Wood, Paper, Glass & Pottery

One of the biggest challenges I had when J and I moved into our new house was figuring out how to decorate it myself. In ever other move, my mother came up to help me decorate and get everything set. Well, this go around J told me I should try to do it myself and then ask her to help me with things that stumped me. Needless to say, I had several days where I just could not make anything look right. J received several text messages resembling "Come home now. The furniture is being mean to me".

I finally figured it out when I remembered my mothers big decorating tip...Wood, Paper, Glass, Pottery! I know I sound like some nutcase off the street so let me explain. Every surface or "area" does not need to be monotonous when it comes to textures. In other words, you do not want a glass table top with glass lamps, glass vases, and glass dishes. This is boring to the eye. You want to mix it up with all kinds of textures.

Metal table, Glass lamp, Wood frame, Pottery vase, and random Hardware

Books(paper), Vase(glass), Broken tile and Pottery in vase, Metal frame, Pottery candle holder

You want to make sure that you mix different colors in there as well. If you have a blanket of colors that are all the same it can be boring as well. I love basic cream back drops with splashes of color, but I realize that everyone does not like that. Use the colors that you like, just mix them up a bit!

Once I mastered this basic rule of mixing textures and colors, I was able to start attacking my living room. My first project were the built-ins. My mother always had a knack for making her shelves look artistic and interesting and I wanted to do the same.

This is a great rule for arranging furniture as well. You do not necessarily have to have the textures listed above, but it can be fun to mix solids, patterns, old pieces, new pieces and even use things as furniture that are not meant to be furniture.

When mama came up, she helped me rearrange my living room to make it more appaeling to the eyes. I love the artsy turn out combined with the shelving!