The Secret to a Room That Feels Complete
On why texture is often the last thing people think of and the first thing they feel.
Just as color fills our home, texture is its counterpart. From room to room, different fabrics, art, sculptures, and shapes all fill the space. I sat in the moment, visually analyzing my home, and focusing on a specific sector of design allowed me to appreciate the depth each area is given from layered finishes.
Within our primary bedroom, a fluffed silk duvet, lustrous jacquard drapery, a woven-fabric headboard, layered fabrics creating a pleated and cinched canopy, wooden-inlay nightstands, and a hand-knotted rug, all layered around one another, create a calming, safe space I’m excited to return to each night. A few steps away is the primary bath, doused in grasscloth wallpaper and charm, paired with crisp herringbone tile flooring and aged brass fixtures throughout. Natural elements combined with classic finishes create a serene feeling that is perfect for a morning wakeup or nighttime wind-down.
One of the most exciting rooms in our home is flooded with color and texture from the very highest point on the ceiling to the baseboards. Antique, hand-carved chairs with jacquard fabric head the glass-on-carved-wood dining table, creating the perfect place for a crocheted table runner and a large, wavy vase overflowing with flowers. Our wedding china sits atop a hand-carved, antique china cabinet, which is squeezed into the corner. Across the way is a small bar cart with curled wood legs. Surrounding it all is mesmerizing mural wallpaper with a countryside scape paired with linen drapes edged with a geometric yellow trim. At the top of it all, within a unique ceiling medallion, hangs one of my favorite lighting pieces featuring golden stars with rough edges to bring an unexpected bit of spunk to the space.
A moment away, you’ll find a zebra-style fur rug atop a Persian rug from my childhood pushed up against leather chairs seated with needlepoint dog pillows, cornered by a cozy white couch. I’ve lined the walls with oil paintings to bring exciting, inspiring textures and colors to every glance. The built-ins house sculptures, art, aging books, collections from our travels, a champagne cork from our wedding, lavender sprigs, and countless other tchotchkes, each adding to the experience of our living room.
Not to give you a narrated tour of my home, but to acknowledge the textures and show how visualizing them can bring you through the full feeling of the space. It adds a layer to a room’s design that no other element can; it either makes you feel comfortable and welcome or stiff and cold. Your body registers it before your eye does; if texture is overlooked, then what feeling is your environment giving? Emotionally and physically.
Texture, along with smell, is a design element that holds wonderful power, so much so that it can bring nostalgia, coziness, comfort, and really create an impact on your day.
Introduce more texture into your home and watch it transform the energy. Start with just a single item, a throw pillow, a new lamp shade, or a visually exciting rug. One easy addition I made was swapping the trim on my cream lampshade for a gorgeous woven burgundy design that adds texture and a pop of color. Stagger pottery vases with different glazes for added visual interest, fill a corner with a woven basket filled by oversized knit blankets, or even add a fresh bouquet of flowers to your table; the options are endless, but it’s crucial to rounding out a space. Tiny swaps like this are where it starts. One layer at a time, the room becomes something you feel, not just see.
At times, this concept is one of the last thoughts when decorating, and occasionally it can come together by choosing items you love to fill the area, but without intention, the energy falls flat. Even if your room is filled with color, if texture is left as an afterthought, the experience of the home can feel very stiff. Look around the room and take note of the textures; now take a moment to imagine the space with them being smooth or flat. What is easily overlooked is sometimes the most defining factor.
Find your Bachét.