the soil in the pot.

Tips & Warnings

• The best humor in decor doesn't hit you over the head. It creeps up on visitors in your home, and it's a subtle reminder to you that home is for relaxing, not a shrine to serious demeanor.

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