How I accessorize.

Posted by : chic

ACK! I'm so thrilled at your response about my centerpiece! Yippee, I'm so glad you love it as much as I do! :) I love that WalMart and Target are going to sell out of mirrors this weekend. ;)

Awhile back when I showed you my Ballard Designs shelves, I promised to show you how I accessorize. I struggle with filling spaces with stuff. I usually like the end result, but it takes much running around/fluffing/rearranging. There are a few basics I know work when accessorizing that I wanted to share with you. Cause you are my Squee-zays.

You may have heard the odd number suggestion -- that is using one, three, five, seven, etc. of items. For some reason it just appeals more to the eye. That's what "they" say anyway. Sometimes I listen to "they," sometimes I tell them to shut it. I happen to agree on this one:
My homemade sofa table in our living room is our living room is one arrangement I really like. You'll notice the three finials (Goodwill/Hob Lob finds, spray painted black). I like the little cabinet in the middle because it gives the table something weighty to hold it's own in the middle.

Balance is something else I think helps big time -- when you have something tall on one side, even it out with something tall on the other:
The lamp on the left is up on books to mimic the tall rattan vase to the right of the sofa (that you can't really see here) and balance that area.

The same goes for shapes. The two candlesticks are the same shape as the finials and balance them out on the other side. The large square print on the right needed something to balance it out, but so I used a smaller ceramic square on the left:

Let's see if I can say "balance" one more time. Umkay...balance. I also lurrrrve easels -- I use them everywhere to bring items up just a bit higher.

I love how the Ballard shelves look right now, but it was a process. This was the start:

I heart leaning frames against each other. I do it all over the place. I knew I wanted that look here, but the mismatched frames weren't doing it for me. The balance (No. 324) on the top shelf was not right, so I moved on to this:

I loved my cut up art much better than the frames -- much simpler but a much bigger impact than the frames. Something was bugging me though -- you may notice, the left side of both shelves were both high. You want the eye to travel up and down when it looks at something like shelves. The way it was, the eye started up and went down on both levels. So I simply flipped everything on the bottom shelf:

My next tip -- use BOOKS! They are FAR-REE!! Take the covers off, and stack em! But don't stack em on the same side of each shelf!! Again, too much weight over on the right -- you KNOW...the BALANCE is all off. Gah.

I put the books on the top shelf under the pitcher instead, and propped up the "art" with an easel:

Add a few sprinkles of fall-y stuff, and you're golden. Yesssssss...

In our office, I have a few treasured items I want to have out, but not a lot of space to put them. One of the shelves on this bookcase is busier than I like, but I tried to even (Ha! I didn't say balance! Dang, yes I did!!) it out by making the other shelves simpler:

Books are key, stacked on each other or upright. Love me some stacked books. Hee. My bookshelf is stacked. Totally.

The large frame has an easel back, and if you don't have room for it to stand up, just lean it! I probably wouldn't put some of these accessories in any other room, just because they wouldn't go. This room is a tad bit more eclectic, so it works. (At least I think it does.)

All it took to make me completely happy was to run the cord down the back of the shelves so the horrible thing was out of my sight:

Whew.

Umkay, after explaining all of this, it sure does sound like all these steps go through my head every time, like some freaky OCD chick, and they so do not. OK, I'm lying, they totally do. But in the span of, like, five seconds, not the 20 minutes it took to write this all down. ;)

One more tip -- take a pic! (Anyone know the insanely ~~annoying~~ cute show that is from?) Take a picture of your space, and it will give you a different outlook on it. I don't know why, but you notice things in a picture you wouldn't otherwise.

To reward all you Squeezies who stayed with me through all of this rambling, I've got a saahweet little giveaway for you! I really mean it, it's little, but saaahweet.

These little white Dollar Store pumpkins were all the rage last fall! I found some a few weeks ago and had to pick up a couple for one of you!

Remembering my "rule of threes" -- I went back for a third this week and they were GONE! Already!! I bet could sell these things for like, FOUR DOLLARS on eBay right now peeps -- they are a hot commodity.

When I went back, I noticed the fun black crows I had grabbed for myself weeks before were pretty much gone too, so I grabbed one for you! He's a little worse for the wear, but he's got one good side:

The little leaf spreaders were at the dollar spot at Tar-jay the other day, and I couldn't resist them (for you).