Is your space in need of a bit of an upgrade? Is your living room feeling a bit stale or monochromatic? Are you looking for a way to add more visual interest to your bedroom or office?

Well, accent furniture is the way to do just that. Accent pieces are a super important part of interior design that often goes overlooked. When utilized properly, accent pieces can make your space lively, interesting, and more functional. 

We’ve come up with some tips for you on how to better utilize accent furniture in your space. By the end of this article, you’ll have some great ideas for how to add a beautiful accent piece to whatever room you need. 

What Is Accent Furniture?

First, we need to lay down the foundation and determine what exactly qualifies as accent furniture. Let’s define our terms. 

Accent furniture is a piece or pieces of furniture that serve as a tasteful contrast to the decor in the rest of the room. Accent furniture can be any type of furniture, from tables to chairs to bookshelves. 

The Purpose of Accent Furniture

These furniture pieces serve two primary purposes. The first is obviously the inherent function of the piece of furniture that you selected. Accent chairs are meant for sitting, accent tables are meant for placing things, and so on. Some accent pieces are not meant to be used, but those are in the vast minority. 

The second function is to provide visual interest in the form of contrast. Contrast is an incredibly important element when it comes to interior design. Whether it’s a contrast in form, color, or style, it adds a layer of depth to a space and helps to create a focal point in the room that draws attention. 

How To Create Good Contrast

There’s a difference between good and bad contrast. You can’t just throw any old accent table into your living room and expect it to create a good sense of contrast. It has to be well-curated and intentional, and there are a few ways to do that. 

Color Scheme

One of the most eye-catching ways to add contrast to a space is with contrasting colors. There’s the classic, popping contrast of black and white, but there are so many more options out there. 

The key to effective color contrast is that it needs to make sense with the color scheme of your room at large. 

For example, modern interior design utilizes a lot of neutral colors, so you may have a living room with a lot of warm, bright neutrals like off-white, beige, or cream. An accent piece with a soft pink or mint green or even a darker color like a deeper green provides a visual contrast while still complementing the colors that exist in the room already. 

Be intentional with your colors and your accents. The key word here is “complement.” It doesn’t need to match, and it doesn’t need to depart from your color palette entirely, but instead, it should be somewhere in the middle, complementing the colors in the room. 

Shape and Form

Another way to add pleasant visual contrast is by utilizing different shapes in your accent pieces. If your room furniture tends to have softer shapes with rounder edges and corners, maybe adding an accent piece with sharp lines could serve as a great, attention-grabbing focal point to the room. 

To draw more attention to your coffee table, you could use table decor that has a different form from the coffee table itself. There are plenty of ways you can utilize shape contrast to make for a beautiful accent piece.

Textures and Patterns

Visual contrast can also come from varying textures and patterns. This is another more obvious and effective way to give a room a little bit of variance. There are limitless possibilities with this. 

The key is not to utilize a bunch of different patterns. Rather, it’s important to contrast blank space with texture or patterns. A clean, white wall can be beautifully contrasted by a nice painting. A wood floor can be contrasted with a nice patterned rug, and so on. 

Materials

Another way to add some great contrast to a room is by getting accent pieces that are made with different materials. Materials provide contrast in both color and texture, so they’re a great way to create a focal point of the room. 

Furniture can be made with wood, metal, or stone, or be covered with some type of upholstery. And upholstery has its own realm of contrast, from leather to boucle fabric to velvet. 

A Combination 

You are by no means limited to only using one of these types of contrast. In fact, some of the best contrasts in interior design come from using multiple contrasts within one piece. By using them in combination, you can create some of the most meaningful and effective contrast. 

Some Accent Piece Ideas

Now that we’ve talked about some guiding principles that can light our way on this accent journey, let’s take a look at some specific ideas that you could utilize in your own space. 

Accent Chair for a Reading Nook

If you have a larger room with enough space for two separate functional areas, creating contrast between the two areas with accent furniture can make for an amazing, dynamic and interesting space. This works especially well for living rooms and other large rooms that are meant for multiple people to use. 

If you want to install a reading nook in the corner of your living room, you may want to light up that space and draw attention to your new focal point with a tasteful modern accent chair. Even a small chair can help to draw attention to a space to make it more inviting and comfortable. 

You could use warmer colors for the reading nook space, rounder shapes than the rest of the room, and soft and inviting materials and textures to create a cozy, refreshing space that you’ll love to be in. 

Liven Up Your Seating Area

In most living rooms, the most important function is to provide ample seating for family and friends to gather, watch TV, or just hang out and catch up. Because of this, the seating area is often the focal point of the living room. 

A good way to liven up your seating area is by using a small piece of accent seating to contrast your big couch or sectional. By using these two pieces together, you can create a visually interesting space that feels refreshed and alive. 

A stylish loveseat that’s a bit more low-profile is a great way to do this. Just make sure that it complements your current seating. We want contrast, not clashing. 

Gallery Wall

One of the best ways to liven up your space is with a gallery wall. Although not technically furniture, wall art is still an incredibly important aspect of interior design. Without it, a room feels bare, empty, and void of life and character. 

If you utilize wall art in combination with other wall art in the form of a gallery wall, you have a great accent piece that draws a lot of attention to one place in the room. Place a gallery above the couch to make that the centerpiece and focal point of the room, or you could put it across from your seating area for you to enjoy while lounging. 

Bookshelf or Display Case

Another way to create some visual interest with accent pieces is with a beautiful bookshelf. Bookshelves are the best place to show off your book collection if you’re a big reader, but for those who aren’t bookworms, they can still be incredibly functional. 

You can use shelves to display beautiful vases or sculptures, some of your favorite houseplants, smaller pictures of your family and loved ones, and so much more. 

Not only can the bookshelf itself be a point of contrast and visual engagement, but the things that you choose to place on it will inject a bunch of your personality into the room, which is always a good thing. 

Accent Furniture 

Adding an accent piece or two to your space can make a large difference in the atmosphere of the room. The right choice can be the difference between a normal room and an interesting, inviting one. Take all of this information and go find yourself a new piece of accent furniture to refresh your space and give it a bit more life. 

For more information on interior design and a great selection of accent furniture, bedding, and more, see what eLuxury has to offer. 

Sources:

11 Best Living Room Color Scheme Ideas and Designs for 2022 | Home BNC

How To Make a Gallery Wall | New York Institute of Art and Design

Meaning, Principles & Elements of Interior Design | Indian Institute of Art and Design