How To Work Exquisitely Crafted Statement Makers Into A Room

You’re developing a knack for design and now you’re now thinking of how to work with statement makers. How do you introduce them into a room? How do you work with an exquisite piece of craftsmanship like a Henkel Harris Credenza in wild black cherry for the living room or a Henkel Harris King Pineapple Bed in mahogany for the bedroom? Both of these pieces are available from Henkel Harris Furniture, which specializes in the traditions of 18th and 19th century European furniture.

Choosing the right piece of furniture adds a touch of class to any room, but if you tip the balance too far, making everything special, then you end up with nothing standing out as special anymore. The truth about statement pieces is that you can’t fill a room with them. One is often sufficient but two is possible if the room is big enough. Remember, too much of a good thing makes the room appear too loud.

With that caveat in mind, here are 5 tips to quickly master the fine art of introducing statement makers into a room:

Mix things up

You’ve already learned how to craftily mix up colors, textiles, and metals in a room because you’ve discovered how this breaks up that bland look when everything matches a little too well. Now use that same approach with statement makers. Combine a statement piece with contrasting pieces.

When, for example, you combine an antique with a contemporary piece, the craftsmanship of the antique stands out more. However, you’re not limited to contrasting styles, you can also contrast shapes, straight with curvy, or colors, light with dark.

Here’s a thought-experiment to illustrate how contrast works its magic:

Imagine a room with off-white colored walls, stark white furniture and the lightest possible shade of lemon yellow carpeting. Now add bright red cushions to the sofa and paintings of seascapes with predominantly blue and green tones on the walls. You get a startling yet pleasing contrast between different colors.

Use your color wheel

When working with colors, it’s easy to get confused with what works and what looks gaudy and awkward. Play with your color wheel to find color pairings. You don’t have to use the same tones; complementary tones will work fine, too. The idea is not to find a perfect fit, but a creative way to choose analogous colors. Your goal is a simple one: create the right balance of colors.

Simplify your options

When working with different colors, textures, shapes, or materials, it’s possible to go to extremes. In your effort to break away from monotony, you might get a little too much variety. Alternatively, matching everything too well creates monotony because it eliminates variety.

The solution is to use the rule of three. Suppose, you’re working with wood. Using the same type, say walnut, everywhere from doors to cabinets, makes everything bland. Yet, if you introduce a wide variety of woods, it’s a little disorienting. By sticking to just three types of wood—say, mahogany, wild black cherry, and walnut—you hit the sweet spot and have enough requisite variety to keep things interesting.

Reflect a feature across pieces

Statement pieces can stand out a little too much, the way an Olympian with a perfect physique stands out among a gaggle of chubby IOC executives. The solution is to reflect one or more of the features of your statement piece in other furnishings.

So, for example, if the statement piece has ornate patterns, add other furnishings to the room with some ornate touches, too. Another example: if the statement piece has a rustic and rugged surface, add other pieces with a rustic touch, don’t just surround your statement piece with pieces that have uniform colors and smooth textures.

Walk away for a day

When a writer creates an essay, he or she spends so long in writing, rewriting, and editing it that perspective blurs. However, by putting the literary work aside and taking the rest of the day off, the writer sees it in a completely new way the next day. Awkward transitions, unqualified thoughts, logical fallacies, and weak conclusions appear as clear as day. What looked perfect the previous day can now be improved.

The same thing happens with interior design. By stepping away from your project and returning to it with a fresh perspective, you see how the conversation between the pieces in the room should flow.

Above All, Be Playful

The best design is a result of a playful attitude. This, however, doesn’t always happen.

We have two distinctly different brains that compete with each other.

The left hemisphere is like a scientist. It likes logical thinking and linear processes. It likes things neat and clean. And it likes to run the show.

Meanwhile, the right hemisphere is like an artist. It has intuitive leaps and indulges in emotional outbursts. It likes to rearrange patterns to see what will happen. It’s not afraid of a little chaos because it realizes that it can put things together at a higher level of order.

As a designer, you need to use both sides. You need to make logical decisions about pricing and purpose, but you also need to be playful. You need to move things around here and there, making small tweaks that pull disparate ideas together into a pleasing whole.