Accessorizing
I love accessorizing. I really do. It can wholly transform the mood and personality of a room. Some people like to place just a few tasteful items around. I, myself, like a lot of accessories. Of course, accessories is just a designer-y way of saying “knick-knacks.” If arranged well, though, your knick-knacks shouldn’t conjure up images of your great aunt’s ceramic figurines.
Setting accessories at an angle is pretty well common knowledge now. I’d change it to multiple angles. When everything faces the same direction, the whole look is very static. Putting a few things in a setting at different angles causes the viewer’s eye to slow and meander. It also seems to make each individual item appear special.
To that end, triangular vignettes are also pleasing. Larger items in the center (think vases, candelabras), flanked by smaller ones. With the exception of collections of like items (picture frames don’t count), grouped accessories should never be the same height. I like to add some really small personal things in the spaces between. It’s nice when someone has to get up close to explore. Even better when they have to move around. This works especially well when decorating sofa tables or dining tables. The triangle becomes a pyramid or cone with the added benefit that the larger item hides the backs of things not meant to be seen from behind.
Angles apparently really appeal to us humans, aesthetically (I’ll spare you the eleventh grade dissertation on Da Vinci and his affinity for triangular composition). The eye likes to wander up and down, side to side. Some of us like to go further and just plain knock something over. Some of us don’t, though. I hosted my first Thanksgiving last year, and while I was cooking, a well-intentioned relative, to save me from embarrassment, went and up-righted my artfully arranged pears and gourds.
That nay-sayer aside, I maintain that layered, tiered, objects that seem to spill over creates a beautiful, and bountiful, place for all of the knick-knacks we collect along the way. Like a self portrait we can invite people to walk through.