Tuesday, April 7, 2009

M & Co's Tips for an Eclectic Interior


The web is wonderful for serendipitous discoveries. Today's is a blog called M & Co, which had a nice set of tips on creating an eclectic interior. The author is lucky enough to live in her grandparents' house, with an attic full of stuff to explore. (This is my fantasy. Really.) I'm going to paraphrase her here, but go read it.
  1. Use your color scheme as a canvas to unify disparate elements. Hers is white, grey, and black, and dark wood. Mine is cream, dark wood, white, and gold.
  2. It's about layering/choose an accent color. (I think this is 2 tips....) I think layering is the "stuff" you carefully find an add to your home, always a big challenge to get right. My accent color is red.
  3. Furniture gives structure to interiors so pay attention to scale, balance, and quality. (I learned this from the book Use What You Have Decorating.)
  4. Keep the principles of design in mind.
  5. Source from everywhere and anywhere. (I'm a fan of thrift shops and have been known to scavenge from my dad's or father in law's workshops...)
  6. Take your time.
  7. Make a list. (in other words, don't buy needlessly.)
  8. Use humor and surprise. (Isn't this what steampunk is, to most people?)
  9. Trust your taste. (This is always hard for me, but I find the more effort you put in, the better it gets.)

Pics from the M&Co blog.

3 comments:

  1. ooooh! Wouldn't it be lovely to have a big attic full of lovely treasures to sift through???

    Thanks for the great link to a fabulous article! Love it!

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  2. When I was a kid I used to have a recurring dream of being in an old house, each room full of different treasures from times past. My favorite room was the one full of old letters, maps, journals and books, etc. Every room was fascinating though. I always finished by watching an old fashioned ball which was all very steampunk, although I didn't know it had a name back then lol. Then I'd hit a secret panel by the fireplace, slide down a secret passageway and end up in the woods.

    /random sharing :c)

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  3. The tips in this post are great! I think the most important one (aside from having a sense of humor) is to trust one's own taste.

    Easier said than done, but I agree that this one's key to having a space that truly reflects one's own style.

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