Depending on your design preferences it can be a little more confusing to find decorating tips online. Elegant styles require a more discerning eye and sometimes the decorating tips you see just aren’t meant for you. It’s okay to have a very specific design taste but you will have to put in some extra research to find ideas that work for you.
Elegant decorating ideas are defined differently by everyone. What’s elegant to you may not be elegant to someone else. Often there are key elements to elegant designs, however, that most people do agree on. Opulence is often key and colors that are more classic and less edgy are often featured as well.
In addition to classic colors and opulent furnishings, you can also include things like fine art pieces to the list of common tips. Finding a fine art piece that works for your elegant design preferences is a key aspect of truly tying your elegant room together. If you’re still thinking about what other ideas will work for you, here are five elegant decorating ideas for your home.
1. Feature Symmetry In Your Rooms
Symmetry is a big deal in elegant home decor. This means you need to balance your room very precisely in order to stick to an elegant look. Designs that aren’t as balanced will look more like a shabby chic style room than an elegant room ready to be featured in an expensive hotel or on a magazine cover.
Choose the things that go in your room in pairs or plan out how the items are going to be balanced in the rest of the room extremely well. If you buy one chair, plan to buy another chair that is either exactly identical or matches the first chair in general design and density. Do not assume that just having two chairs of any style will work. That’s not the look you’re going for.
Remember that every choice you make is part of a big picture. You can choose a focal point in your room and make every choice after that based on how they will accent and spread out from there. This will help you keep both a central point in the room and make sure that your symmetrical choices make sense for the room you’re decorating.
2. Pick Your Color Palette First
The color palette is going to be very important when you’re choosing a more elegant decorating style. Just like with room symmetry you can’t just choose pieces and hope they will work together. Elegant decor is more purposeful and methodical than other design options and it requires more forethought.
Decide on the palette you will feature in your room. You can choose any color you want but common color themes are colors like whites, creams, browns, or blush pinks. You can choose one or two colors to work together as the main focus and then start choosing furniture and artwork around that palette.
When you pick your color palette keep in mind that lighter colors work better for elegant designs than darker colors unless you want to combine your elegant decor with a bit of a dramatic shock when people walk into your room. If you decide to go with a darker palette you may want to ask an interior designer to help you make it all work as well as possible.
3. Use Large Mirrors
Light is a very important aspect of elegant decorating so you’ll need to make sure every room has the most amount of light possible. One way you can do this is to use large mirrors to reflect the light already in the room. It will make the room feel brighter even if you haven’t added extra lighting features at all.
You can choose framed mirrors or you can find mirrors that are cut in decorative ways if you want to really commit to the opulence that is demanded of an elegant room. Think of mirrors with thick gilded frames or ornate designs as the first options for your room. No matter what kind of mirror you choose the main design function is to make the room look more well lit.
4. Traditional Over Trendy
Elegant designs are timeless. You won’t be redoing this room next year to match the newest design trends, so you need to emphasize classic looks over what’s trendy and popular right now. If you aren’t sure that a trend has been around for a while, or will be popular a year from now stick to more traditional decorational elements.
You can find more traditional decor ideas online and in magazines. Look for tips that talk about classic lines, colors, and “tried and true” designs that have withstood the test of time already. If something has just hit the interior design scene it’s not going to qualify as a traditional design element for a long time, so it’s best to skip it and choose something else.
5. Finishing Details Matter (A Lot)
If your room looks like it’s not quite finished an elegant design option isn’t going to look as fabulous as it otherwise could. You need to focus on finishing details heavily to make the designs work. This includes things like area rugs and curtains that match the rest of what you’ve already chosen for your room.
You can also focus on final details like crown molding for your room. If everything else has bee finished and your room still doesn’t feel as elegant as you were hoping, crown molding could be the final design touch you were hoping for. It’s often the extra touch you truly need to make a room go from “traditional design” to “elegant decor.”
Conclusion
Elegant decor may look like it was effortless when it’s finished but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy design to implement. Every decision you make needs to make sense and work with the whole plan for the room. Remember the choices about your room symmetry and color palette will dictate what you put in your room with elegant decor more than any other design style.
If you aren’t sure what’s going to work talk with interior designers or decor experts to get a good sense of how to make sure your room will look elegant. Use the tips you’ve read here to help guide you when you feel like you’ve hit a dead end when you’re accomplishing your design goals. It might take some extra work but you’re bound to love the results. Happy decorating!
