When you are furnishing a room at the Lake of the Ozarks, style is a factor but the functionality is incredibly important. When you move on to choosing accessories for a room, that's where you can focus completely on the look of the items that you choose. Home accents are an excellent way to personalize a room. They can tell a story or highlight your interests and hobbies. John Elliott Interiors has a few tips to help you accessorize your home and create rooms that are all yours.


Pay Attention to Scale
Bigger pieces of furniture can handle a large accessory on them, but you don't want the accent piece to overwhelm what it is sitting upon. In a similar fashion, you don't want to place a couple of small objects alone on a large shelf because they will look lost and out of place. It is okay to have empty spaces here and there though so that you are not giving everyone too much to look at. This will add to the balance of the room.  

Use Color Creatively 
The accessories in a room can be used to bring out a dominant color that is already present, or they can instead enhance it with other complimentary colors or shades. If the room has a neutral palette, your home accents can be used to add a "pop" of color where there is none. Adding color to a room only with the accessories used makes it easy to switch them out when the mood strikes you, giving the room a fresh feel without an entire remodel. 


Use What You've Got
As we mentioned above, home accessories can highlight your interests or hobbies, or they can tell a story, like a trip you took or your family's history. Look around your home for things that you already possess. A seemingly regular object can be displayed in an artistic or interesting way to create an intriguing arrangement. We have many beautiful accent pieces in our Lake of the Ozarks luxury furniture store that will allow you to display some of your keepsakes in a decorative way.   

Group Items Together
Clusters of similar items make for a much more interesting display than if you were to take many like pieces and scatter them around the room. Each grouping should have a common thread that ties them together. It could be a texture or color scheme, or it could be a chance to showcase something that you collect. 


No Need For Symmetry 
You can achieve balance in a room without making everything in it too matchy-matchy. While symmetry is good for hanging wall art (although there are exceptions for arrangements that look excellent a bit off-kilter) your home accents will have a better flow if they are not completely symmetrical to each other. 

Use odd numbers of items when you group them, and have taller objects on one side of your mantel with shorter ones on the other. Instead of putting only books on a shelf, break up the monotony by adding home accents between books and even placed on top of a stack of books. 


Accessorizing the rooms in your home should be fun, so don't stress over it. When you find a piece that catches your eye, find a place for it. John Elliott Interiors is a fantastic place to find inspiration for the look and feel that you want your rooms to have. 

If you have more questions, our interior design experts at the Lake of the Ozarks are happy to offer advice. Let your personality shine through the home accent pieces you display and your rooms will have a friendly and inviting feeling for everyone that visits your home.  

If you have decided to redecorate a room in your home, or if you are currently trying to decide how to decorate a brand new empty room, the multitude of choices can make the task seem intimidating. It doesn't have to be. John Elliott Interiors has 7 simple questions for you to ask yourself that will make your final decision much clearer and easier to come to.  



What do you love about the current room?
In the space that you are currently living in, look around and pick out the things about it that you absolutely love. Even if you won't be keeping those particular things, they can point you in the direction of looking for something similar. If you enjoy the flow of the room, look for pieces that will lend to a comparable flow for the redesign. The things you enjoy right now will point you in the right direction for a new room design you will love. 

What do you hate about it?
Also look around and zero in on the things that you do not like about your current living space. It could be something you originally though you loved, but didn't work out the way you expected in reality. These are the "stay away from" furniture and design elements for your new space. Don't make the same mistake twice.  

Do you have a favorite piece to design around? 
Beginning your room design with a focal piece you want to include is a wonderful source of inspiration. It could be a painting, a large piece of furniture, a chandelier, or even a particularly scenic window with a great view. When you already know what the main focal point in the room will be, you can more easily find items that complement it to complete your overall design. 



Do you have an inspiration room?
Looking through magazines and searching online allows you to see how others have put their rooms together. Start collecting photos of your favorite ones. Don't overthink it. If you like the look of it, add it to the list. Once you have a few collected, go through them and find elements that they all have in common. It's an excellent way to discover the ideas you love most, even though you may not have been conciously aware of it. You don't have to imitate your favorite rooms exaclty. Use them to steer you toward a certain look and feel. 

What are your favorite/least favorite colors?
This is another desgin element that can help to guide you toward specific pieces for your new room. When you begin shopping, make sure to let your interior design specialist know how you feel about certain colors. This will allow them to avoid showing you certain pieces, or possibly alert them to let you know if a piece you love is available with a different fabric. Deciding how you feel about certain things such as color, and letting others know those feelings, will help to make sure that you don't miss any possiblilties. 



How will this room be used?
The way that the room you are designing will be used will make a big difference in the types of furniture you will want to have in there. Will it be a room for entertaining guests, or a space for you to relax and escape from the rest of the world? Does anyone that will be using that room have any special needs to consider? If there is an elderly person in a wheelchair that needs extra space to move around, or small children that could hurt themselves on sharp corners. this will affect the items you choose. 

What type of feeling should the room give off?
Different styles and colors evoke a variety of feelings when you are around them. If you are designing a family room where everyone will hang out together to watch television or play games, you will want that room to have a relaxed and comforting feel. On the other hand, if you are designing a formal dining room, you may want to strive for a more elegant and refined look and feel for that space. Once you decide how you will be using each room, you can look for pieces that give you the feeling you desire for it.



Knowing the answers to these questions before you start shopping can help to make your final decisions much easier. Our Lake of the Ozarks interior design specialists are always here to help if you need more guidance. Simply let us know what your vision for your home is, and we will guide you toward the pieces that will make that dream a reality. If you haven't quite decided on a particular vision yet, the sample room setups inside John Elliott Interiors may be just the inspriration you need. Come into the store soon and have a look around.  

While many of the rooms in your home are decorated for others to enjoy along with you, the bedroom is a space that should be designed especially for you. When designing a beautiful bedroom, you should strive to make it a place where you can relax and refresh. You'll find the gorgeous pieces you need at our Lake of the Ozarks luxury furniture store, and today's blog has a few tips to help you choose the perfect ones. 


Use Room Size For Guidance
If the bedroom that you are designing is a small space, large pieces of furniture could be too much for it to hold, and on the other hand, if you have a large bedroom with plenty of space to fill, small pieces of furniture will look lost in it. Scale the size of the pieces you choose to the size of the room for a balanced look. For rooms with ceilings that are particularly high, visually bring it down by using beds with tall headboards and bookshelves or an armoire that is tall. A good bedroom needs a bed, 1 or 2 bedside tables, and a dresser. When space allows, you can begin adding more items like a comfy chair or possibly a bench at the end of the bed. 

Make It Easy To Move Around
Scaling your furniture to the room size will help with this tip. It is also wise to try to keep at least 3 feet between the bed and the side walls. Also strive to have at least 2 feet between low furniture such as bedside tables, dressers, and chairs. Not crowding everything together too much will help to give you that open, more relaxing feeling a bedroom should have. 

Think Storage
It is very difficult to design a room to be a serene getaway when there is a lot of stuff scattered all around. Good storage solutions allow you to keep your belongings put away and out of sight, relieving the stress that too much clutter can cause. There are many excellent pieces of furniture for this purpose at John Elliott Interiors for your bedroom that are not only beautiful to look at but also functional.  

Choose Color Wisely
The colors that you choose for your bedroom can make a big difference in the feeling you get while you are in there. For the walls, serene shades of blues and greens are the most common, while bolder colors like deep purples and rich reds are best used in other rooms of your home. 

When you go for more neutral tones, it will allow you to add pops of color with bedding, rugs, and accessories to spice things up. It's a lot easier to make quick-changes often to the look of your bedroom by switching out those things rather than the larger pieces of furniture. 

Include Several Lighting Options
In your bedroom, as well as all of the rooms in your home, "layering" the lighting is a wonderful idea. Small bedside lamps, floor lamps in the corner, and possibly accent lighting over a beautiful piece of artwork all lend to different vibes at different times, depending on how they are used together.


Generally, the furniture that you buy to decorate your bedroom with will be in that room for many years to come. That can make it intimidating to try to find the perfect pieces. Let our Lake of the Ozarks interior decorating experts help. The combination of your personal style along with the experience of the John Elliott Interiors team is the perfect blend for creating a space where you are excited to lay your head every evening, and happy to wake up to each day.    

Following trends can be a fun way to decorate your space, but if you follow them too strongly, you may look back in a few years and wish for an update. However, there are ways that you can take the trends of today and make the timeless for your home and style, which is exactly what the team at John Elliott Interiors intends to do. 2018 is filled with bold colors, luxurious textures, romantic accents, and natural materials. This is truly a timeless style, so with a little bit of tweaking to make it yours, you can find something that you will LOVE - at least until the next trend that sparks your interest hits the market!

Dramatic Colors

While white, gray, and beige walls have been all of the rage for many years now, you may start to notice “moody” wall colors in homes now. From dark grays to black and navy blends, you may start to notice that wall colors are getting darker. If you’ve always dreamt of using a dark color in your Lake of the Ozarks home, now is the time to be brave and do it! You’ll want to try it in a room that is flooded with light or maybe just on an accent wall. If you aren’t sure what shade would be perfect for your space, come speak with our decorators, they can help you choose the best and most dramatic shade.

Heart of Stone

The kitchen is the heart of the home, so they say, and if you pay attention to rising trends, you’ll notice that stone textures are making a grand entrance in this well-used room! One of the most unique ways you may see stone appear in a kitchen is on the sink. While stainless steel and ceramic sinks have been the most wanted, soapstone is starting to make a grand appearance. Plus, it also stands up well to most cleaners.

Geometric Shapes

You’ll be seeing the geometric shapes all over the home, from the tile in the bathroom to ceiling paper in fun colors. This is a very trendy design style, and something that you may want to change in the future, BUT, if you love it now, tear are ways you can incorporate it without doing an overhaul on your space. You can look for rugs with geometric shapes, pillow, or even tableware. If you still want to incorporate the shapes in a more permanent way, you can get the wallpaper to accent a wall. It’s not permanent but can still add a fun texture.

Luxurious Materials

While you may see more rustic materials on the market like concrete or sun bleached wood, you will also notice that velvet furniture and fringe accents are making an appearance in homes. While these may not be for everyone, you can also make use of the luxurious materials by adding more vintage brass accents and lighting fixtures can’t add the impeccable style.

Bold Colors

In an age where white and gray ruled the color palette, we are seeing BOLD color schemes hit the stage. If you’ve always dreamt of including a bright mustard yellow into your home, or a romantic blush pink, or bright, fiery red - you will be seeing a LOT of options now. These colors go from the furniture to the accents, and even wall colors, so don’t be afraid to let your favorite colors shine brightly.

Did you know that red furniture is all the rage this year??

Create Your Space

Your space is as unique as you are - that’s why we love to help you make it everything that it can be. Our decorators can help you narrow down your style, find pieces that match (while also using pieces you already have), to create a space that is as eclectic, elegant, unique, and luxurious as you are. Visit our newly remodeled website to learn more about what we can do to each of your spaces, and don’t forget to swing into our Lake of the Ozarks furniture showroom to see what we have available.