By Tim Lehmann, Studio Home 

Carefully curated accessories and personal touches bring these rooms to life.

In my opinion, the accessories and finishing touches can either make or break a room. You first have to have the base pieces selected for a room, such as sofas, chairs, tables, beds, dressers, etc. Once all of your major pieces are installed, you can start accessorizing. At this point you can really start from many different items. Maybe you found a rug that you fell in love with, scored some killer pillows or came across a vase you just had to have. Whatever that item or collection might be, that can be your jumping point or inspiration on how to go about selecting the rest of those finishing touches.

Here are two living rooms that we have done. For the first room, Jon and Aaron had already designed the furniture, rug and lamps before I got started, so they were my base point. We went with a simple palette of aqua, silver and white with a few pops of coral. The soft color palette creates a very chic yet inviting look. Our client wanted the space to be sophisticated with touches of modern. We were able to achieve that with accessorizing by having abstract art framed in a traditional style to add the element of sophistication. We used two collections of aqua ceramic and glass vases to add more color and visual interest through the various modern forms and textures. To add a personal touch to the space, there are white-framed family photos throughout the room. Lastly, we brought in some greenery to add some natural life to this client’s family room. All of these elements brought together created just the amount of contemporary sophistication our client was after.

Like in the first space, the furniture and colors — green, creams and black — were selected by Jon and Aaron. Our goal here was a comfortable and masculine space. Our client had some pieces he wanted to incorporate into the space. To contrast his abstract art piece, we brought in four architectural detail prints from the French Quarter in New Orleans. An oversized studio lamp adds to the eclectic vibe. We used a different assortment of accessories from around the world on the ottoman and in the cabinet to finish the space. The eclectic mix of worldly items brought this space to life.