It’s a conversation.

Objects don’t talk, I know (!), but when you decorate a house, you should try to establish a conversation between them. An object by itself is very little compared to what it can do in a context. And decorating is creating this context. This vibe flows according to the creative choices you make.

A nicely decorated room shows some sort of pleasant conversation between its objects. A connection where one object will support the other in its form, function, or both. Decorating with that in mind creates a nice flow of moves that make sense and give us a feeling of harmony. 

I recommend not thinking about the objects individually. Instead, think about them in the ensemble. An armchair by itself can lead you to so many different creative directions or to none, depending on how much personality it has and the emotional attachment you have to it. It may not be your favorite piece, but if it is participating in a vignette along with a lamp, a side table, a plant, and a picture, it gets transformed into the coziest place to be. The collective pleases the eyes even when the individual pieces are not very appealing at first. Focus on the whole, on how furniture and objects “behave” together - if the talk to each other, if they agree and support each other’s message. It is this conversation between the furniture and objects that will determine the zest of your decoration.

Another metaphor that I often use when thinking about decoration a room is music. Decorating a room feels to me a bit like creating a song: arranging how different instruments should sound in ensemble, establising a rythm, attenting to the pauses, yelding to a solo. When all the pieces ressonates with each other, the music touches the heart of who is listening despite their formal knowledge or understanding of it.