Try Southwestern Style Decorating For A Fresh Look
Looking to spruce up your home? Take the time out
to look at
Southwestern style decorating. While it originally hit as a design
craze in the 1980s, and rapidly moved into kitsch, with gigantic neon
pink coyotes and cow sculls, a lot of its design elements have been
repurposed to make attractive and delightful home accents.
The Southwestern “look” involves natural materials
– distressed wood, adobe, iron and tile, with smooth rocks
for the structural elements. Most of the color schemes are earth tones
and terra cotta hues – creams and all the colors of the
desert, in tans and golds and umbers, much like terra cotta pottery,
with accents done in brightly colored fabrics, emphasizing with
turquoise, teal, peach and dusty orange to draw the eye. Accents in
clay and rough textures on objects or wall surfaces give it homey,
unique touch, which is emphasized further by hand made rugs, wall
hangings and furniture, using natural or distressed materials. This
“Southwestern Touch” is distinctive and airy, and
leaves lots of room for customization.
Beyond the color space used (neutral with bright pastels for accents),
Southwestern contemporary styles pull heavily from desert themes
– pictures tend to be landscapes or of southwestern themes:
Horses, cattle drives, cacti, trains and such, or of Latin or Native
American themes, such as Hopi and Navajo symbols and rugs.
When accentuating your southwestern style decorating, look at
decorative plants as well – while a full blown saguaro cacti
is too large for any conventional living room, cacti in general are
quite hardy and forgiving as plants, and their blooms add seasonal
color to your home.
Southwestern style furnishings tend towards natural tones with high
color highlights; look for furnishings and upholstery made of leather,
suede and hand woven fabrics. Serapes can be hung from the walls as
decorations, as can artifacts of the time period. Distressed wood
accents are also useful, and make a distinctive element for book cases,
entertainment centers and furniture, as well as wall accents and light
fixtures.
Southwestern style décor is lovely for homes with neutral
color schemes on the walls, and wide open archways – it lends
itself nicely to spacious homes with free air flow, and to tile or
wooden floors rather than wall-to-wall-carpet. Large rooms can also
handle the usually oversized southwestern furniture types –
usually made from log-frame construction – without seeming
cramped or crowded, and Southwestern décor works nicely with
lighting from all directions.
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