Dear Melissa:
My house is decorated, and people seem to like it, but I don’t know, it seems to be lacking drama. My walls are painted soft colors, but something is missing. N.I., OK
Dear N.:
Maybe all of your colors are so soft, there is no punch to the rooms. You do not want your colors to match exactly. Vary the shades of your colors for visual interest. Say for example, your room is basically a medium blue. You don’t want all of the pieces to be the same medium blue. Some items could be navy blue, others powder blue. You could even throw in a totally different accent color. Variety helps.
Perhaps the problem lies with your accessories. They may be small and unobtrusive or scattered, instead of grouped for impact. Unless you are a collector, one large object can be better than five tiny ones, which may just look untidy. If you are a collector (or just have lots of stuff) group the pieces for more impact in a display cabinet, on shelves, or on one tabletop. In the case of the latter, arrange them in an interesting manner – in small groups of like kind, shape, or color; or with some on top of books or decorative boxes for varying heights. M.A.K.
