5 Tips in Selecting the Right Furniture for a Room

Decorating a room can be difficult, especially if you have to start with a completely empty room.  You might not know where to begin. In this article, I will give you some valuable tips to help you select the right furniture to decorate a room.  Since there are many factors that come into play for any given room, such as size, shape, or type (bedroom or living room etc), there are many different tips that can help you select the right furniture, but I will summarize it into the top five.

Since I mentioned size, let's start with that one.  Typically, the larger a room, the more furniture you will need to have in it, or it will look empty and sparse.  At the same time, the scale of the furniture can be bigger for a larger room. A large wrap around sectional would work well in a larger living room.  On the flip side, the smaller the room, the less furniture you will want to have, lest it feel cluttered. And a person can go even further and try to find smaller scale tables and furniture, so each item is smaller and not taking up all of their limited space.  Keep in mind though, you will need to have a sufficient amount of seating for the number of people living in the home. Like in a living room for example, you will need to have enough seating for everyone, in case you all like to watch movies together. Or for the kitchen, you will need a dining room table with enough chairs for everyone.

The second tip I have to offer is to choose a style.  There are a lot of different styles of decor out there, such as Coastal, Rustic Cabin, French, Contemporary, Minimalist, and Industrial, just to name a few.  So, you'll need to decide on the look that you are going for. For example, you won't want to mix sophisticated French decor, with it's expensive fabrics and delicate art, with Industrial Decor, which uses a lot of pipes and hard accents made of metal.  They just don't go together. Opposites CAN attract, but typically not with design styles. Just stick with one.

The third tip is color.  I always recommend choosing a general color scheme for each room.  For example, you could have mostly neutrals, bright colors, or white.  Whatever you decide, I recommend having the color be somewhat consistent throughout the entire home, so the house has unity.  Otherwise, each room feels disconnected and unrelated to the others. I recommend going with a more muted color because brighter colors can be irritating over time, not to mention they can go out of style after a few years.  So it’s safer to choose a “boring” color, like beige or grey, and if you insist on having a bright color, you could paint one wall a brighter color, which is called an accent wall. One last thing about color, you don't want to have too many colors in each room, as it can be a bit overwhelming to guests, and it looks tacky and unprofessional.   Unless you are running a daycare out of your home, then by all means!

The fourth tip for a well put together room is an important one- repetition.  It ties in with the previous tip, color. In order to create any aesthetically pleasing art form, it needs to have repetition.  Repeating the same element in a room creates flow and movement and helps your eye move around the room. For example, if you have circles in some of your room accents, such as a round mirror, make sure to repeat that shape at least three times in that room.  So, add a circular coffee table or end table, some artwork that has a circular theme, or maybe a throw pillow with circles on it. The easiest way to create repetition in a room is to repeat a color. So, if you have a monochromatic (one color) color scheme such as grey or white, you can add pops of a certain color to create repetition and consistency.  Whatever you decide to incorporate for repetition, it will help your eyes move about the room, creating flow.

Which brings us to the fifth design tip, flow.  If there isn't good flow through a room, it feels stagnant.  And people can't walk through or around it easily. They might hit their shin on a table walking to the couch, or trip over a lamp because it's sticking out in the path.  Ask yourself if there is a clear, obvious path to all of the seating. It's important to make sure the room is organized, with designated paths for people to walk to the seating or through the room to other spaces in the home.

<p>Tana Lake has been interested in art and design all of her life. She started drawing and painting at the young age of 3, and shared her artwork with her mother, who praised her for her talent. She encouraged Tana to pursue art in her life, so she attended the Seattle Art Institute for Interior Design. Her most recent accomplishment is her new website,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bestcabindecor.com/">http://www.BestCabinDecor.com</a>, where she features&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bestcabindecor.com/">Cabin Decor</a>&nbsp;for your cabin, lodge, or country home.</p>