ACCESSORIES What you choose reveals a lot about personality

Interesting groupings will surprise the eye.
By ROSEMARY SADEZ FRIEDMANN
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Accessories in your home reflect your personality. Scary, isn't it? Can you imagine an interior designer walking into your home and instantly knowing just exactly what you're like? It's like being in a room with a psychic and wondering if he knows what you are thinking or being with a psychiatrist and wondering if she can read your body language and know just how you are feeling at the moment.
All hocus-pocus aside, accessories do tell a lot about your likes, dislikes, hobbies and fancies, so choose them wisely.
You can practice being a reader of personalities by looking through an interior-design magazine or any such periodical. Find a page displaying a fully furnished and accessorized room. How would you describe the person who has such a place? See? It's not that difficult, is it?
Then mentally strip away all the accessories and visualize how bare and unwelcoming the room looks. Now take one more step and put accessories of your liking into the room.
Strive for unity
If you're having a difficult time mentally putting the right accessories into this magazine room, or in your real-life room, let me help. Start with compatibility. Unless you are one of those rare, very talented people who can skillfully combine unrelated objects and make them somehow flow together artfully, I'd suggest striving for unity. Examples: a rustic room should have rustic accessories. Fine crystal bowls will look out of place in the setting. A casual family room will make fine porcelain look "uncomfortable."
Of course, you wouldn't want to take this unity-compatibility thing too far or you will be back to boring, or even worse, contrived. Surprise the eye. A very contemporary room will do well with a few antiques. An Oriental motif will find visual relief with a few contemporary accents.
Make it personal
Let's get personal. Try accessories that mean something special to you, like an old pitcher or a vase you made in high school or a gift from a friend. Family portraits certainly personalize a room. Groupings work well here. For example, pictures of all the grandchildren similarly matted and framed and hung in a pattern will warm up any room. Try your wedding picture in the center, then add your children's pictures around it.
Balance and proportion are of paramount importance. One large solid picture helps unify an area that is perhaps "busy" with individual chairs and tables. A large painting can balance a large window.
If you have collections, be careful not to create clutter. Well thought out groupings can look good, but here again, don't overdo.
Finally, odd numbers of accessories make a more interesting group than even numbers do. But then, consider the interior designer who will be coming to your house to evaluate you. Do odd numbers of accessories equal an odd personality?