| As you look back through your life, can you even | | | | for contemporary design to American Country |
| begin to count how many interior design styles | | | | style. You've fallen head over heels in love with it. |
| you've gone through? There were the | | | | You want your house dripping with old |
| character-based and dramatic styles of your | | | | kitchenware, advertising art, pictures of farm |
| youth and teenage years, the trendy styles of | | | | scenes and flowered fabric. |
| your post-college years, and various themes, | | | | Two styles couldn't be further from each other if |
| styles and colors throughout your adulthood. | | | | they tried. So... what do you do with that red, |
| You've probably noticed that nearly every trend | | | | leather contemporary sofa? |
| has something in common. At the time, it seems | | | | First, drape a crocheted afghan over the back of |
| like that trend is the most elegant and | | | | one arm of the sofa. Don't cover the arm up, |
| sophisticated style ever, and one that you will | | | | just drape it there. Arrange several country-style |
| love for years to come. But, invariably, you begin | | | | pillows at the corners. Maybe one pillow has a bit |
| to not love it so much. When you do finally | | | | of red in the flowers to pick up the color. Then |
| redecorate, you find that the trendy furniture | | | | put a white tatted doily on each arm of the sofa. |
| that you loved so much just a few years earlier | | | | Now your sofa looks perfect next to the white |
| isn't going to work with your new style. So out | | | | eyelet curtains and the old wooden rocking chair. |
| goes the overstuffed sofa, the papasan chair, or | | | | Using bits of red throughout your home will also |
| the distressed country-style TV cabinet. What | | | | help solidify the red leather sofa into your design |
| could have been investment pieces are now at | | | | and make it look like a purposeful decorating |
| the second-hand shop or decorating the first | | | | decision rather than something you're making due |
| apartment of a young relative. | | | | with. |
| Contemporary furniture carries with it a very | | | | Most other home decorating styles are even |
| interesting ability. When used in a contemporary | | | | easier to combine with contemporary furniture. |
| room, contemporary furniture makes a big | | | | It's easy to soften their sleek, modern lines to |
| statement. It is a dramatic focal point of the | | | | reflect more casual or trendy styles, or |
| room. On the other hand, when contemporary | | | | incorporate their strong shapes into more |
| furniture is used in rooms of other styles it does | | | | historical styles. |
| just the opposite. It blends in seamlessly. | | | | Begin to look at your large pieces of furniture as |
| Let's look, for example, at the biggest, most | | | | investment pieces. By using contemporary design |
| dramatic contemporary furniture piece out there. | | | | for your main furniture style, you can easily |
| The red, leather sofa. | | | | move from one design style to the next by |
| Now imagine that somehow, somewhere down | | | | changing just a few things rather than having to |
| the line, your tastes change from a preference | | | | replace your furniture every few years. |