Every home has an area designed to draw attention, voluntarily or not — be it an impressive painting, a piece of furniture, or a simple accent wall. Controlling that area and the impact it can have on the entire room is up to you, from colour to texture, material, lighting and accessories.

If you want to make your home unique, you need to add some great accents to it. Complement your existing decor with a variety of functional accent pieces to create a welcoming feeling in your home. Here are the top five accent pieces you should have to complete the look of your home.

Accent chair

Spice up your home decor by adding some stylish chairs. From a variety of lounge chairs, accent chairs, study chairs and dining chairs, choose your desired chair for chic and minimalistic look.

Accent chairs provide not just extra seating, but are a great way to add a new
silhouette, style reference, or colour to any room. Get fully upholstered chairs to give your home a traditional and cosy appeal. Experiment with different colours, prints and fabrics and pick the chair that matches your decor.

A wingback chair or an accent chair, works well on its own or in pairs. You can use them to fill a corner. If you are using them in pairs, try coupling them opposite a coffee table, or on either end of a dining table. Just make sure the arms of the chairs clear the bottom of your tabletop.

Wall art

Use your wall space appropriately. Wall art is the perfect and most crucial
element to bring any room together and complete a look. It is a great way to add some flair to your room and really put your own personal touch on it. It adds the perfect texture to a room that doesn’t have much variety. In addition to paintings and prints, you should consider pieces like sculptures or shadow boxes that can add some depth to the room.

If your style is more avant garde, you could also consider doing a small mixed media installation that includes screens and digital art. These extra bits of texture can help determine much needed visual weight to your interiors, setting the tone for the environment. Consider that rough textures are more likely to make a space feel intimate and grounded while smooth textures bring a sleeker and more aloof tone to the room.

Accent lighting

This is another important aspect that can make or break the look and feel of your home. Direct attention on the things you want people to notice in your home. Place a light below or behind an accent wall, a striking piece of art or another object, which gives it added presence and a glamorous halo effect. Dimmers make it easy to control lighting. The dimmer gives the option of having lights all the way up or all the way down. It also saves electricity and lengthens the life of the bulb! If you're uncomfortable permanently changing the lighting in your home, use lamps to light the space.

Rugs & cushions

Nothing feels quite so good as a rug beneath your feet. Rugs offer a layer of warmth and comfort that is unmatched by any other floor covering. Available in infinite patterns, colours and styles, rugs have been used to accessorise homes for thousands of years. Antique rugs are often treated as family heirlooms and passed down through the generations. Cushions are not a ‘do-it-or-die’ fashion factor in your living room, but having the right cushions can make a difference.

It softens a crisp modern sofa or dresses up a relaxed family lounger. Decorative cushions are the cheapest and easiest way to redecorate your home. They have an added advantage of being easy to remove and bring life to your dull room. It is important to choose the right amount of pillows, the right sizes, patterns, textures, and colour.

Mirrors

For the ultimate in accessories, try adding mirrors to your home decor. Mirrors can serve many purposes, from helping us  fix our appearance to delighting a young child who catches a glimpse of his or her reflection. Mirrors are also an affordable, effective way to make your home look more spacious. How? Floor-to-ceiling mirrors, like those found on many closet doors, can instantly make a room look twice as big.

A mirror placed across from a window will bring more natural light into your home, making it appear more spacious. Small mirrors placed in dark or small corners can draw light to the area and brighten it up. Beyond these practical uses, mirrors are simply beautiful decorating items and come in many shapes and sizes. A large framed mirror can be hung like a painting, making it a centrepiece in a room. Even small hand mirrors, typically silver, can act as complementary accessories to your decor.

(The author is design lead, interiors, Urban Ladder)