I wasn’t always able to buy new furniture and most of the time, we resorted to second-hand stores or hand-me-downs. Things changed when we bought our current house, we had money aside to buy new furniture, and I wanted to treat myself to something that I could choose brand new from a store.
I knew I wanted the dark gray sofa I had seen at Sears (when it still existed in Calgary), and immediately fell in love with these teal accent chairs from The Brick. I was a happy homeowner.
But then two years passed by and quite honestly, I was tired of the teal. I wanted to introduce a new colour but that teal tide me down. I felt limited to colours that matched those accent chairs.
Two things I realized:
- I am the type of homeowner who needs to see a change in her surroundings frequently.
- The best way to update or refresh a space is to provide a background that will welcome any or most colours.
This conclusion led me to integrate a new Design Target into the framework I teach in Design School for Homeowners: an Evergreen Home Decor.
If you are a plant mama, you know that evergreen refers to plants that remain green throughout the different seasons. Therefore, an Evergreen Home Decor is one that remains valid throughout many seasons, and not just until a trend expires or a new color rules town.
To successfully refresh your home without spending a ton, you need to understand the three tiers of decor elements in our rooms in order to create the right background for everything else. It will also help you as you start updating from the smallest and less expensive to the largest most costly pieces. Let’s review:
PROTAGONISTS:
The more predominant and larger pieces of furniture, including built-ins and walls. These are the elements you see first as you come into the room and they usually take up the most visual space.
SUPPORTING ACTORS:
The accent pieces like chairs, cabinets, dressers, bedding, etc.
EXTRAS
All the accessories like area rugs, artwork, pillows, and drapes, but also some less needed small pieces of furniture like ottomans, puffs, tv tables, etc.
Once this is clear, you are ready to implement a simple 1-2-3-4 process I talked about here (Ahmed please insert link to the other blog here).
For example, a bed in natural wood colors with a beige bedding set will welcome artwork and throw cushions in any kind of color combination. The opposite of that would be having a beautiful royal blue headboard to which you may only be able to add perhaps white, black, or gray and pops of color limited to those who work well with royal blue. The beautiful headboard you fell in love with is now limiting your choices and if you ever get tired of it, you’re either stuck or forced to spend money again in a different headboard.
That’s why it is so important to determine what time of homeowner you are, identify the tears and choose your color combos carefully. Have you taken the quiz? If not, go here for a more complete list of questions.
Happy styling!
Jessica
