Southwest Decorating
When you buy a new home or a new to you home there is always a chance you won't like the decorating thats already there. I have always liked the "southwest" look with the zigzzags, coyotes and cow skulls. There is alot you can do with this look. ANd you can always start out with a single room just to see if you will like it. Some of the "Southwestern" art can be a little wild, with the bright colors and geometerical lines. While it originally hit as a design craze in the 1980s, and rapidly moved into kitsch, with gigantic neon pink coyotes and cow sculls, a lot of its design elements have been repurposed to make attractive and delightful home accents. Nowadays you can get toned down colors and just keep it all real basic.
The Southwestern "look" involves natural materials - distressed wood, adobe, iron and tile, with smooth rocks for the structural elements. Another natural material you can have is cow hide. If you live in the Cookeville or Algood area you can visit Judd's Antique Mall. Down at the mall they have 2 Large area rugs made from cow hide, ones brintle and the other is two toned. They also have arrowheads, old indian tools and a few indian pieces of pottery. They also have carved wooden Indians and they also have small indian statues. Most of the color schemes are earth tones and terra cotta hues - creams and all the colors of the desert, in tans and golds and umbers, much like terra cotta pottery, with accents done in brightly colored fabrics, emphasizing with turquoise, teal, peach and dusty orange to draw the eye. Accents in clay and rough textures on objects or wall surfaces give it homey, unique touch, which is emphasized further by hand made rugs, wall hangings and furniture, using natural or distressed materials. This "Southwestern Touch" is distinctive and airy, and leaves lots of room for customization.
Beyond the color space used (neutral with bright pastels for accents), Southwestern contemporary styles pull heavily from desert themes - pictures tend to be landscapes or of southwestern themes: Horses, cattle drives, cacti, trains and such, or of Latin or Native American themes, such as Hopi and Navajo symbols and rugs.
When accentuating your southwestern style decorating, look at decorative plants as well - while a full blown saguaro cacti is too large for any conventional living room, cacti in general are quite hardy and forgiving as plants, and their blooms add seasonal color to your home. I myself have a cacti. It is the easiest plant to take care of. it also has a beautiful bloom.
Southwestern style furnishings tend towards natural tones with high color highlights; look for furnishings and upholstery made of leather, suede and hand woven fabrics. Serapes can be hung from the walls as decorations, as can artifacts of the time period. Distressed wood accents are also useful, and make a distinctive element for book cases, entertainment centers and furniture, as well as wall accents and light fixtures.
Southwestern style décor is lovely for homes with neutral color schemes on the walls, and wide open archways - it lends itself nicely to spacious homes with free air flow, and to tile or wooden floors rather than wall-to-wall-carpet. Large rooms can also handle the usually oversized southwestern furniture types - usually made from log-frame construction - without seeming cramped or crowded, and Southwestern décor works nicely with lighting from all directions.