If your house is nicely decorated (not by a professional)...

[Anonymous]

Please share your tips here! Stores you like, tricks you use, how you coordinate things without being too matchy. I think my main, large furniture pieces are good enough, but I have no clue how to select lamps, art, table accessories, pillows, etc. that will make my home look as put together as many of my friends. For now, I mostly have been looking at Home Goods, TJ Maxx, Pier One. It's not that I don't see things I like at these stores (I do) I just don't know which things to bring home, and which things will look good together, and will make a room look "finished."

[Anonymous]

Read some shelter magazines and see what looks good to you - HGTV actually has a great magazine that has many fun and affordable ideas in it. Look through catalogues - Ballard is a good one - and pick out color schemes, etc. that look pretty to you. Go on the local house tours offered yearly by charitable organizations. See what speaks to you, and decide what you don't like. Your house needs to reflect your personality and outlook. For example, right now grey is the "in" color, but I think it's dreary so I am not using it. Don't be afraid to experiment. You can always re-paint or re-upholster, and you can sell furniture mistakes on Craigslist. Have fun with it!

[Anonymous]

Pick three colors as your scheme. Anything with one of those three colors cam be used. A simple example - if your color scheme is blue, green and cream then a blue and coral throw pillow will "go."

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I think some people just have a good instinct for decorating. Could you ask one of your friends (whose decorating style you like) to go shopping with you and help you pick out accessories to finish your home? I have had friends ask me for advice and I always love to help out. Another option, like one of the PPs suggested, is to look through shelter magazines and online design blogs. They will give you some great ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pick three colors as your scheme. Anything with one of those three colors cam be used. A simple example - if your color scheme is blue, green and cream then a blue and coral throw pillow will "go."

No.

[Anonymous]

Get a color palette and stick to it. All of the shades in your main areas should compliment each other, in that you can pick a piece or accessory from any room, move it to another room and it won't look out of place. For example, I use autumn colors: wine, golds, greens and oranges for accents and neutrals. tans, oatmeal and dull green, for bases and permanent pieces. All my wood is dark. My furniture style is similar from room to room (classic with varying degrees of formality and casualness) Everything goes together and every time we move (military) I can move pieces from one room to the next without problem. A good friend of mine has the same main colors, but hers greens, golds and wine are deeper and more intense. Her house looks spectacular. Another friend does wintery shades: icy blue, dark browns, creams and whites with espresso wood. Everything flows and looks simply beautiful.

Edit your photographs. Frame them well and don't go overboard with too many or too different style of frames.

Keep your big expensive pieces neutral and save your burst of colors for accent pieces and textiles.

If your colors flow and don't clash, it goes a long way to making your house put together.

[Anonymous]

I have a good knack for decorating and it comes naturally to me. It is one of my favorite hobbies. But I don't mind spending a lot of time looking for the perfect piece of art for a room or the perfect area rug. I also enjoy shopping at home accessory and furniture stores so I'm always looking for pieces that might complement a room. I would much rather shop for the home than for clothes/accessories for myself. I think once you figure out what style/look you're going for it gets easier to find the right places to shop. For example, if your look is more traditional/transitional then Pottery Barn would be a good place to look for accessories.

I personally think that well chosen art, rugs, lamps and toss pillows really makes a room. Choose a dominant color for your room to accessorize with. For instance, in my living room, my sofa is a solid neutral but my accent chairs are various patterns with blue in it. I chose an area rug that had mainly blue in it, and toss pillows for the sofa in a similar shade of blue. I have blue lamps around the room, and my art on the walls all has blue in it. I bought cheap accent tables on the Internet for the room but you can't tell they are cheap. I prefer to buy expensive upholstered pieces that are made well and hold up well and cheap coffee and accent tables. Carrying over a color into different areas (toss pillows, rug, lamps, knick knacks) helps the room look coordinated.

I think choosing the right shade of paint is very important too. I personally do not care for homes where most of the rooms are beige--too boring.

If you need more decorating help, find a decorator who charges by the hour. We have used one for small things (like helping choose paint colors) that I find challenging. She charges $100 an hour and I think that is worth it.

[Anonymous]

I'm with 10:33 - see if a friend wants to help out. I love it when my (usually male) friends ask for my input on this stuff.

I tend to buy well-made furniture in classic styles and neutral colors and then warm things up with a large area rug, a nice window treatment and art that is personal to me. In my case, that generally means photographs or watercolors by local artists, sometimes of local scenes. (like a set of watercolors of capitol hill rowhouses, or black-and-white photos of rock creek park.) I might have one or two colors running through a room or the main floor (sage green on the walls in one room, picked up in the rug and drapes of another room.) I'm not much for knick-knacks - vases and things - but I do have family photos in nice frames on the piano and mantel, and I have lots of old books, which cozy up the rooms they're in. I also redid the sconces in my living room from horrific shiny 80's brass to really nice vintage-looking sconces that go with the original 1940's architectural touches (moldings, doors) in my home. I've had good luck finding lamps at Target lately - they're inexpensive, so you can buy them for one room and switch them out to somewhere else in the house if you change your mind. (most of our bedroom lamps are from there.)

Also, I don't buy matched sets when it comes to upholstery. If I have a cream sofa, the chair is a different but coordinating color because matched sets make me think of Marlo furniture commercials.

[Anonymous]

1) Read shelter magazines and blogs to train your eye. When you see a room you like, try to figure out what exactly you like about it.

2) Avoid common mistakes. My pet peeve: not having a rug to "ground" a room or using a rug that is too small.

3) Clean is better than cluttered.

[Anonymous]

Top tip: stay the hell away from retail "art". Those framed art deco advertisements are so, so tired. You should only put things on your walls that have personal meaning. Do you have an artist of photographer in the family? You can blow up a nice photo (I prefer landscapes and abstracts for this purpose) to 20x30 and make it a statement piece. You can also frame textiles or found objects in a way that is interesting and not cookie-cutter. There are some fun ideas around for using books as decor. I have too many books, and so need my wall of floor-to-ceiling shelving, but if I could bear to part with 75% of them, I might do some cool floating shelves or something.

In the same vein, if you've seen it for sale in more than one chain store, don't buy it. So many houses all look the same these days. This is your home. Personalize, don't copy.

Don't buy imitation materials. If you covet silver candlesticks, don't buy the fakes from HomeGoods. They do NOT look "just as good". Don't buy reproductions/ copies of recognizable designs: no Dali lips loveseats (well, that should go without saying), no fake Tiffany lamps, no knock-off Starck chairs, etc. You're better off with a plain functional thing of good quality than with a fancy fake thing of any quality.

Window treatments are probably the single biggest visual impact on a room. So take your time and consider spending some money. As a PP said, it's good to use one item to tie a room together color-wise. In my house, it's a Persian rug. Everything coordinates with that rug. But if there's a patterned fabric you love for window treatments, you could let the rest of the design flow from that.

Know your lifestyle. The "shelter mags" that people are recommending often skew to the minimalist. Don't attempt to draw inspiration from a design that demands you overhaul your whole life for the sake of the aesthetic. If you have a family and have lots of things, don't go with an Asian or a modern aesthetic. Your stack of mail and your kid's dolls and your other kid's shoes and your husband's extra computer cables will drive you insane inside of a week.

[Anonymous]

Declutter as much as possible. Homes always look much nicer when there isn't a bunch of stuff clogging up table tops, shelves, etc. It doesn't mean you can't have some stuff out, but don't go overboard.

[Anonymous]

I have to agree 100% with the PP. There's is nothing so ugly as a home that looks like it vomits stuff.

When I go online to see homes for sale, I look with disgust at homes overflowing with crap. Nice crap but damn, too much crap.

Simple, uncluttered, always looks elegant and well kept. Plus the more you bring in the more you have to clean.

Pick 3 colors and go from there. It does not matter if it matches as long as it's in the same family. Like don't mix wood and glass. One or the other.

[Anonymous]

MIL taught me the rule of odd numbers; for a display on a mantel, for instance, use five items, not four. Odd groupings are more interesting.

What colors do you really love? Integrate those into each room. I gravitate towards the same strong cranberry red color so I have this shade in nearly every room, living room sofa, accent pillows in family room, even have an ottoman and coffee table in this color.

How do you style yourself? I like tailored, well-fitted clothes but everything I wear is washable and comfortable. I also like jewelry and accessories to keep from looking too conservative. So, in my house, same thing - I keep my house neat, uncluttered and there's absolutely nothing in my house that's too precious. Walls are a warm neutral, but to keep from being too boring, I change a few things seasonally. I have simple plantation shutters on each window and no window treatments.

I try to avoid overly matchy furniture, or the temptation to ever completely finish decorating a room. I know people who've literally not moved on tchotchke in decades. Keep rearranging and changing accessories, pictures, pillows, even if is once a year. Otherwise, it is the fastest way to make your house look dated to a specific year.

[Anonymous]

Cool Wall color to make neutral furniture pop.

Or One amazing piece of furniture in a neutral room.

Pay for professional framing.

Don't hang pictures up high. More eye level.

Invest in lighting.

[Anonymous]

PP 19:05. Make your house work for you and your lifestyle and habits. 15:46 said it brilliantly...if you go for an minimalistic aesthetic but you are an active family with many shoes for instance (ahem, mine), get an attractive storage solution or you'll drive yourself insane.

We tended to be mail piler-uppers and spreads. So, all mail that I don't recycle goes right into a lacquer lidded box on our entry table. Keys get hung on hooks at the bottom of our foyer mirror. Don't fight your personal style; I love the look of white slipcovered furniture, but ain't gonna happen in my house. We're too messy and drink too much red wine and hot chocolate. Make your decor work for you.