When it comes to decorating a home, it’s important to craft a space that represents your personal style while investing in quality pieces that bring a room together. It can be difficult to find a balance between furniture and art decor, especially when taking the size of each room into account.
Adding art pieces into the home doesn’t have to be limited to prints, wall hangings and sculptures. In fact, light fixtures, mirrors and traditional furniture can become a centerpiece of the home when you know where to look.
As a full-service interior designer, Denise Huff from Huff & Co. Designs (denise.DecoratingDen.com) works with her clients on their various needs, from paint consults to window treatments, all to ensure her customers’ dreams can become a reality.
When first looking to decorate a room, Denise recommends furniture placement as the starting point to understand how the scale and proportion of each item will affect the overall style of the room. With Huff & Co. Designs, she can buy furniture, lighting, artwork and rugs straight from the manufacturer rather than shopping all over town.
All kinds of artwork can elevate the atmosphere of a room, and Denise likes to work with the basics before adding decor.
“It's the jewelry to the outfit,” she said. “We may have a big wall that can handle a large piece of art, but until I know what furniture is going underneath that, I'm not making that decision. Say I have a 54-inch-wide console. I don't want a 72-inch piece of artwork.”
Understanding your space is one of the most vital steps before decorating a room. Denise believes in building inspiration from one specific piece when in doubt. Everyone’s style differs, but by choosing one decoration to focus on, you’ll find it easier to locate other pieces of artwork under the same umbrella of design. Denise even looks at the furniture’s fabric to find creative influence.
Bedrooms can be stressful to decorate, as many aim to create a space of comfort. However, creativity can go hand-in-hand with your safe space.
“In bedrooms, it's fun to do an accent wall if possible, which could be with regular paint or metallic,” Huff said. “Board and batten walls are really popular right now, where you create a three-dimensional design and then paint the whole wall all one color. So you're getting this entire wall of art, but it's also three-dimensional. And wallpaper is always a great way to introduce color, pattern and texture into a bedroom.”
For clients interested in more traditional artwork, Denise thinks of flowers and picturesque landscapes, whereas clients who prefer modern art will lean into more abstract pieces.
To add vibrance and character to the basic elements of a room, consider ditching your plain mirror. Typically integrated with a wood design, simple mirrors serve to reflect yourself and your space, without adding anything extra to the mix. However, Denise recommends combining artwork with an architectural element to elevate your space.
“Instead of a mirror over a dresser, I would much rather have a large piece of artwork with a lamp and a few accessories across the top,” she said. “Then, on another wall, I would look for a piece that falls into the architectural design, so it could be metal, it could be wood, but it would also have a three-dimensional, layered look as well.”
Surprisingly, the placement of furniture and artwork alike can change the entire setting of a room. If certain pieces in the home cannot be moved around, focus on incorporating other elements to build around the centerpiece rather than just starting fresh. Figuring out how to put your favorite pieces on display can help redesign your entire space.
“In some cases, the client already has the photography or the artwork, and it's a matter of placement,” Denise said.
“One of my clients from several years ago had this great piece of artwork in her entry, and then a Hobby Lobby piece in her great room. If that piece in the entry is the one you love but you spend all your time in the great room, why is it not in there? You don't get to see it and appreciate it.”
Huff & Co. Designs by Decorating Den Interiors
E. Main St. #1, Norman
405.308.2611
Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest
"In general, my overall message is to think of art in many ways, more than just hanging on the wall. It can be bold, a conversation piece, it can be meaningful, it can function, it can generate an emotion or feeling, and it can unify spaces." - Denise Huff
