3 Designer Tips for Accessorizing Your Home

Each week, we're bringing you top tips, favorite products, and Q&A's with the designers in our Coastal Living and Southern Living Designer Network.

Wilmington, North Carolina, designer Hooper Patterson with Hooper Patterson Interior Design offers her best tips and suggestions on how to charmingly accessorize a room.

Tip 1: Accessories complete the room. When working on a space, I love to integrate pieces that mean something to the client. Mixing in heirlooms, antiques, collections, items picked up during travels, and books can personalize a space while telling a unique story. Once I survey the existing pieces, I add art, flowers, stacks of current coffee table books and curated pieces that pop and take it up a notch. For juxtaposition, mix organic elements with glam to achieve an eclectic look.

Tip 2: Group collections together for more impact, hang a small piece of art on a bookcase or prop artistic elements among aged books. For added drama, color block items on shelves. To showcase accessories in a bookcase, consider painting or wallpapering the back so the displayed items pop against color or texture. Layer an Oriental rug over a larger area rug to add dimension and pattern to the floor.

Tip 3: I use a variety of trays on coffee tables to keep items in order and add another surface. Trays can be mirrored for a reflective surface, wood for an organic element, or glass to accentuate the coffee table or ottoman underneath. Home accessories are like adding jewelry to an outfit and are essential to creating a space that is layered and collected, reflecting the personality of the homeowner.

All photos courtesy of Hooper Patterson.