THE FINISHING TOUCH

-Putting home accessories in their place-

In my last blogs “Decisions, Decisions,” we talked about the importance of choosing and installing your background first, and adding accessories last. Remember, vegetables before dessert. Well, now that the furniture is in place, it’s time for dessert…..

HOME ACCESSORIES ARE LIKE DESSERT

-It’s not the first thousand dollars you spend that matter, but the last hundred-

THE OLD SAYING I’VE USED for the subtitle of this chapter has been around for so long that in the home design world the numbers are off. The “last hundred” refers to the money you will spend on the finishing touches. The perfect piece of art, the coffee table accessory, the lamp: These are the grace notes that are going to make the room.

A common mistake DIY decorators make is to accessorize too early. Because they’re affraid to make a big commitment to something like carpet, or drapes, or an armoire, they hit the default button and start buying picture frames, vases, and candlesticks. they hope in vain that these items will somehow pull the room together. But your love for a variety of random objects isn’t enough to unify them in your home. They won’t pull a room together any more than a necklace or purse will salvage an outfit that isn’t working to begin with.

If you’ve stuck with the program, and you’ve put your backgrounds in, dressed the windows, and selected and placed good furniture that will serve as your backdrop, you can now add pizzazz.

WHEN IT’S TIME TO INDULGE

“Did you hear about the new store?” the ladies asked in hushed tones. “Do you know when it’s opening?” a new home accessory store was opening down the street, and the neighbors were buzzing about it. Even as store workers stocked merchandise, women hovered at the door asking for sneak previews. I was happening by and thought I’d stumbled onto either a Brad Pitt sighting or a place handing out low-carb Danishes. The manager tuned the women away with a smile and told them to come back opening day.

I was conveniently having my hair cut across from the store the morning it opened, so i was among the first legitimate customers. I browsed. I drooled. I envisioned. I had a few all-out decorating fantasies. And I left. Empty-handed. My craving for an interior design fix was satisfied.

“I saw the new store,” I told one of my neighbors that evening.

“Good stuff?” she pressed.

I nodded.

“Did you buy anything?”

I shook my head.

‘Why not?” She sounded surprised, knowing how much my home could use.

“Not on my diet.”

“What diet?”

“Home accessories are like dessert,” I continued, tumbling into my two-cent philosophy. “They come after the meat and vegetables. I need drapes first, built-ins, more lighting, and a few more pieces of furniture. Then I can indulge in accessories. Plus, too many aren’t good for your home.”

“You’re probably right,” she said, sounding disappointed, as if I’d just told her the calorie count of cheesecake.

I learned such uncharacteristic restraint the hard way. See, I used to buy every home accessory that caught my concupiscent eye, until my home looked as if I’d run through the local home design outlet with a large butterfly net. I had candlesticks and picture frames, baskets and floral arrangements, vases, wall hangings, and sculptures. Visitors thought my home was the collection site for the neighborhood garage sale. So, when I moved into my new home, I tossed all but the most sentimental, which I put in a box marked “Trial Separation.” I started with a clean slate and more self-knowledge.

I had finally learned that home accessories – tempting as they are – must come last. And, like skipping dessert, the delay of gratification takes discipline.

I have another neighbor who’s like I used to be. She sees a home accessory she likes and buys it. But her home doesn’t have drapes, wall treatments, or the most basic built-ins. It has stuff but no soul. “My husband tells me to stop buying all these chatchkes and start decorating,” she confesses, “but decorating is so hard, and these are so fun.”

“I know,” I say, like a Weight Watchers counselor. “It takes more willpower than the dessert buffet.”

That doesn’t mean I don’t love to walk through a tasteful home accessory store, absorb the ambience of the well-appointed space, and envision such an aura filling my home some day. But I also love the virtuous feeling of leaving without buying a scrap, of practicing a monklike abstinence akin to passing on the chocolate eclair.

DECORATING THE COFFEE TABLE: THE PRESSURE IS ON

First I tried putting the candelabra on the coffee table with the bowl of lemons. That looked hokey. Then I tried the silk floral arrangement with the three glass paperweights on books. That looked worse. I tried a table arrangement using the lemon bowl with the flowers. No. Books and candelabra? Possibly. I had potential coffee table accessories all over the floor. I kept trying them out on the table, swapping them like partners in a singles club.

“What are you doing?” Dan asked on his way to surely something more meaningful.

“Creating a tablescape.”

“A what?”

“It’s an artistic composition, like a still life.”

“Looks like you’re putting a bunch of unnecessary stuff on that nice table.”

“We can’t leave it bare.”

“Sure we can. That will leave more room for food, drinks, and our feet. Anything else is just in the way.”

I went back to my arranging, which wasn’t going so well. I set a ceramic carousel horse beside a pair of brass candlesticks. Ugh.

Part of what makes accessorizing a coffee table so hard is all the pressure. Here’s this table, prominently positioned in the middle of the room, basically saying, “Look at me. I’m on display. Whatever you put on me is something you think is to die for.” It’s essentially your taste – or lack of it – in 3-D.

No wonder it’s paralyzing.

Making matters worse, I had been so confident of my ability to arrange the living room coffee table that when the home was being built, I’d had the electricians put in a ceiling spot to focus on it and wash it – and the presumably tasteful art objects I would place on it – in gallery-style lighting. Once again, I ‘d created my own problem, then put it in the spotlight.

My oldest daughter came by, looked at the stuff all over the living room, and said, “I have more things for your thrift store donation.”

“This isn’t a donation. I’m accessorizing the coffee table.”

“Just throw some books and flowers on it. That’s what everyone else does.”

“It’s not that easy. You know how, when you’re wearing a dress, you change the necklace four times until you get just the look you want?”

“No, I don’t.”

“You need to hit the right balance of scale, color, texture, style, and relevance.”

“Whatever floats my boat,” she said, then breathed one of those only-my-mother breaths and left me to my obsession.

The two most expensive and probably significant accessories you’ll likely purchase for your home are area rugs and fine artwork. In some cases, these do drive a room’s or a home’s color scheme. If you already have a great piece of art, or a fabulous rug, you can decorate around it.

More to come on Thursday, May 15th. 2008 with the story of “Selecting Artwork and Area Rugs.”