The Power of "The Pop"

This post was most recently updated on June 5th, 2011

In yesterday’s post, I told you how we are moving a lot of things around here as our basement is nearly complete.

It all started with re-styling ‘Room B’ – a small main floor den – with furniture from a different room.  Nothing seemed to go as I had planned.  In yesterday’s post, I explained how I ended up having to move my beloved armoire out of the room (boooo) to make it work.

Well, I’m happy to report that something did go right in the colour department!

If you don’t want to draw too much attention to furniture that you don’t love (for example, an older set like mine),a great decorating strategy is to paint the walls a nearly identical colour.

Luckily, my room and sofa are a soft neutral; not sure if I would recommend doing this if your older set is emerald green or peachy-pink, lol. (In that case, I’d start with a neutral slip cover!)  This helps to “quiet” the furniture, allowing your accent colour to ‘pop’. This draws attention to artwork and accessories instead.

For example, here’s where I started.  Drab, yes, but a perfect palette to allow accessories to pop.

Here’s a shot where I layered on a few toss cushions with bright reds, oranges and yellows.  These actually came with my new furniture in the other room.  I knew when I purchased the new set that they wouldn’t work in that room, but I thought they *might* work here!  I have deep red custom-made roman blinds that had to stay, and these are a great match. They are not what I would have picked if I had them made, but I knew I could live with them.

I was liking the fabric, but I’m really not a huge fan of the matchy-matchy pillow look. So I threw in one of my older cushions too, to break up the uniformity.

My next issue was what to hang on the wall behind the couch.  I love to ‘shop’ my own house when re-styling a room (i.e., steal from another room), but I literally had nothing that would possibly work with the pattern and colour in the pillows.  So I headed to HomeSense to see what I could find.  Those kind of stores are hit or miss, so I wasn’t holding my breath.

Imagine my luck when I found this piece of canvas art with a huge red, happy poppy.  It was more expensive than I hoped, but it is really great quality.  I find that canvas art can look cheap, but this one is a giclee print. (In giclee printing, there is no visible dot screen pattern; the image has all the tonalities and hues of the original painting). It was exactly what I was looking for.

 

And here’s what the wall looks like now:

I love how I hardly even notice the furniture anymore.  That’s the power of ‘the pop’, people.

The room still needs some more finessing, but I’m happy that it’s finally coming together.  I need to move on to the other rooms that need fixing, as this furniture train keeps rolling.

 

Stay tuned for more room updates over the coming weeks, including my living room and basement.