Your Home Décor Buying Guide For Portland – Pt 2

1. Pick a signature home décor piece: Select a big-impact item as a starting point. This piece can be a throw pillow with beautiful fabric, a poster, or painting, a floral arrangement, a vase, an area rug, or whatever suits your taste. This item should carry the style, theme, and mood you hope to create in the room and will help dictate your overall color scheme.

2. Spread the color: Color, one of the most important elements of home decorating, adds cohesion to a space. Generally, a room contains three major colors in diminishing proportions: a main color, a secondary color, and an accent color. Repeat the accent color throughout your room in a number of ways (repeat it at least three times) with a few strategically placed home décor pieces. For example, throw a few red decorative pillows on the couch, bring in a patterned area rug with some red highlights, and add a few red candles to the fireplace mantel. Frame your pictures with red matting, include a red linen screen or room divider, and throw in some floral décor with red tulips, and you’ve made a nice, cohesive, colorful statement in your room.

3. Find a home décor theme: Get creative and have fun! A good theme will say something about you and your interests and will help to greatly simplify your home décor shopping decisions. Whether your theme is nautical décor, Southwest, tropical, cabin, or Mediterranean décor, the home accents you choose are critical to creating the look you want. For instance, you can easily create a romantic beach theme with a few seashells in a basket placed by the fireplace, by adding some vintage floral throw pillows to a white slip-covered couch, by adding some wrought-iron, distressed candle holders, or by incorporating some nautical wall décor throughout your space.

4. Clear the clutter: Eliminate room clutter to open up a room and better establish its overall look. For example, baskets clear the clutter while adding a decorative element. Fabric-lined wicker baskets  are always popular for storing magazines, toys, or mail, as are sea-grass baskets, wire baskets, and the ever-popular Longaberger baskets. You can also organize your clutter by adding shelves to your room and displaying items in various collections. There’s no better way to showcase your collection of tribal masks, for instance, than by placing them on a few shelves above your couch or on an opposing wall. Shelves come in a variety of decorative styles and materials, from wood to acrylic to wrought iron, and can help to draw the eyes upward and around the room.

5. Enliven your mantel and fire up the fireplace: The fireplace is often the most important architectural element of a room and, therefore, the default focal point. Fireplace accessories, including fireplace screens and tool sets, come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and themes to suit your taste. To make a unique design statement with your fireplace, try filling it with candles of varying heights, colors, and textures. When decorating your fireplace mantel, or any shelf/ledge, always go with an asymmetrical arrangement of an odd number of home décor items, such as vases, in a range of scales and textures. Fireplace mantels also provide the perfect place for showcasing a collection. Gather the clocks, porcelain figurines, travel memorabilia, decorative boxes, or Tuscan pottery scattered throughout your home and put them on display together. The fireplace mantel is also great for reflecting the seasons with various holiday decorations.

6. Lighten up: The lighting in a room is just as important as the colors you choose. Strategically placed table lamps, floor lamps, and candles can, in addition to shedding light on the space, add warmth and interest where you need it most. Opt for soft lighting over harsh, bright, or fluorescent lighting in rooms where conversation and entertaining take place. Whether grouped in your fireplace or placed throughout a room, candles offer another great way to add light to your space and they create a rosy, inviting glow. Scented candles can also help to evoke a particular season or theme.

7. Freshen up with floral décor: Floral décor—from wreaths and silk flowers, to silk plants, swags, topiaries, and opulent floral arrangements—can bring a fresh perspective to your room and really make it come to life. You can easily integrate flowers and plants in your room, whether it’s cottage style or contemporary. A single tulip in a simple ceramic vase placed on a fireplace mantel can have just as much of an impact as an overflowing silk floral arrangement adorning your dining room table. It’s all about adding a pop of color and vibrancy.

8. Decorate and protect your furniture: Ready for a change? Add a slipcover to an old sofa or swap out your old couch pillows for some fresh, decorative pillows. You can really transform a room, depending on the color, pattern, and texture of fabric you choose. Pillows can add a lot of fun to your space—the choices are endless! Add a floral pattern for a cottage feel, leather for a Southwestern look, or tassels and trim for a country-inspired room. Two large decorative pillows can sometimes make a bolder, cleaner statement than a bunch of smaller pillows that may clutter up your space and distract from the overall look of the room.

9. Decorate the walls: Consider your walls a blank canvas, regardless of the paint color. There are so many home décor items to adorn your walls, from paintings and posters to shelves, tapestries, sconces, and shadow boxes that it’s hard to know where to begin. Remember to stick with your theme or overall room style as a start. Acrylic shelves showcasing high-fashion model posters, for instance, reinforce a modern style while black and white photos in distressed wooden frames can create a cottage or country feel. To unify a group of pictures, frame them alike. To add whimsy or drama, get creative with frames and matting. Maximize your space by relating your wall art to the size of your wall and furniture. Use landscape paintings and posters featuring an open vista to open up a small room and create a “window” to the outdoors.

10. Hone your personal decorating style: Don’t get too caught up in home décor shows or magazines that tell you how to decorate your home. Following the advice of design gurus could result in a room with no discernible style or a hodgepodge of conflicting style elements. Trust your taste and natural style instincts. Are you attracted to clean lines and geometric shapes? Then get the flokati rugs, bright graphic print poster, and aqua blue pillows reminiscent of the modern style that you’ve been eyeballing. Is a peaceful Zen retreat more to your liking? Then go with the Asian style and bring in nature prints, a rice paper screen or room divider, and silk orchids. Listen to what your gut tells you and follow your instincts!

You can find A Fantastic Selection Of  Quality Furniture  at One Of The Best Portland Oregon Furniture Stores.

Broadway Furniture

228 NE Broadway

Portland Oregon 97232

503 — 281 — 5555

“Your Doorway To Values”

We Are Locally Owned and Family Run For Over 70 Years!

Our store carries over 50,000 square feet of furniture and accessories on 5 floors.

If you don’t see it on our showroom floor, we can special order it for you – at No Additional Cost!

source:http://pages.ebay.com/buy/guides/home-decor-buying-guide/