So, what is Home Decor? Home decor is short for Home Decoration. Home decor is the art of making your home look nice.

It refers to the aesthetic components used to make a home more attractive and visually appealing. Home decor is inclusive of physical items and objects (furniture, art, and accessories), placement of physical items and objects, and room colors and materials (flooring, wall coverings, window coverings, and ceilings).

There are numerous styles of home decor. The options of colors, styles of furniture, and arrangement of objects in a room are limitless.

Furniture and wall decorations are only the beginning when it comes to home décor. There are many other home accessories and decorations that can beautify your home!

• Window dressings: Your curtains, blinds, and other window dressings can be influential in creating your home’s aesthetic ambiance. Not only their appearance but how they filter the light into your home can be important!
• House plants: Whether real or artificial, plants can create a certain mood that enhances your home’s appearance.
• Three-dimensional artworks: While wall-hangings, paintings, and photos are some of the most common ways to create atmosphere, sculptures and collectibles are another way to decorate. You can use them to create a topical theme, or you can choose them based on other aesthetic attributes.

See Also: Home Decor Ideas for examples of the various Home Decor Styles and options.

Home decor items do not have to have a practical use. The appearance of an item is what makes it part of your home décor. It might also be useful in a practical sense, but it’s not necessary for it to be. For example, a wall hanging that was chosen for its appearance is home décor.

It may also have a practical purpose—temperature or sound insulation, for example—but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still a home décor item. If it was chosen for its color, texture, or an image it portrays in addition to, or instead of, its practical use, it is home décor.

Another example along these lines are furniture pieces. Your sofa, for example, fulfills a purpose. It provides you, your family, and your guests with somewhere to sit comfortably. However, most people don’t choose a sofa based on its performance as a piece of furniture alone. They also choose it based on the upholstery color, or perhaps texture.

They might also take into account the shape of the sofa—its silhouette, or its style, for example.

How Do I Coordinate My Home Décor?

There are many different ways to develop your home’s interior appearance to suit your needs. Some people take on this task as a personal hobby, making all of the design decisions themselves. Others choose to hire professionals to make some or all of the design choices. It’s totally up to you! Here are a few ways you might go about developing your interior décor:

• Choose a topic or theme you like. This is one of the most common ways of decorating. You start with an idea, generally related to a topic, hobby, or theme. For example, perhaps you love spending your vacation time on the beach. You might decide to decorate your master bath with a beach theme. You can find shower curtains with beach related prints on them, use big, bright beach towels as your bath towels, and look for fun little pieces that fit the theme, like a soap dish shaped like a beach chair, or decorative soaps shaped like shells.
• Choose a color scheme you like. Sometimes, instead of choosing a topic, you might want to just choose a color scheme and incorporate all kinds of different ideas that complement it. Instead of a beach theme, you might choose cerulean blue and white as the basic colors for your bathroom and decorate with towels, mats, and accessories that match these colors or complement them.
• Choose a particular era or established style. Perhaps instead of focusing on a theme or a color, you simply love the art deco style of interior decorating or a fiercely minimalist style. It’s perfectly fine to center your home décor around something like this as well!
• Choose a particular conversation piece. You might even base your entire décor around one single piece—a big, central painting or sculpture that you love, for example.

Getting Home Décor Ideas

Many people look to others’ homes, whether those they personally visit or see in magazines for inspiration. You can also get inspiration from the natural world or look online (like Home Decor Ideas). Pinterest, for example, is a great place to look for decorating ideas.

In fact, you can do anything you want with your home and as long as your goal is to make it aesthetically appealing and interesting, it’s still home décor. That could mean display cases of collectible figures, or it might be prints of your favorite artworks. It might be souvenirs you’ve collected in your travels, or bookcases displaying your books.

There’s no one “right way” to decorate your home.