Today I'd like to share some of the ways I style a space. I'm going use images from one of my sales, but you can use the same ideas to pull a room together in your home. In both spaces, I always start with an inspiration piece. For this sale, black and white upholstered pieces and furniture directed the design. You'll see black and white with pops of yellow, blue, and red.
Here's what guides my design:
Repeated Color
Layering
Out-of-the-Box Uses of Accessories
Mix of New and Vintage
Groupings of Like Items
Mix of Textures
Mix of Sizes and Heights
Books as Risers/Pedestals
I originally was going to give examples of each category with images, but what I realized was that all the vignettes contain more than one of the design elements. You'll see as you follow along. I've highlighted links to some other related posts. If you have the time, it's worth taking a peek.
Notice the vintage slipper chair, re-covered in a black and white polka dot with contrasting black and white houndstooth cording. I used the legs of an industrial stool as an easel and layered an Italian iron work wall art with branches and lemons across the window. I'm all for hanging art onto window frames and
layering on the front of bookshelves too. Note pops of black and yellow.
Empty frames are one of my favorite ways to showcase unframed art or objects. I've been known to hang antlers, plates, another frame or two, and even a smaller piece of art within the empty space. I simply leaned the art against a table--a wall would do too--then layered two empty frames and draped a scarf. You could do the same thing on a mantel or a book shelf.
Obviously more black with the farm table and vintage vanity bench. I repeated the black and white checked cording but introduced a new black and white fabric by Lee Joffa. I leaned a tray onto the vanity legs and layered an animal print against it. The large canvas cow wall art is a back drop and also layering. You could use wallpaper, fabric, a quilt, large art or paint to create the same layered background. What about some fun wrapping paper or unroll an architect's blueprint???
Another view of the bench and layering. Also, grouping of like items and color.
Again, a mix of new with vintage.
More black and white repeat in this image as well as fabric repeat on newly-recovered chairs. Texture too with the soft chairs, the metal table, and the straw boater hat.
I added more black to the design with the black marble top on the table and the black candle holder filled with rolled black and white sheet music. I recently did the same thing with a grouping of maps and rolled up map pages. Fun on a desk or shelf.
I like to repeat like items. In the frame is a vintage scene of a Paris cafe. Since the gentlemen in the photo are wearing boaters, I draped a boater hat over the frame.
Another grouping of like items--embossers and printers' blocks. Black is repeated and an old leather book is a riser, adding texture and helping to vary the height of the objects.
More examples of repetition are in this image--the color black on the botanicals, the top of the MCM desk, and another framed black and white post card. The houndstooth fabric is repeated on the MCM stool. Arrows too, in the sphere and leaning on the wall. I love to use accessories for display. The rusty iron garden sphere rests on a vase and supports the very popular metal arrows.
I leaned an old chippy door against a pole and use it all the time for display. It's a great backdrop and a unique wall alternative. I wrapped some burlap cording around three gold leafed trays so I could hang them. I filled them with animal gicleess, but you could put photos or art inside. It's a different way to display trays and treasures. You could do the same with empty wooden drawers.
I leaned this empty wooden drawer on the floor against a bar table.
I believe it's an old cash drawer so it has sections. You could hang it on a wall and have a rotating display of your favorite finds.
Stacked drawers can be shelves too.
I used a stack of matching Shakespeare books as risers, layered a real turtle shell behind a faux one on a pedestal, and grouped like items--shell bracelet, octopus, and a shell supported by the jewelry.
I know that the person who buys this lantern will fill it with a candle, but how fun to have a skull peeking out from inside. I'm sure you have many accessories you could display under glass.
I placed an octopus inside the bottomless demijohn with a cork, repeated the "bottle" with the covered blue demijohn, repeated the blue in the Kantha quilt, the striped dresser, and the vintage willow ware collection on the bead board shelf. The peg rack is a piece of ship lap. I sealed the chipping paint and added hooks. It's almost 7 feet long and perfect for a mud room or entry.
The peg rack adds texture and the quilt softens the display.
This cloche is wire mesh and filled with a crown that supports some deconstructed books in a bundle.
Again, the color black repeated, the wire mesh adds texture.
The London sectioned wooden tote holds weathered frames. I removed the generic family photos they contained and replaced them with some chevron wrapping paper. In the background you can see more of the long ship lap wall rack. The mottled color goes from white to blue green. The chippy frames repeat the texture and chippiness of the deconstructed books and the peg hook rack.
