Add Luxury and Style to Your Home With This Tip

Today I thought I might talk about one of the details that make a stylish home. I love stylish rooms that meld interesting elements and artsy design but retain comfort and functionality. I don't like when a home's furnishings are too precious.

The furniture needs to be inviting and comfortable as well as stylish.

And, if you are interested in making your home stylish and luxurious it's important to strike a balance between function and form. One way I've learned to add interest to any type of interior design is to mix in contrasting materials or elements that add warmth or coolness depending on the materials present.

Contrasting Materials

Whether it be glass, wood, stone, plastic, metal, or natural or manmade fibers a stylish home needs a mix of materials to add interest. Materials can add warmth or coolness to any room or location. The warmth of wood can balance the coolness of metal or glass or stone. Conversely, you can warm up metal elements with wood, fibers, leather, and so on. I hope you get my gist.

When you add contrasting elements to any interior design you can create unexpected charm.

Recently, we were at a friend's house and I absolutely loved his decor. I snapped a few photos and he kindly allowed me to share them with you.

First, I loved the way he paired a metal dining table with a shag rug and lipstick red faux leather dining chairs on casters. The red and plushy dining chairs warmed up the cold metal tabletop brilliantly. In addition, the table's stem is wooden which adds an extra element of warmth against the imposing cold metal tabletop and balances this entire space beautifully. See the picture below. Please excuse the computer and overall messiness.

The combination of these elements in an unexpected kind of way adds interest to this setup. In my opinion, this table set up is perfectly balanced, and I think it illustrates amazingly well what I mean when I urge you to use contrasting materials to add luxury and unexpected charm to your interior decor.

Take a look at this other picture. Notice how he adds warmth to this bar area by adding wooden stools upholstered in hard-wearing leather to this massive granite countertop. It's cozy and inviting and absolutely brilliant! And of course, you can never go wrong with a little Eames inspired wooden stools.

Let's talk about color for a split second. You can also use color to add warmth or coolness to interior decor even when your choice of materials is limited. Notice how color is being used in this living room setup:

At first, I couldn't understand the selection of blue leather chairs. But after thinking about it for a bit I decided that the blue chairs add coolness to an otherwise very warm plushy room that tends to give off a lot of warm vibes. This shade of blue not only creates a cozy,  serene and welcoming conversation area but adds an interesting element that makes this sitting area visually interesting. Of course, I think you can also bring in more metal elements in terms of accessories for the wall in this particular setup to cool it down even further.

What are your thoughts?

What kind of materials and colors do you enjoy pairing together to create interest in your interior decor? Let me know in the comments below.

Love,
Yuki