The Purpose of Accessories
Serving a duality of purposes, accessories both complement and complete a home. Breathing life into the chosen design scheme, accessories in all their guises, serve to reflect the personality of the home's inhabitants. Although their visual appeal is undoubtedly pivotal, accessories must also be functional. Whether they tell a story or support the furniture that form the foundation of the room, accessories must somehow enhance the space yet synchronise effortlessly with the surrounding pieces.
When selecting accessories for your home, why not approach it in a similar fashion to your attire? Both types of accessories tell a very personal story and both require you to exercise a degree of freedom and restraint in order to successfully achieve the perfect balance. When decorating your home with accessories, play around with grouping different objects together. In order to achieve harmony, combine items that complement one another in terms of their weight, colour, theme and size. Varying colours and textures should also be considered to create visual intrigue and a sense of variety.
Different Types of Accessories
Accessories can take any shape or form, that's what makes them so captivating. From modern finds or personal creations to antique treasures, the opportunities are endless. Share fond memories by displaying souvenirs that you have collected along your travels, marking a trail of your adventures, showcase ornamental objects that enrich the interior design style, or inject lashings of colour to offset a clean and crisp design scheme with a selection of soft furnishings such as rugs and pillows.
A great example of this is the interior design scheme that our team created for a beautiful beachside home on the Gold Coast. The homeowners sought for their grandchildrens' presence to remain apparent in their absence, so we sourced a custom-made hand-knotted rug bearing the children's artistic creations. Steeped in emotional sentiment, the unique addition to the home that was positioned in the hallway was both functional and injected a youthful personality into the space simultaneously.
If you're on a smaller budget, deceptively small changes or additions can make the world of a difference such as fresh fruit or flowers from the garden or local farmer's market. Disposable items they may be, accessories such as these are interchangeable, adding diversity to the space.
John Croft, Principal of John Croft Design
At John Croft Design, we complete all of our interior design projects with a carefully selected range of accessories, from intricate ornaments that reference a bygone era to plush contemporary cushions that infuse bursts of colour. Be they big and bold or quaint and refined, a house simply would not be a home without the right accessories.
