One of the most intimidating things when it comes to home decoration is pattern mixing, for the furniture as well as for your curtains. When you flip through a magazine or look at the endless Pinterest curtains boards, it all seems easy and inspiring. That is until you face the seemingly unlimited choice of colors, fabrics, and patterns. At that moment, the entire task might start to look like a mission impossible. These simple rules will help you achieve the look worthy of a magazine spread.
Pick a color palette for the room
Make sure that the color palette you are picking for your room is simple. This means that you can use two to three colors within the space. You can combine two contrasting hues of the same color, like caramel and terracotta, or two contrasting colors like gray and yellow. Keep in mind that they will be the base colors, and you can use different shades throughout the entire room.
When layering colors and patterns around the room, you should never forget the 60-30-10 rule. 60% of the room should be the base color, 30% the secondary color, and 10% should be the accents.
Decide on the focal point
Almost every room has some distinctive feature that can serve as a focal point. It can be a large fireplace, a window with a nice view, and a built-in bookcase. Even a large furniture piece can serve as a focal point. This will be the one thing that everyone should and will see first when entering the room.
Find a show stopper fabric
This fabric will be the base of your design. You will use it on the focal points in your room, and you really want this fabric to grab attention. Don’t be afraid to go for bold and large-scale patterns with more intense colors here. This fabric will be used only on focal points in your room. It will draw attention to them, but it won’t dominate the entire space.
Decide on the accompanying patterns
Most people would choose the show stopper fabric for their curtains or blinds and stop there. However, there are plenty of other things in every room that requires picking material as well. It can be upholstery, cushions, headboards, and so on.
When picking additional fabrics for the room, always compare with the show stopper fabric and make sure that the prints or patterns are medium to small and that the colors fit the palette you choose.
Test before you commit
You might get very thrilled about a particular color palette and fabrics, but you won’t know if they’ll work in your room unless you try it first. After all, the lighting in your room is different from the one in the store. You should always take the samples home and see how the colors look under your lighting. Sometimes the results might surprise you.
Home decoration, like most things related to design, has some set of basic rules that make the entire process less stressful and the end results much more pleasing for the eye. Just take some time to find out what you like and what you want to achieve. Put all your ideas on a mood board and start picking patterns and fabrics.