Home Decorating Decorating Tips & Techniques 10 Simple Rules for Foolproof Decorating With these tips, successfully decorating your own home is simple. By Stephanie Sisco Stephanie Sisco Stephanie worked in the Home Department at REAL SIMPLE for nearly 12 years, first joining the team in 2009 as an Editorial Assistant. Over that decade-plus, Stephanie grew her responsibilities, eventually becoming Home Director and leading the team's coverage of all things cleaning, organizing, decorating, gift-giving, and more relating to the home. Stephanie also helped produce the first four REAL SIMPLE Home projects, bringing the magazine material to life at different locations in New York and New Jersey. Stephanie also shared numerous tips and tricks on local and national TV programs, such as the Today Show and Good Morning America. The segment she still gets recognized for years later is the "duvet roll" trick she shared on The Meredith Viera Show (Look it up!). Real Simple's Editorial Guidelines Published on March 5, 2015 Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Matthew Williams Palette math: Choose one color for 60 percent of the room, a second color for 30 percent, and a third color that's brighter than the others for the remaining 10 percent.A spot to sit + mirror + table (or shelf) = instant “finished” foyer.Switch up shapes. If the bulk of your living-room furniture is boxy, choose a round coffee table, ottoman, or side tables for balance.The ideal coffee table is two-thirds as wide as the sofa and a couple of inches lower than the seats (typically 14 to 16 inches high).Instead of installing them directly above the window, hang curtains high—between the ceiling and the top of the window—and your space will feel a lot loftier. (And don’t let the bottoms pool. They should just graze the floor.)Mount a mirror opposite a window. It’s the best way to bounce light around and create the illusion of a bigger room.A rug should never float in the middle of a floor. Place it under at least the front feet of a chair, a couch, or a bed to anchor it.Throw-pillow math: two 20-inch square pillows in a matching bold pattern, one on each end of the sofa; two 16-inch pillows in a coordinating solid color, overlapping the square pillows; and one lumbar with a subtle pattern (like a pinstripe) in the middle.You’ll never mess up pattern mixing if you combine bold, large-scale prints with subtle, smaller-scale prints in complementary colors.Think in threes. Similar-sized accessories on a shelf or a table look better grouped in odd numbers. Even amounts can feel too uniform and stiff. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit