Design Tips by Rachel: Things That People Tend to Overlook When Decorating Their Home

Rachel Halvorson is a local designer whose talent and eye I truly respect. You’ve seen her name pop up here a few times. I asked her to share some basic tips which we could all use when decorating our homes. Overall, her advice seems to be: go bigger not smaller. I guess once you go bigger, you never want smaller. There was no double entendre intended with that…you with the dirty mind! Shameful. Anyhow, Rachel can be reached at [email protected] and her blog is www.nestegg.typepad.com Hope you enjoy! -Liza

From Rachel:

Liza and Elizabeth asked me to put together three things that people tend to overlook when decorating their homes. Here goes with my top three…

1. Scale

It is important to pay attention to details but most of the time people get caught up in the little things and forget to see the big picture. (This is also true with just about anything in life, right?) Remember to take a step back and look at the room as a whole. Look at the largest pieces of furniture in your room – do they seem to be the same scale?

People tend to lean towards small scale when they need to lean towards LARGE scale. It’s better to go with a few big pieces of furniture, not lots of little pieces. This will make your room seem larger and will almost always create a statement. Steven Gambrel

Steven Gambrel

2. Things

People tend to hang on to everything… and display everything. Don’t be afraid to get rid of things. In other words, carefully edit your rooms.

If you feel like your house might need some editing set aside one day (when you can be ALONE) where you go into your living room and take ALL of the accessories that are currently displayed and place them all on a table. Get rid of at least 1/3 of it. (You can either put it in storage, sell it on ebay, or give it to Good Will) Take the other 2/3 and place them in a different spot. Drastic, huh? It will be like therapy. You will feel THAT good!

Also, try going bigger with your accessories. It will feel like a new room. Try it! You can’t lose.

Tom Scheerer

Cottage Living

3. Lighting

People tend to overlook the lighting in their rooms. Unless you’re like Liza and you have a certain despised master bedroom chandelier that stares at you in the face every morning saying “can’t get past me!!” She’s right and I’ve just ordered her a new one :)

Lighting shouldn’t be one of the last things you take care of – it should be one of the first! New lamps or updated shades can completely revamp a room.

And don’t be afraid to go big on your lighting either. Actually, I feel like it is safe to say: when in doubt- get the bigger lamp or light fixture. Hmmmm, do you notice a common thread here?!

Nathan Egan

Bobby Mcalpine via House Beautiful