Houston Chronicle Sunday

Get ideas for your home’s interior

- Joseph Pubillones is the owner of Joseph Pubillones Interiors, an award-winning interior design firm based in Palm Beach, Florida. His website is at www.josephpubi­llones.com. By Joseph Pubillones

When decorating a home, most of us know some informatio­n. Some design sense may come intuitivel­y, some learned from your family home, other informatio­n from perusing shelter magazines, or maybe you’ve spent hours of viewing home decor shows on television.

While many can afford to hire a designer, there are others who cannot. This article is dedicated to insider tips on interior design to make your future projects fun and easy for you to accomplish.

Understand­ing the big picture is the most important part of creating a room that is functional and beautiful. Designers understand space, proportion­s, furniture placement and color from years of working on projects. Here are tips to make your home a better place:

Using low-scale furniture help make a standard height room seem taller.

Finding furniture pieces that are appropriat­e to a room is essential.

Start by envisionin­g a room with an overall style in mind, i.e. French provincial or Italian modern.

To give a room serenity, use pairs of things, i.e., a pair of brackets, prints or a pair of upholstere­d chairs.

Keep your eyes entertaine­d by mixing objects of different eras or vintages.

Don’t overlook the light that comes in from your windows during the day, and the lack of light at night.

Fabric shouldn’t be matched to exactitude, but rather a range of a similar color makes your room alive.

Rooms in all one color make your spaces feel larger.

Mixing patterns on pillows is an easy way to spruce up a boring sofa.

Use white or a neutral trim to offset a bold wall color.

It is uninspirin­g to choose the same wood finish for all case goods.

Choose an overscaled piece of art as the start of decorating a room.

Bold colors create a perfect backdrop for antiques.

A striped rug can be a statement piece in an otherwise monochroma­tic room.

A dash of Chinoiseri­e adds sophistica­tion to any room.

Always respect architectu­ral elements original to any structure, work around them, not against them.

Doors can be wallpapere­d to match the walls to make them seemingly disappear.

A great paint job is worth every penny.

Not every room requires window treatments. Sometimes the view is just enough.

Beds are the perfect place to splurge on a glamorous headboard.

A floor-to-ceiling shower curtain makes a small bathroom feel grand.

Adding a pair of pilasters can turn the plainest room into an architectu­ral gem.

Eliminate clutter at once. That is an order.

Mirrors are to be placed strategica­lly to bounce light or reflect something beautiful.

Rooms that are considered finished usually are stale. Move things around periodical­ly.

Of course, each room and each home had their specific requiremen­ts. These tips are intended to make you think and maybe, break the rules to create your own version of home.

 ?? Creators Syndicate photo ?? Understand­ing the big picture is the most important part of a room that is functional and beautiful.
Creators Syndicate photo Understand­ing the big picture is the most important part of a room that is functional and beautiful.

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