How to Decorate Your Room Simply

Walls

• Apply a soothing paint color to the walls to provide a quiet backdrop for simple furnishings. Neutral paint hues -- almost beige, creamy ivory, misty gray, soft white -- offer calming wall color options. Pale greens, corals, yellows and blues supply soft color as an alternative to neutral tones. Create a feature wall by painting a single wall a few shades darker than your existing wall color. Or, add a contemporary color surprise to your simple decor when you paint a feature wall in a solid bold hue, such as lime green or lemon yellow.

Windows

• Undressed windows enhance a room's simple, no-nonsense decor. But when privacy is a concern, cover the windows in a straightforward fashion. White-painted wooden blinds with 2-inch slats offer a modern appearance, while allowing you to control the direction and amount of light entering your room. Cellular shades deliver simple style and are energy-efficient with their honeycomb-like design. Hang solar shades over west-facing windows to maintain a sleek simple look that also keeps harmful ultraviolet rays from entering your interior spaces.

Furniture

• Furnish your room with essential, uncomplicated furniture pieces that are constructed with straight or gently curved lines to enhance a simple minimalist decorating theme. Avoid curvaceous, ornamental pieces with loud colors and busy patterns that create a lot of visual activity. Platform beds, streamlined sofas and unpretentious chairs, tables and ottomans flow well with simple style. Case goods, such as dressers, chests of drawers, sideboards and armoires, complement minimal design with their boxy silhouettes. Avoid ornamental and flashy hardware on your case goods.

Accessories

• Simple decorating accents and minimal style go hand-in-hand. Limit a room's accessories to only a very few of your favorite items. For example, a fresh vase of flowers makes a simple design statement when it stands alone in the center of your dining room table. By the same token, a single oversize piece of artwork hanging on a bare wall attracts heightened visual interest in a minimalist-style environment. Because a simply decorated space has so few distractions, every decorative accessory commands your full attention, so pick out your home accents carefully.