Choosing the Right Accessories

In Steel Magnolias, Dolly Parton put it well when she said,
“The only difference between us and the animals is our ability to ACCESSORIZE!”

Choosing the perfect accessories is an area of design that really stumps people, because there are very few, if any, rules. Accessories are the least functional design elements. They are more personal and simply an expression of individuality, taste, and interest. I tell my clients just to pick what they really, really love, and let their personality come through.

The only real mistake I see is buying too many little tiny things, instead of good quality, larger scale items. This usually means the client hasn’t built up enough confidence in their own taste and is easy to overcome. The same guidelines of size, shape, weight, balance can be considered so that a particular piece fits its environment, but most accessories should be chosen for their beauty alone. While accessories can perform a function, their main role is to be looked at and enjoyed.

The real problem with accessories is, most people don’t have enough. Once again, I don’t mean little chotchkes, I mean enough nice accessories that have presence and give definition to their location in the room. Some designers say that at least 25% of your furnishing budget needs to go to accessories. Most people don’t even come close to that. After they are finished purchasing their large furniture pieces, they usually spend very little to finish the room. What they buy looks wrong just because it is so alone. Next time you are admiring a photo in a magazine or coveting a designer showhouse and lamenting your lack of design ability, count the number or floral or greenery arrangements in those rooms. Then count the decorative objects. Compare those numbers to what you see in your home. I think you’ll see that in this case more is more. And, in the more spare contemporary settings, less is just bigger and bolder.