Dear Alice | Stylizing and Accessorizing Best Of
/We always say styling is the conversation of a room so make sure your spaces speak authentically to who you are! In this episode, we go over how to style your home in kid-friendly ways and sharing all of our styling staple accessories! You can listen to this podcast episode on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Google Podcast.
We love our kiddos but it does get tricky to feel like your home is put together when you’ve got all their colorful toys sprawled out in our living room. The best tip we have for parents - make your house turn into your kid’s home. Designate baskets that they’ve picked out and get them to clean up after themselves (we know this is obvious but teach them the clean-up song). Give your kids their own individual shelves where they can display their own artwork and things. As long as your kids are part of the solution, they will be all about! Influence your kids into liking things you love if possible. Choose a console instead of a table so you can tuck away and hide little nicknacks and toys when guests are over.
Books are the rug of accessories. We love art and design books as interior designers- just think about what you’re into so your spaces can reflect who you are. We’re not talking about novels, rather large-scale cocktail books. Big beautiful spines that take up space will be your best friend- you can put something on a book and trick people into thinking you’re a great stylist. It might sound crazy, but each home should have at least 20 books to start!
Non-directional items are pieces that look good from every angle (a picture frame isn't non-directional because it generally only is viewed head-on). Some examples of non-directional pieces would be bowls, pottery, and sculptures. Bowls are great so if you want you can put stuff in it while maintaining a low center of gravity so it doesn't fall over as easily. Collectables that you’ve bought from traveling or have gotten passed down are such great conversation starters! Crystals bring dimension into a space and look absolutely dreamy. We love having a see-through piece because they bring interest and elegance into a room!
Candles are a must and need to be tall with three wicks! When trying to decide between candles and diffusers- candles need to be where you can keep an eye on it, so coffee tables and kitchen islands. Entryways and powder baths are more in the realm of a diffuser so you don’t have to remember to blow them out.
A good tray is also the rug of the room! You need to find the biggest one that’ll fit your space and bring it straight home! You don’t want trays that are circles or ovals because you can't put coffee books in them. We have many styling videos on our Instagram that you can watch here or you can listen to our podcast about The Art of Styling.
Throughout your home, you’ll need greenery, faux or real, doesn't matter- just something to liven up your space! The bigger, the better!
Styling a fireplace mantle or bookcase is easier than you think! Grab a couple of bowls, books and decorative pieces and start to zig-zag the larger pieces. Never stack those hero pieces on top of each other vertically and have some asymmetric fun!
The Center hall table needs lots of non-directional items. Ground it with a large vase and filling it with whatever is in season. If you have a bigger table, you can stack jars/vases, sculptures, and make sure to include a bowl so you can put keys and other things in them!
The last thing tip we have is to figure out if you’re a maximalist or minimalist because it’ll help influence the direction of the pieces you pick up! We hope you enjoyed reading about all of our favorite styling tips! Any questions or podcast ideas? Email us at dearalice@alicelanehome.com
SHOP OUR FAVORITE STYLING ACCESSORIES
