Indulge your taste for ornamentation by giving each piece ample space and deliberate attention. Jane Drew reports
1. Personal sense of style
Decorative items, however small, can have a huge impact on a design scheme — the subtle details build up to give a home character. It’s not so much that display pieces provide the finishing touch to a design scheme, they really cement the look -- be it contemporary Chinese, classically European or simply eclectic.
2. Decorative tools
It makes sense to accent a space with what’s on hand rather than bring in superfluous decorative accents. You’ll be looking at serviceable household tools that double as design features. In the kitchen, line open shelves with stylish jars brim-full of colourful pasta; in a bathroom, use a large conch shell to hold the soap.
3. Balancing form and function
If even everyday household tools need to be "display worthy", the so-called decorative pieces need to have a functional purpose too. Rather than keeping family heirlooms locked up behind glass, put them to good use on a daily basis. Lay Tibetan rugs in low-traffic areas like bedrooms, place a cut-crystal bowl on the hall console and use it to store bills and keys.
4. Remember: less is more
You don’t have to be a die-hard minimalist to appreciate that it’s not what you display but how you display it that counts. Clutter a tabletop or cabinet with too many ornaments and you will be unable to appreciate individual pieces. Remember that, as a general rule, pieces look better in groups of three rather than in pairs.
5. Creating focus
If you are a collector or want to develop a decorative theme in your home, choose a theme and stick to it. Display your specific interest in its own space, as a cohesive collection, whether it is blue-and-white Chinese porcelain or priceless Venetian glass.
6. Scale and shape
Make sure that the items you are using fit into the surrounding scheme, you don’t want one tiny paperweight on a large kitchen table, and you want to steer clear of placing a huge statuette on a tiny end table. If you have small accessories you would like to display, but need to give them more "oomph" in the arrangement, try grouping them on a plate or in a fabric-covered box.
7. Allow for expansion
While you can use side tables and consoles to support individual pieces or small groupings, you’ll need wall-mounted shelves or inbuilt cabinets to display larger collections. Few collections remain static so you should allow for expansion by providing up to 50 percent more space than you need initially.
8. Look to the walls
By covering a length of wall with wall niches of varying heights, you can display any number of pieces. Each niche provides a point of focus in its own right, framing the individual objects. You may choose to paint the alcoves in a different colour to the surrounding wall to draw the eye.
9. Rotate or relegate
You can design almost any room around freestanding cabinets and wall-mounted shelves but, unless you are building your home from scratch, you can’t shape a space to fit favourite ornaments. If there’s no place for a particular piece in your current home, bite the bullet and put it into storage.
10. Gallery-style lighting
For a professional look, use track or spotlights recessed into the ceiling to highlight each piece. Position target lamps obliquely for the best effects — an angle of 40 to 60 degrees to the perpendicular will cut down on glare. Low voltage tungsten bulbs work best but place them some distance from the display piece to avoid heat damage.
