Part Two: Tips for Styling with Storytelling in Mind

There is nothing that lights my design soul on fire quite like finishing up a project, stepping back, and seeing a room filled with life, memories, and stories. 

While colors, balance, and layouts are each key to a designer’s toolkit for a reason, nothing grounds a room quite like sentimental feelings and nostalgic memories. 

If you haven’t read part one of this series yet, take a little pause and jump back here to catch up on my tips for sourcing decor pieces filled with cherished meaning. 

Once you’re feeling confident about where you can start finding decor filled with impactful stories, let’s dive into part two, which is all about styling those treasured finds.

Let Your Furniture Ground Your Room 

There are so many factors to consider when deciding on a piece of furniture for your home (truly, so many that I actually created a whole blog post on things to consider when investing in a piece of furniture). But when it comes to a piece of furniture backed by a beautiful memory or story, you typically don’t have as much flexibility in finding the perfect size or style as you would when sourcing across retailers. You get what you get… Now what?

Whether it’s Grandma’s beautiful buffet table that brings you back to holidays with the family or a striking armoire sourced on the streets of Paris, sometimes you have to toss the design rules to the side and embrace what you have. Rules are made to be broken anyway!

So, rather than worry about the piece of furniture being the perfect proportion or style, when you have a meaningful piece of furniture, I always suggest letting that piece drive your design vision. Ground your room in furniture first, and then layer in decor and artwork that provides contrast and cohesion around it. 

Create Balance with Juxtapositioning 

By now I’m sure you know that design filled with contrasted layers is truly synonymous with AKD — it’s what we do. Bringing together vintage and contemporary pieces is at our core, and what better way to elevate the look of your family heirlooms than to create a sense of balance with some modern design features? When designing with vintage pieces, I always like to say: the goal should be to give your space a sense of gravitas and character — not to make it feel like a museum.

The best way to do that is to surround an antique piece with contemporary furniture, art, or accessories. For example, I love the contrast of using antique rugs with modern furnishings, or framing modern art in an antique frame. 

Get Creative with Your Frames 

From displaying artwork created by your children to framing a gorgeous silk scarf sourced at a European market while on a girls trip, frames are the perfect place to feature sentimental pieces. And while we all love a gorgeous piece of art or cherished family photos, I find so much joy in framing more unconventional pieces too. If it can lay flat, frame it! 

Repurpose Your Pieces Unconventionally 

As with contemporary juxtaposition of furniture and decor, unconventional styling also adds a touch of contrast and interest to an already special piece. For example, utilize a beautiful bowl passed down from your mother as a ring tricket, repurpose an artisan-crafted bowl as a planter and quite literally breathe new life into it, or transform a storage hutch into a bar cabinet. 

Let your heart gravitate towards a design, but don’t feel stuck on its purpose. Nothing adds more interest to a piece than unconventional usage. 

Design with Trays 

Larger pieces can generally find a home if you really love them, but I find that smaller pieces are the ones that most often get lost among the shelves or stuck in drawers, when they really deserve their own spotlight. 

Enter: trays. Trays are always my go-to design element for gathering and styling smaller pieces, so they get their own focus too. 

Showcase Your Memories Across Bookshelves 

And finally, could I really share a whole blog post on styling decor without mentioning bookshelves? We love a statement bookshelf here at AKD, and what better way to display your cherished decor pieces? Head here for a full blog post on tips for designing your bookshelves.