155: ways to play with texture

I bet you’ve heard it all before…

‘Your interiors should have lots of texture’ - and rightly so, it adds interest and warmth and makes it feel less like a clinic and more like a home.

And so out come the cushions and the blankets and it’s lovely and cosy. But adding texture is more than that.

Here’s 3 ways to do it, without spending a penny…

First things first, let’s categorise:

Warm Materials: Cool Materials:

Leather Glass

Fur Metal

Wood Marble

Rattan Stone

Plants Plastic

Are you with me? Good. 

When adding texture to a room, (even if you want, white on white on white) the key is to mix these textural elements up.

Like so:

So how do you do it without spending a penny? The idea is to use what you’ve already got in the house but consider your placement. So, a marble worktop = wooden chopping board, wooden table = glass vase. Easy right?

The reason why this works so well is because the glass is layering up with the wood to create *texture*

This - not so much. Too much of similar warm material means you’re missing that je n’ai sais quois…

Except I do “sais quois” - you’re missing contrasting textures.

But have a go, you can mix and match to your heart’s content.

It’s also not really about colour - you can get all kinds of coloured wood for example, so whatever colour your scheme is - you can still use this little trick to add some texture.

Next up, let’s talk about plants and flowers.

Beautiful! Natural! Texturising!

Until they die.

So yes whilst real plants and flowers are better, if you want to go long term - best go faux.

If you don’t already have any dried flowers or pampas grass, you might need to spend a little money here but once you have them…welcome to texture land.

Not only are they unkillable (what are they gonna do - dry out more??) but they can be a beautiful way of adding a pop of colour to your home. And the texture from all those crunchy leaves, and fluffy pom poms of flowers is pure magic. 

Similarly, a fake plant can add bundles of fake ‘natural’ texture. Think hanging leaves off a shelf or sweet little succulents. You can’t go wrong.

Finally, let’s talk books. 

Do you have books in your home? (Yes me too!) Do you read them? (...Be honest) 

Have you considered using them to style your home? 

I’m not just talking about a book shelf - Why do you think that coffee table books are a thing?

Because books make brilliant decor items!

So colour code your bookshelf, or have em all out on display - flip them round so the pages are facing out (you can do this for the books you’re definitely never going to read, like dictionaries)... 

All those gorgeous touchable pages - Instant texture - instant intellectual points. “Look at all those books - they must be a genius.”

You are… a design genius.

So there we go, 3 easy ways to start layering up some texture. Have a look round your home to see where you might have done this without realising. 

And if you feel like something is missing in your styling…I’ll take a guess that its texture.