MORE HOME DECOR STORIES

Early Spring 2011 -
Secrets of styling success.

Fall 2010 -
The sofa primer.

Summer 2010 -
How to achieve design harmony.

Spring 2010 -
Your open door policy.

Early Spring 2010 -
Seven easy pieces.

Do you ever wonder how design professionals get each corner of a room looking picture-perfect? Practice, practice and more practice. Here’s how you also can hone your skills as a budding stylist.

1. Remind yourself at the outset of any decorating project about how you want the overall room to look and feel – what mood you intend to strike. Formal rooms require a stricter symmetry and rich elements, exotic rooms benefit from spicy colours and plenty of seductive textures, modern rooms require little pattern. Once you have a mood in mind, styling decisions are easier to make.
   
   
2. Start with a small vignette that requires a styling makeover; a sofa table or mantel is a good option. Take a photograph of the space as it is and examine it without personal feelings. What’s wrong? Is it too cluttered? Not interesting? Is there an awkward gap, a gaping hole or not enough variation?
   
   
3. Re-position the desired objects, keeping in mind to vary the height, shape and textures for interest. For example, a pewter candlestick is more striking beside glossy porcelain than next to a matte tin or wooden bucket. Contrast creates interest.
   
   
4. Once you have a composition you like, take a second photo and examine it again with a critical eye. Does the grouping look like it stepped from the pages of a magazine? If not, repeat the process until you find several vignettes that are pleasing.
   
   
5. Experiment with everyday objects you already own. Let’s face it, we’ve all accumulated items that are perfectly lovely, but relegated them to the backs of cupboards, having found no perfect spot to place them. Pull those items back out and see if you can find a worthy home for them in full view.
   
   
6. Finally, the most successful groupings offer the viewer an element of surprise or delight. A collection of red glass is arresting because of its mass of colour, a series of leather books is dull without the addition of objets d’art such as porcelain figures. A watering can may look great near the hearth, grandma’s teapots can be charming displayed on the mantel, or a collection of seashells can be cleverly composed in a powder room.

Kimberley Seldon’s Designer Market takes place April 30 to May 1 at Toronto’s Distillery District, with $5.00 admission for deals on antiques and fleas, vintage and modern, fabric and trim, furniture and collectibles. Details, visit www.kimberleyseldon.com.

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Looking 10 years younger…10 years later.

Eleanor Welsh was overweight, depressed and pessimistic. Exasperated, she sought non-invasive body contouring treatments and then experienced a complete physical transformation. As a result, in 1992 she bought that company.

In 2001, as she started dealing with the challenging signs of aging and childbearing, all of her options seemed to point towards ‘going under the knife’, which she knew would be costly, invasive and irreversible. Desperate, she researched for other options.

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To see all of her before and after pictures, or for more information, call 1-877-358-2279 or visit www.skinvitality.ca.