Decor with a personal touch

No matter his client’s taste or budget, interior designer Brian Patrick Flynn follows this rule: For every large, manufactured item that he adds to a room, he also includes three handmade pieces. They might be anything from “patchwork pillows and hand-woven throw rugs to a repurposed object made into a table lamp,” he says.

What works

They could be expensive or totally affordable.

The key is they were made by a person, not a machine.

“Handmade objects have become more and more in demand over the past 10 years,” says Flynn, of Flynnside Out Productions. “People seem to really love the story behind how things are made,” and they want their homes to have the meaning and character that handmade pieces evoke.

With flea market and craft fair season in full swing, we’ve asked Flynn and two other interior designers — Betsy Burnham of Los Angeles’ Burnham Design and Dan Faires, host of HGTV’s “Dan Made” — what kinds of handmade items they seek, where to find them and how to use them in decorating any space.

It’s easiest to start small, with handmade accessories. The items on your coffee table might include hand-thrown pottery or hand-painted trays, side-by-side with books and other mass-produced pieces. Handmade candle holders and pillows are also easy to find, as are little sculptures and other small pieces of handmade art.

“Any accessory collection should include organic or handcrafted items because, honestly, who wants shelves full of manufactured knickknacks?” asks Burnham.

Going a bit bigger, pottery lamp bases are great additions to any room, says Burnham, as are handmade quilts and knit throws.

Flynn likes to have one or

two handmade fabrics in every room — for instance, the artisanal fabric of Zak and Fox, which Flynn says “look like they were made by tribes hundreds of years ago, but somehow they also seem modern.”

Faires suggests custommade lighting: “There is so much bad lighting on the market these days, so this is an area where I like to customize the piece to fit the style of the space. You can get so much bang for your buck with a handmade light fixture in any space.”

If you’re looking to add a large handmade piece to a

By Melissa Rayworth Associated Press MAX HUMPHREY/BURNHAM DESIGN VIA AP Two simple, handmade wooden sculptures add a casual charm to this fireplace designed by Burnham Design of Los Angeles.

LU TAPP/BURNHAM DESIGN VIA AP Handmade ceramics serve to personalize this collection of pretty and practical items arranged on a desktop in a home designed by Burnham Design of Los Angeles.