Accessories are expressions of your spirit and can make a room come alive. They can also be both decorative and practical, introducing accents of color into a room, enriching it with pattern and texture, or infusing a familiar setting with renewed energy and style.

Changing your accessories offers a simple and affordable way to evolve your style over time. Change can be simple: switch lamp shades to alter the atmosphere; try adding a slipcover, some vibrant pillows, and a colorful, unexpected throw to renew a sofa. Or, simply rotate accessories within the room, or from one room to another

Often it’s the arrangement of accessories, as much as the items themselves, that creates a strong impression.

Pair items of differing colors, textures, and provenances to draw attention to them. Creatively grouped accessories not only hold their place in a large room, they also arouse curiosity and make you want to draw near, whether to touch a translucent alabaster bowl or to sink into an inviting heap of pillows.

Accessories can change and evolve as you do, chronicling your interests like a three-dimensional scrapbook. Don’t be afraid them to change them up or add to them on a whim. Shelves offer opportunities to present interesting vignettes. Use them as you would a shadow box to combine the personal and the familiar with more exotic items: a postcard from a friend propped against a small painting, or leather-bound books comfortably arranged beside a modern vase.

A room should never be just a place to pass through. Use accessories to lend character to your space and offer a reason to stop and linger.

As the social center of the home, the living room plays many roles. It is a busy place where families gather and guests are entertained, a focal point for seasonal celebrations and decorations, and a quiet refuge for relaxing and reading. The wall colors for this multipurpose space should provide a flexible backdrop to this ebb and flow of activities.

Simply because of their scale, the sofa and flooring should play a major role in the choice of living room paint colors. Generally, it’s best to let one of them take the lead. If the sofa plays a neutral role, choose a paint color that plays off of the room’s accents. A warm neutral (Hush AF–95) picks up colors found in a natural stone fireplace and highlights reds in the carpet and pillows.

Paired with brown or softened with gray, mellowed shades of blue and green work like neutrals. Taking its cue from the kilim-inspired pillows, a cool blue (Blue Porcelain 1641), accented with crisp white trim, can show off sandy neutrals and darker woods with effortless grace.

Minimizing the contrast between trim and walls has a way of calming down a space and making it seem larger. This is put to good use in living rooms, which are prone to busyness or clutter. Instead of painting the bookcase and French doors the same soft color as the walls (Capri Coast OC–87), give them a slightly lighter shade (White Blush 0C–86) to preserve their character and keep the whole effect understated.

In a room where living moves easily from indoors to out, draw on the palette of the landscape outside to dissolve the transition and visually expand the space. With dark wood keeping a room grounded, a pale green (Etched Glass 626) creates a restful airiness throughout the space.

Pick up the natural stone colors of the hearth when choosing a paint color for living room walls.