Number eight on our list is what I call our hard accessories. In a room, hard accessories are those pieces we use to accentuate space. They do incorporate a couple of the items we’ve already talked about, such as lamps. Lamps are a hard accessory. They are used to accentuate space, but think of pictures, mirrors, shelves, statuary and crystal. All of those items are accessories and there are so many fun things to do with accessories.

I love to go in and see how people have hung accessories and what they use to create different table scapes on their furniture. I have some suggestions that might help. I know there is some fear in hanging pictures. I know because I hear from a lot of women that say, “I don’t have a lot of pictures because my husband doesn’t want me to put a lot of holes in walls.” Well I’ve got a way for you to use to hang pictures that will require less holes in your walls.

Take your pieces of artwork. Let’s say we’re going to hang three pictures above a sofa. Lay the first big piece on a newspaper. Take a pen or marker and trace around that piece of artwork on that newspaper. Take it off, put an arrow on your newspaper which direction this picture goes because all pictures have a direction. There is only one way up, so put the arrow going up. Then, cut out that piece of newspaper artwork. Then do the second and the third picture the same way on the newspaper.

Now, turn over that first piece of artwork and measure from the edge of the frame down to where the hanger is. Take the newspaper, measure from the top, measure down to where the hanger is and mark it on the newspaper where the hanger will be. Do the same with your second and your third.

Then, take the three pieces of newspaper over to the sofa, get up on the sofa and play around with the three pieces of newspaper using thumbtacks and place them in the place you think that they will look good. Then, get off the sofa, go scamper across the room and take a look at it visually. Are they close enough together? Are they too far apart? Are they too high?

Let’s talk about that issue. Your artwork should be closer to your sofa than what you probably are going to hang it. I went into one home and the sofa was way down low and then the artwork was way up high. I liked the piece of artwork, but it was hung up too high. So I said, “Can I ask a question?” They were used to me asking questions by that time anyway, and they said, “Sure, what’s your question?” I said, “Who hung your piece of artwork?” The husband said, “I did,” very proudly, may I add. So I said, “How did you decide where to hang that piece of artwork?” He said, “I did this very technically. I measured the space from the back of the sofa to the ceiling, divided it in half, and hung it there.”

It was fine if he was Kareem Abdul Jabar or, someone like that. It was too high. It didn’t have the relationship of that sofa, so I suggested that we move it down. We did it immediately and they loved it, and of course, it was just hung up too high.

So, position the pictures no more than a foot or so above your furniture; if you have a larger piece or multiple pieces that you want to put in this grouping above the sofa. The larger piece needs to be down closer to your furniture so that it anchors the grouping. It shouldn’t be the very top part, especially to the left or the right. It should be down and more centered. Start by positioning the biggest piece and then add your other pieces around it. By doing it with thumbtacks, you can actually see where it will work and which direction your pictures are at, so when you hang all of them, they’re going the right direction and will look great together.

Another thing to keep in mind when hanging pictures is the size of the frame. If you have a wide picture frame, the breathing space between that and the next picture should be a little bit larger, but if you have narrow frames, the breathing space should be less, so that they are closer together. The wider the frame, the more attention it needs, so the breathing space should be bigger.

If you want to create formal look, balance your pictures. If you want to be more casual, you can go asymmetrical. Think about keeping the center of your artwork at eye level, so that would mean if you have pictures in your foyer, they’re going to be up higher because you’re standing in that room, than in your dining room, where you’re dining and you’re sitting down on a chair.

Hallways a lot of times are so bare. I love to do family pictures in groupings in a hallway. With a little bit of light, it adds so much fun to a hallway.

We have in our home a very long hallway that is by our bedrooms and bathrooms. There are probably about 300 pictures hanging in that hallway; they’re family pictures. They go back to some black-and-white pictures of my husband’s family and my family and up to date with pictures that are always changing of the latest grandchildren’s pictures. We call it our “Hall of Fame”. There are pictures taken on vacations and business trips. Our friends love to come and walk through that hallway to see if they’re in any pictures when it was taken or who they might know. It’s always a party; people in that hallway looking at pictures. It creates such an interesting hallway. Life is too short to live with white walls and bare walls. Get some artwork up on those walls!

Also, don’t forget to add shelves and things like plates. I love plates in a kitchen or a dining room. There are so many fun plates out there and so many different plate hangers. The walls are a place to be looked at. You can tell stories about places you’ve been. Your artwork tells you that.

In our family room, I’ve collected over the years watercolors of many different places that I’ve been. I look at them and have fond memories of many of those places or think of funny stories of things that have happened in them. People will ask about different places I’ve been and I can show them a piece of artwork that shows a beautiful bridge, a gorgeous church, a different tree, something that it is different than my every day life. Artwork is more than just something hanging on a wall. It can say so much about you.

We also use accessories on tables, coffee tables, end tables, dressers; I like to call them table scapes. I don’t just put things there without thinking about why they’re there. I like to unite like items. One of the fondest memories of my grandmother was on her dresser, she had an antique metal kickstand. The top of it was mirrored. What an odd place to put a kickstand on a dresser in her bedroom! It wasn’t a triple dresser, either. It was just a nice dresser, but what she had on it was a collection of thimbles. And instead of putting a couple of thimbles here, a couple of thimbles over there and a collection there, she grouped them together on that mirrored kick plate. When she turned on the light at night, they seemed to dance. So you can group them to create more of a visual impact.

We also need to think about varying heights to create interest. A lot of times on an end table, I might stack a couple of books and put a small plate on a stand next to a light. When you’ve got different heights, different textures and some different colors, your eyes will follows.

This might sound odd, but think of this: odd numbers look more interesting than even numbers. When putting together a table scape, four things on an end table look like you’re quartering it. Whereas if you put odd numbers and group them together it looks better. If you’ve got a buffet that you’re doing many different things on, try several different table scapes, each with three numbers in them. You could also do a floral arrangement, maybe a little picture frame or maybe two picture frames with it. You’ve got three things that will make it look more complete. Odd numbers, for some reason, always look more graceful than even numbers.

Also, try unifying small items on trays or boxes. Perhaps you’ve got a collection of some Depression glassware. Try putting them on a silver tray. Again, it makes more of a visual impact; it’s not just a smattering of little items. It then becomes one item. When you’re doing a multiple grouping, that wouldn’t account for six glasses and a tray; it counts as one.

Don’t forget to elevate to give status to something. Think about a crystal bowl that sits on a glass shelf. It kinds of gets lost, but if you elevate that crystal bowl on a wooden Oriental stand, it gives it more status. It becomes more of a focal point.

Create those table scapes by using the things you collect; use the things you love.

One of my friends love travel and eat out. They pride themselves on eating at fine restaurants and always ask for a menu. In their breakfast room, they have a grouping of picture frames with matting on them, so they can slip in or slip out different menus on whim. This is an easy way to change the décor, maybe the color or highlight their favorites or latest restaurant where they’ve dined.

Remember, you can use the things that you love to create a more interesting look.

Next, Step 8 is Soft Accessories.